Social work leaders’ authenticity positively influences their dispositions toward ethical decision-making

ABSTRACT

The personality traits of social work leaders are important factors influencing ethical decision-making in organisations. The lack of empirical evidence with regard to the relationship between personal authenticity and ethical decision-making in social work stimulated the present study. Two hundred and thirty-eight leaders (81.9% female) from organisations working in various fields of social work were given the Authenticity Scale, Managerial Ethical Profile, and conducted two free association tasks with the cue words authenticity and self. Authenticity was positively correlated with ethical decision-making. In contrast, authenticity was not correlated with the tendency to make decisions in an effort to maximise economic profit for the organisation. The results of the present study have important practical implications for the social work sector. The positive correlation of authenticity with ethical decision-making indicates that positive reinforcement of authenticity in leaders could possibly lead to supporting ethical decision-making within an organisation. Therefore, supporting authenticity in leaders working in social work may also help foster quality services and prevent unethical behaviour.

ABSTRAKT

Etické rozhodování v organizacích sociální práce je silně ovlivněno osobnostními dispozicemi vedoucích pracovníků. Hlavním podnětem pro vznik této studie byla dosavadní velmi sporadická empirická evidence dokládající vztah mezi osobnostní autenticitou a etickým rozhodováním v organizacích sociální práce. 238 vedoucích pracovníků (81,9% žen) z různých organizací sociální práce vyplnilo testy Authenticity Scale, Managerial Ethical Profile a dále absolvovalo asociační experimentální úkol ve vztahu k podnětovým slovům autenticita a já. Výsledky našeho výzkumu ukazují, že osobnostní autenticita vedoucích pracovníků v organizacích sociální práce pozitivně koreluje s jejich dispozicemi pro etické rozhodování. Osobnostní autenticita ale naopak nesouvisela s rozhodováním, které by mělo za cíl maximalizovat ekonomický zisk organizace. Výsledky studie mají zásadní praktický význam, protože akcentují důležitost systematické podpory autenticity vedoucích pracovníků v organizacích sociální práce. Podpora autenticity vedoucích pracovníků může přispět k jejich etičtějšímu rozhodování, ke zlepšení kvality služeb klientům a také k prevenci neetického chování v organizacích sociální práce.

KEYWORDS:

• Social work
• authenticity
• ethical decision-making
• ethical behaviour

KLÍČOVÁ SLOVA:

• sociální práce
• autenticita
• etické rozhodování
• etické chování

Acknowledgements

Many thanks to Karel Balcar, Hana Hejná, and Karel Hnilica for their kind support and inspiring suggestions during the final stage of manuscript preparation.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes on contributors

Radek Trnka is a lecturer and senior researcher at the Prague College of Psychosocial Studies and Palacky University Olomouc. His research interests include emotions, personality, creativity, coping, and systemic and quantum approaches in psychology and anthropology. He contributed to the establishment of a new, arising discipline called ‘quantum anthropology’ that is seeking interconnections between quantum theoretical thinking and contemporary psychology and anthropology. Most of core issues of quantum anthropology were introduced in his recent book ‘Quantum anthropology: Man, cultures and groups in a quantum perspective’ (2016, Charles University Karolinum Press).

Martin Kuška is a lecturer and senior researcher at the Prague College of Psychosocial Studies, at the departments of psychology and social work. Since 2012, he is also lecturing at the Sigmund Freud Private University Vienna, Psychotherapy Science department. His research focuses on interdisciplinary approaches in psychosocial sciences. Recent publications concern themes such as cultural factors in psychotherapy, emotionality and emotional creativity, ageing, treatment outcomes interpretation, or youth subcultures. He is also cooperating with the Olomouc University Social Health Institute, Palacky University Olomouc.

Peter Tavel is a professor in clinical psychology at Palacky University Olomouc, Czech Republic. His theoretical work and research are focused on the meaning of life, the psychology of ageing and lenitixe relief, risk/protective factors in adolescents and the relationship between psychology, spirituality and faith.

Aleš A. Kuběna is a postdoctoral researcher in the field of descriptive and normative game theory at the Institute of Information Theory and Automation, Czech Academy of Sciences, Czech Republic. His expertise is in research of conflicts between ethical and strategic decision-making, truth-mining and analysis of information with a special focus on subjects’ motivation to distort the information. From the game-theoretical point of view, he explores the science itself as a majestic collective action.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Palacky University Olomouc Institutional Support of Research Organizations - CMTF (I-2018) and the Czech Science Foundation (GAP402/12/G097).