Public Sector Occupations Research Articles

ChatGPT on ChatGPT: An Exploratory Analysis of its Performance in the Public Sector Workplace

This study explores the impact of Generative Artificial Intelligence (GenAI), in particular, ChatGPT, on the public sector workforce in the United States, focusing on task replacement, assistance potential, and the evolving landscape of skills. Utilizing GPT-4 to evaluate 1,022 core tasks across 51 public sector occupations, we provide an exploratory analysis of the roles susceptible to ChatGPT automation and those in which ChatGPT can augment human efforts. Our findings reveal that while 63% of tasks are resistant to ChatGPT replacement, primarily due to their requirement for physical presence, emotional intelligence, and complex decision-making, tasks that are routine, rule-based, and involving basic content generation show a high potential for automation. The study also identifies key skills that will remain vital, those likely to become obsolete, and new skills that will emerge as essential, highlighting the need for a strategic approach to workforce development in the face of AI advancements. In particular, our findings underscore the growing importance of skills in applying AI technologies and the ability to validate and interpret AI-generated content for humans to remain competitive. We offer insights into public-sector-specific impacts and propose a methodological framework for future research, emphasizing the importance of adapting educational curricula and policies to prepare for an AI-integrated future.

The role of social support and social identification on challenge and threat cognitive appraisals, perceived stress, and life satisfaction in workplace employees.

There is an emergent literature highlighting the positive role of social support and social identification in buffering against the deleterious effects of psychological stressors. Yet, we have limited understanding of how exactly these social factors fit within contemporary stress and coping theory. To advance and gain a greater understanding of these social factors, we explore the associations of social support and social identification on individuals' challenge and threat cognitive appraisals and how this then relates to perceived stress, life satisfaction, turnover intentions, and job performance. A total of 412 workplace employees from private and public sector occupations completed state measures around a recent most stressful experience at work. Results revealed atemporal associations between cognitive resource appraisals with both social support and social identification. Specifically, greater identification with colleagues and lower threat were related to less perceived stress, while having greater social identification (with colleagues and organisation), social support, and lower threat, were related to greater life satisfaction. Greater perceived stress, and lower social identification and life satisfaction, were also related to greater turnover intentions. While greater identification with the organisation and life satisfaction, along with lower perceived stress were related to greater job performance. Taken together, this research provides evidence that social support and social identification play a positive role when trying to promote more adaptive responses to stressful situations.

Carrots or sticks? A multilevel analysis of active labour market policies and non‐standard employment in Europe

AbstractSpending on active labour market policies (ALMPs) has increased across Europe following the 2007 flexicurity strategy which emphasised smooth and rapid transitions from unemployment to work. Despite broad scholarly coverage of the activation turn, the connection between labour market policies and changes in non‐standard employment remains unclear. Applying random effects within‐between regression analysis, this paper finds that coercive, ‘hard’ ALMP instruments incentivising rapid re‐employment with the threat of withdrawing unemployment benefits are associated with higher likelihood of involuntary part‐time employment, whereas supportive, ‘soft’ ALMP strategies with a focus on upskilling and public sector occupation are associated with higher voluntary but lower involuntary part‐time employment. The results from 25 countries over two decades shed light on the heterogeneous results of past ALMP research which has not adopted a consistent line on the supportive‐coercive dichotomy. With European employment policy increasingly applying hard activation instruments to achieve full employment, an unintended consequence might be the expansion of precarious employment.

Too Stressed To Be Engaged? The Role of Basic Needs Satisfaction in Understanding Work Stress and Public Sector Engagement

This article explores employee engagement by linking stress, motivation, and employee engagement theory and testing this across 30 countries and eight public sector occupations. First, it is argued that work stress will be negatively related to engagement. Self-determination theory is then used as a basis for exploring the positive link between basic needs satisfaction (BNS) and engagement. It argued that BNS will moderate the relationship between stress and engagement due to the impact that BNS has on coping strategies. These claims are tested using the 2015 wave of the European Working Conditions Survey. Results show stress and engagement are negatively related, whereas BNS and engagement are positively related. Moderation analyses revealed that the detrimental relationship between stress and engagement is lessened for individuals who have strong interpersonal relations at work. This suggests that social relationships play an important role in managing stressful work environments.

Naturalization and the productivity of foreign-born doctorates

This paper estimates the effect of obtaining US citizenship on individual-level measures of productivity for foreign-born doctoral recipients from US universities. Becoming a US citizen results in the removal of barriers such as access to public sector occupations and to some sources of government-sponsored research funding which are hypothesized to increase the productivity of foreign-born scientists. We utilize panel data from the Survey of Doctoral Recipients from 1993 to 2013 and individual fixed effects models to control for selection bias in the naturalization decision. Our results indicate that becoming a naturalized citizen increases wages and several measures of academic productivity. In support of our argument, we find that foreign-born workers who naturalize are more likely to utilize research funding from a government agency, but not more likely to work for the government post-naturalization.

You're the One that I Want! Public Employment and Women's Labor Market Outcomes

In most countries, the public sector hires disproportionally more women than men. We document gender differences in employment, transition probabilities, hours, and wages in the public and private sector using microdata for the United States, the United Kingdom, France, and Spain. We then build a search and matching model where men and women decide if to participate and if to enter private or public sector labor markets. We calibrate our model separately to the four countries. Running counterfactual experiments, we quantify whether the selection of women into the public sector is driven by:(i) lower gender wage gaps and thus relatively higher wages for women in the public sector, (ii) possibilities of better conciliation of work and family life for public sector workers, (iii) greater job security in the public compared to the private sector, or (iv) intrinsic preferences for public sector occupations. We find that, quantitatively, women's higher public sector wage premia and their preferences for working in the public sector explain most of the selection. We calculate the monetary value of public sector job security and work-life balance premia, for both men and women, and we estimate how higher public sector wages and employment affect male and female unemployment, inactivity rates, and wages differently.

Pension Enhancements and the Retention of Public Employees

The authors use data from workers in the largest public-sector occupation in the United States—teaching—to examine the effect of pension enhancements on employee retention. Specifically, they study a 1999 enhancement to the benefit formula for public school teachers in St. Louis, Missouri, that resulted in an immediate and dramatic increase in their incentives to remain in covered employment. To identify the effect of the enhancement on teacher retention, the analysis leverages the fact that the strength of the incentive increase varied across the workforce depending on how far teachers were from retirement eligibility when it was enacted. The results indicate that the St. Louis enhancement—which was structurally similar to enhancements that were enacted in other public pension plans across the United States in the late 1990s and early 2000s—was not a cost-effective way to increase employee retention.

A multidimensional measure of managers’ contextual and task performance

Purpose– The purpose of this paper it to report the findings of an empirical study into managers’ job performance. A new measure was developed from the literature to test and establish the multidimensional structure of managers’ contextual and task performance.Design/methodology/approach– Field ratings by executives explicitly and simultaneously measured both managers’ contextual and task performance. A cross-sectional questionnaire was administered to a variety of public and third sector managers from a range of private, public and third sector occupations residing in (Western) Australia. A purposive sample yielded a response rate of 32 percent. Factor analysis was used to determine the items that constitute executives’ perceptions of managers’ performance using downward appraisal (i.e. by the person to whom a manager reports).Findings– The construct “managers’ job performance” was found to be multidimensional; consisting of four distinct contextual factors (Following, Persisting, Helping, Endorsing) and a further four distinct task factors (Delegating, Monitoring, Technical, Influencing).Originality/value– Performance appraisals of managers represent new items and factors that more accurately reflect the nature of the broader roles undertaken by managers, including transformative and ethical leadership. Findings from this study assist in establishing the structure for the subsequent appraisal of managers’ contextual and task performance. Future researchers could test the applicability and replicability of this new instrument in more diverse industry contexts using confirmatory statistical analysis.

Collective Agreement for Members of Slovenian Armed Forces: Reflections on Features of Collective Negotiations in the Public Sector for the Military Profession

In the Republic of Slovenia, the military is an organization that, like elsewhere in the European Union (EU), belongs to the public sector. The military service is a part of the public service sector and treated with a single collective agreement for the public sector. Despite certain theses (Janowitz 1977, Moskos 1986, Callaghan and Kernic 2003, Garb 2008) about the growing similarity of the military profession with professions in the public sector or other civilian occupations, work in the military is unique because of the specific role of the military in society. However, the military profession has sufficient similarities with other public sector professions in peacetime circumstances, so that soldiers should be granted the right to bargain the economic conditions of their employment. Through the process of collective bargaining, either within the public sector or individually, they could ensure compensation for the restrictions and requirements contained in the work of soldiers. The most important European institutions, in terms of safety and protection of the rights in the European region, are following the trend of changes in the security environment, new tasks of the military organization, the changed nature of the military profession in the postmodern era, and defend the concept of the “citizen in uniform”. Through resolutions, recommendations and memorandums, they are following the trend of increasing demands for the equalization of the rights of soldiers with the rights of other citizens. In particular, the right of unions to organize and the right for the possibilities to negotiate conditions of employment are emphasized. In the EU, there are two approaches regarding the possibility of bargaining on the economic conditions of employment for soldiers. Both provide the possibility of obtaining a special allowance for soldiers serving the country.

KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT AND POSSIBILITIES OF PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT IN PUBLIC SECTOR

One of the important parts of Human Resource Management (HRM) is knowledge management and professional development of employees of each organisation. There are no doubts that it is vital for general organisations development and sustainability. Professional development of public sector employees is necessary for developing environment. There should be training programmes especially for public sector institutions’ employees from new European Union countries. For this study authors make the assumption that public sector employees are all officials, civil servants, staff and employees engaged in public sector organisation activities and employed by these organisations. The problem outlined in this paper is connected to the assumed to work in public administration employees that do not have relevant education to fill appropriately opened vacancies on the market. The aims of the study is to define the areas of a group the most required occupations on Latvian labour market in public administration and propose the justified ways of professional development of current and future employees in public administration. The objective of the authors is to present the historical overview on knowledge management and learning concepts applying monographic research. One more objective of the paper is to compare and generalise the definitions of the terms ‘knowledge economy’ and ‘knowledge management’. The task of the authors was also to analyse the job standards and requirements for the public sector employees. This analysis helped to identify what kind of education and skills are important for public administration employees. Authors also made a research on lifelong education possibilities for public service servants and employees based on case of Latvia. The main conclusion after the analysis of definitions of the term ‘knowledge management’ is that it is possible to consider knowledge management as a process of making decisions connected to the activities for leveraging knowledge of people in the organisation, to improve their performance. According to the analysed standards of the chosen for the analysis occupations the main knowledge requirements for some public sector occupations are at the following fields: Communication, Country language and foreign languages, Finance, Labour relations, Law, Legislation, Occupational health and safety, Professional terms, Professional ethics, Project management, Record keeping. Only professional terms and record keeping requirements could not be covered by offered courses within analysed master programmes on Public Administration or Management. However, beside formal education, public sector employees can take Massive Open Online Courses, participate in special trainings or be trained on the working place to improve or gain some skills that have not been developed at school or university. Conclusions mainly are based on the quantitative data and the pilot small range studies. Applicable conclusions are made using inductive method. Based on the research authors propose the most suitable set of subjects, which could be proposed for further professional development in public sector. There are possibilities proposed for public sector employees for their further professional development. However, there is a need of special education programme development based on new tendencies and standards for public service employees. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5755/j01.eis.0.8.6844

Gender Wage Gaps within a Public Sector: Evidence from Personnel Data

A standard finding is that the public sector exhibits lower gender wage gaps than the private sector. This is attributed to less gender discrimination in the public sector. We show that this conclusion is flawed as the standard finding for the public sector is driven by the dominating influence of large feminized occupational groups, such as nursing and teaching, which have flat job hierarchies and low wage variance. Other occupations within the public sector exhibit sizeable wage gaps which cannot be explained by workplace or worker characteristics. This implies that gender discrimination is substantial in some public sector occupations.

Work-related violence and its association with self-rated general health among public sector employees in Sweden

Work-related violence is one of the most serious threats to employee safety and health. To ascertain the extent of self-reported violence or threats of violence at work in relation to the general health of public sector employees. The study population comprised 9,611 female (83%) and male public employees in Sweden. A questionnaire based on items derived mainly from validated instruments was constructed to cover aspects such as health, lifestyle, and physical and psychosocial work conditions. One in three employees reported work-related violence, with the highest proportions among psychiatric nurses (79%) and psychiatric attendants (75%). Work-related violence more often affected those who were < 45 years old, worked < 40 hours/week, worked nights, or reported poor health. Regardless of gender, age, hours of work, night work, and type of occupation, exposure to work-related violence was associated with less than good general health, and this relationship was strongest for psychiatric nurses (OR=3.19; 95% CI=1.28-7.98), medical doctors/dentists (OR=2.46; 95% CI=1.35-4.49), compulsory school teachers (OR=2.14; 95% CI=1.33-3.45), and other nurses (OR=1.87; 95% CI=1.23-2.84). Work-related violence was frequently reported by employees in the most common public sector occupations, and it was associated with poor health in both genders.

On Selection into Public Civil Service

This article investigates whether the institution of life-time tenure for public sector workers affects the selection of workers into private and public sector occupations. Precisely, we argue that more generous employment protection for public sector workers may induce risk averse individuals to select into public sector employment even if they have a low intrinsic motivation and talent for this type of occupation. To empirically assess this effect, we use Germany as a testing ground and exploit changes in employment protection induced by the German reunification in 1990 as a source for identification. Specifically, while occupational choices in West Germany (Federal Republic of Germany) and post reunification East Germany may be affected by the described security motive, workers in pre reunification East Germany (German Democratic Republic, GDR) enjoyed an employment guarantee irrespective of their occupation. Using data from the German Socioeconomic Panel, we employ a difference-in-differences approach and use absenteeism as a proxy for intrinsic worker motivation and productivity. The results suggest a significant selection effect: public sector employees who chose their occupation in the FRG report more days of absence relative to comparable private sector workers than the control group of public sector workers who chose their occupation in the former GDR. This effect turns out to be robust against controlling for potential socioeconomic and cultural differences between the groups.

Long-term sickness absence: changes in risk factors and the population at risk

To investigate changes over time in factors associated with long-term sickness absence (LTSA) and in the fraction of LTSA attributable to these risk factors in 1986-1989 and 2002, respectively. Data from two earlier Swedish studies respectively comprising 1622 and 2009 employees with a history of LTSA (> or = 60 days), and 1019 and 1903 employed members of the general labour force as controls (ages 20-64 years) was used. The studies were conducted before and after extensive changes in the Swedish labour market during the 1990s, and they used sickness absence data from national social insurance records and self-reported information on sociodemographic, lifestyle, and work characteristics. Associations between these factors and LTSA were estimated by logistic regression, and population attributable fractions were calculated. The results indicate that, after the 1990s, LTSA was associated with female sex (odds ratio = 1.84, 95% CI: 1.57-2.15) and was also more strongly associated with various aspects of the psychosocial work environment and job situations. A larger population at risk, primarily an ageing workforce, account for a large proportion of LTSA. The results confirm consistent associations between LTSA and several established risk factors, and they also reveal a change in the risk panorama. The current findings demonstrate that, to understand the magnitude of LTSA, both risk factors and the population at risk must be monitored over time. Prevention should aim to create healthy workplaces in general and also focus on female-dominated public sector occupations.

On the road to self-destruction

Professor Steven Barnett reports that a new BJR survey shows public confidence in journalism is still falling. "What ought to worry all journalists is the massive slide in trust, relative to other organisations or groups, since this question was first asked five years ago", he writes. The poll reveals that print journalism's performance is not quite as bad as the commercial broadcasters' but is on a par with the BBC. The trust figures for broadsheet journalists have declined 22 per cent over five years; those for local journalists are down 20 per cent and those for the mid-market titles down 18 per cent. This last group is the biggest loser in terms of the relative decline: while five years ago journalists on the mid-market titles were being ranked just below the middle of the table, their trust rating now languishes just above their red-top colleagues. The decline in trust extends beyond journalism to virtually every group in the list shown to those taking part in the survey, in particular public sector occupations such as police, teachers and NHS managers. Journalism's decline cannot, therefore, be seen in isolation from a more widespread phenomenon of declining faith. For an occupation that is supposed to deal in truth, however, and for which accuracy lies at the heart of the various codes of professional conduct, the scale and speed of the decline in trust is a serious issue.

The Consequences of the Decline in Public Sector Pay in Britain: A Little Bit of Evidence

Following the fall in overall net public investment, the relative pay of most public sector workers in the United Kingdom declined sharply after the mid-1970s. For example, the relative pay of male teachers fell by over 10 percentage points from the late 1970s to the late 1980s. So has this generated a fall in quality? Using age 10/11 test score percentile positions as an indicator, we find that men entering non-manual public sector occupations in the early 1990s had a significantly lower test score position than those entering in the late 1970s. No such falls were exhibited by women. A casual glance at the newspapers reveals that it is becoming increasingly difficult to recruit certain types of public sector workers. For example, shortages of teachers and nurses are currently receiving a great deal of press attention. One of the reasons for this is the significant decline in the relative pay of most occupational groups in the public sector which we document in what follows. We also present a small piece of evidence on a further and more contentious question, namely have these significant reductions in relative pay in the public sector generated similar significant reductions in relative quality? The evidence we have is consistent with an affirmative answer to this question for men but not for women. 1. The Decline of the Public Sector In the mid-1970s, Net Public Investment in the United Kingdom began falling dramatically as a proportion of GDP. As we can see from Table 1, in the period 1963‐76, it was no less than 5.9% of GDP, on average. By 1980‐85, Net Public Investment had fallen to 1.7% of GDP and it has remained at a very low level ever since. It is, however, planned to rise from 2001. These figures are reflected in the significant decline of relative pay in most areas of the public sector which began in the late 1970s. While there is, of course, no causal relationship between public investment and public sector pay, the movements in both reflect the priorities of those in charge of the public finances. To obtain a picture of what has happened we divide the public sector into three broad groups. The first consists of most of the non-manual sectors (eg civil servants, doctors, teachers, nurses etc.) but excludes the police, fire service, prison service and judges who are included in the second group. The third group includes manual sectors (eg post, railways etc). The division of non-manual workers into two groups reflects their different treatment in the 1980s. Each of these broad

Towards a More Inclusive Profession: Teacher recruitment and ethnicity

Since coming to office in May 1997, the British Labour Government, with its commitment to social inclusion, has undertaken various policy initiatives to broaden access to public sector occupations, including teaching. In this paper, we focus on the participation of ethnic minority students in the Postgraduate Certificate in Education (PGCE). We present the findings of a national empirical study drawing on data from a questionnaire survey and interviews with PGCE staff and students. Particular consideration is given to the students' motives for entering teaching and their images of the profession; the factors influencing their choice of course and institution; their experiences during training and their perceptions of the constraints upon ethnic minority recruitment. We also consider the strategies employed by PGCE staff to attract and retain ethnic minority recruits to the PGCE, and examine the dilemmas that they face when responding to ethnic diversity. We conclude with a discussion of the policy implications of the research and a commentary on the methodology employed in the research. Dès son début en mai 1997, le gouvernement travailliste du Royaume-Uni a suivi des politiques favorisant l'accès des minorités aux carrières dans les services publics, y compris celles de l'enseignement. Dans cet exposé, nous nous concentrons sur la participation d'étudiants de minorités ethniques au Postgraduate Certificate in Education (PGCE). Nous présentons les résultats d'une large étude empirique utilisant les données obtenues à partir d'une enquête nationale et d'entretiens avec les professeurs et les étudiants du PGCE. En particulier, nous examinons les motivations qui font que les e´tudiants choisissent une carrière d'enseignant et leur image de la profession; les influences sur leur choix de cours et d'université; leurs expériences pendant la formation et leur avis sur les contraintes qui empêchent le recrutement des minorités ethniques. Nous discutons aussi les stratégies suivies par les universités pour attirer et retenir les e´tudiants de minorités ethniques, et nous examinons les dilemmes qui se présentent. Finalement, nous discutons des portées de cette recherche sur la politique nationale, et de la méthodologie de l'étude. Desde la instauración del gobierno laborista Británico en Mayo de 1997, y dado su compromiso en materia de inclusión social, éste ha llevado a cabo varias iniciativas con el fin de ampliar el acceso a las ocupaciones del sector público, incluyendo la profesión de educador, a las minorías étnicas. En este artículo, los autores examinan la participación de estudiantes en los Programas de Post-Graduados en Educación (PGCE) en Inglaterra y Gales. Se presentan los resultados de un estudio de gran escala obtenido a través de la aplicación de un cuestionario nacional y de entrevistas con el personal y los estudiantes de los programas de PGCE. Se presta atención especial a la motivación de los estudiantes para ingresar a la profesión de educador y a la imagen que tienen de la profesión; los factores que influencian su elección tanto de programa como de institución; sus experiencias durante la formación; y sus percepciones sobre las dificultades del reclutamiento de minorías étnicas. Los autores también consideran las estrategias empleadas por el personal de los programas del PGCE para atraer y retener a alumnos de minorías étnicas y examinan los dilemas que se encuentran frente a la diversidad étnica. El artículo concluye con una discusión sobre las implicaciones de esta investigación en las políticas. Seit ihrem Antritt im Mai 1997 hat die neue Britische Regierung eine Politik der Erleichterung des Zuganges fuer Vertreter ethnischer Minderheiten in Berufe des öffentlichen Dienstes verfolgt. Diese Politik schliesst auch den Berufsstand der Lehrer ein. Der vorliegende Beitrag konzentriert sich auf Studenten ethnischer Minderheiten, die an PGCE Programmen in England und Wales teilnehmen. Es werden Ergebnisse einer grossangelegten Studie präsentiert, deren Daten aus einer landesweiten Umfrage (per Fragebogen) und Interviews von Lehrern und Studenten der PGCE Programme stammen. Besondere Aufmerksamkeit wurde auf folgende Aspekte gerichtet: Was ist die Motivation der Studenten das Lehrfach zu wählen? Welche Vorstellungen haben die Studenten von dem von ihnen gewählten Beruf? Welche Faktoren beeinflusste sie bei der Wahl ihrer Kurse und Ausbildungsstaette? Welche Eindrücke und Erfahrungen machten sie während der Ausbildung? Wie schätzen sie die Probleme und Hindernisse bei der Anwerbung von Vertretern ethnischer Minderheiten für den Lehrerberuf ein? Strategien von PGCE Lehrern eingeschriebene Studenten etnischer Minderheiten zu behalten und neue anzuwerben wurden ebenso bedacht, wie auch die Probleme die daraus entstehen können. Der Beitrag endet mit einer Diskussion von möglichen Auswirkungen der Studie auf die von der britischen Regierung verfolgten Politik.

Wages, taxes and publicly provided day care

Public employment growth has been parallelled by increased female labour force participation, while real wages for typical female public sector occupations have not increased. In a theoretical model we, first, show that there is a tradeoff between day care provision and gross wages for occupations for which day care is a complement. It is possible to combine increased public labour demand with public day care provision leaving the wage unaffected. Second, non-parents will be in favour of increasing day care as long as day care productivity is higher than the inverse of the tax rate. This is because the effective labour supply and, therefore, the tax base increase. Third, parents want to push day care provision even further. They are prepared to accept a lower day care productivity than non-parents because day care provision relaxes the constraint on their desired labour supply. The Pareto efficient day care provision is between parents‘ and non-parents‘ preferred levels.

The Scandinavian Welfare State Model: The Impact of the Public Sector on Segregation and Gender Equality

Comparative studies of sex segregation indicate that the levels in the Scandinavian countries are high, especially in Norway. Observers tend to link this to various aspects of the social democratic welfare state. This article examines the thesis that the public sector in the Scandinavian welfare state model is an attractive employer for women, with regard to both working conditions and wages. The data consist of a sample from the 1990 Norwegian population census of men and women between the age of 40 and 45. The economic consequences of the same occupational choices are shown to vary for men and women. The men have greater earnings advantages if they choose occupations in the private sector with low proportions of women. The earnings advantages for women in such occupations, compared to women in public sector occupations, are far lower. Further, the earnings of women in private sector male-dominated occupations are influenced by their childcare responsibilities. The higher the childcare responsibilities, the lower the earnings. No effects of childcare responsibilities are found among women in public sector occupations with large proportions of men. These findings thus indicate that the size and the organisation of the public sector in Scandinavia contributes to sex segregation in the labour market.

Dragged to Market: Being a Profession in the Postmodern World

Under a regime of quasi-markets, UK public sector occupations are having to promote themselves as enterprising and argue their case for a share of public spending. Much of this takes place through the news media. In order to do this effectively, some kind of professional grouping is essential. The paper reviews the failure of non-probation social work to achieve a professional formation thus far. Rejecting explanations rooted in attitudes, values and gender, it argues that the core problem since the early 1970s has been the shifting nature of social services work because of central government policy changes. Now that the profile of social services tasks is more settled, it is time for social workers to abandon their reluctance to claim distinctive expertise and set about developing a more confident set of intellectual skills and thus an effective voice. In a postmodern age of sceptical consumers they need not fear elitism as they will, rather, be judged by their effectiveness.