Kaitlyn Seramur

SW 4020
March 7, 2015
Organizational Analysis

Introduction
This paper will serve as an organizational analysis of the non-profit agency called
Mariners In which is located in Downtown Detroit. Mariners Inn in a substance abuse treatment
center that serves only men who are about 18. This analysis will provider readers with an
overview of the specific services provided, the mission and goals, framework of staffing, and
recommendations. Additionally the writer address specific theories that apply in various
situations.
Organization and Services
Mariners Inn is a non-profit 501(c)(3) agency that has been proving substance abuse treatment,
shelter, and transitional housing in the Cass Corridor neighborhood of Detroit since 1955. Prior
to this it was run by the Episcopal nuns in Mariners Church Detroit where it was founded in
1925 and served the sailors who docked in the Detroit port. It was created to offer support for
these sailors by providing them with a bed, prayer and help in addressing their drinking
problems. Since then it has expanded and transitioned to meet the specific need of Detroiters in
the 21st century. Mariners Inn is one of the leading treatment centers in the nation, known for its
outstanding methods of treating the major issues of homelessness and substance abuse. Today,
this agency offers both residential and outpatient treatment and is licensed under the Office of
Substance Abuse Services for the State of Michigan Department of Public Health and is
accredited under the Commission for the Accreditation of Rehabilitation Facilities. Mariners Inn
was cited by the Majors Office as being one of Detroits model programs. The reputation of this
agency is very strong and continues to grow as years go on (Marinersinn.org).
Mariners Inn offers both residential and outpatient substance abuse treatment for adult

homeless men in Detroit. According to Marinersinn.org, the mission of the residential treatment
programs is, to provide compassionate and professional substance abuse treatment to men in an
effort to help restore their dignity, self-respect, and independence. This is achieved through
several vessels, including the teaching of the 12-step principles, cognitive behavioral therapy,
motivational interviewing, expressive arts, and evidence-based alternatives. Some of the
alternatives practiced at this agency include art therapy, urban gardening, choirs and restorative
justice. Having these diverse approaches to healing aids in the fact that no man recovers the same
as the next man, therefore having options helps meet the client where they are at. The team of
counselors provide these forms of treatment through both individual and group therapy sessions,
vocational services, case management and literacy services.
The residential treatment programs are divided into three categories, a 90 day program,
extended residency, and transitional housing. When a client comes in they are first placed into
the 90 day program, they have the option of doing 30, 60 or 90, but in order to advance into the
extended residency program the client must complete 90 days. For this program they are given
their own bed, assigned to a professionally trained substance abuse counselor, and their own
personal locker. Other services provided among entrance into the program include, three meals a
day, access to a clothing a room, personal hygiene items, notebook and pen, bus tickets, and
access to job opportunities and housing services. Although clients are not allowed to work for the
first 30 days of treatment, counselors help in preparing clients for employment and after the 30
days help in assisting client in the job seeking process.
After completing the 90 day treatment program, clients are eligible to apply for both the
extended residency program and transitional housing. The Mariners extended residency program

(MER) is also housed inside the same building as the 90 day program and is offered for up to a
two year period of time. In this program, clients are assigned to a private room, usually shared
with one other person, they are giving the freedom to leave and reenter the building as needed
throughout the day, and are not required to attend group meetings. They are also eligible to eat
three meals day but have the opportunity to buy and store their own foods. In contrast to the 90
day program, clients are not assigned a counselor but have access to meeting with a counselor
upon setting up an appointment. Ultimately the mission of MER is to provide clients with an
alcohol and drug-free residential environment conducive to the recovery process.
The final strategy of the residential programs is transitional housing which has two
locations, an apartment complex directly next door to the main treatment center, and a house in
the North End neighborhood of Detroit. During this program men are encouraged to develop
healthy ways of self-sufficient living and are required to pay a portion of the rent. The mission of
this program is to provide clients with supportive, semi-independent living situations conducive
to maintaining recovery. Men who have successfully completed the 90 day or MER program are
eligible for transitional housing and are able to stay in these units between the time span of six
months to two years. Similar to the MER program, clients are not assigned a counselor but have
access to meeting with one upon setting up an appointment.
Mission and Goal
The mission statement, taken from Marinersinn.org, is as followed:
Mariners Inn serves as an anchor for those struggling to navigate the treacherous waters
of homelessness and substance abuse through a wide range of social service programs
that achieve the best possible outcomes for adults, families and youth affected by

addiction.
Official goals are those in which a certain belief system is used to construct. At any
agency working with a vulnerable or at risk population there will be a certain definition of why
people in this population have a problem. Operative goals are more so set by forces from
economic, political and social norms from the environment, in which the organization does not
have as much control over. Perrow (1961) describes official goals as the general purposes of
the organization as put forth in the charter, annual reports, public statements [] operative goals
designate the ends sought through the actual operating policies of the organization; they tell us
what the organization actually is trying to do, regardless of what the official goals say are the
aims.
Operative goals set forth at Mariners Inn include those set are set forth by the board of
directors and CEO, these goals may be based around billing for purposes of maintaining grant
money, fundraising, and community development. Whereas official goals reflect the guidelines
of the actual practice of providing treatment for the men in the program. These goals might look
like meeting with each of the clients in a caseload for an hour a week. That way you can properly
and accurately provide them with the services they deserve, sometimes this is not always
possible. This is an example of when there is conflict between the operative and official goals.
The operative goals may be set forth to get as many clients in the building as possible in order to
get the most amount of funds available but if each counselor has a caseload of near 20 clients it
becomes physically impossible to provide each client with the services they deserve and the
services that may be outlined in the official goals.
Mariners Inn does a good job at finding the balance between these goals and making sure
to address issues that may arise from conflicting goals. For instance with the example I gave

previously, what they did to address the issue of counselors having too many clients, they hired
another counselor. Fortunately this agency is financially stable enough to do this. Additionally,
this agency does a good job at maintaining a healthy balance between these goals. One of the
ways this is shown is through the lines of communication between the leadership team and
clinical team.
Goal displacement can occur when an organization displaces one goal with another in
order to continue to exist (Aktan, 1995). A good example of when goal displacement happened
within this agency is the example of their shift in the population they served. If we look at the
original mission of Mariners Inn (when it first started), which was serving the sailors, eventually
there was not a need to serve only this population and the organization had to expand. The
influences impacting the displacement were the environmental roles, such as shift in target
populations, location of agency and leadership within the agency. These influences therefore
contributed too many major changes in the service provided by the agency as well as their
organizational goals (Scott, 1967).
Organizational Structure and Staffing
The organizational structure of this agency can be defined as a bureaucracy. Webber
includes several characteristics that make up a bureaucracy, some of which apply to this agency
include: Positions in the organization are grouped into a clearly defined hierarchy, job
candidates are selected on the basis of their technical qualifications, each position has a defined
sphere of competence, positions reflect a high degree of specialization based on expert training,
and rules and procedure are outlined for rational coordination of activities. (Netting et al., 2012)
These aspects are apparent at Mariners Inn. The hierarchy can be seen on the attached

organizational outline, it shows the structure and layout of the organization. By having this
structure it is clear where people are ranked and who has more power. Additionally this structure
provides the most efficiency and allows room for people to rise up in their ranking (Aktan,
1995).
The organizations structure influences the distribution of power and control in the
organization directly by employees positions within the agency. The higher you are in the chain
of commands the more power and control you have. The CEO along with the board of directors,
are responsible for creating structure, policies and procedures that are in accordance with the
agencys goals and objectives. Much like the agency needs structure and outlined functions, the
board also is in need of this layout. In order to be effective it is important that they have task
force responsibilities, guidelines, and goals. In addition to this the board members should each
have their own responsibilities and specific length of term. The board of directors have a
monthly meeting in which finances are discussed, decisions are made, and cohesion is
maintained. During these meetings not only does it consist of the CEO and board of directors but
the COO and director of the treatment program are also present.
By involving the COO and director of the treatment program in on the board meetings it
always for open lines of communication within the leadership team. This approach allows for a
more productive and effective agency because people are included and therefore can be
community more effectively to the rest of the staff. After the board meeting there is usually a
staff meeting in which does not include the board but rather the entire clinical staff. During this
meeting relevant updates are giving from the CEO and director to the clinical staff, there is room
for questions, thoughts and feelings to be discussed. Traditionally whenever there is a new
employee hired on to staff, the CEO always asks that they have time to share with the rest of the

staff. This allows comfort to flow from the new staff, by giving them the space and time to tell
everybody about themselves. It also helps the staff become more familiar with the new person.
Outside of board and staff meetings there are case conferences, which is the last approach
of management that I will discuss. These meetings involve the clients and focused around the
clients but it also serves as a time for the clinical team to learn how to work together, to practice
their clinical judgment. In these meetings the clinical staff is able to practice the theory of
Evidence-Based Management (EBM) or their practice wisdom or instincts. EBM involves
three elements, findings from empirical research, expertise of administrators, and information
regarding the preferences of service users. (Shortell, 2006). The clinical staff is putting this into
practice by using empirical findings such as the restorative justice process when working with
clients. The staff are experts in their field and learning from people of higher power in the
agency but in turn all learning from each other. Finally, being aware of clients needs and
preferences when working with them, for instance some client may really hate group sessions so
doing an entire clinical staff intervention may not be the best method for that specific client
(Shortell, 2006).
Overall, through all three approaches of management that were previously discussed,
there is an overarching role that power and politics play in management at this agency.
Whomever is in the highest role of power usually directs and coordinates meetings, discussions
and decisions. People in higher positions with more power have the ability to influence the
actions of those ranked lower than them, as we could see at each approach. Where this power is
used to positively influence the actions of others is up to the leader. In the case of my agency the
leaders, those in which hold more power, use their power to positively build people up and
include actions that better others, both staff and clients.

Mariners Inn has a diverse group of staff working there. Starting with the leadership
team, CEO, COO and director, there are both male and female of different race and come from
different backgrounds. The CEO, male, worked in schools and community development before
coming to Mariners Inn. Whereas the COO, female, worked for city council prior to her position
now. And the director, female, worked as a substance abuse counselor before moving up to the
director. They all complement each other very well, some very strict in their management style,
some more laid back and easygoing.
The clinical staff is quite diverse as well. Made up of both male and female, three men
and three women, of different age although mostly under age 35. Some of staff have a history of
substance abuse while other do not, some people will say that you have to have been an addict in
order to work with addicts but that is obviously not true. In terms of race, half the staff is white
the other half black.
Recommendations
A recommendation I would make to increase effectiveness has to do with an issue based
around the input of information used by this agency. With a caseload of about 16 clients per
counselor the amount of paperwork can be very overwhelming at times. As I have been learning
the system these past two months I have recognized a large amount of redundancy with inputting
the same information into two different internet based programs, additionally inputting weekly
case progress notes. Mariners Inn is a leading agency in the fact that they have transitioned to a
completely paperless program, that being said they are still in the beginning phases of
implementing this new method of inputting information.
Mariners Inn does an excellent job at hiring passionate and caring staff members,

unfortunately, from my observations, I have noticed that many of the staff members are
extremely drained at times. Of course this is bound to happen at most social service agencies but
can addressed in a healthy manner. For instance, providing a break room for staff to have a
change of environment and get a fresh frame of mind. This agency currently has five substance
abuse counselors putting their case load at about 16 clients, which is reasonably fair in
comparison to other treatment centers. On the other hand, the men who work as security and
manage the front desk (shift monitors) have to manage all 80 of the clients, leaving them
constantly be stressed. Unfortunately because of the lack of qualifications required for this
position the pay is not the greatest, therefore the agency struggles to find passionate and caring
shift monitors who can manage the chaotic position. An alternative to this would be hiring a few
more shift monitors and assigning them to specific clients, mirroring the way substance abuse
counselors are assigned their caseload. The problem of finding these men to manage the front
desk is still at stake so a recommendation to that might be tapping into an employment
networking site.
In terms of changing the way information is stored in the system, this recommendation
could be very realistic depending on the directors perspective of importance to of this issue. It
would also require a lot of extra work to first research and discover a new way of utilizing the
online resources, it would require a lot of time and commitment to developing or implementing a
new program, and it would require patients and time to train the entire staff. Meanwhile the
director might be more focused on billing and training the clinical staff on other issues.
Depending on her perspective on the issues would determine whether it is significant enough to
address. These are issues considering the intern environment, in terms of the external
environment, there are not many other agencies that would consider this a valid issue to address.

Mariners Inn is one of the leading substance abuse treatment centers in Detroit and one of the
reasons being is that they have switched entirely over to a paperless system. There may be some
resistance in the fact that the agency is already leading the other organizations and may feel
sufficient enough.
Conclusion
After conducting an analysis of this organization the writer has been able to dig deep into
the agency and assess the important aspects that make up the agency. This analysis serves as an
interpretation of the different elements that make up this organization. Starting with the services
provided, the writer was able to dig deep into the structure and function of each program within
the agency and placing their idea images of what they thought before. Assessing the goals of
agency was important in understanding the belief system of this agency, and learning the
difference between operative and official goals helped in understanding why people of higher
power do what they do. Analyzing the staff was significant in looking a deeper at the diversity in
the program, the staff plays such a huge role in the makeup and outcomes of the agency. Finally
recommendations were addressed from the perspective of an outsider looking in. Overall this
paper has helped the writer become more aware of the important aspects that make up this
agency.

References
1. Aktan, G. B. (1995). Organizational frameworks of a substance use prevention program. The
International Journal of the Addictions. 30(2), 185-201
2. Mariners Inn | Recovery is Real...And Begins at Mariners Inn. (n.d.). Retrieved February 20,
2015, from http://marinersinn.org/
3. Netting, F., Ketter, P., McMurtry. S., & Thomas, M.L. (2012). Social Work Macro Practice.
Pearson. New Jersey.
4. Perrow, C. (1961). The analysis of goals in complex organizations. American Sociological
Review. 26, 854-866.
5. Shortell, S. M. (2006). Promoting evidence-based management. Frontiers of Health Services
Management, 22(3), 23-9; discussion 41-4.
6. Scott, R. (1967). The Factory as a Social Service Organization: Goal Displacement in Workshops
for the Blind. Social problems. 15(2), 160-175.