Organisation Structure and Attitudes to Work:an Assessment of Social Service Departments Available to Purchase

The Seebohm recommendations assumed that any improvement in the social services had to be accompanied by fundamental administrative reorganisation. The rationalisation that social work activity would be best placed under one roof, generated, not unexpectedly, discussion and research, on managerial and organisational matters. Earlier publications concluded that wherever possible, organisational structures should not fall into the “bureaucratic trap” by having tall hierarchies, but should be flexible and adaptable to changing conditions. These praiseworthy sentiments however, were not accompanied by down‐to‐earth empirical study, but rather by: