Practising professionalism in activation work: Developing and testing a questionnaire

Abstract

The professional nature and professionalisation of the street-level delivery of activation policies have received increasing attention in academic debate. The study reported in this article contributes to this debate in two ways. The first way is to elaborate a multidimensional conceptualisation of practising professionalism in activation work, distinguishing eight dimensions: knowledge acquisition, knowledge sharing, knowledge use, innovation, accountability, client-centred practice, collaboration and methodical work. The second way is to have developed and test a questionnaire for studying professional practice in activation work. Two models were compared in the study. The first model hypothesised that professional practice is a construct capturing all eight dimensions. The second model hypothesised that the eight dimensions reflect a knowledge-oriented and a service-oriented aspect of professional practice. The models were tested using data from a survey among Dutch activation workers. Both provided acceptable fits with our data. What model researchers consider most appropriate will depend on the focus of their research.

Managing Street-Level Bureaucrats’ Performance by Promoting Professional Behavior Through HRM

“…The definition of practicing professionalism in the study distinguished eight dimensions of professional behavior: knowledge acquisition, knowledge sharing, knowledge use, innovation, client-centered practice, collaboration, accountability, and methodical work. The definition and operationalization of these dimensions, as well as the results of the reliability and validity tests, have been presented and discussed elsewhere (Van Berkel et al, 2021; this article also includes the full measurement instrument). The operationalizations of the eight dimensions into questionnaire items were based (wherever possible) on operationalizations developed and tested in prior research.…”

The Marketisation of Welfare-To-Work in Ireland

“…For some scholars, the processing of decisions via standardised instruments can denote a form of professional practice if such tools encode evidenced-based standards van Berkel et al, 2021). Ponnert and Svensson associate such tools with the 'audit society' and the accountability demands of the evidence-based movement in social work 'to demonstrate all the steps that have been taken, to follow manuals and to systematically strive for best practice ' (2015: 588).…”