Resolving Social Work Value Conflict: Social Justice as the Primary Organizing Value for Social Work

Abstract

One issue raised by the Brookings Report: Health Care Providers’ Conscience and Patient Needs: The Quest for Balance, was the role of personal conscience in moral conflicts. Conscience, as so defined, is heavily influenced by personal philosophical beliefs and values. Social Work has historically, proposed values as a both a means of professional definition and to differentiate itself from other helping professions. Several significant issues, however, create problems for utilizing specific values as a true core feature of the social work profession. One possible solution is the implementation of an organizing principle; specifically social justice. There is ample evidence for the utilization of social justice as such a principle or value, from both the social work literature and the philosophical study of justice. By incorporating a broad conception of social justice it becomes possible for many perspectives and dimensions of social justice to be applied in specific situations and still maintain a cohesive, comprehensive understanding of the social work profession that remains true to its historical foundations.