Social Justice Program
Author Note
This program is meant for social work agencies and academic institutions pursuing ethical leadership in social justice.
Abstract
This document describes a social justice training program that expounds on social worker leadership development. A concise description of the leadership development initiatives and skills tabled within it is highlighted. It contains the time, location, goals, objectives, and respective participants in the training. In its final chapters, issues of leadership ethics and any subsequent theories are considered thoroughly. Also, it identifies any limitations of leadership as a way of pursuing social justice and possible solutions for the issues. Finally, it highlights a series of evaluation steps relevant to the determination of the program’s effectiveness.
1.0 Introduction
1.1 Social Work
Social workers, like leaders, are best tested in times of crisis. Their responsibility is to manage adverse conditions by intervening in crises, advocating for clients, and managing resources. They directly ally with individuals to assess needs, hence reasonably make referrals to resources in the community. Furthermore, social workers are advocates of social justice in communities seeing they support vulnerable and oppressed groups. These responsibilities make it that they interact with humanity at its lowest, thus have to find ways of helping their charges find confidence in the worst of situations. Also, they assist in the facilitation of cordial communal functioning through building and organization. The core principles of social work are confidentiality, non-judgmental nature, purposeful emotion expression, acceptance, self-determinacy, individualization, and controlled involvement emotionally.
1.2 Leadership
On the other hand, leadership is based on the motivation and assistance of several personalities to work as a team or individually for a common interest. Leaders help themselves, and others do the right thing, thus achieve a desirable goal (Northouse, 2019). This right outcome is attained through innovation, awareness, effective communication, integrity, relationship building, and leadership skills development. As such, by posing clear visions, effective leaders inspire and direct their subordinates to better themselves and achieve the desired goals. Therefore, like social workers, they are both service providers and leaders.
1.3 Social Justice Leadership
Social workers believe in social justice, where all individuals have equity in protection, obligation, fundamental rights, social benefits, and opportunities. So, for a social worker, being an excellent leader is paramount because countless individuals depend on their actions and directive for social justice. They have to possess the necessary leadership skills to serve individuals to the level of self-efficacy while also elevating their pursuit of social justice. This program gives directives on the training of social workers to have the necessary leadership skills required to navigate the world of social work. It highlights appropriate leadership skills all social workers must portray and in what situations they have significance. Consequently, it highlights the responsibilities of social workers targeted at specific social workers. As such, it offers ABZ Company a blueprint for its social workers’ training into leadership prowess.
2.0 Social Justice Program
The social justice program targets precise social workers crucial for the accomplishment of social justice in their respective communities. These workers each have an affiliation with ABZ agency in one way or another; hence are essential to the completion of its goal in social work provision. Justification of their weight to the organization is therefore included. Concurrently, the program solidifies why participating in it is critical for the agency’s security as a leader in social work services.
2.1 Program Time and Venue
The program’s venue is the community social hall. The social hall is accessible with ease from any location and closer to the firm’s headquarters. It is also closer to required social amenities such as hotels and the airport. This location makes it easier for all attendees, local and international, to reach it. Transnational Corporations’ CSR liaisons shall have excellent experience in accessing it from respective airfields with even more convenient access to accommodations. Similarly, local social workers can easily access the venue.
Regarding time, the program is set for exactly five months from June 20th, 2020. This considerable period allows all attendees to best prepare for the program and RSVP if possible. It will be held for one week as it tackles several leadership skills with their concurrent field tests. The field tests illustrate and evaluate the program’s effectiveness. Also, it gives enough time to ensure the venue is best prepared and available in terms of layout, logistics, and amenities. As such, the program is set for November 20th of 2020.
2.2 Goals
This program’s primary purpose is to turn ABZ’s social workers into renowned effective leaders. At its conclusion, they shall have the necessary leadership skills to ensure their charges have the drive to better themselves. Their expertise in effective leadership, honesty and integrity, decisiveness, self-awareness, mentorship, and team building shall be molded to impeccable excellence. Thus, it shall attain ABZ’s mission of being the best agency of social workers with efficacy, compassion, professionalism, integrity, and self-confidence.
Objectives
Its primary objective is to mold the required social workers responsible for the achievement of social justice into leaders. As such, it promptly tackles leadership issues in the agency towards creating a capable social work team. The objective thus is ensuring efficiency at a personal and group level. This requirement is only attained if the employees are self-confident and have compassion towards individuals in need of social justice. Therefore, this program targets several objectives as catalysts of the agency’s primary goal. These include the training of social workers to have confidence, be professional, value integrity, have compassion, and show objectivity.
2.3 Program Invitees
Policy Analysts
Policy analysts advocate for social issues at broader levels by focusing on policy reforming. They raise awareness on issues as a way of politically and socially influencing their change for the better. They also analyze in-place policies and make recommendations on changes that would make social systems better. As such, their responsibilities touch every social worker as they pave the way for social justice directives and success. Their span of leadership prowess, therefore, varies from analysis to implementations. This need calls for adaptive leadership where policy analysts encourage others to rethink their policies; thus, channeling better techniques (Northouse, 2019). Therefore, policy analysts having proficiency in administration benefits the whole field of social work.
Child, Family, and School Social Workers
These social workers offer assistance to troubled and or traumatized children and youth alongside their guardians or parents. They provide support to children in both stable and unstable homes. Furthermore, they interact with children at the classroom level by responding to crises and counseling stressed, acting out, bullied, and bullying children (Tuzeo-Jarolmen, 2014). With children in unstable homes, they attempt to make the homes safer, and when this fails, they find suitable homes for them. They also offer support to children who have undergone trauma, loss, or abuse. This continuous interaction with children within and without their home and school environments makes them influential to their development. As such, these social workers must have leadership skills that help them steer these developing individuals towards the right social behaviors.
Marriage and Family Counsellors
The family is the backbone of any society. They enhance social cohesion and society continuation through biological procreation and socialization. Through the family, individuals, especially children, learn to contribute to the community and, in turn, teach the same along the line. Families also play roles in the caring of the vulnerable, for instance, the elderly, the disabled, and the young. Due to the above, social workers responsible for this part of society need all the skills necessary to ensure the intuitions of marriage and family are healthy and stable. As a result, through a sustainable family, social workers help build a healthy society.
Addiction and Recovery Treatment Counselors
Every human being has dependencies (compulsive engagements in rewarding stimulus no matter the consequences) with a difference only in severity. In severe addiction cases, individuals in question must get the necessary treatment to get back to normal. Social workers in this department coordinate with these patients and their close ones to help in their recovery. They guide the individuals through comprehension of the underlying issues of their addiction and help them get the required medical assistance. Addictions vary from substance abuse to excessive shopping. The rise of addiction cases makes it vital that counselors in the department have impeccable leadership skills to positively influence the affected individuals into seeking assistance and maintaining the high road after recovery. Following the path-goal theory, social workers offer incentives in the form of reward and approval whenever the individuals take the right step towards recovery. They offer the decree and let the recovering addicts chose whether to follow it or not. Therefore, they provide guidelines on the mitigation of addictions and consequent management of socially deviant behavior
Medical Social Workers
In this case, medical social workers include hospice & palliative care social workers. They help patients, and those close to them navigate the healing process and, in some cases, the grieving process. Their responsibilities include support services, patients counseling, their families, and their community and home-based care coordination and management. They need to have an immediate and positive impact on the lives of their charges, considering the sensitivity of these situations. For hospice & palliative care social workers, their responsibilities are more severe since they deal with mortality and must be prepared on specific charges. As such, to these medical social workers, leadership skills are very crucial as they arm them with all the knowledge of dealing with and impacting the lives of patients and their families.
Corporate Social Responsibility Liaisons
This sector deals with how companies deal with their impact on the societal wellbeing of those it interacts with. CSR covers the ethics of companies (SMEs and MNCs) and any social changes it brings to the community. CSR focuses on ensuring that firms conduct their business in a manner that is beneficial to their society. In today’s capitalist world, CSR may be the only thing standing between humanity and social anarchy. The social workers in this sector ensure that corporations act accordingly and benefit society at large as they make a profit. Villiers (2008) found that policies in CSR require a constant amendment to ensure the welfare of all individuals gets considered. Policy analysts and these liaisons maintain the status quo between the economy and the social environment. Hence, for an individual to efficaciously perform their duties in this sector, their leadership, especially in team skills, must be proficient. This condition necessitates the importance of them being part of the leadership program.
2.4 Agency Cultural Diversity
Social workers have a responsibility for the comprehension and development of diversity and culture. Working with individuals, families, groups with specific needs, beliefs, attitudes, and values instill this understanding of commonness in variety. While the mentioned trainees work in different sectors, their cohesion is that they work in industries that touch all corners of society. The support and interventions they offer are required across all classes and ethnic communities; thus, their efforts need extreme neutrality. This requirement makes their competence in global and local cultural diversity influential in performing their roles well.
Cultural humility is a certain quality social workers mentioned above have to follow to offer their charges the best service. A study on social work found that cultural humility enables social workers to view their clients from an indiscriminative and reasonable lens and, hence, understand their worldview (Danso, 2016). Also, in communication, humility is shown through open-ended questions coupled with reflective listening. For instance, when addiction and recovery social workers deal with their charges, they have to become attuned with the individual, their families, problems, beliefs, attitudes, and values to know the source of their addiction. CSR liaisons, on the other hand, deal with the working class of society, their employers, and end-product consumers simultaneously to find ways of positively impacting their community. The other social workers also each have to integrate with their societies to facilitate optimum service provision. This total immersion into a culture requires cultural diversity and tolerance of the highest caliber.
Therefore, ABZ’s diversity is not based on social workers’ identity individually. According to ethical leadership, the degree of sensitivity towards moral information varies within individuals (Eisenbeiss & Van Knippenberg, 2015). Therefore, it taps into their workforce’s responsibilities, perception, sensitivity, diversity, and identity changes. Nevertheless, all the mentioned social workers are of different genders, ethnicity, age, and stature to best integrate within their charges social environment. They each have experience with their specific issues of interest hence their prowess in dealing with them, as such, concluding that the mentioned employees are the perfect representation of ABZ’s cultural competence is correct.
3.0 Leadership Skills
3.1 Integrity
Leaders must have honesty, reliability, and be worthy of trust. They act as they ask others to act while simultaneously owning up to their errors without passing the blame to others in their team or otherwise. Integrity inspires followers since the established trust goes a long way in establishing faith, and all leaders need their followers to have confidence in them. A study on workplace ethics found that this characteristic is the most critical when CFOs consider promoting individuals. A definitive graph showing the rank of all the leader qualities considered is in figure 1 of the appendix. As service providers who affect individual and communal lives, social workers must have integrity as they pursue social justice. As such, following the servant leadership approach, trainees must formalize with social work’s professional code of ethics.
A study found that these professional ethics, coupled with their personal beliefs and values, guide their professional moral compass. The researchers also ascertained inclusion and acceptance, even in errors is part of this ethical integrity (Fields, Thompson, & Hawkins, 2015). Therefore, the molding of this moral compass is crucial as it guides social workers into integrity or furthest from it. With the right combination of all the necessary ethical directives, the social workers become apt in serving. Consequently, leaders with integrity inspire confidence in their charges as they offer a safe psychological space (without fear or reproach) of development.
3.2 Ability to Mentor and Motivate Others
Mentoring relationships are essential in the acceleration of learning behavior and development skills since they assist charges in gaining clarity of issues. For a good leader, mentoring helps develop leadership in oneself and others. A good mentor’s qualities make it easier for the mentored to trust and follow them or vice versa. These qualities include approachability, communication prowess, honest diplomacy, genuineness, active listening, objectivity, and preparedness. The mentorship relationship thus fosters confidentiality, which is an aspect often lacking in many leadership roles.
Community servants must foster mentor-mentored relationships because of their role in swaying the lives of others. Shapira-Lishchinsky and Levy-Gazenfranta (2016) found that mentoring practices are still practiced in school despite the changes in the education world. Alluding from other researchers, they confirm that these relationships have assisted students in coping with challenges and increase self-confidence and self-esteem. Therefore, for social workers dealing with children, families, and addictive behaviors, it is paramount that they foster such associations. The confidence associated with these relationships ensures the parties in question each gain positively from experience.
3.3 Self-awareness
This trait is based on the understanding of oneself to understand others better. A study found that each individual has a variation in the degree of comprehending others. These differences have effects on both the cognitive and affective domains of the ethical leaders and followers (Eisenbeiss & Van Knippenberg, 2015). Therefore, having a complete understanding of one’s personality, values, emotions, habits, and needs and their relation to one’s actions helps foster comprehension of how it affects others. Also, such individuals better manage their stress and make better decisions, which ultimately leads others to the same. Sociologists and psychologists confirm that identities (self-awareness) interwoven together to form one’s self-concept (Zheng & Muir, 2015).
It is, therefore, imperative that the form of leadership employed follows the achievement of these characteristics. Research on transformational and transactional leadership found that the recent changes and people while the latter does not. Its basis is on assessing followers’ motives, fulfilling their needs, and humanizing them (Kidney, 2015). Since self-awareness is about conscious investment in understanding who we are and how this affects others, transformational leaders must develop self-awareness to serve others better. Recognizing truth in oneself helps identify truth in others hence the ability to serve subjectively without remorse or unrequired disappointment. This conscious understanding of self and others conforms to the other forms of leadership into authentic leadership, which is based on genuine interaction between the leaders and followers.
3.4 Team building
Team building is an essential trait in a social worker because teams enhance socialization by helping the figures in question better understand each other’s strengths, weaknesses, and interests. In so doing, it fosters open and honest communication, creates collaborative goals, ensures accountability, enhances empathy, and allows sharing of resources. All these aspects have relevance to any social worker considering their job is based on solving problems and strengthening communal living.
As a team, the effectiveness of leadership determines how much can be achieved. A study on corporate teams found that team loyalty encouraged productivity better than reward incentives (Tjosvold & Tjosvold, 2015). While rewards stimulate hard work, their efficiency is short-lived, considering the work does not bring satisfaction. Instead, the followers chase the response and which, with time, it loses its status. Loyalty, on the other hand, perseveres as the group intends not to disappoint each other. In the addiction and recovery social world, this condition is even more critical. As the charges interact more in group sessions, they become cohesive and help support each other. As a result, their team identity and loyalty intensify further, elevating their collective attempt at recovery. According to the path-goal leadership theory, the leader’s behavior impacts the direction the team takes (Northouse, 2019). As such, for the team to succeed, the leader’s team-building skills must have immaculateness.
3.5 Communication Skills
For social workers, the primary communication skill is active listening. Consulted literature defines active listening as a skill in listening to a message, discerning any emotions behind it, and considering the appropriate response to it (Kourmousi, Kounenou, Yotsidi, & Xythali, 2018). Strong communication skills are attributed to the facilitation of leader motivation and direction to their followers, hence effective leadership.
Other communication skills, including communication style adaptation, friendliness, empathy, respect, audibility, confidence, each have their significance. A confident audible leader who listens has the necessary channels to motivate others into doing the same hence the ability to motivate them into social justice provision. Research on communication skills found that all effective leaders have charisma in communication, which helps them better associate with their subordinates (Pappas, 2016). Therefore, for social workers who interact daily with their charges and influence them, communication skills are critical in passing the right message at the right time. Similarly, these skills are vital in understanding the charge’s issues.
4.0 Leadership Ethics and Theories
In leadership ethics, social workers are the epitome of respecting others’ beliefs and values; hence their desire to chase social justice through dignity and rights. Since the program tackles issues of identity and culture humility, it subsequently deals with the ethics of leadership. A study on leadership ethics identified a relationship between social work ethics and the interaction between leaders and their follower(s). In the presence of effective leadership, the interaction between the two parties is cordial under the guidance of cultural humility, and ethical boundary observation (Kidney, 2015). Therefore, the program deals with leadership ethics by solidifying the social worker’s proficiency in observing mentor relationships and cultural humility.
Societies need to ensure the proper development of youth within the family and school setting. An increase in internet use connection has made the global community smaller. This situation makes it almost impossible to differentiate the different issues affecting youth within different geographies. Although this situation seems cumbersome, it is a solution for a social worker with efficacy in leadership. The choice leadership theories are servant theories and path-goal theory. First, leadership requires communication hence the path-goal theory. The theory supplements communication as much as it is supplemented by it. The internet is the most accessible form of communication when one understands the intricacies of the cultures within it. As such, in leadership, social workers gain knowledge in social diversity as an approach towards social justice. This knowledge makes them best suited in dealing with these youth issues in a world of utmost cultural diversity. Similarly, the mentorship program of leadership empowers them with the skills to influence these youths on and off the internet. Hence the servant theory where the social workers lead the society through servitude by enhancing social justice.
5.0 Program Evaluation
The program’s evaluation occurs through a series of questionnaires aimed at the social worker’s comprehension of the leadership taught skills. After its conclusion, the attendees shall be monitored for a few months as they interact with their charges. The results post-program shall be evaluated against their time pre-program. The model of choice is Kirkpatrick’s evaluation model, where the results of a program are measured at work.
The model’s first approach is denoting trainee satisfaction with the training program. Therefore, the different trainees shall be questioned on how happy they are with the program. Their perception of the program’s efficiency shall also be noted. Next, their understanding shall be evaluated. Here questions on what was trained shall be asked, and success rate measure based on how correct the responses made appear. After this, the employees shall be evaluated at their workplaces to get first-hand results of their concept application. Finally, the effect in social justice gain shall be assessed within respective communities. The success rate depends on how well social workers shall perform in all these stages.
6.0 Bibliography
Brendel, W., & Bennett, C. (2016). Learning to embody leadership through mindfulness and somatics practice. Advances in Developing Human Resources, 18(3), 409–425.
Clayton, J., & Sanzo, K. (2013). Understanding mentoring in leadership development: Perspectives of district administrators and aspiring leaders. Journal of Research on Leadership Education, 8(1), 77–96.
Danso, R. (2016). Cultural competence and cultural humility: A critical reflection on key cultural diversity concepts. Journal of Social Work, 18(4), 410–430. https://doi.org/10.1177/1468017316654341
Eisenbeiss, S. A., & Van Knippenberg, D. (2015). On ethical leadership impact: The role of follower mindfulness and moral emotions. Journal of Organizational Behavior, 36(2), 182–195.
Fields, J. W., Thompson, K. C., & Hawkins, J. R. (2015). Servant leadership: Teaching the helping professional. Journal of Leadership Education, 14(4), 92–105.
Hirt, M. J. K. (2016). Path-Goal Theory of Leadership. Global Encyclopedia of Public Administration, Public Policy, and Governance, 1–6. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-31816-5_2222-1
Kidney, R. (2015). Transformational/Transactional Leadership. Wiley Encyclopedia of Management, 1–4. https://doi.org/10.1002/9781118785317.weom110082
Kourmousi, N., Kounenou, K., Yotsidi, V., Xythali, V., Merakou, K., Barbouni, A., & Koutras, V. (2018). Personal and Job Factors Associated with Teachers’ Active Listening and Active Empathic Listening. Social Sciences, 7(7), 117. https://doi.org/10.3390/socsci7070117
Mullan, R. (2013). Social workers. Free Publishing Limited.
Northouse, P. G. (2019). Leadership: Theory and practice (8th ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
Pappas, T. S. (2016). Are Populist Leaders “Charismatic”? The Evidence from Europe. Constellations, 23(3), 378–390. https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-8675.12233
Rao, G., Datar, S., Bawikar, R., & Datar. (2010). Skill Training for Social Workers: A Manual. Sage Publications.
Shapira-Lishchinsky, O., & Levy-Gazenfranta, T. (2016). The multifaceted nature of mentors’ authentic leadership and mentees’ emotional intelligence: A critical perspective. Educational Management Administration & Leadership, 44(6), 951–969.
Tjosvold, D., & Tjosvold, M. (2015). Leadership for Teamwork, Teamwork for Leadership. Building the Team Organization, 65–79. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137479938_5
Tuzeo-Jarolmen, J. A. (2014). School social work: a direct practice guide. Sage Publications Inc.
Villiers, C. (2008). Corporate Law, Corporate Power, and Corporate Social Responsibility. Perspectives on Corporate Social Responsibility. https://doi.org/10.4337/9781848443792.00008
Zheng, W., & Muir, D. (2015). Embracing leadership: A multifaceted model of leader identity development. Leadership & Organizational Development Journal, 36(6), 630–656.
Appendix
Fig 1: Leadership Personality Considerations in Percentages
Fig 2: Kirkpatrick’s Model of Evaluation (Kirkatrick, 2006)