Assessing Recent Textbooks and Casebooks in Human Service Administration

Little attention has been given to assessing texts currentlyavailable to students of social work administration. This article evaluatestwelve books in the field including descriptive findings related to audi-ence, structure, definitions, managerial practice, and knowledge acquisi-tion and skill development. The analysis utilizes an eleven-roleframeworkto assess the relationship between the contents of the books and an em-pirical description of managerial work in the human services. The articleconcludes with a set of interpretations related to the balance betweenknowledge and skills, the degree to which theory informs practice, theuse  of  empirical  findings  about  practice, and  the  nature  of  learningstrategies thatinclude case-based and problem-centered learning.