Distributed Leadership for
Social Justice Action
S. Colby Peters, LGSW
Mathew Uretsky, MSW, MPH
Leah Bartley, MSW
Anusha Chatterjee, MA
Background
Where is the social justice in social work?
• Advocacy ranked low on social workers’ list of priorities
• Lack of participation in public policy formation
• Engagement in social justice at individual level, but not
organizational or societal level
Why aren’t social workers engaging in social
justice actions?
•
•
•
•
Psychological and individual approach to social work
Managerialism and professionalism
Organizational culture
Social work education does not translate the pursuit of social
justice into specific advocacy techniques
The qualities and skills needed to promote social justice are
encompassed in social work leadership Client Outcomes
Distributed
Leadership
Social Work Leadership
Behaviors
 Advocates for clients and
organization
 Thinks critically
• Increased opportunities to
Client
Outcomes
engage
in organizational
activities
that directly
affect
Social Worker
Outcomes
him orSocial
her toWorker
• Committed
organization
and social justice
Outcomes
• Politically savvy
Organizational Outcomes
• Visionary
Culture ofdiversity
leadership, not
•• Manages
Organizational
managerialism
Outcomes
• Adherence
to mission and
vision
Social Work Profession
Outcomes
Professional
• Increased
promotion of
Outcomes
social work values
Global Outcomes
Global Outcomes
• Social justice
A Theory of Social Justice Promotion
Increases in distributive leadership in the workplace predict increases
in subjective norms associated with the promotion of social justice.
Attitude
Distributed
Leadership
Subjective Norms
Intention
Perceived Behavioral
Control
Ajzen’s Theory of Planned Behavior (1991)
Behavior
Distributed leadership may contribute to
an increase in advocacy for social justice
• Distributed leadership: Emergent leadership based on knowledge, time,
and context, consisting of a concerted action by a group of individuals
for the purpose of achieving a common goal.
Research Question
Do increased levels of distributed leadership
in the workplace predict increases in
social justice actions?
Method and Results
Organizational Inputs and Social Workers’ Management of
Secondary Trauma in the Workplace
May – August 2013
Sampling Frame
• 483 licensed social
workers in PA and
MD from state
licensure lists
Response
• 174 surveys
returned
• 166 valid surveys
• 34.3% response rate
Exclusions
• Missing data on SJS
and DL scales
• Not currently working
as social workers
n
%
Female
127
91%
Partnered/Married
96
69%
White/Non-Hispanic
118
84%
Sample Size
• 130 final sample
size
Scales
• Subjective Norms Subscale, Social Justice Scale (Torres-Harding, Siers, & Olson,
2012)
• 4 items
• Alpha = .88
• Sample question: On a scale of 1 to 7, please indicate to what extent people around you are
engaged in activities that address social injustices in your workplace.
• Distributed Leadership Subscale, Leadership Scale, Comprehensive Organizational
Health Assessment (Fritzler & Leake, 2012)
• 3 items
• Alpha = .97
• Sample question: On a scale of 1 to 6, the leadership of our organization views leadership as
shared by staff and administrators.
Hierarchical Regression Analysis*
Independent Variables
Step 1 - Demographics
• Ethnicity: Caucasian non-Hispanic, Other
• Gender: Male, Female
• Marital Status: Partnered/Married, Other
Step 2 – Distributed Leadership
• Distributed leadership subscale
*All assumptions for OLS regression were met.
Dependent Variable
Subjective norms related to
social justice promotion
• Subjective norms subscale
Results
Increases in distributive leadership in the workplace predict increases
in subjective norms associated with the promotion of social justice.
Subjective Norms
Distributed
Leadership
+ 1 point
R2 = .123
Colleagues display positive
attitude toward social justice
and engage in social justice
actions
+ 1.4 points
Implications, Limitations, and Future Research
Implications
• Distributed leadership  social worker leadership behaviors  leadership
culture  social justice promotion
• Distributed leadership may counterbalance managerialism
• Basing organizational structure and function on principles of social justice
may enable social workers to engage in more advocacy
• Social workers who feel comfortable addressing structural and functional
issues in their organization may translate into addressing structural
inequalities in societal institutions
Limitations
• Subscales have not been used alone in previous studies
• Sample not diverse
• Potential private practice respondents
• Didn’t define “social justice”
Future Research
• More extensive assessment of distributed leadership practices over
time and across organizations
• More detailed assessment of social justice promotion in an
organization
• Specific actions taken by social workers in the promotion of social
justice inside and outside of the organization
How do we promote social justice?
Social workers must:
• Apply principles of social justice to their organizations
• Retain a critical stance to existing organizational and societal
structures that promote inequality
• Advocate for change on multiple levels
References
• Austin, M. J., Regan, K., Samples, M. W., Schwartz, S. L., & Carnochan, S. (2011). Building
managerial and organizational capacity in nonprofit human service organizations through a
leadership development program. Administration in Social Work, 35, 258-281.
• Bennett, N., Wise, C., Woods, P. A., & Harvey, J. A. (2003). Distributed leadership: A review of
literature.
• Breton. (2012). Small steps toward social justice. Social Work with Groups, 35(3), 205-217.
doi:10.1080/01609513.2011.624369
• Collinson, D. (2014). Dichotomies, dialectics and dilemmas: New directions for critical leadership
studies? Leadership, 10, 36-55.
• Coloma, J., Gibson, C., & Packard, T. (2012). Participant outcomes of a leadership development
initiative in eight human service organizations. Administration in Social Work, 36, 4-22.
• Craig, G. (2002). Poverty, social work and social justice. British Journal of Social Work, 32(6), 669682.
• Dinh, J. E., Lord, R. G., Gardner, W. L., Meuser, J. D., Liden, R. C., & Hu, J. (2013). Leadership theory
and research in the new millennium: Current theoretical trends and changing perspectives. The
Leadership Quarterly, 25, 36-62.
• Dodd. (2004). Expanding the boundaries of ethics education: Preparing social workers for ethical
advocacy in an organizational setting. Journal of Social Work Education, 40(3), 455-465.
• Dudziak, S., & Profitt, N. J. (2012). Group work and social justice: Designing pedagogy for social
change. Social Work with Groups, 35, 235-252. doi:10.1080/01609513.2011.624370
References (cont’d)
• Fritzler, P., & Leake, R. (2012). Comprehensive organizational health assessment. Unpublished
manuscript.
• Hannah, S. T., Sumanth, J. J., Lester, P., & Cavarretta, F. (2014). Debunking the false dichotomy of
leadership idealism and pragmatism: Critical evaluation and support of newer genre leadership
theories. Journal of Organizational Behavior,
• Healy, K. (2005). Dominant discourses in health and welfare: Biomedicine, economics and law.
service discourses: ‘Psy’ and sociological ideas in social work. . Social work theories in context:
Creating frameworks for practice. (pp. 17-67). New York, NY: Palgrave MacMillan.
• Holosko, M. J. (2009). Social work leadership: Identifying core attributes. Journal of Human
Behavior in the Social Environment, 19, 448-459.
• Jabour. (2012). Relationship and leadership: Sophonisba breckinridge and women in social work.
Affilia, 27, 22-37. doi:10.1177/0886109912437496
• Knee, R. T., & Folsom, J. (2012). Bridging the crevasse between direct practice social work and
management by increasing the transferability of core skills. Administration in Social Work, 36,
390-408. doi:10.1080/03643107.2011.604402
• Lawler, J. (2007). Leadership in social work: A case of caveat emptor? British Journal of Social
Work, 37(1), 123-141.
• McLaughlin, A. M. (2009). Clinical social workers: Advocates for social justice. Advances in Social
Work, 10(1), 51-68.
• Mizrahi, T., & Berger, C. S. (2005). A longitudinal look at social work leadership in hospitals: The
impact of a changing health care system. Health & Social Work, 30, 155-165.
References (cont’d)
• O'Brien, M. (2011). Equality and fairness: Linking social justice and social work practice. Journal of Social Work, 11(2), 143158.
• O'Brien, M. (2011). Social justice: Alive and well (partly) in social work practice? International Social Work, 54(2), 174-190.
• Olson. (2013). Voices from the field: Social workers define and apply social justice. Journal of Progressive Human Services,
24(1), 23-42. doi:10.1080/10428232.2013.740407
• Rank, M. G., & Hutchison, W. S. (2000). An analysis of leadership within the social work profession. Journal of Social Work
Education, 36, 487-502. .
• Thorpe, R., Gold, J., & Lawler, J. (2011). Locating distributed leadership. International Journal of Management Reviews, 13,
239-250.
• Torres-Harding, S. R., Siers, B., & Olson, B. D. (2012). Development and psychometric evaluation of the social justice scale
(SJS). American Journal of Community Psychology, 50, 77-88.
• Webster. (2010). Complexity approach to frontline social work management: Constructing an emergent team leadership
design for a managerialist world. Social Work & Social Sciences Review, 14(1), 27-46. doi:10.1921/095352210X518162
• Webster, M. (2013). A vision for social work leadership: Critical conceptual elements. Social Workers Registration Board:
Protecting the Public, Enhancing the Profession,
• Yliruka. (2013). How can we enhance productivity in social work? dynamically reflective structures, dialogic leadership and
the development of transformative expertise. Journal of Social Work Practice, 27, 191-206.
doi:10.1080/02650533.2013.798157
Images
Slide 1 – Jane Addams with immigrant children, retrieved 6.2.2014 from
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2012/01/24/1057949/-The-Second-Deathof-Jane-Addams#
Slide 3 – Whitney M. Young, Jr., retrieved on 6.2.2014 from
http://mije.org/richardprince/telenovelas-trump-state-union
Slide 4 – Harry Hopkins, WPA Administrator, visits Arkansas families
displaced by flooding, retrieved on 6.2.2014 from
http://www.cssny.org/index.php/preview/news/harry-hopkins-from-css-tofdrs-new-deal
Slide 6 – Jeannette Rankin, retrieved on 6.2.2014 from
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0409/20776.html
Slide 17 – Dorothy Height, members of Sigma Theta Delta sorority, and
Mamie Eisenhower, retrieved on 6.2.2014 from
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=126136771
S. Colby Peters, LGSW
speters@ssw.umaryland.edu