Expressing and responding to self-efficacy in meetings between clients and social work professionals

Abstract

Self-efficacy is a pivotal element when the long-term unemployed are to increase their chances of labour market participation, making the ways in which clients' beliefs in their capabilities are reflected in the delivery of public employment services particularly relevant. While existing research has pointed to the importance of both meetings with social services and self-efficacy for return to work, little knowledge exists on how self-efficacy is managed in these meetings. However, if social work professionals are to effectively enhance clients' selfefficacy, knowing that self-efficacy is important is not enough; knowing how to support self-efficacy becomes crucial. Based on observational data material from a qualitative study following 14 Danish vulnerable welfare recipients, we find that employability self-efficacy can be expressed by clients in strong, weak or ambiguous ways and that social work professionals responses to clients' expressions can range from supporting to transferring to challenging. Insight into the detailed ways in which self-efficacy is managed in the institutional framework of employment services, we argue, provides a starting point for reflexive consideration on how to develop employability self-efficacy in practice.

The importance of relationships in the encounter between NAV staff and young, vulnerable users. An action research study

“…In a study from North America, Tilson and Simonsen (2013) show how successful work-related support for vulnerable young people is characterised by a genuine confidence in these young people's abilities, an awareness of their life context and an ability to communicate with them and their families. A Danish study also describes the social workers' ability to build users' selfefficacy as crucial for their success in returning to work (Danneris & Dall, 2017).…”

Talking policy into being—How street‐level bureaucrats and vulnerable unemployed talk about labor market participation

“…Studying institutional interactions reveals that even resistance can be a very active and productive force in meetings between SLBs and clients (Juhila et al, ). Recent studies have showed that when it comes to gradual progression toward labor market participation for the vulnerable unemployed clients, one of the most important elements is that the both the client and the SLB believe that labor market participation is a possibility (Danneris & Dall, ; Danneris et al, ; Rosholm et al, ).…”

“…The analytical focus of this article will thus be on communicative practices in the interaction between SLBs and clients paying specific interest to the ways in which SLBs mediate and translate policy targets such as getting the clients to focus on (the possibility of) labor market participation. While the policy area of welfare‐to‐work has been heavily evaluated, the communicative and in situ practice of the SLBs have rarely been studied, albeit with some exceptions (Boehringer & Ute, ; Caswell, Eskelinen, & Olesen, ; Danneris & Dall, ; Eskelinen et al, ; Toerien et al, ). Eskelinen and Olesen () have analyzed small narratives on how vulnerable the unemployed saw themselves in relation to the labor market.…”

Reconsidering ‘What Works’ in Welfare-to-Work with the Vulnerable Unemployed: The Potential of Relational Causality as an Alternative Approach

“…Drew et al, 2010;Irvine et al, 2010;Toerien et al, 2015;Hansen and Natland, 2017) and the unemployed individuals (e.g. Solberg, 2011aSolberg, , 2011bSolberg, , 2014Danneris and Dall, 2017) as co-producers of how policy measures are implemented. These micro-level studies demonstrate the contingent and negotiated nature of how policy is executed in practice.…”