downsizing

A reduction in work force and program. In the mid- to late 1980s, social work management—like its counterpart in corporations—was faced with the need to manage declining resources. According to Richard L. Edwards and John A. Yankey (“Managing Organizational Decline,” in Richard L. Edwards and John A. Yankey [Eds.], Developing Managerial Skills for the Human Services, Washington, DC: NASW Press, 1992), this reduction in staff and funding represents a dramatic change after nearly 50 years of uninterrupted growth in the human services.