SOCW6361: Discussion Response to
SOCW6361: Discussion Response to
Respond to a colleague who identified and selected a power resource different from the one you selected. Offer a supportive perspective to his or her choice. Include in your perspective some thoughts on how a social worker can manage the use of his or her power resource.
Response to Jacquelyn
Select a type of power resource you would use in your practice and advocacy. I would use Substantive Power; Substantive Power is when they change a policy’s content to enhance specific decision makers’ support for it. Substantive power often involves compromises: one faction may modify one provision in exchange for another faction’s changing another provision (Jansson, 2018).
Ethical issues or concerns listed in 6.04 Social and Political Action, states (b) Social workers should act to expand choice and opportunity for all people, with special regard for vulnerable, disadvantaged, oppressed, and exploited people and groups. (National Association of Social Workers, 2018). Within this type of power, vagueness is often an effective tactic when persons disagree about the specific details of a proposal, it can also be counterproductive because an excessively vague proposal will arouse the opposition of those who strongly favor specific measures (Jansson, 2018).
However, policy advocates using substantive power may also couple a relatively unpopular proposal with more popular ones. Politicians who oppose these inserted measures nonetheless vote for the legislation because it contains some of their own measures (Jansson, 2018).
Reference
National Association of Social Workers. (2018). Code of ethics. Retrieved from
https://www.socialworkers.org/About/Ethics/Code-of…
Jansson, B. S. (2018). Becoming an effective policy advocate: From policy practice to social
justice (8th ed.). Pacific Grove, CA: Brooks/Cole Cengage Learning Series.
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Response to Kurtis
Power in Practice
Social workers can learn effective power resources to use in their day to day practices. While trying to influence policy, they can use the expert power resource to assure policy makers that they are experts in their field and have the experience to back a particular policy (Jansson, 2018). Social workers can also use the referent power resource to get others to back their cause (Jansson, 2018). Social workers can rally the expertise of other social workers because like groups tend to support each other, and through charismatic leadership, can create or impact an interest group to help with a policy. Social workers can also use the power resource of authority by influencing those lower than them out of making risky decisions or unethical behavior out of respect or to avoid sanctions (Jansson, 2018). There are many more power resources that a social worker can use in their field, and most can be effective. However, other power resources such as coercive power and reward power can backfire if used (Jansson, 2018).
Power Resource
The type of power that I personally would like to wield is charisma, which is an offshoot of referent power (Jansson, 2018). I would like to build my charisma over time to help me be an influential leader and achieve in my field. However, with this offshoot of this type of power, it is possible to lead others in the wrong direction through that charisma. Many charismatic leaders have pushed a platform or an idea that made the whole situation worse due to many people following that leader based on charisma. For example, the institution of my undergraduate degree was very much in debt due to a risky financial situation the (recently retired) president of the college made. The board followed the president because of the charisma he was able to instill in them.
This also concerns ethics. If a client gets talked into a plan to help change their situation that they aren’t satisfied with because they do not want to go against the charismatic professional, that is an issue. The client’s feelings should be heard, and there is a possibility that an overly charismatic personality could silence them.
Reference:
Jansson, B. S. (2018). Becoming an effective policy advocate: From policy practice to social justice (8th ed.). Pacific Grove, CA: Brooks/Cole Cengage Learning Series.
- Chapter 10, “Developing and Using Power in the Policy-Enacting Task” (pp. 372-419)
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