By making explicit linkages both to social work practice and to the history of management thought, covering the rapidly expanding field of nonprofit studies, and incorporating management approaches from Henri Fayol's principles to Total Quality Management, this pioneering work grounds the practice of social administration in the profession of social work and agency-based practice better than any text presently available. The book also addresses ways in which the strategic vision of social administrators can be used to build humane and lasting welfare institutions, further social justice, and confront oppression.

To accomplish this task, the authors blend several perspectives: social administration as management, as a form of social work practice emphasizing professional and community leadership, as decision making influenced by values and ethics and as institution building. Divided into an introduction, an afterword, and twenty-five topical chapters, Social Administration discusses issues of executive and program leadership as well as such environmental concerns as community, social agency, and a range of special topics, including accountability, ethics, contracting, and working with boards.