Service intensity and organizational attributes: a preliminary inquiry

Service intensity can vary dramatically across the clients who are served within a psychosocial intervention. But studies of the determinants of intensity are disappointing, and examinations of its impacts on key client behaviors tend to be biased by unaccounted for reciprocal relations. The author argues that it may be useful to take into account organizational attributes. Service intensity may be more fully explained by attributes such as program life-cycles and learning routines, administrative reforms, worker attention spans, worker dispositions, and caseloads. Data from an intervention for adults with homeless experience and substance abuse problems (n = 136) support the author's argument. Results suggest that intervention leaders must become aware of and capable of manipulating the organizational context of treatment.