Theoretical Approaches to Social Work - Essay Example

? Theoretical approaches to social work Introduction In today’s world it has become more and more important for the professional social worker to be self reflective and critical in terms of understanding the underlying beliefs of their position and practice, and how their principles and philosophies are affected by the context of that practice. In fact critical reflection is considered essential for encouraging social workers to confront or contest prevailing power relations (Fook, 1999) and to be conscious of privilege and domination and how their views are shaped by their social positioning (Carniol, 2005). Although social workers are activists for groups that are oppressed within society, they may not recognize their own privilege as educated people. Badwall, O’Connor and Rossiter, (2004) in exploration of organizational change as a reflective process present a case study that examines how privilege and oppression impact on change induced conflict within a social agency. The conflict is considered and discussed by three personnel working within the agency. This paper will examine this case study from each of four perspectives: individual, systems, structural and community; the individual perspective will identify the strengths of each of the main characters and the central conflicts created within the agency; the systems perspective will discuss how change impacts on the interrelations between the organization and its personnel; the structural perspective will focus on how institutionally embedded injustices, such as race, class and gender influence specific individuals and the organization as a whole; the community perspective will identify and explain one specific social problem that exists within the case study community. I. Individual Perspective There are number of organizational changes such as anticipatory, reactive, incremental, strategic, as well as changes through tuning, adaptation, reorientation and recreation. These changes are unavoidable in human organizations and have consequences for the way that individuals respond. Human responses in this changing environment are diverse. In this regard, anticipatory changes are characterized by the changes in an organization that can be anticipated and can be prepared for by virtue of planning and proactive strategies. Reactive changes refer to changes made in response to an unanticipated situation within the organization. Incremental changes occur by virtue of the introduction of new subsystems to the organization’s constructs; while strategic changes take place when an alteration in the organization results in the application of a new strategy as a means of taking the organization in a more appropriate direction. Individuals respond to these changes in diverse ways; some may respond with unrealistic optimism or feelings of shock on acceptance of the reality of the situation or they can view those changes as constructive institutional direction. These responses manifest in different ways, such as laughing off the changes or regarding them with suspicion or by simply accepting those changes without question. Essentially organizational change or any alteration to normative structures can be perceived differently by individuals. II. Strength of main characters Amy’s strength is her academic background and knowledge of social issues; as a white female academic, she took a year-long sabbatical in order to connect her academic experience with the practical reality of working in the field. She was determined to expose the link between the university’s social work program and the community’s social work. With this motivation, Amy joined the health agency and began work as an assistant to the receptionist, a post she felt provided an effective opportunity for her to become more acquainted with the staff members and clientele. She also thought it could help her learn about the structural premise of the organization such as its objectives, health programs and other projects and services. During her post Amy became familiar with a project designed to help the homeless. As a receptionist assistant she became acquainted with a number of issues taking place within the organization. She was concerned with the racial disparity and the threats and verbal abuse encountered by receptionists of color, particularly females, in the agency. She became a reflective resource for the receptionists as well as for Patricia and Harjeet but not for personnel concerned for and working within homeless issues. Patricia, seen as ‘race and class hero’ is a white female, and as the health agency’s promoter she was responsible for the field work of the students who enter the organization for practical experience. In addition to working with Amy, Patricia met with different teams in the organization in order to gain an understanding of what the concept of social justice meant for different teams. Harjeet is another female staff member within in the health agency, but unlike Patricia and Amy, Harjeet is colored. She was employed as an expert on social justice and became responsible for the management of the anti-discrimination team and concerned with racial oppression within the organization and issues of white supremacy. III. Core conflicts Neo-liberal reforms by Canada’s government created tensions between health agencies and individuals. These tensions gave way to a number of problems particularly the abrogation of social housing, reduction in welfare and a number of constraints on core human services as a result of budget cuts. Ultimately a number of service agencies were closed and homelessness increased as a result; with homelessness on the rise, the agency took initiatives to support those who were affected by it. Conflict within the organization was considered by Amy, Patricia and Harjeet from different individual perspectives but the core issues involved racism and the fact that the agency was primarily run by white middle class people of privilege and thus dominated by white norms. This conflict compromised the organization’s ability to appropriately focus its attention on lending support to marginalized individuals. Personnel involved with homelessness were only concerned with homelessness and placed their clients as priority above all other issues. As the privileged and dominant culture within the agency they considered the concerns of the colored, female receptionists as an issue of their inability to do their job properly and manage difficult clients. They therefore believed the problem could be resolved by providing additional training for the receptionists rather than by they themselves changing the way in which they performed. In other words they were not conscious of their privileged position; they were unaware of the fact that the receptionists did not have access to the same benefits as them, and not able to acknowledge their issues of concern as members of a marginalized group based on color and gender. Ironically, social work is aimed at eliminating the attendant evils of racism from society. Yet, the social work organization itself emerges as a place in which the attendant evils of racism exist. Theoretically at least: Social work situates itself with the social justice. Within the context of this organization, social justice was a practice workers engaged in with their clients. Social justice was seen as something outside of ourselves, something we fought for, for our client and out in the community (Badwall, O’Connor and Rossiter, 2004, p.155). IV. Systems Perspective Organizational systems are the various elements within the organization and their interrelations between various factors. For example in a school, there are a number of systems and subsystems within its institutional framework. Moreover, there are a number of elements that necessarily interact in the course of their respective functions. For instance, the principal interacts with the teaching staff, and the teaching staff interact with the students. There is also interaction between the teaching staff and the students’ parents. Each of these elements and their direct and indirect connectedness are all systems. Put another way, systems can be described as administrative systems as they function around two core groups and their relationships - teachers and students. Each of these systems is interconnected and how these systems are perceived is referred to as the system perspective. Systems have essential characteristics that are related to constant change which in turn is dynamic and complex. Systems are very complex because they consist of a number of subsystems that invariably interact with one another. One of the important results of the system is homeostasis that brings equilibrium in the structure and function of the organization. Kelso (1995) notes that when things occur that encourage change, it may result in dramatic changes for the whole operation of the system. Ultimately, what this means is that change results in change and even the smallest of changes can have far reaching consequences. Moreover, change is a significant instrument for accommodating the growth of systems and for organizational strategies (Eidelson, 1997). The case study conducted by Badwall, O’Connor and Rossiter (2004) demonstrates that there are a number of systems and sub-systems within the organization such as the relationship between the receptionist and other employees, the relationship between the clientele and staff, the relationship between the administrators and the relationship between the marginalized people and the health agency. Each of these relationships and their interconnectedness are systems within the organization, within which the problems and issues existing will certainly affect the achievement of the organization’s objectives. Changes made by the agency impacted on the family relationships and on individuals themselves. Personnel working within the reception having been encouraged by Amy, Harjeet and Patricia to openly discuss their concerns and issues related to race and gender became seen as a homogenous group of complainers or difficult people; the anti-discrimination team became seen as anti-racism and each team believed their concerns were not being heard. Moreover, management failed to take the measures necessary to put an end to the manifestations of racism within the agency. Perceptions were that since the majority of the organization was white, empathy with a minority group of colored women was lacking and therefore did not engender sufficient incentive for preventative action. When incidents of racist conduct were brought to the management’s attention, the response was typically one of blame-shifting. V. Structural perspective Structuralism is a social science approach to the study of human society that gained currency in the early twentieth century (Baert and da Silva, 2010). The concept of structuralism in social theory and social work is used more in terms of the mental phenomena model rather than the physical phenomena model. Structuralism theorists consider society as a whole structure where the individual behavior is assigned lesser importance. The society is considered as a system of organization. As Green (1987) observes: The most difficult aspect of structuralism is that these structures are not based on concrete or physical phenomena as they are in biological or other sciences but based on cultural realities such kinship organization or tales (p.773). Ferdinand de Saussure, Roland Barthes, Michel Foucault, Jacques Lacan and Levi-Strauss are some of the thinkers that made significant contributions to the theory of structuralism. Levi Strauss, considered one of the most influential structural theorists, explained that within all human societies there exists unconscious psychic (Green, 1987). The underlying idea in the theory of structuralism is that the individual does not have an independent identity that is separate and apart from the social organization. The individual derives meaning when he/she acts as a part of the whole system. Marx also claimed that the structure of the society is a major reason for the exploitation of its members (Green, 1987). The conflict within the case study originated out of attempts to generate organizational change. As previously noted, these changes were obviated by neo-liberal government policy changes in Canada. These changes necessitated the cessation of social housing, welfare reduction, agency closure and the decimation of the social safety network among other social insurance decreases. Each of these reforms was directly related to the organization’s social services. These broad structural changes can have significant consequences for the individual within the organization as it impacts on the people they are sworn to serve and it impacts on the quality of the services they deliver. Substance abuse can be seen more visibly in the agency and family members exhibit aggressive behavior in the organization. According to the structural perspective, the marginalization and exploitation of the marginalized will always occur as a result of the poor social structure or the sudden social structural change. According to Karl Marx the exploitation of the proletariat by the bourgeoisie was due to the structural imbalance of the society (Delanty and Isin, 2003). The major reason for this exploitation was symptomatic of the capitalist society. It was a major social injustice confronted during the conflict examined in Badwall, O’Connor and Rossiter’s (2004) case study. The racism among the employees also existed internally; therefore, a healthy platform for solving the class and race related issues was necessary. The working conditions were intolerable because of the racist name-calling and threatened physical assault by clients. Open discussion of race and class issues did not form a part of the agency’s constructs. This is one of the reasons for the internal conflict within the informal private space of the organization. The agency has a subliminal norm system that is intrinsically dominated by white norms. The unfair institutional arrangement also causes imbalances among the employees which can lead to conflict. The family experiences a situation filled with pain anger, hopelessness and desperation, in addition to seeking to achieve a sense of connection, safety and relief. Issues of race, class and gender impacted on all three core characters in different ways. Amy felt ashamed and inadequate because although she understood the oppression impinged on the support staff, who wanted to make the issue of race and class visible, she was not sufficiently confident to manage the situation properly and was afraid she would be exposed. Patricia sought approval from the teams and more importantly from Harjeet and Amy; she knew her white privilege meant that she would stay no matter how badly she managed and she herself suffered no racist issues or had to bear any expectations from the colored staff. Harjeet found herself struggling with her privilege with support staff and receptionists but felt the disadvantages as well; she found herself apologizing to Patricia for her focus on race because of the respect she felt towards her, and she felt the company had made her the scapegoat and that it survived within systems of domination and power. VI. Community Perspective. Klasssen notes of community perspectives that “community, in the human context, refers to a group of people that share things in common and have mutual vested interests (n.d.). From a community perspective, society is viewed in a broader sense and social capital and other resources within the community are used for mutual and equal development for the common good. The community perspective is therefore more closely connected to the concept of development and world level projects and supportive programs are carried out in the entire world for the development of the entire people. In the Community perspective the interaction and interconnection between the members of the society is much more solid and strong. Issues of inequality such as racial and class discrimination are major problems that confronted the health agency organization in Badwall, O’Connor and Rossiter’s (2004) case study. The organization failed to respond to these challenges and neglected to create a healthy platform for open discussion on the racial and class level discrimination; thus employees were therefore not in a position to work freely. For instance, racial name-calling directed toward employees left those targeted feeling humiliated. The existing norms on racial and class equality were supportive of and reflective of the whites’ perspectives and values. A workable solution to these issues would be for opening discussions on the issues and the conflicting perspectives. The organization’s legislative body should also be reformed so that anti-harassment and anti-discrimination laws can be implemented for employee protection. The organization ought to establish a quality circle. The intolerable working condition resulting from the racist name-calling and threatening atmosphere cannot continue as it is disruptive to the efficiency and quality of the organization’s services. The root cause of the social issue is a domino effect emanating from the legislative body. The legislative body itself can without conscious effort, create racial discrimination. A client needs assessment exercise should be undertaken, wherein the needs of the each employee should be collected individually and steps taken to ensure that each individual’s needs are satisfied as far as it is humanly possible to do so. The social workers should work together collectively and should organize a forum for the employees. The objective of this exercise is to create a space for the employees to freely explore and address their discrimination grievances. VII. Role of social worker The social worker is required to assess the systems within the organization as a means of evaluating the interrelationship between various subsystems, such as the relationship between the administrators and staff, the relationship between the staff, the cooperation among the employees and various projects, strategies and their implementation. The social worker is then required to understand the effect of the structure on the social change. This case study demonstrates that the marginalization of people occurs as a result of and in response to the poor social structure or sudden social structural change. If a social worker wants to successfully engage in social work in the community he/she will be required to understand the community organization and the people within the organization. Conclusion This paper presented the theoretical practice of social work by reference to the case study conducted by Badwall, O’Connor and Rossiter (2004). The case study drew attention to different organizational learning, experiences and theories by examining perspectives in the context of social change. These perspectives were individual, system, structural and community based, and revealed that conflict within the agency had manifested itself from the dominant norms of white power. It illustrated how the partition between privileged and oppressed is fostered by failure on the part of the privileged to recognize the divide as being constructed by they themselves. References Badwall, H., O’Connor, P. and Rossiter, A. (2004) Living Out Histories and Identities in Organizations: A Case Study from Three Perspectives. In Gould, N. and Baldwin, M. Dr. (eds) Social Work, Critical Reflection, and the Learning Organization. Ashgate Publishing. Baert, P. and da Silva, F.C. (2010) Social Theory in the Twentieth Century and Beyond. Polity. Carniol, B. (2005) Analysis of Social Location and Change: Practice Implications. In Hicks, S., Fook, J. and Pozzuto, R. (eds) Social Work: A critical Turn. Toronto: Thompson Educational Publishing. Delanty, G. and Isin, E. (2003) Handbook of Historical Sociology. SAGE Publishing. Eidelson, R. J. (1997) Complex Adaptive Systems in the Behavioral and Social Sciences, Review of General Psychology, Vol. 1(1): 42-71. Fook, J. (1999) Critical reflectivity in education and practice. In Pease, B. and Fook, J. (eds) Transforming Social Work Practice: Postmodern Critical Perspectives. Sydney: Allen & Unwin. Green, T. (1987) Folklore: An Encyclopedia of Beliefs, Customs, Tales, Music and Art, Vol. 1. ABC-CLIO. Klassen, P. (n.d.) Community Perspectives. CFC Community First Consulting. http://comres.pbworks.com/Community-Perspective#BackgroundandRationale (Retrieved August 21, 2010). Kelso, J.A.S. (1995) Dynamic Patterns: The Self-Organization of Brain and Behavior.MIT Press. Read More