Author Description

<p><b>Open System Management Volume 1: Assessing the Human Services Culture</b> describes the work that organizations can do to redesign internal interactions among sections, always with an eye to improving services and working relationships with clients. It reviews how a self-assessment was used as the basis of organizational change efforts in four North Carolina departments of social services, and it provides sample self-assessment tools and guidelines for using them.</p> <p><b>Open System Management Volume 2: Samuel's Story: Creating a Community Safety Net for Families</b> is a narrative based on real community dialogues that have used Nelson's model to create productive coalitions of citizens and organizations. Together, the participants in the dialogues identify high-priority problems, agree on desired outcomes, plan how to obtain them, assign tasks, and begin work.</p> <p><b>Open System Management Volume 3: The Agency's Story: Fostering Collaboration Within</b> uses a narrative to describe how a public human services agency can employ Nelson's model to change its own culture to become more responsive to its clients and to other organizations in its environment. Using the assessment of organizational culture described in Volume 1 to determine how to change, the agency takes steps to improve its performace and model collaboration for the community it serves.</p> <p><b>Open System Management Volume 4: Shifting the Organization's Culture: A Self-Assessment Guide</b> is a workbook that organizations can use to prepare for the in-house dialogue described in Volume 3.</p> <p>These four volumes examine how Nelson's method can be applied in various settings. While together they describe how to redesign the provision of public human services, they can be used productively in other settings. Individually, they can help managers focus on areas of particular concern -- organizational culture, community change, and organizational change -- and design strategies for enhancin