Social Work Practitioners’ and Supervisors' Conceptualisation of Supervision at the Department of Social Development, King Cetshwayo District: A Polity Dualism

Abstract

The historical development of social service supervision reveals that the professional and organisational demands do not co-exist without challenges. The tension that often manifests between professional and managerial supervision is explained using the analogy of “polity dualism”, a concept widely used in political science to describe the co-existence of democratic and traditional rulership. The study adopted a qualitative exploratory-descriptive design underpinned by an interpretive paradigm. Seventeen social workers and supervisors were purposively sampled at the Department of Social Development, King Cetshwayo District, KwaZulu-Natal. The findings were presented in terms of two main themes and two related subthemes. These included participants’ understanding of supervision and relating their understanding of supervision with experience. The recommendations could be summarised to involve the need to limit supervisors’ responsibilities to providing supervision only and to address the challenges posed by polity dualism by relying on professional supervision that offers more support and guidance and encourages collaboration between supervisors and supervisees. Keywords: managerial supervision, neoliberalism, polity dualism, professional supervision, social worker, social work supervisor