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Abstract
Since professional conduct is important in the lives of many people, trust and recognition between professionals and their clients are critical. Social professionals administer public resources on behalf of the welfare state, and their approaches and methods of intervention are mostly founded in current welfare policy. Despite this mandate, social professionals receive little acknowledgement and recognition. This article investigates the level of public trust in the Norwegian social services compared to the national insurance agencies, and to what extent the providers of these welfare services experience recognition and public approval. A central question is whether these aspects of external appreciation influence the professionals' motivation and feelings of accomplishment. Findings indicate that the social services receive less public support than the social insurance agencies, owing to the discretionary services provided and the stigma related to social assistance. The variation in institutional trust is reflected by the differences in workers' subjective experiences. That result notwithstanding, the service providers reveal a split view of themselves: while they experience themselves positively with respect to involvement and pride in their work, they also see themselves through the deprecating eyes of the public.
Profesjonelle handlinger berører menneskers liv på flere områder. Derfor er tillit og anerkjennelse mellom profesjonsutøvere og deres klienter avgjørende og viktig. Sosialarbeidere administrerer offentlige ressurser på vegne av velferdsstaten, og deres bruk av intervenering og metoder er i stor grad hjemlet i dagens velferdspolitikk. Til tross for sitt mandat er de i liten grad verdsatt og anerkjent som profesjon. Denne artikkelen undersøker brukernes tiltro til sosialtjenesten og den lokale trygdeforvaltningen, og spør i hvilken grad tjenesteutøverne i de to delene av forvaltningen opplever å bli møtt med anerkjennelse og respekt. Et vesentlig spørsmål er hvorvidt den eksterne verdsettingen influerer på tjenesteutøvernes jobbmotivasjon og opplevelse av mestring. Resultatene viser at brukerne har mindre tiltro til sosialtjenesten enn til trygdeforvaltningen, dels fordi sosialhjelpen er skjønnsbasert og forbundet med stigma. Variasjonen i klientoppfatninger og institusjonell mistillit gjenspeiler samtidig forskjellene i velferdsarbeidernes erfaringer mht. manglende anerkjennelse. På tross av dette avslører velferdsarbeiderne et tosidig syn på egen yrkesutøvelse: samtidig som de er positivt engasjert og mestrer eget arbeid, ser de seg selv gjennom samfunnets nedvurderende blikk.
Notes
1. Since 2006, the National Social Security Directorate has been merged with the National Employment Directorate and named the New Labour and Social Security Directorate (NAV). NAV is run and financed by the national government, which has made social insurance a state responsibility, while the social services are financed and administered by the local councils.
2. In this context equal treatment means that every applicant is assured that his or her needs will be assessed on equal terms with everyone else.
3. Formal recognition means the existence of laws and licensing procedures that establish entrance criteria, barring those who do not meet these criteria from working in or assuming the title of the profession. In Norway, there are no such procedures, and the law does not restrict the use of the title ‘social worker’.
4. Comparing consumer satisfaction in the two services, we can see that responses of both empathy and follow up are rated 4.2 (mean score) by social insurance applicants, but only 3.2 by social assistance applicants, while service is rated 4.3 by social insurance applicants, compared to 3.4 by social assistance applicants.
5. Intrinsic aspects are characteristics associated with tasks themselves, as opposed to extrinsic aspects that focus on issues external to the tasks, such as pay, job security and resources (Herzberg, Citation1959; Kalleberg, Citation1977).
6. Job involvement is the degree of absorption an individual experiences in a work activity, and conceived as one central aspect of an individual's work identity (Ellingsæter, Citation1995).
7. The resultant scale of job reward is computed as the mean of a sum of the responses to four items (numbers 5–8 in the questionnaire), which has a reliability (Cronbach's alpha) of 0.81 with regard to social insurance officers and 0.77 with regard to social workers.
8. The resultant scale of job performance is computed as the mean of a sum of the responses to two items (numbers 3 and 4 in the questionnaire). Statistical analysis shows through Pearson's r a significant inter-correlation between the two items: r=0.494 (social workers) and r=0.416 (national insurance officers), significant at the 0.01 level.
9. Although most delegated tasks involve some degree of discretion, theorists distinguish between weak discretion or judgement requiring the simple interpretations of rules, and strong discretion requiring complex assessments, as in the case of social-assistance benefits, where the rules are ambiguous. In cases of strong discretion the bureaucrats make decisions based on technical or personal judgements (Goodin, 1986).
10. The reintroduction of work requirements in social services is part of a wider process and change of direction of the Norwegian welfare state, which started in the mid-1980s. With the enactment of the Social Services and Benefits Act in 1991, workfare in Norway became part of the social-assistance programme.
11. In gender studies, this kind of double view is referred to as a ‘double vision’, i.e. the individual's ability to assess his or her role from both the inside and the outside (Du Bois, Citation1983).