Aspects of rehabilitation counselor time demand

Objective measures of time utilization have considerable utility for enhancing workload management in rehabilitation (Walls & Moriarty 1977). In the absence of real time measures time demand is typically estimated from subjective conceptualizations of ideal caseload size. Subjective estimation has been criticized however as a source of workload management problems such as imbalanced workloads poor service quality wasted time invalid performance appraisals and low workforce morale (Haring 1974). More advanced and accurate statistical analysis is used to facilitate higher levels of decision-making (Kern 1987 1988 1993; Peat Marwick & Mitchell 1978a 1978b). This study was based upon the Kansas workload data. The focus of the study was to explore factors that create time demand in Kansas Rehabilitation Services (KRS). Results from the study provided information about: (a) the utility of workload management methodology for making meaningful workload distinctions and (b) the nature of workload management problems inferred from any workload distinctions found.