What Social Work Involves In - Essay Example

Organisational Practice Number Department Introduction Social work involves both organisational and cultural competence since it involves interaction with the human person to improve his welfare. Since the interaction is in need of professional, financial and logistical input, organisational management becomes immediately indispensible. In turn, effective organisational management strictly and fundamentally demands effective organisational analysis. Effective organisational analysis in turn is multifaceted, taking on several concepts and practices as shall be seen in the discussion which ensues forthwith. 1. Identifying Important Skills in Organisational Analysis That Are Relevant for Social Work Practice As already stated, there are several skills in organisational analysis which are significant in social work practice. These skills are interdisciplinary, interrelated and are indispensable in social work. While these skills are too many to be expounded on in this relatively limited discourse, some of these skills are divulged upon. The organisational environment Successful social work requires that employees or stakeholders understand both an organisation’s internal and external environment. To understand the internal organisational environment well, it is needful that the analyst understands the organisational theory that a self-care organisation subscribes to. It will help at this juncture to understand whether an organisation assumes a bureaucratic, feminist, democratic or transformational form of leadership and practices in management. The import of this is that the analyst will be able to understand the organisation well, appreciate the wholeness and uniqueness of the self-care organisation, appreciate the self-care’s organisational behavior and realise to a fuller extent, the change that is taking place in the organisation. Again, understanding the theory that a self-care organisation has subscribed will help the analyst understand the complexity of organisational hierarchy and management. This will help the analyst appreciate interrelated organisational facets which need coordination, synchronising or major changes. At this point, courses in business studies, management, sociology or social sciences may suffice (Beddoe & Maidment, 2009, 43 & Weinberg, 2014, 66). A critical perspective Zubrzycki and McArthur (2004, 44) are of the opinion that the analyst must also have a critical perspective to analyse an organisation’s effectiveness in social work. For an analyst to make an extensive grouping of informed critiques of organisational management and organisation, he must be well informed on critical theory perspectives. This calls for understanding of management and organisational processes. Since the organisation that is being analysed is a self-care or social work, it is important that social science and humanities knowledge is applied. This is because such an analysis will need evaluating the success of social work. This demands a critique of culture and the society and the extent of cultural competence displayed by employees in social discourse (Healy, 2002, 527 & Netting & O’Connor, 2003, 16). Technology In another wavelength, Healy (2004, 110-111) and Mendes (2005, 130) recommend that the analyst must possess technical knowhow, to be able to analyse how effectively technology is being used to further organisational goals in social work or self-care. The analyst must have an understanding of relevant technological advancements that are relevant to social work or a specific social project. The extent to which technology decouples office work must also be understood in order to monitor progress, improvement and increased efficiency. Knowledge in office planning, technological implementation and human resource management is called for, to understand and analyse how each office uses technology to be more efficient and productive. For instance, the sharing of local network ensures that social projects can fast be fast-tracked by making the inter-departmental and intra-departmental sharing of clients’ data smoother and more instantaneous. This should speed up office processes and ultimately the social project more successful. Organisational goals An analyst must be deeply acquainted with the organisation’s goals, objectives, vision and mission. These goals should be broken down into quantifiable elements and spread across time, so that each department, sector, individual office and the entire employee can measure its productivity. The goal is to serve as the performance target. This allows the analyst to identify employees, departments or groups that have attained the performance target [and the extent to which the performance target has been attained] from those that have sustained performance gap. The crux of the matter herein is that it is from this analysis that corrective and dynamic measures can be exerted for the betterment of organisational goals. Some of the correctional measures that may follow the analyst’s input include extending rewards [such as salary raise, promotions, grants, bursaries, gestures of acknowledgement and travel tours] for those who have attained performance target and training programmes and workshop drives for those who sustained performance gaps. All these acts must be extrapolated to the overall goal of the organisation (Williams, 2002, 6 & Tsui & Cheung, 2004, 440). Organisational structures Conversely, Orme (2006, 2000) and Mama (2011, 382) observe that making proper analysis on an organisation’s performance demands an understanding of the organisational structures that form a complex interplay to make the entire organisation. The analyst must not only be abreast with these structures, but he must understand how power flows hierarchically in the same organisation and how information flows hierarchically and horizontally also. It is only by understanding the hierarchical and horizontal flow of information and power that every office can be made accountable, transparent, more efficient and the internal work environment made more democratic. Correctional measures can only be feasible in light of the knowledge of existent organisational structures. For instance, if an organisation suffers professional misconduct that comes with the opaqueness of bureaucracies yet that organisation wishes to maintain its bureaucratic tradition, improvements can be made by introducing open plan offices, open door policy and making use of intra-organisational intercourse such as round table meetings (Gursansky, Quinn, Le Sueur, 2010, 780). Organisational processes In a separate vein, it is important that the analyst possesses relevant skills to understand and evaluate organisational processes. This demands that the analyst understands the hierarchical and bureaucratic structure of the organisation to understand office, group and department-specific duties, roles, powers and privileges. Understanding and analysing an organisation’s processes is essential for the determination of functioning offices from non-performing ones. Organisational culture It is important that the analyst has a strong grasp on his organisation’s culture, so as to be able to understand and appraise the behaviour of people who are part of the same organisation and to understand the meaning derived from such actions. The import of this is that from analysing organisational culture, behaviours that deviate from organisational goals are identifiable and discarded while those that are in concomitance with organisational values are rewarded (Sudbery, 2003, 193). Market environment The market analyst must understand political, socio-cultural, legal, economic, environmental, technological and the threats and opportunities that are prevalent in the market. This prescription is important since such knowledge will help determine the manner in which an organisation should interact with the socio-cultural environment and the extent to which it has positively done so. The flipside of this is that failing to do this may expose a social work project to legal problems, dismally effective social projects or even socio-cultural backlash (Hughes & Wearing, 2007, 41). Self-care Managerialism According to Wheaton and Paul (2010, 33), the analyst in this case should know the dynamics and trends that characterise the management of self-care organisations. In this case, it is important that the analyst factors matters [that appear peripheral but are important] such as gender parity, ideology and the subordination of self versus self-care. Marketisation Collaborative Practice In this case, it is important that the analyst factors marketisation trends such as devolution, the changing trends of government-nonprofit relations and even marketisation itself. Other factors that may be brought into consideration may also include the possibility of government funding, areas of government-nonprofit interaction, growing regulatory pressures, dynamics in tax policies, changing regulatory pressure and the possible need for a new paradigm for partnership. This form of analysis is important since it helps an organisation prepare financially by taking internal and external environmental factors into consideration (Jones & May, 1992, 22). 2. Explaining Why These Organisational Policies and Practices Are Important in Service Delivery and Management The policies and practices above are important in service delivery as they will help an organisation prepare financially by factoring internal and external environmental factors of task and business environment. For instance, by factoring the marketisation collaborative practice, an organisation will be able to study and determine the prospects of government funding, areas of government-nonprofit interaction, growing regulatory pressures, dynamics in tax policies, changing regulatory pressure and the possible need for a new paradigm for partnership. These factors will help an organisation determine alternative sources of funding, how to adjust to regulatory pressures, how to make room for dynamics in tax policies and to know potential partners that an organisation can possible link up with. It is only after an organisation has considered marketisation collaborative practices that it can determine the tenability of running strictly as a charitable organisation, a private entity or a government-sponsored entity. Again, these skills are indispensible in proper dispensation of management and leadership in social work or self-care organisations. These skills are important for ensuring that all organisational synergies [human and non-human resources, communication, finances and premises] are efficiently expended towards the attainment of organisational goals. Importantly, by factoring marketisation collaborative practice, an organisation will be able to appreciate important approaches to social work such as the utilisation of discourse in social construction. The same will also help an organisation reconcile ideological and ethical dilemma when it comes to using theoretical tools in social projects. In a nutshell, without expending the aforementioned analytical skills, an organisation is likely to have run-ins with the law, financial bankruptcy, organisational malpractices, dysfunction and indiscipline and ultimately, organisational failure. 3. Summarising Reflective Learning In Regard To Human Service Organisations as Sites of Professional Practice Drawing Conclusions about How Self-Care May Be Enhanced and Hindered According to Mendes (2005, 127-9), as sites of professional practice, human service organisations are highly dependent upon proper organisational practices and policies. Organisational practices and policies that are dynamic are likely to enhance self-care in many ways. For instance, human service organisations which practice effective talent management are likely to enhance self-care. This is because, with effective or sustainable talent management, an organisation is likely to rope in and retain desirable talents and skills; nurture these talents and skills; provide smooth transition, retaining and exiting of these talents and skills; and entrench healthy competitiveness within the organisation and intra-organisational cohesion. In this kind of working or organisational environment, employees are likely to work well and thereby enhancing self-care. On the other hand, human service organisations are likely to enhancing self-care when the above organisational approaches are followed up with social or interpersonal values such as empathy, active listening, self-awareness and cultural competence. These values and skills are indispensable to social work since they enable social workers to relate well with the target of their projects and thereby enhancing self-care. While organisational practices and policies will help human service organisations manage themselves and coordinate their projects well, social values or interpersonal skills are to help the social worker enhance self-care in the task environment. Not paying heed to these skills and practices is likely to restrain self-care. References Beddoe, L & Maidment, J 2009, Mapping knowledge for social work practice, Cengage Learning, South Melbourne. Healy, K 2004, “Social Workers in the New Human Services Marketplace: Trends, Challenges, Responses”, Australian Social Work, 57 (2), pp. 103-114. Healy, K. 2002 “Managing Human Services in a Market Environment: What Role for Social Workers?” British Journal of Social Work, 32 (5), pp: 527ff Gursansky, Di; Quinn, Diana; Le Sueur, Eddie. 2010, Authenticity in Reflection: Building Reflective Skills for Social Work. Social Work Education, 29 (7), pp. 778 - 791 Hughes, M & Wearing, M 2007, Organisations and management in social work, Sage Publications, London. Jones, A & May, J 1992, Working in human service organisations, Longman Australia, Melbourne. Mama, R. S., 2011, Preparing social work students to work in culturally diverse settings. Social Work Education, 20 (3), pp. 373 - 382 Mendes, P., 2005, “The history of social work in Australia: a critical literature review.” Australian Social Work, 58 (2), pp. 121 - 131 Netting & O’Connor, MK, 2003, “The ever-changing landscape of organisation and human services”, in Organisation Practice: a social worker’s guide to understanding human services, Pearson, Boston, pp. 5-28 Orme, J., 2006, “Book Review: Understanding Social Work: Preparing for Practice.” Journal of Social Work, Volume 6, Issue 2, pp. 205 – 206. Sudbery, John, 2003, “Social Work Skills: A Practice Handbook.” Journal of Social Work Practice, 17 (2), pp. 193 - 194 Wheaton, P. & Paul, K. 2010. Culture Care: An Incentive to Reconciliation. OUP, Oxford. Tsui, M. & Cheung, F. 2004, ‘Gone with the wind: The Impacts of Managerialism on Human services’, British Journal of Social Work, 324 (3), pp. 437 - 442. Weinberg, Merlinda, 2014, The ideological dilemma of subordination of self versus self-care: Identity construction of the ‘ethical social worker’ School of Social Work, Ottawa. Williams, H. Mark, 2002, “Social Work Skills in Assisted Living.” Journal of Social Work in Long-Term Care, 1 (3), pp. 5 - 8 Zubrzycki, Joanna and McArthur, Morag, 2004, “Preparing social work students for policy practice: an Australian example.” Social Work Education, 23 (4), pp. 451 - 464 Read More