Social Work Tomorrow: Towards a Critical Understanding of Technology in Social Work

Abstract

SUMMARY This paper makes use of theoretical ideas that have been developed to understand the impact of new technology on organizations and applies them to its use within social work agencies. These developing theories employ ideas that are familiar to social workers—organization theory, decision making theory, and communication theory. The paper therefore argues that social workers are in a good position to understand and influence the use of computers within welfare agencies and do not need to be inhibited by a lack of technological knowledge. It is further argued that, unless social workers do become involved in the ways in which new technologies are used within organiza tions, they will fail to influence its impact upon their clients and may further fail to control the way in which computers affect the nature of social work itself in the future. In the 'information age' it has become incumbent on organizations to take advantage of the speed and processing power of new technologies. Social welfare agencies are no exception to this and, in recent years, there has been a major expansion of the use of computers for the hand