Managing Out in Australian Public Social Work Administration
This paper examines the "managing out" phenomenon in Australian public social work administration, tracing how economic rationalism and globalization-driven welfare reforms since the 1980s have transferred social service oversight from government agencies to not-for-profit (NPO) and non-governmental organizations. Drawing on theorists such as Jim Ife and Malcolm Payne, the paper critiques the utilitarian underpinnings of market-based public administration and analyzes the resulting structural reconfiguration of social work practice. OZChild Australia is used as a case study illustrating how NPO agencies have absorbed formerly state-administered functions. The paper also considers implications for professional ethics, capacity building, and the duty of care within an evolving public-private partnership model.
- Introduction: Economic Rationalism and Social Work: Ife's critique frames utilitarianism's dominance in Australian social work
- Managing Out: Origins and Theoretical Framework: Origins of managing out and its theoretical underpinnings
- Social Work, NPOs, and the Public-Private Shift: Social workers reshape public-private NPO partnerships
- International Perspectives and the Role of the IFSW: IFSW and international bodies guide Australian practice
- OZChild Australia as a Case Study: OZChild models NPO absorption of state social services
- Capacity Building and the Future of NPO Governance: NPO capacity building and macro-economic convergence trends
- Conclusion: Globalization, Dissent, and Duty of Care: Market forces, professional dissent, and duty of care
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What makes this paper effective
- It grounds a policy analysis in established social work theory, weaving together Ife's critique of utilitarianism, Payne's construction of social work, and Austin's managing-out framework to give the argument intellectual depth.
- The use of OZChild Australia as a concrete institutional example prevents the discussion from remaining purely abstract, anchoring macro-level welfare reform claims in a real organizational case.
- The paper maintains a consistent critical stance — acknowledging both benefits and drawbacks of NPO expansion — without collapsing into polemic, which gives the argument credibility.
Key academic technique demonstrated
The paper demonstrates effective synthesis of theoretical frameworks across multiple disciplines — social work theory, public administration, international human rights law, and organizational change management — to build a multidimensional argument about a single policy phenomenon. Rather than applying one lens, the author triangulates across Ife, Payne, and Austin to show how "managing out" is simultaneously a fiscal, professional, and ethical issue.
Structure breakdown
The paper opens with a theoretical provocation (Ife's critique of the AASW Code of Ethics), establishes the historical context of welfare reform since the 1980s, introduces the "managing out" concept via Austin, then broadens the lens to international social work bodies before narrowing again to the OZChild case study. It closes by returning to the macro-level tensions between globalization, market forces, and professional social work ethics — a classic funnel-and-return structure.
Introduction: Economic Rationalism and Social Work
In 2008, social work theorist Jim Ife made public his critique of the Australian Association of Social Workers (AASW) Code of Ethics (AASW, 2002). Referencing John Solas and the propensity and limits of official advocacy within the scope of national social work practice, Ife describes the preemption of social justice by market forces in the nation's policy, where utilitarianism — the basis of economic rationalism and crude empiricism — has come to dominate the field of governance and social service known as public administration. According to Ife, "utilitarianism forms the basis of many of the policies, practice manuals, and managerial practices that form the context within which social workers work." Not surprisingly, he maintains, adherence to utilitarianism is ultimately a detriment to those it serves.
Ife's assertion about the AASW and its influence and connection to the national administration of public good in Australia is the focus of this study. Responsive to "managing out" fiscal waste within the Australian government in the last decade, this essay examines the innovative approaches crafted by former public administration officials and staff as they sought responsible measures of managing reinvestment capacity — and especially in relation to the delegation of those obligations, both financial and professional, within the country's emerging infrastructure of not-for-profit (NPO) community organizations.
Since the 1980s, the force of economic rationalism as a method of managing national public administration in response to globalization has had a significant impact on the dissemination of once-coherent structures of vertical oversight in the provision of the social welfare state. Welfare reforms in Australia and elsewhere suggest that the utility of the former service delivery structure is clear evidence of Ife's assertions, whereby a process of "managing out" top and middle management instituted a new era of budget allocation-based policy decisions. With the devolution of the global economy since 2008, the promotion of systemic strategies intended to curb excess expenditure coincided with the advent of those reforms — and particularly shaped the nature of managed care in social work administration.
References
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