Management is performance: strategies for client-centered practice in social service organizations

The political nature of human services is a given. The multiple constituency dilemma coupled with the retrenchment of the 1970s and 1980s has led to a great gulf separating managers from clients, and managers from front-line personnel. These political factors have been reinforced by management theory and the blind adoption of "state-of-the-art" management technologies developed in business and the military, and the separation has gained legitimacy. The result is less than optimal service, a dissatisfied workforce, and continued attacks for being inefficient, self-serving, and ineffective. The purpose of this article is to portray an alternative form of human service management. Its vision places clients center stage in our organizations and places the manager as the director and producer. It accepts the premises that "management is the principle engine of progress" (Levitt, 1976) and that management is performance. It then lays a foundation for client-centered management by presenting four principles for social service administrators who desire to adopt this perspective in their daily practice. An elaboration of the skills and methods of client-centered management can be found in a recently published text (Rapp & Poertner, 1991).