Competencies of front-line managers in supported accommodation: issues for practice and future research

Front-line managers of supported accommodation for people with intellectual disability are assumed to have a key role in the realisation of outcomes for service users. Yet, their job has been little researched. A job analysis from Minnesota that identified 142 competencies required of effective front-line managers was used to examine what was expected of the equivalent position in Victoria, Australia.

These competencies formed the basis of semistructured interviews with an extreme sample of 16 high-performing house supervisors and 5 more senior managers.

Ninety-two percent of the original competences were retained, with changes in language and terminology to reflect the local context. Emergent findings highlighted the importance of house supervisors' "orientations."

The findings support the proposition that the front-line manager's job is underpinned by core competencies and that the role merits further study. Issues of wider significance for human service organisations and researchers are discussed.