SOCIAL WORK LEADERSHIP NARRATIVES IN FINLAND: PERCEPTIONS OF LEADERSHIP AND MANAGEMENT AND THE IMPLICATIONS FOR SOCIAL WORK EDUCATION

Abstract

This thesis is about the experience of social work management and leadership in Finland, and the implications for pedagogy. Leadership and management in Social Work has been researched over the years, yet unanimous understanding of appropriate social work leadership and management has not been accomplished.

This research provides new perspectives into social work leadership by presenting the views of Finnish social work leaders and social work field employees as narratives on social work leadership and management. These narratives provide insight into experiences of good social work leadership practices and help reveal the phenomenon of leadership and management in a holistic light from the grassroots of everyday life in the social work profession. These narratives were revealed through interviews and a grounded theory research process and reviewed in the light of theoretical knowledge constructed through a literature review.

The theoretical findings generated through the literature review describe styles and approaches of leadership, both from the tradition of business management and social work. In addition, social work as a context, particularly in Finland, is discussed, as are themes of professional values and interdisciplinary work.

Empirical data for this research was collected through interviews with social work leaders and workers in the social care field. The findings reveal the relevance of much of the pre-existing research (Lawler & Bilson, 2010; Juuti, 2013; Pekkarinen, 2010; Peters, 2018), particularly the importance of values. In addition, three clear narratives generated the three roles of “caregiver”, “understander” and “designer”, which all contribute to well-functioning leadership and management in an organisation through different strengths. These empirical findings present “relational understandings” as capacities that are important for a leader to reflect to increase their self-awareness as a leader. These involve considering relationship to power; abilities to understand trust as a dynamic phenomenon influencing the atmosphere in a work setting; and dialogue as a tool to affect the stage of trust.

Knowledge from both empirical interview data and theoretical sources were combined and provide an example of how a social work management and leadership curriculum might be developed. The intended learning outcomes describe the recommended objectives for social work leadership and management training. Example narratives provide examples of experiences, which connect to the themes regarded as essential in social work leadership and management.

This research contributes to the professional body of knowledge by confirming the usability of the transformational, compassionate, servant and distributed leadership approaches alongside highlighting the importance of strategic objectives and evidence-based practice. For the already existing approaches, this research presents original initiatives for the further development of these approaches through connecting them to business management originated tools, such as lean management and multiple criteria decision making. This integration should be made through social work ethics and social work professional values. A step forward is made in highlighting that psychodynamic leadership should be better acknowledged, particularly through its relevance to understanding emotions regarding interaction in the community and connected to trust.

This research recognized four tensions which were later in the process combined into three tensions. All these deserve further attention in research. Tensions between social work ethical values and business management rooted financial tools, between individualism and distributed leadership, and between trust and mistrust in the community should be individually examined further.