ABSTRACT This study’s aim was to operationalise and test a model of functional stupidity, a form of unreflective compliance, and explore its appropriateness for understanding how social workers comply with and motivate performing morally or professionally problematic tasks. A sample of 120 social workers from six municipalities in Sweden self-completed a questionnaire containing 20 Likert-type items denoting 10 ‘stupidity rationales’ within three reflective modes of compliance, and a measure of work satisfaction. Most functional stupidity items performed well, with social workers endorsing several rationales for being unreflective at work. Associations among items supported most elements of the model. Both being older and having more work experience were associated with endorsing the fun rationale, while being older was also associated with endorsing rationales within the despair mode. Endorsing cynical mode rationales was associated with lower work satisfaction, while endorsing the fun rationale was associated with higher work satisfaction. This is the first study to operationalise and empirically test the concept of functional stupidity using a quantitative approach. The results indicate that the model has value for understanding how social workers’ reflexivity about professional hardships can facilitate periods of unreflective performance that, for good and bad, helps them through the working day.

中文翻译：

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不反省的从业者：功能性愚蠢和社会工作的初步研究

摘要这项研究的目的是操作和测试功能性愚蠢模型（一种非反思性遵守的形式），并探索其适用性，以了解社会工作者如何遵守并激励执行道德或专业上有问题的任务。来自瑞典六个城市的120名社会工作者的样本自动填写了一份问卷，其中包含20种Likert类型的项目，表示在三种反映性遵从模式下的10个“愚蠢理由”，以及一项工作满意度的量度。大多数功能性愚蠢项目表现良好，社会工作者认可了一些在工作中不反省的理由。项目之间的关联支持该模型的大多数元素。年龄较大且有更多工作经验都与赞同有趣的理由有关，而年纪大一点也与在绝望模式中认可理论依据有关。赞同愤世嫉俗的模式理由与较低的工作满意度有关，而赞同娱乐性理由与较高的工作满意度有关。这是第一项使用定量方法对功能性愚蠢的概念进行操作和经验检验的研究。结果表明，该模型对于理解社会工作者对专业困难的反思如何能够促进不反思绩效的时期具有价值，无论好坏，这有助于他们度过整个工作日。这是第一项使用定量方法对功能性愚蠢的概念进行操作和经验检验的研究。结果表明，该模型对于理解社会工作者对专业困难的反思如何能够促进不反思绩效的时期具有价值，无论好坏，这有助于他们度过整个工作日。这是第一项使用定量方法对功能性愚蠢的概念进行操作和经验检验的研究。结果表明，该模型对于理解社会工作者对专业困难的反思如何能够促进不反思绩效的时期具有价值，无论好坏，这有助于他们度过整个工作日。