Social Work Macro Practice
Macro level social work involves outer systems such as: organizations, communities, or state and governmental functions.
4 communication styles are: Aggressive, Assertiveness, Passive-Aggressive, and Passive.
Aggressive: "My way or the highway."
Passive: "Don't want to rock the boat."
Passive-Aggressive: lets others know of their problems so they are not alone.
Assertiveness: Respect others and you respect yourself.
3 Systems that matter: Target system, action system, client system.
Target system: the system that you are trying to change
Action system: who makes the change
Client system: who benefits from the change
Power is the ability to get others to do what you would have them do.
Leadership: is someone who is going somewhere and gets others to follow.
Forms of power include: physical force, wealth, state action, social norms, ideas, and numbers
Muster Support: Getting people on your side.
Leadership styles
The climber: self obsessed
the conserver: doesn't rock the boat
The zealot: thinks they know best
The advocate: dedicated to the ideals of the agency and client
The states person: dedicated to the well-being of society- not detailed oriented.
Whistle blowing: a macro-practice intervention, with inherent risks.
Be sure you clearly identify the variables
Know your rights.
Be prepared for consequences
Follow the chain of command
Have a clear plan of action
Tall hierarchy: having one leader that is in charge of different systems, ex: government
Flat Organization: leadership is broken into teams
Pros: clear chain of command, speciality, and localize problems. Cons: info can get lost, complaints stop at certain point, turf wars.
Top heavy: leadership is split into teams
Pros: direct report, be on the same page, quick change. Cons: growth is limited
Top heavy: a lot of administrators, not a lot of workers.
Pros: sometimes good experience. Cons: lose touch with customers, bottom sucks, not a good organization.
Anemic: not enough administration, there's not enough money within the agency for this to function.
Logic Mode: includes inputs, processes, outputs, and outcomes
5 forms of power
Legitimate Power: given by virtue of the recognition of their position
Reward: making someone else's life a little better
Coercive: opposite of reward- "giving crap to clients"
Expert: having expert knowledge in something
Referent: you have the ears of the people who make decisions
10 steps when working with the media:
Build relationships
Get a variety of contacts
Make sure the media knows if you are a local expert
Make sure you have permission from the agency to represent them
Make it easy for the media to contact you
Learn the media timetables
Avoid playing favorites with news media
The media can and does make mistakes
Be aware, your story may not appear
Be aware that what you say may end up in print
Ways to interact with media: letters, press release, interviews, live performance
What you say in or to the media can and will be held against you
Profit: bring in more than they spend
Sell Stocks: whoever buys some of a stock essentially owns part of the corporation
Ecological theory: understanding transactions between systems
Systems theory: Communities function as systems within systems with subsystems
Social structural theory: individuals and systems work together to set up alliances and divisions
Competition: subgroups seek their own interests
Centralization: business and services cluster in certain areas
Concentration: tendency of groups to cluster together
Gentrification: upper class families moving back downtown renovating it and displacing the poor that live there
Invasion: tendency of new groups to push old groups out of their clustered areas
Succession: replacement of the original occupants of cluster groups by new groups
Protests: expression to the disapproval of something
Strategy: tackling a large problem and using ideas to be successful
Taking other's ideas and using or adjusting them.
Widening network: getting additional help
Collaboration with people of power