A01=John Harris
Author_John Harris
Braverman's Work
bureau-professional model
Category=JBF
Category=JKSN
Category=KJVN
Central Government
District Managers
District Teams
eq_bestseller
eq_business-finance-law
eq_isMigrated=1
eq_isMigrated=2
eq_nobargain
eq_non-fiction
eq_society-politics
Field Social Workers
fieldwork autonomy
Front Line Managers
front-line social work management research
Labour Process
Labour Process Perspective
labour process theory
Local Authority Social Services
Local Authority Social Services Act
Local Authority Social Services Departments
Managerial Control Strategies
organisational control social services
Parochial Professionalism
Personal Social Services
Radical Social Work
Radical Social Work Literature
Radical Social Work Movement
scientific management critique
Seebohm Committee
Seebohm Report
Shop Stewards Committee
Social Services Departments
Social Work
trade union relations
Wider Issues
Workload Indicators
Workplace Trade Unionism
Product details
- ISBN 9781138325722
- Weight: 226g
- Dimensions: 152 x 219mm
- Publication Date: 30 Jun 2020
- Publisher: Taylor & Francis Ltd
- Publication City/Country: GB
- Product Form: Paperback
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Published in 1998. The industrial model of the labour process developed by Braverman was applied to social work in the radical social work literature. The book engages in a more critical examination of the application of the labour process perspective to social work, with particular reference to front-line management in a local authority context. It begins with a review of the labour process literature which demonstrates the extent to which the independence of Braverman’s model on scientific management was undermined in the post-Braverman debate. The radical texts' orthodox Bravermanian approach to the social work labour process is considered. In those texts, the social work labour process is represented as having moved towards an industrial model which steadily encroached on the autonomy of front-line field social workers, through managers’ wresting of control over their work. The book advances an alternative model of the social work labour process which takes account of the distinctive features of social work, as a state-mediated, bureau-professional labour process. Findings from a small-scale case study of a social services department are presented. Data from the study are used to test the bureau-professional model of the social work labour process against the orthodox Bravermanian model. Developments in the social services department’s organizational structure are set out and the position of front-line managers is considered through an exploration of their identifications and commitments in relation to management and trade unionism. The data from their accounts support the bureau-professional model of the labour process and the position of front-line managers emerges as more ambiguous than the radical social work literature indicated. Front-line managers did not share global goals with senior management, nor were their interests merged straightforwardly with those of social workers.
