Human Service Organizations: Feeding Freedom

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Every organization would like to have an effective model of management and administration. However, for human service organizations, this often extends past a desire, and into a requirement in order to best implement a service that represents the organization’s values. At Feeding Freedom, our focus is on creating an effective, yet comfortable, and safe workplace that values each member of the team, as employees are a key stakeholder in our organization. In their chapter, The Work Environment, authors Gibelman and Furman (2008a) discussed multiple characteristics that good managers displayed, such as two-way communication, participatory management, and open management. Using these skills have been proven to produce more effective work (Gibelman …show more content…

This axiom emphasizes the role of societal and organizational values and norms (Garrow & Hasenfeld, 2010). In helping to establish an anti-oppressive practice, Feeding Freedom is adamant in being aware of the aforementioned values and norms which may impact both service users’ and staff’s ability to work within the organization. For example, as the primary source of treatment used within our agency is an alternative one, there may be backlash because the norm with eating disorder treatment is to more strictly follow the medical model. This could be a barrier to Feeding Freedom, as it could deter potential clients, funders, or employees who may not be willing to go against the norm. However, instead of letting this inhibit our methods and mission, we aim to embrace using alternative treatment, and focus on educating those within the agency on why such societal values are imposed, in efforts to make a change. On the other hand, the very thing that could be a barrier also has the potential to bring a new opportunity to our organization. Institutional theory identifies that there are rules identified by sources, such as the state, the profession, and public opinion; and that organizations typically follow three (coercive, mimetic, and normative) processes in order to adhere to these rules (Garrow & Hasenfeld, 2010). Following these roles can lead to institutional isomorphism, which in turn can “...[lead] to considerable structural similarity and homogeneity among organizations in the same industry” (Garrow & Hasenfeld, 2010, p. 41). This creates an opportunity for Feeding Freedom to be able to serve those who feel unsatisfied with the traditional model employed by so many other eating disorder recovery

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