Abstract
In my days of blissful ignorance, prior to qualifying as a social worker, I believed that my future as a purveyor of social justice would need no knowledge of the world of corporatism and managerialism. Rather, I would exist in an egalitarian sphere, powered by goodwill and integrity alone. So it was with a thud that I came to realize that the site of all statutory social work – and available paid work – is within local authorities, arguably the most managerially focused corporations going.
Bissell provides a comprehensive rundown of organizational behaviour from its inception in the early 20th century. The content on theories of motivation and behavioural theory is strong and amounts to a compendium of sociological and philosophical thought. Throughout, there are fleeting references to contemporary movements in British social work; for example, Bissell discusses the need for practitioners to use service-user-friendly language. This describes many contemporary approaches to social work practice – Signs of Safety (Turnell and Edwards, 1997) springs immediately to mind – yet he betrays no knowledge of such developments and furnishes no concrete guidance which might aid an eager reader’s attempt to counteract organizationally driven difficulties. Nor does the author refer to any organizations which have tried to temper a monolithic approach. Bissell discusses an organizational ‘perception gulf’ between the service user and the social worker; this might have been usefully illustrated with a brief discussion on how some local authorities are presently seeking to tackle this issue and are setting about ‘reclaiming social work’ from a traditional managerial focus (Goodman and Trowler, 2012). Given the post-Munro timing of this publication, at a juncture of quite major change in child protection procedure and policy, this is a significant gap.
As my years in practice quietly pile up, my aspiration in extracurricular social work reading is that, by the end, I will have received some theoretically informed practice-improving guidance. In this context, Bissell’s book evoked some interesting observations. The discussion of the intractable influence of the organization on workers highlighted the conflicting professional condition of social work: though we are imbued, as students, with the values of social justice and human rights, once we become employees we are then positioned at the intersection of professional ethics and organizational aims. The author doesn’t provide any clear suggestion about how to tackle this dilemma at an individual level. Nevertheless, reading his account will enhance workers’ understanding. He also addresses gender issues in social care organizations and, drawing on a variety of academic references, expands on the theory that male workers funnel into managerial roles in order to organize the ‘messy emotional work’ of the front line and ‘reframe it within the patriarchal discourse of the organisation’ (p. 135). The surrounding discussion is valuable food for thought for any feminist social worker (or, indeed, any practitioner who expects to have the same right to work and earn as much as another colleague).
The end of each chapter is something of a cliff-hanger with an interesting, sometimes painfully experienced, dilemma introduced – but left unresolved. For example how, despite the practitioner’s best intentions in relation to service user participation and empowerment, once s/he is situated in the professional discourse and subjected to labels and processes of ‘othering’, this ideal is apt to dissolve. Contrary to the back cover blurb that this book is pitched at practitioners rather than managers, the baton for this change is, it appears, with senior management. Certainly this is the message I took from this reading.
My final impression of Organisational Behaviour for Social Work is of a book that offers a broad history of organizational theory and some tasty, if at times unfilling, food for thought. While it is vital for front-line social workers to have a macro understanding of their professional sites, this book provides greater guidance for those who are in a position – and are keen – to prompt wider organizational change: policy makers, ‘serious case review’ officers etc. However, students, in the throes of placement reflection, will similarly find it a useful resource.