Understanding Your Social Agency

Armand Lauffer’s books are widely read. Since Community Organizers and Social Planners appeared in 1972, he has authored 20 books and edited two anthologies on organizations, community practice, training, fundraising, continuing education and staff development, and management in nonprofit organizations. Understanding Your Social Agency has been continuously in print since 1977. The current edition is much expanded. It draws on both classic and contemporary practice and theory, to provide users with hands-on tools for understanding their social agencies and improving their performance.A series editor for SAGE since 1977, his books have been published by a number of firms, among them: SAGE, John Wiley, McGraw-Hill, Prentice Hall, and the Free Press. A co-founder of ACOSA (the Association for Community Organization and Social Administration), Lauffer pioneered the establishment of a number of professional associations and academic units, both at the University of Michigan, from which he retired in 2001, and abroad. His consultative work on nonprofit management, community organizing, and fundraising has taken him across North America, Israel, Europe, and the Former Soviet Union. He currently makes his home in Jerusalem.

• PrologueIntroductionPART I: CONTEXT, CONCEPTS, AND CHALLENGES1. Where Your Agency Came From and Where It′s GoingPrequel to Chapter 22. Concepts, Theories, and ClassificationsPART II: UNDERSTANDING PEOPLE AT WORK3. Role Playing and Group Membership4. Motivation and Satisfaction at Work5. Agencies, Jobs, and Careers6. Professionalism and VolunteerismPART III: UNDERSTANDING PROCESSES, PROGRAMS, AND OPERATIONS7. Organizational Culture8. Leadership, Management, and Governance9. Fundraising and Development10. Agency Structure and ChangeAbout the Author