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Abstract
Background Front-line managers of supported accommodation for people with intellectual disability are assumed to have a key role in the realisation of outcomes for service users. Yet, their job has been little researched. A job analysis from Minnesota that identified 142 competencies required of effective front-line managers was used to examine what was expected of the equivalent position in Victoria, Australia.
Methods These competencies formed the basis of semistructured interviews with an extreme sample of 16 high-performing house supervisors and 5 more senior managers.
Results Ninety-two percent of the original competences were retained, with changes in language and terminology to reflect the local context. Emergent findings highlighted the importance of house supervisors’ “orientations.”
Conclusions The findings support the proposition that the front-line manager's job is underpinned by core competencies and that the role merits further study. Issues of wider significance for human service organisations and researchers are discussed.
Acknowledgements
This research was made possible by the willingness of the house supervisors and managers who talked to us. We thank them for being generous with their time and sharing their knowledge. Thanks also to the article's reviewers for their helpful feedback.
Declaration of interest: The authors alone are responsible for the content and writing of the paper.