Essential professional competencies of social work supervisors an a non-profit welfare organisation

[摘要] ENGLISH ABSTRACT: Social work supervisors who possess essential professional competencies will have a positiveinfluence on their supervisee, the organisation, and the end service user. They bring aboutprofessional growth and change, which encourages the development and maturity of the socialworker, resulting in optimum practice. These are key responsibilities of the supervisor, whoshould be competent to offer supervision at a level that is beneficial to the ecosystem ofsupervision within the organisation.According to South African policy documents, social work supervisors should be competent tofulfil the expectations and requirements of their position. This implies that supervisors areequipped for their position as social work supervisors, and that they possess the skills,knowledge and experience that are critical for social work supervisors. However, the literaturereveals that supervisors are not well prepared for their position, they do not receive trainingprior to their appointment, and there is no focus on the identification or development of theircompetencies. There are no policy documents or research papers that explore the essentialprofessional competencies of supervisors. This aspect is critical to examine further, as there isan identified need in South African policy documents to increase the retention and quality ofservices of social workers, and competent supervisors can contribute significantly to solvingthis problem. A competent supervisor will lead to a competent supervisee, thus benefitting theorganisation and the service user.This study explored and described the essential professional competencies of social worksupervisors in a non-profit welfare organisation. This was done by examining whichcompetencies are deemed essential for supervisors, and how they are implemented orexperienced. By exploring a conceptual framework for supervisors in South Africa andconsidering a model and definition of competence within the context, the development andimportance of professional competencies could be better understood and explored.An instrumental case study design was deemed the most appropriate design for the research,as it provided a clear context for the research topic to be explored. The study further assumedan exploratory and descriptive research design in order to provide a detailed description of thephenomenon being studied, namely the essential professional competencies of social worksupervisors. A qualitative approach was used in the study in order to explore the topic at hand,as it was complementary to the explorative and descriptive research design. Data was gatheredStellenbosch University https://scholar.sun.ac.zaby means of a semi-structured interview schedule, which was administered during individualface-to-face or telephonic interviews. This allowed for data to be gathered that provided a richdescription of the research topic. The design of the semi-structured interview schedule wasbased on the information obtained from the literature review chapters.The findings from the empirical investigation reveal that the two main categories in whichsupervisors should be competent are foundational and functional competencies. Foundationalcompetencies include four subthemes, namely that supervisors should be competent in:emotional intelligence; anti-discriminatory supervisory practices; professional relationships;and ethical practices and legal knowledge. The functional competencies focused on three mainsubthemes, namely that supervisors should be competent in: balancing the three supervisionfunctions (administration, education and support); implementing the supervision process; andpossessing specific managerial competencies for the non-profit organisation (NPO) sector.The findings indicate that supervisors are not fully equipped for their position, and that theyrequire training and equipping in order to understand and implement the competencies that areessential for their practice. Furthermore, the findings show that supervisors have a highworkload, they are responsible for a large number of staff, and their supervisory responsibilitiesare often over-shadowed by structural issues. Supervisors in South Africa need to be competentin balancing their supervision responsibilities alongside the middle managementresponsibilities that they are expected to bear.Recommendations were made on four of the systems involved in supervision. Specificrecommendations were made for each theme, subtheme and category. The generalrecommendations focus on: supervisors prioritising their competencies and creatingopportunities to practise them and improve in them; organisations needing to emphasise theimportance of professional competencies, specify them in supervisors' job descriptions andencourage opportunities for competencies to be learnt and practised; training institutionsneeding to offer more training in foundational and functional competencies, on both anundergraduate and postgraduate level; and finally, ethical and legal bodies needing toincorporate competencies into policy documents and to facilitate national developmentprogrammes to operationalise foundational and functional competencies.

[发布机构] Stellenbosch University