Synopses & Reviews
In Self-Leadership in Social Work, Bill McKitterick calls for change in the practice of the profession. Arguing that the current approaches have minimized the social justice focus and therapeutic and change-oriented interventions, McKitterick explores the ways that strong self-leadership can help social workers refocus their attention on efforts that can achieve positive change. He identifies tactics and strategies for providing leadership within a team and in senior positions. Offering a fresh and innovative view of the field, this book will inspire social workers, managers of social services, and social work students to exercise leadership in their own practice.
Review
“Based on decades of experience McKitterick makes a powerful case for the authority of practice and the importance of wisdom and humility in social work accountability.”
Review
“Providing an unrelenting critique of reforms that have spawned passive social work, this is a welcome assertion of every social worker’s responsibility to reclaim the possibilities inherent in active social work.”
Review
“Drawing on extensive experience as practitioner, manager, and passionate advocate for relationship-based social work, McKitterick’s analysis of the centrality of leadership throughout a social worker’s career is thoroughly researched and scholarly but also intensely personal.”
Synopsis
This book is a call for confident, skilled and knowledgeable practice in social work.
The current managerialist agenda has restricted judgement and the exercise of discretion in the profession, and, more damagingly, has played down the social justice components of social work, as well as the responsibilities for therapeutic and change-orientated interventions. This book explores how, through strong self-leadership, social workers can both explain and demonstrate how social work can achieve positive change.
Offering a fresh and innovative view on leadership for social workers, managers of social services and social work students at all levels, the book identifies tactics and strategies to provide leadership both within a team and in senior positions.
Synopsis
This new text is focused on providing new academics with a realistic and practical guide as to how to survive and thrive in an academic setting.
About the Author
A former director of social services, Bill McKitterick has worked in programs to improve social work practice in local authority services and contributed through the British Association of Social Workers and the College of Social Work to the national reform program. He is the author of Supervision.
Table of Contents
Introduction
The meaning and the exercise of leadership in social work
The leadership vacuum
The sources of leadership in the social work profession and social work services
Clarity of purpose in social work practice
The social work manager as a leader, colleague and champion
Leadership within direct practice
Leadership within a multi-disciplinary environment
Optimism, filling the vacuum and taking the lead