Summary

Professional standards state that social workers in public welfare organisations should act as state and citizen-agents. However, the literature provides little insight into how social workers navigate this dual responsibility in their daily work. To address this gap, we used Maynard-Moody and Musheno’s theory on state and citizens-agent narratives to analyse street-level practices of social workers in three local welfare organisations in Germany, the Netherlands and Belgium. This article explores how three specific organisational mechanisms (decision-making authority; the role of the front-line manager and the degree of specialisation) affect the ways social workers navigate both agent narratives in public welfare organisations. The data were gathered by a mixed method design of in-depth interviews and focus groups.

Findings

Our study shows that social workers struggle with the tensions that intrude between the state and citizen-agent narrative. We found that the extent to which both narratives are adopted by social workers is affected by a complicated interaction between the beliefs of social workers about social justice and responsiveness and the selected organisational mechanisms. Moreover, we found that critical reflection and a supportive attitude of front-line managers can help social workers to manage their double responsibility in practice.

Application

Our cross-national study contributes to a deeper understanding of the relationship between organisational mechanisms and the moral deliberations of social workers regarding their dual responsibility. It provides in-depth insights into the tensions and conflicts social workers in different contexts face daily on account of their dual responsibility.

中文翻译：

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社会工作者作为国家和公民代理人。德国、荷兰和佛兰芒公益组织的社会工作者如何在实践中管理这种双重责任

概括

专业标准规定，公益组织中的社会工作者应充当国家和公民代理人。然而，文献很少提供关于社会工作者如何在日常工作中承担这种双重责任的见解。为了弥补这一差距，我们使用梅纳德-穆迪和穆什诺关于国家和公民-代理人叙事的理论来分析德国、荷兰和比利时三个地方福利组织中社会工作者的街头实践。本文探讨了三种特定的组织机制（决策权；一线经理的角色和专业化程度）如何影响社会工作者在公益组织中驾驭这两种代理叙事的方式。数据是通过深度访谈和焦点小组的混合方法设计收集的。

发现

我们的研究表明，社会工作者在国家和公民代理叙事之间的紧张局势中挣扎。我们发现，社会工作者对这两种叙述的采用程度受到社会工作者关于社会正义和响应的信念与所选择的组织机制之间复杂相互作用的影响。此外，我们发现一线管理者的批判性反思和支持态度可以帮助社会工作者在实践中管理他们的双重责任。

应用

我们的跨国研究有助于更深入地了解组织机制与社会工作者对其双重责任的道德审议之间的关系。它深入洞察了社会工作者在不同环境中由于双重责任而每天面临的紧张和冲突。