Expectations of social workers towards supervision as a response to the complexity and uncertainty of the practice

Abstract

The importance and necessity of supervision as a consultancy for professional staff justifies an understanding that in the social services sector the success of the work depends to a large extent on the successful cooperation between employees and management, also between qualified professionals and their service users. It is expected that the results of the empirical research will be presented that will provide conditions for the professional supervisors working in the professional field of the social work sector to reflect their experience and to respond more specifically to the expectations of social workers for professional supervision. Social work and supervision have been interrelated since the beginning of professional social work. Social work in contemporary society is facing an increasingly complex and constantly changing environment. Social workers have emotional difficulties in assessing and helping a specific person due to the complexity of systemic or organizational differences, a variety of practical situations and social services, social workers’ and the service users’ knowledge or psychological differences. Supervision as a professional consultation is used as a supplementary instrument to support the process of formation and reflection, organizational change processes and organizational development. The aim of the article is to analyze the social workers’ expectations for supervision based on social work supervision function theory focusing on administrative, learning, and supportive supervision functions and their separate elements. There was a quantitative web survey implemented on supervision. 250 social workers from broad spectrum of social work practice and geographical locations completed the questionaire. Quantitative data were analyzed using SPSS24 software.[...]