Social Workers as Social Change Agents: Social Innovation, Social Intrapreneurship, and Social Entrepreneurship

Abstract

This article explores and describes social innovation, social intrapreneurship, and social entrepreneurship practiced by social workers within human service organizations. Each year, the nature and complexity of clients’ problems and challenges experienced by communities continuously evolves and grows. These challenges call for social workers to lead and facilitate social change that can have a lasting impact on communities and people. The authors report findings from an exploratory, descriptive study conducted with ten social workers on these practices. The findings point to the need to develop and integrate these contents within social work education and further promote dual-degree graduate programs.

Keywords:

• graduate social work education
• macro social work practice
• social entrepreneurship
• social innovation
• social intrapreneurship