The Personal Decision Making Process

As a result of applying appropriate theory the organisation and structure of social work practice may be enhanced (Howe 1999:104). Social workers use theory to inform practice and provide a sense of direction and guidance in their professional engagement with service users

This essay will address the ethical dilemmas faced by social workers and how they address these ethical dilemmas when working with service users and carers. It will be illustrated that codes of practice and codes of ethics are of paramount importance when dealing with these dilemmas as they are ones that guide social workers as to how they should try and solve these dilemmas.

Social workers face complex ethical issues in every aspect of their profession. This work is often ethically challenging because it involves direct contact and interaction with individuals who are vulnerable. There are many factors that influence our decision making especially when working with at risk youths, we often face challenges in wanting to take on certain roles to protect our clients. These roles often conflict with our professional obligations. When our personal and professional values conflicts, our decisions may affect the individual, family, group, community and the organization.

This essay will focus on how contemporary social workers work to balance the competing demand of care and control. It will start by outlining the nature of the contemporary social work and what it is like and how it works within society. The discussion will then move on to look at and discuss the key professional values of social work practitioners and analyse its relationship to their own personal values, this will also bring into account how these values and views influenced the relationship a social worker can have with both service users and other agencies. Lastly it will explore the range of challenges and dilemmas that are faced by social work practitioners in everyday practice when it comes to trying to balance the demand of care and control and how they work to overcome these problems in order to ensure an effective and fair service to all who avail of it.

The Professional Capabilities Framework developed by the social work reform board and owned by The College of Social Work provides a structure to support the career development of every social worker: from initial social work education, through continuing professional development, towards the role of principal social worker. The framework provides criteria for career progression and opens new career pathways that will allow experienced workers to sustain engagement with the challenges and rewards of practice. Furthermore The PCF applies to all social workers in England (including independent social workers), in all roles and settings and so it is an essential document for all.

The journey towards the attainment of the Bachelor of the social work degree has been an enlightening and educational experience, as the individual is exposed to the realities of many social and political issues in the society. As a student, I ventured into the degree, with minimal insight as to how the degree can influence and shape the way I perceive the social world, and the way I relate these matters to myself. However, throughout my endeavour, which encompasses years of theoretical studies, and two intensive placements at two drastically different organisations, I believe I have accumulated the bare minimal knowledge to possess a solid foundation about the unfairness and inequality that people in disadvantaged conditions face. Social workers are predominantly found in welfare organisations which Howe (as cited in Limber, 2015) suggested largely influences the practice, direction and values of the social worker, and impacts on their ability to act autonomously (Lymbery, 2015). During my placements, there was a dominant theme that frequently stood out and enticed my attention. This was the accepted practice of focusing on the individual’s problem, as opposed to the social problems that existed and the lack of acknowledgement about the social restrictions of the human agency that limited self-determination. The realization that organisations were managed this way was important in ensuring that I made a proactive effort to understand and untangle the reasons behind such

IntroductionThis paper discusses and explores both case studies in order to find the powers and duties a social worker acting in a statutory capacity might exercise in these cases, how might they be exercised and how might wider principles of welfare law impact on their decision making? It also analyses the tensions and dilemmas that may exist, referring to specific legislative provisions, and identify how anti-oppressive practice might influence the resolution of these case studies. It also demonstrates an ability to study relevant law in social work practice and have a critical and analytical understanding of the service delivery standards and powers and duties of social workers, demonstrate a working knowledge and understanding of key

This shows when I am working in my organisation it bound by law to collaborate with a number of stakeholders invested in the client. Therefore, by the social worker analysis the legislation of the organisation they will understand their legal context of practice (Kennedy, Richards & Leiman, 2013). Examining the organisation mission and vision statement will reveal the purpose and goals (Kettner, 2002). For example, the vision statement of Uniting Care Health (2014, para. 2) “we exist to improve the health and wellbeing of individual and their families. We differentiate ourselves by living our values to optimise the patient’s care and experience every day. Thus if I was social worker entering into this organisation I can gather it is service that works with both individuals and families in a health care setting. Furthermore, analysing the organisation auspice will show how it is mandated, which is linked to how it is funded (Gardner,

Gibbs (1988) model will facilitate a critical analysis of different approaches to assessment and interventions highlighting the potential dangers to practice in relation to the power invested in the role of a social worker, requiring an awareness of this as a means of ethical and anti-oppressive practice.

How do you make decisions together as a team? How do you, as a team, seek God’s direction and will in the midst of challenging times and a multitude of paths?

I feel that the moral philosophy that best describes my personal decision making is the stage of punishment and obedience. I make all my decisions based on what is right more than wrong, and what would affect me more in the long run not so much the here and now. I say this because I recently had to make the decision to do something about my nephews living in a nasty house. This could affect me in the long run, but I knew it was best for them. Because they didn’t need to live the way they were. I made a few people mad, but I did what was right by the kids and not what was right by their parents because I felt that if they parent cared so much they would have done what needed to be done to take care of the kids the way they needed to be.so

Loewenberg & Dolgoff (1996, p.12) point out that learning about ethics can sometimes hinder ethical decision making behaviour because there are no easy answers and it is easy to feel ‘stuck’. As they have stated “social work students and practitioners who spend too much time reflecting about professional ethics may find themselves in the same situation as the centipede who become incapable of moving about when it tried to understand how its legs worked.”

This essay will explore what it means to be a professional social worker and what the term ‘social work’ entails in contemporary England. Then, it will briefly focus on the history of social work regulation as well as exploring how ‘personal values’ and ‘professional values’ impact on social work practice and also explain how professional standards, codes, values and ethics are relevant to social work practice and their relevance to service users and carers.

Social work aims to promote ‘social change, problem solving in human relationships and empowerment and liberation of people to enhance well-being’ (Gamble, D. N. & Weil, M. 2010), which are associated with a series of decision making. Crises intervention is also an area, social workers persistently focus upon, and decision making, in this context, mostly appears to be very perplexing. Focusing on this challenge, Terence O’Sullivan (1988) argues that the ‘social workers need to be critically aware of the contexts, in which decisions are made’ (O’Sullivan, T. 1988, p. 41). O’Sullivan, however, refers to the context as ‘the requirement, structures and conditions surrounding the decision making’ ((O’Sullivan, T. 1988, p. 23).

Organizational behavior helps managers to improve the organization in a good way. Decision making process is the one of the behavior in human organizational behavior. According to McShane and Von Glinow (2000), “decision making a conscious process of making choices among one or more alternatives with the intention of moving toward some desired state of affairs”. Decision making is a linear process and it includes six steps such as identifying the problems, gather and evaluate data, list and evaluate alternatives, select best action, implement the decision and getter feedback (refer to Figure 1 in Appendix 1).