Thematic Trends and Changes in Human Service Organizations: Management, Leadership, and Governance

This exploratory study focuses on understanding the thematic trends and changes in 1,078 articles published in Human Service Organizations: Management, Leadership, and Governance (HSO) journal. Structural Topic Model (STM) was used to examine how topics have changed over time. Fifteen topics were uncovered, and the most widely studied topic in HSO’s 40-year history was gender-related issues. The results show that the prevalence of topics varied over time. While some topics (e.g., “Performance and measurement,” “Relationship with the market and public sector,” “Planning, implementation, and feedback,” and “Social work education”) showed decreasing trends, others (e.g., “Network and collaboration,” “Board and executive,” “Program and evidence,” and “Supervision and team”) showed increasing trends. This study can contribute to reviewing the past social work management research and may help suggest some projections or directions for managers and researchers in human service organizations.