2016 Annual Conference

This basic qualitative study investigates how welfare case managers, who are former welfare recipients, learn to become case managers, discover the boundaries of their discretionary power, and how their experiences as former recipients influences their case load management.

Adult Educators, Program Coordinators, and Trainers.

Since welfare reform was enacted in 1996, scholars have engaged in an active dialogue on the topics of welfare policy, case managers, and welfare recipients. The majority of the literature that addresses the issues surrounding case manager discretion focus mostly on race and racism (Watkins-Hayes, 2009, 2011; Schram, Fording & Soss, 2008; Schram, Soss, & Houser, 2009; Burnham, 2005; Keiser, Mueser, & Choi, 2004). While there is a small body of literature which focuses on case managers, it does not directly focus on how case managers learn the boundaries of worker discretion over implementing policy, or how their personal experiences intersect to influence their discretionary actions when deciding how to manage their caseloads (Pearson, 2007; Watkins-Hayes, 2009). Thus, the purpose of this study is to investigate how case managers’ discretionary power and personal experiences as former welfare recipients’ influence their decisions about caseload management. This study's findings will add to the current literature welfare case management, has implications for training facilitators, program administrators and directors, and case management staff, and have have implications for welfare policy in the design, implementation, research on, and devolution of policy at the local level.