Growing Social Work Managers through Supervision
Little is known about social work managers yet social work managers have a key role in the delivery of client services. They must create a work environment that delivers a professional and competent social work service that is sustainable, achieves the best outcomes for clients and promotes a just society. The dominance of a market driven economy with its corresponding managerialist ideology and policies therefore presents significant challenges for social work managers. This paper presents a model of supervision that assists social work managers to manage the complexity and ambiguity that results from the tensions inherent in their role within such a context. The model is grounded in the current experience of social work managers and informed by contemporary theory and experience in the fields of organisation development and supervision.