Surviving as a professional in an era of manageralism: A study of the administrative roles of social worker in elderly services of Hong Kong

Abstract

Administration is an important part of social work practice. It is a required component of social work curriculum and license. In fact, every social worker has to engage with the administration process and their work nowadays involves more and more administrative duties. However, while there are many studies on management of social services, most are focused on issues dealing with competencies, education and requirements for managerial positions and little is devoted to examine the experiences of social workers in their administrative role.

This exploratory qualitative study proposes to fil this gap by investigating the administrative roles imposed on professional social workers in their work and practice. More speci fically, this research asks the following questions: What challenges and demands do they face in administration? How do they struggle with this role? What tactics do they employ to meet the administrative challenges? What are the hopes and dreams they have in professional development in an era of managerialism? In answering these questions, social workers who are working in the elderly services of Hong Kong, whether they are performing as social work educator, responsible for delivering frontline or management duties, will be recruited to share their experiences using focus group technique, in-depth interviews and personal reflection.