Organizational culture in social services – focused on the workers’ well-being

Objectives: In the field of social services, the organizational culture today is defined mainly through professional values, for individual social service providers by vision, mission, goal, or organizational values. In the context of increasing the quality of services and culture supporting the clients’ wellbeing, the workers’ well-being is an important subject of interest. The aim of the research is to find out the current state of the documents defining the organizational culture of social services. Materials and Methods: Review and theoretical analysis of the literature on the topic. Qualitative content analysis of documents. Documents defining the organizational culture of social service providers in Slovakia were analysed. The documents on the provider’s web page encompassing vision, mission, goals, and values were found. Results: From the documents, it was found out that support to employees is still neglected. At the practical level, the support to employees was expressed as the support of education, supervision of employees, a social fund for cultural or sports activities, rewarding of employees. Employee s’ satisfaction or a committed approach towards employees were expressed rarely. Conclusions: The provision of social services today faces many demands and dilemmas that “social work services„ bring with them. Incorporating support for employee’s well-being into the organizational culture of social services can be an essential step towards better client care and higher quality services.

Which Clients Inspire or Reduce the Trust of Street-Level Bureaucrats?

Which types of clients increase or decrease the trust of street-level bureaucrats (SLBs)? Using interviews and focus groups with two groups of Israeli social service providers—teachers and social workers—and comparing them, —we develop a theoretical framework for determining the types of clients who evoke and reduce the trust of SLBs. Our findings indicate that there are seven types of clients who inspire or diminish this trust: —cooperative, honest, familiar, benevolent, aggressive, open, and manipulative. We discuss the significance of our findings for the implementation and outcome of public policy and suggest several avenues for future research.

Exploring the Disproportionate Impact of Disasters: Social Service Providers’ Perceptions of Factors Increasing Vulnerability Among Hurricane Survivors

Social service providers play a vital role in addressing the physical and mental health needs of vulnerable individuals, families, and communities during and after disasters. Considering the essential role of social service providers during and after disasters, it is vital to understand the challenges their clients encounter during emergencies. Our study explored social service providers’ perceptions of the barriers socially vulnerable individuals and communities experienced after hurricanes Michael and Irma struck coastal communities in Florida in 2017–2018. Seventeen social service workers who provided direct support to survivors during and after the hurricanes participated in four focus group interviews. Providers described five factors that increased vulnerability of their clients including risk perception, socioeconomic constraints, physical and mental health challenges, language and literacy proficiency, and resource dependency.

Walking the Talk of Social Equity? Street-Level Bureaucrats’ Decisionmaking About the Provision of Personal Resources

While public administration scholars argue that core values of social equity are exceedingly important in service provision, less is known of how these values are practised on the frontline in the contemporary public administration. Research points to a dual trend: together with practices aimed at increasing clients’ wellbeing, public service workers’ decisions about allocating public resources are guided by moral perceptions of worthiness, leaving behind the most weakened populations. The current study aims to decipher this duality, analyzing street-level bureaucrats’ decisionmaking about providing personal resources to low-income clients, in order to examine whether the pursuit of social equity is manifested in informal practices. Drawing on indepth qualitative interviews of social service providers in Israel, we found that decisionmaking about personal resource provision is grounded in two distinct sets of values. Alongside a pattern of providing resources to deserving clients, street-level bureaucrats also provide them to clients typically considered undeserving. These latter practices are aimed at decreasing social inequality, demonstrating that social service providers often walk the talk of social equity.

Moving Toward Critical Consciousness and Anti-Oppressive Practice Approaches With People at Risk of Sex Trafficking: Perspectives From Social Service Providers

Whether and how social service providers use practice strategies that address racism is critically understudied, particularly with people who are at risk of sex trafficking. The purpose of this article is to understand (1) the perceptions of racial disparities in sex trafficking (as learned from sex trafficking education), and (2) the strategies used to address racism in practice (color-evasiveness, anti-oppressive practice [AOP]). We used a directed content analysis approach to analyze 24 semistructured, in-depth interviews of providers who knowingly encounter sex-trafficked young people in a majority white region of a Midwestern state (census indicates that minority populations include African American, Native American, and Hispanic/Latino people). Findings suggest that providers perceived sex trafficking education (e.g., trainings they attended) as predominantly focused on economic standing and family risks, rather than racial disparities and roles of structural racial oppression. They also experienced challenges in naming the racial identities of clients and addressing racism in practice. Implications for implementing critical consciousness and AOP strategies as well as future research directions are discussed.

Challenges and Prospects for Digitizing the Social Service Providers' Activities

This article presents the author’s definitions of “digitization of social service provision” and “digitization of social services” concepts and identifies the difference between them. It presents the results of an interview with 18 experts — the heads of institutions and organizations of social service provision implementing the rehabilitation of disabled people in Perm region. The research was conducted in 2019 and sought to identify problems and prospects for the digitization of the social services sphere. Interviewees rated their satisfaction regarding the convenience and time cost of automated systems that are currently being used in their organizations; characterized their needs in introducing various innovative interactive services, mobile applications, and other digital software; and expressed their attitude to various innovations. Social innovations were developed by the researchers and offered to experts by interviewers (for example, services for assessing the quality of work of specialists by service users, quick selection of the right social service, filing a complaint, referring a citizen to another organization, counseling in video mode, electronic appointment service, etc.). The research has shown how innovations can improve the performance of social service providers’ work and the quality of their interactions with citizens, which will ultimately increase the satisfaction of social service users and will positively affect the level of social well-being in society as a whole. A number of problems have been identified that currently impede the development of digitization: they are related to staff resources, the level of computerization, the lack of motivation among managers and personnel of social service organizations to implement innovative IT, and a certain distrust that such technologies can facilitate the activities of the organization and increase its effectiveness. Keywords: digitization, social service provision, social services, social institutions, social work