Social work professionals’ management of institutional and professional responsibilities at the micro-level of welfare-to-work

Dall, Tanja

doi:10.1080/13691457.2018.1476330

Cited by 12 publications

(19 citation statements)

References 39 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…Maynard-Moody and Musheno’s work and also the work of others (Banks, 2013; Dall, 2018; De Corte & Roose, 2018; Trappenburg et al., 2020; Van der Tier et al., 2020a; Zacka, 2017) has demonstrated that the coexistence of the two narratives creates tensions for street-level workers. As moral and political agents, they need to make sensible compromises between competing demands that pull in different directions (Zacka, 2017).…”

Section: Managing the State And Citizen-agent Narrative In Practicementioning

confidence: 99%

“…Other studies highlight the classic dilemma between responsiveness and standardisation and social workers' struggle with their legal mandate and their beliefs about deservingness (Hj€ orne et al, 2010;Jewell, 2007). Dall (2018) found that when social workers cannot manage both responsibilities, the institutional concern overrides the professional one.…”

Section: Balancing the Two Agency Narratives In Everyday Practicementioning

confidence: 99%

“…Only then it becomes clear how street-level workers make sense of their world and account for what they do. The limited number of studies that address both narratives (Banks, 2013; Dall, 2018; De Corte & Roose, 2018; Hjörne et al., 2010; Maynard-Moody & Musheno, 2003; Sabbe et al., 2020; Zacka, 2017) show that policy requirements and citizens’ needs can be at odds, creating wicked dilemmas for social workers who then need to find pragmatic ways of making these conflicting narratives meaningful and accountable. We argue that the way social workers take on both narratives in practice constitutes an essential element of their professional accountability, as defined by the ethical standards of social work (International Federation of Social Work, 2018).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 2 more Smart Citations

Social workers as state and citizen-agents. How social workers in a German, Dutch and Flemish public welfare organisation manage this dual responsibility in practice

Tier

Hermans

Potting

2021

Journal of Social Work

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Summary Professional standards state that social workers in public welfare organisations should act as state and citizen-agents. However, the literature provides little insight into how social workers navigate this dual responsibility in their daily work. To address this gap, we used Maynard-Moody and Musheno’s theory on state and citizens-agent narratives to analyse street-level practices of social workers in three local welfare organisations in Germany, the Netherlands and Belgium. This article explores how three specific organisational mechanisms (decision-making authority; the role of the front-line manager and the degree of specialisation) affect the ways social workers navigate both agent narratives in public welfare organisations. The data were gathered by a mixed method design of in-depth interviews and focus groups. Findings Our study shows that social workers struggle with the tensions that intrude between the state and citizen-agent narrative. We found that the extent to which both narratives are adopted by social workers is affected by a complicated interaction between the beliefs of social workers about social justice and responsiveness and the selected organisational mechanisms. Moreover, we found that critical reflection and a supportive attitude of front-line managers can help social workers to manage their double responsibility in practice. Application Our cross-national study contributes to a deeper understanding of the relationship between organisational mechanisms and the moral deliberations of social workers regarding their dual responsibility. It provides in-depth insights into the tensions and conflicts social workers in different contexts face daily on account of their dual responsibility.

show abstract

Section: Managing the State And Citizen-agent Narrative In Practicementioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Balancing the Two Agency Narratives In Everyday Practicementioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Social workers as state and citizen-agents. How social workers in a German, Dutch and Flemish public welfare organisation manage this dual responsibility in practice

Tier

Hermans

Potting

2021

Journal of Social Work

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Where street-level research mainly focuses on organisational, managerial and professional perspectives, the strand of micro-discursive studies of meetings between frontline workers and unemployed individuals underlines how the ongoing policy work is 'made', right down to the micro-level interactions between frontline workers and the unemployed individuals themselves (e.g. Caswell et al, 2011;Dall, 2018). Overall, then, it would seem that we have little conclusive knowledge about 'what works' in terms of bringing the vulnerable unemployed into work.…”

Section: Conc Lusion and Perspe Ctivesmentioning

confidence: 99%

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

Dall¹,

Danneris²

2019

Social Policy and Society

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

There is growing interest in research that informs more effective practices in employment services across Europe, Australia and the USA. However, despite the ever-expanding amount of research on the implementation and efficacy of various policy programmes in practice, the knowledge on how to bring unemployed individuals closer to the labour market remains ambiguous and inconclusive. This is especially so in the context of the more vulnerable unemployed, who face physical, mental and social challenges in addition to unemployment. In this article, we examine the existing literature in terms of its potential to inform (the development of) effective employment policies. On this basis, we outline an alternative approach based on the concept of relational causality, and discuss the implications of such an approach for applied policy research.

show abstract

“…For example, whereas a social worker is expected to support her client in participating fully in society and promote the client's right to self-determination (IFSW, 2018), her employer might require the worker to focus solely on activating the client to job seek even if the client in question is not fit to work. Tensions of this kind, which are becoming increasingly common in the current socio-political context (see Dall 2018), can, by constraining a social worker's moral agency, lead to experiences of moral distress. However, it is likely that professionals differ in a way they interpret these principles and put them into practice (Shdaimah and McGarry, 2018).…”

Section: Stages and Types Of Moral Distress -Dynamic Reality Versus Static Conceptualizationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Conceptualising Work-Related Moral Suffering—Exploring and Refining the Concept of Moral Distress in the Context of Social Work

Kuip

2019

The British Journal of Social Work

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

In the nursing literature, work-related suffering due to restricted moral agency is commonly considered under the concept of moral distress. This concept has resonated strongly amongst nursing scholars since the 1980s and has recently gained ground amongst social work scholars as well. However, the research on moral distress suffers from inadequate conceptual clarity; this has led to multiple and disparate ways of empirically studying the phenomenon. This article examines the conceptualisations of moral distress applied in the nursing and social work literature and identifies and discusses the challenges and potential problems related to them. The article sheds light on the complex, dynamic and relative nature of the phenomenon, which has not been sufficiently acknowledged in the existing empirical literature. Despite its complexities and defects, as highlighted in this article, the concept of moral distress can serve as an important tool for understanding and analysing experiences of moral suffering in front line social work. However, defining this experience in all its complexity and devising a valid instrument to measure it remain a major challenge.

show abstract

Social work professionals’ management of institutional and professional responsibilities at the micro-level of welfare-to-work

Cited by 12 publications

References 39 publications

Social workers as state and citizen-agents. How social workers in a German, Dutch and Flemish public welfare organisation manage this dual responsibility in practice

Social workers as state and citizen-agents. How social workers in a German, Dutch and Flemish public welfare organisation manage this dual responsibility in practice

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

Conceptualising Work-Related Moral Suffering—Exploring and Refining the Concept of Moral Distress in the Context of Social Work

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About