After the "big" decisions are made in legislatures and executive offices, what is done by those who implement and operate social service programs will determine their success or failure. Yet, over and over again, the managers of public organization disregard or handle poorly the critical problems involved in starting and developing new programs or in modifying existing ones.

This book presents a new decision-making rationale-the implementation perspective-as the basic guide to social service program management. The cardinal principle is that the central focus of policy must be at the...