Running head: DISCUSSION QUESTIONS CHAPTER 6 & 7

Discussion Questions Chapter 6

1. What are the advantages and disadvantages of welfare bureaucrats having a dominant
role in the delivery of social welfare services? Cite your source.
One advantage of welfare bureaucrats having a dominant role in the delivery of social
welfare services is the structure that is offered within the welfare system aimed at preventing
people from taking advantage of the system (Karger & Stoesz, 2014, p. 125). Another advantage
is that welfare bureaucrats have assisted in the implementation of various welfare programs
(Karger & Stoesz, p. 125). One disadvantage is that welfare bureaucrats follow the same form to
maintain the welfare state that was implemented during the New Deal (Karger & Stoesz, p. 125).
This form is outdated and was created in the 1930s. Since the 1930s, many changes have
occurred that constitute a need for reform within their ways to maintain the welfare state.
Another disadvantage of welfare bureaucrats having a dominant role in the delivery of social
welfare services is that welfare bureaucrats "have their own understanding of what is best for the
marginal interest" (Karger & Stoesz, p. 127). One example of this occurred in the 1980s when
the AIDS epidemic arose and welfare bureaucrats from the Center for Disease Control and
Prevention disagreed extensively with the gay advocacy organizations such as Act Up! (Karger
& Stoesz, p. 127).
2. When nonprofit organizations are forced to compete with human service corporations
for funding, what are the likely implications for the delivery of social welfare services?
Support and cite your response.
When non-profit organizations and human service agencies are forced to compete,
for funding, non-profit organizations cannot be expected to "be more like for-profits in ways that
we like-- efficient, responsive, aggressive--without expecting that they will also become more
like for-profits in the ways that we don't: rapacious, hardheaded and yes sometimes selfish"

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS CHAPTER 6 & 7

(Hacker as cited in Karger & Stoesz, 2014, p. 132). For this reason, if non-profits were expected
to compete with for-profits, the delivery of social services would be less effective in serving
marginalized populations.
Discussion Questions Chapter 7
1. How does standardization of care in an industry with substantial for profit-delivery
systems tend to erode the quality of care received by clients? Cite your source.
According to Karger & Stoesz (2014), "the less affluent are often consigned to
substandard services because government reimbursements are at such low levels that they
encourage standardization" (p. 144). For this reason, many corporations that provide health care
have adopted a strategy that lowers the quality of care and focuses more on serving the
maximum amount of people at the lowest rate of cost (Karger & Stoesz, p. 144). By doing this,
corporations generate revenue by lowering the quality of care and labor costs (Karger & Stoesz,
p. 144). Standardization of these services is important to lower the organization's expenses
(Karger & Stoesz, p. 144). Over the years, the population in need of these services has grown
and more organizations offering health care operate with methods of standardization.
2. In what ways is corporate social responsibility similar and dissimilar to corporate public
relation efforts? Cite your source.
Corporate social responsibility was formed to improve public image and it is
extremely comparable to corporate public relation efforts. Corporate social responsibility
stemmed as a public relation effort in response to perceptions that many "Minority groups, and
women, contend that many corporations have been guilty of discrimination in hiring and in pay
scales" (Karger & Stoesz, 2014, p. 148). Corporations began implementing corporate social
responsibility policies in an effort to smooth out negative feedback they received from the
public. According to Karger & Stoesz, public relations facades frequently gloss over

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS CHAPTER 6 & 7

businesses substantive abuses, specific corporate social responsibility policies have advanced
social welfare (p. 149). This statement describes that public relations take the role of trying to
make the business look good when it may or may not be, while corporate social responsibility
policies have paved the way for future social welfare advancements (Karger & Stoesz, p. 149).
Some of the beneficial characteristics of corporate social welfare policies include the prevention
and discontinuation of discrimination in the workplace.

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS CHAPTER 6 & 7

References
Karger, H., & Stoesz, D. (2014). American social welfare policy: A pluralist approach (7th ed.).
New Jersey: Pearson Education.