Social-Political Involvement of Social Services Departments: An Organizational Perspective

This research examines the capacity of Municipal Social Services Departments (henceforth, SSDs) to position themselves as significant and relevant actors in the spheres of local public organization and practice, to influence the public domain, and to advance social perceptions and social justice. The role of the SSDs is, among other things, to work towards addressing social problems and to serve as a central integrating factor in the socio-political space between the resident and the local authority, as outlined in the Ministry of Welfare and Social Security's instruction no. 1.20. In essence, this entails functioning as a key player at the municipal level regarding social issues. This role is derived from historical, professional, and ethical perspectives that represent a professional stance demanding that SSDs be involved at the social and political levels to promote social justice. This role can be described using the term 'Socio-Political Involvement,' which is intricately linked to the core principles of the social work profession. Nevertheless, this term has not been adequately conceptualized at the theoretical and practical levels.

The local authority and the internal organizational relationships within it are significant factors determining the capacity of the SSDs to be socially and politically involved in the local sphere. Despite the local government being a very crucial actor in the SSDs' field of operation—both as an employing organization and as the shaper of the broader organizational context—there is limited professional literature in social work that addresses it in these contexts. Furthermore, the scarce literature dealing with the social involvement of SSDs illuminates only the perspective of the social workers themselves. Thus, the attitudes and perceptions of senior actors within the local authority are absent from the discussion regarding the possibility of SSDs establishing themselves as socio-political actors at the local level.

To illuminate this gap, this study employs Neo-Institutional Theory and the concept of organizational culture to offer an organizational perspective on the local authority and the SSD. Specifically, this research examines how the perceptions, attitudes, and fundamental assumptions of senior actors enable, support, or impede the SSD’s ability to generate socio-political involvement at the local level. In addition to understanding the organizational implications in the local socio-political arena, this research aims to characterize the concept of socio-political involvement, lay the theoretical foundation for its further development, and describe the ways in which socio-political involvement is created and manifested at the local level. The research focused on the following questions:

This qualitative research was based on the Institutional Ethnography research tradition and focused on two local authorities. In line with the principles of institutional ethnography, the first research step involved interviewing the SSD Director in both authorities to identify significant figures and interfaces within the municipality for the SSD and to chart the research path within the authority. Accordingly, key figures in the professional and political spheres of the authority were subsequently interviewed. A total of 10 participants were interviewed for the study: 6 in one authority and 4 in the other. The research tool was semi-structured in-depth interviews, and the data analysis was performed using Thematic Analysis. Throughout the interview analysis, it became clear that the interviewees should be divided into three groups: SSD Directors, Senior Political Tier, and Senior Professional Tier. This division served to enhance the understanding of the different perspectives held by actors in the organizational environment and how their implications for the working interfaces between the various parties could be understood.

The research findings revealed a multi-layered picture of the mission to generate socio-political involvement. Firstly, it appears that the SSD contends with a political-organizational position of relative marginality linked to the perceptions and attitudes of senior authority figures regarding the SSD. The perceptions of these senior officials were often found to reflect broader social views that see the SSD's role as focused on "individual aid to the population in distress". Furthermore, senior authority figures deal with significant knowledge gaps about the SSD's social mission and its activities in the authority, stemming from the physical-structural distance of authority employees from the SSD's operations and an emotional distance due to the complex nature of the content with which the SSD deals. The combination of senior officials' perceptions of SSD work along with these knowledge gaps is linked to a circular organizational dynamic that preserves and shapes the senior officials' fundamental assumptions about the SSD. Another significant finding that emerged in this context is the paradox of growth and contraction faced by the SSD, which expresses the existing organizational tension between the SSD's desire to expand and provide extensive professional and quality service, and the authority's need to downplay the SSD's activities.

Secondly, and in a sense as a response to this weakened position of the SSD, three components were found to be part of an SSD strategy, in partnership with the political tier, aimed at creating a re-positioning of the SSD within the authority: (1) The "Power Triangle," which describes the relationship between the Head of the Local Authority, the portfolio holder for Welfare, and the SSD Directors. To leverage the power of this triangle, a Head of the Authority with social perceptions, a portfolio holder with significant local political power, and a dynamic that maintains separation between the political and professional spheres while also allowing the involvement of each tier in the other’s domain are required. (2) Normalizing of SSD activities and promotion of universal services; and (3) Mapping the arena and leveraging power holders for meaningful partnerships. These SSD re-positioning strategies, together with the political tier, can enable a positive feedback loop to address and modify the organizational circular dynamic underpinning the SSD's marginal position.

The discussion presents a dual contribution of this research. Firstly, the study offers a theoretical development of the concept of socio-political involvement and will serve as a foundation for further research in the field. Secondly, the research characterizes inhibiting factors, such as distance and marginal perceptions of the SSD, which weaken the SSD's power position at the local level, and describes inverse processes that enable the SSD to accumulate political capital and a position of power at the local level and to position itself as a key actor in shaping the social field, such as the expansion of universal services. Thus, this research broadens our understanding of the entire system required to enable socio-political involvement of the Social Services Departments. An additional contribution is the examination of the joint creation of social public value between the political and professional tiers as a local public service mission, in light of the managerial concept of Public Value and through socio-political involvement. This partnership brings the political and social worlds closer and enables a redesign of the broader social narrative and the organizational environment.