On guard against bureaucracy: depictions of the social work bureaucrat in syllabi texts

ABSTRACT

This article investigates the depiction of social workers and bureaucracy in selected social work syllabi texts in Norway. The core message is that bureaucracy threatens to undermine important social work principles. The texts emphasize individual responsibility and that social workers cannot assume that the ‘system’ will be ethical. As bureaucrats, social workers should prioritize loyalty to the clients and the political agenda of the profession above the demands of public bureaucracies. This entails that social workers need to oppose rules and policies when necessary, engage in critical reflection, approach clients in a personal and holistic manner, promote anti-hierarchical attitudes and actively combat social inequality on a structural level. While the texts promote an image of the social work bureaucrat as an antidote to the dark sides of bureaucracy, they to a limited extent reflect the ethos of bureaucracy as a sphere with distinct values that are important in democratic societies.

KEYWORDS:

• bureaucracy
• social work
• values
• responsibility
• loyalty
• political accountability

Acknowledgments

The work in this article was conducted as part of a larger project, “Contradictory institutional logics in interaction? The interface between the education system and the field of health and welfare service”. The project was funded by the Norwegian Research Council and led by professor Tone Alm Andreassen at Oslo Metropolitan University. I would like to thank the project group for feedback and interesting discussions throughout the project period. I am grateful to Lars Inge Terum and Talieh Sadeghi for useful comments on an early draft of the article. Finally, I would like to thank Knut Fossestøl for input and discussions along the way.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Correction Statement

This article has been republished with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.

Notes

1. See appendix for an overview of the texts. In the bibliography, the texts from the syllabi are marked with a *.

2. The English title is the “Norwegian Union of Social educators and Social Workers», which is the professional organization and trade union for social workers, childcare workers, social educators and welfare officers in Norway. The ethical guidelines of the union appear frequently in the syllabi. By contrast, the Global Social Work Statement of Ethical Principles, issued by the International Federation of Social Workers (IFSW, 2018), appeared only in the syllabus of one course. The international guidelines emphasize the political accountability of social workers and their role as policy implementers even less than the Norwegian ethical guidelines. The IFSW has, however, published a policy statement called ‘Effective and ethical working environments for social work. Responsibility of employers of social workers’ (IFSW, 2012). The statemen touches more directly upon some of the dilemmas social workers face in an organizational/bureaucratic setting, among other things because of the tension between professional and political accountability.

3. The data collection was done together with Knut Fossestøl, another member of the research team. The analysis and writing were conducted by the author.

Additional information

Funding

The study is part of the project ‘Contradictory institutional logics in interaction’, funded by the Research Council of Norway (ref. 239967). The project was led by professor Tone Alm Andreassen at the Centre for the Study of Professions, OsloMet.

Notes on contributors

Tone Maia Liodden

Tone Maia Liodden holds a PhD in sociology and works at the Norwegian Institute for Urban and Regional Research at Oslo Metropolitan University.  Her research interests include asylum policy, integration, migration control, decision-making and bureaucracy.