How Could We Do Better?
The insufficiently high outcomes of social workers’ activities compared with the power of personal, social, economic, and environmental factors may be due to a number of causes. Promoting individual educational and practical growth can help improve the results of interventions. Cournoyer (2016) suggests paying attention to the concepts of credibility and trust and argues that any insincerity or incompetence in the actions of employees involved in social work may lead to the failures of joint activities.
In order to increase these characteristics, specialists should approach the fulfillment of immediate duties responsibly and constantly increase the level of individual professionalism to correspond to a specific status. In this case, the concept of integrity is addressed, and as Cournoyer (2016), it includes such components such “honesty, truthfulness, sincerity, humility, and trustworthiness” (p. 19). Ongoing training courses, employee involvement in seminars and conferences, and other training measures can be valuable to enhance customer confidence.
Self-efficacy is another important element that needs to be promoted among social workers to improve the outcomes of interventions. According to Cournoyer (2016), employees should be aware that they have all the capabilities and resources to provide comprehensive assistance to customers. As a result, training individual professional skills are necessary for those responsible to realize their significance in the context of social assistance and its results. The measures considered may help improve the quality of work to help people with pressing problems and, at the same time, establish positive interaction among all interested parties.
Self-Regulation for Social Workers
One of the integral components of credible and productive social work is the self-regulation of employees involved in these activities. Some specialists experience difficulties in self-control, which, ultimately, affects the results of interventions negatively. Cournoyer (2016) states that these challenges may be due to the lack of social workers’ maturity and, thus, their inability to participate in helping clients.
In addition, external factors can exacerbate the problem and cause additional difficulties in self-understanding. For instance, high demands from senior management, fatigue, customer complaints, and other influences may cause irritation, the fear of personal responsibility, and other emotions that are unacceptable in the process of work. As a result, the quality of assistance is reduced, and interaction with the target audience does not bring the desired results.
As valuable methodologies enhancing the ability to regulate one’s thoughts, feelings, and actions, standard but effective approaches may be proposed. Cournoyer (2016) draws attention to the fact that the diversity of attitudes, beliefs, and ideologies creates a dynamic work environment, and social workers need to be prepared for such conditions. To ensure that this aspect does not affect personal perception, studying the ethical principles of interaction can be a valuable practice. According to Cournoyer (2016), professional behavior largely depends on how skillfully an employee can realize the skills of interpersonal communication. Therefore, accumulating the experience of the rules of ethical collaboration and studying the aspects of cultural diversity may be relevant approaches to increasing personal indicators of self-control and self-understanding.
Reference
Cournoyer, B. R. (2016). The social work skills workbook (8th ed.). Boston, MA: Cengage Learning.