Use of Self in Indirect Practice
Leadership
Chapter Seven
Policy, Advocacy, Management, and
Community Practice
Definition of Indirect Practice
The concept, “indirect practice” refers to the
use of policy, advocacy, community and
management methods of social work
practice to bring about and manage a more
humane and just social order.
Beneficiaries of Indirect Practice
• Indirect practice benefits all citizens
through policies and programs of universal
entitlement.
• Indirect practice benefits population
subgroups specifically targeted by selective
social welfare policies and programs.
Target Systems
of Indirect Practice
• Macro practice targets societal dysfunction
directly.
• It targets social forces that affect population
subgroups disproportionately
Change Agent System
• The use of self in indirect practice is based
on the practitioner’s use of leadership in the
exercise of authority and power to bring
about and manage social change and reform
• Leadership is a dyadic relationship between
the leader and the led (group). Also see
chapter 17.
Declarative Knowledge
Social Forces
• The declarative knowledge needed by
practitioners in indirect practice focuses on
theories of causality associated with functional
and dysfunctional social forces and societal
structures.
• Declarative knowledge gets transformed into
interventions (practice theories) consistent with
the social work methods of policy, advocacy,
community and management practice.
Procedural and Tacit Knowing
• Procedural knowing is based on:
(1) declarative knowledge- Sociological, political,
and economic theories of causality of
functional and dysfunctional social forces (if
this, then that-prediction)
(2) declarative knowledge of policy, advocacy,
community and management methods;
practice methods used to bring about social
change (prevention and intervention)
Tacit Knowing
• Tacit knowing refers to mastery of
procedural knowing within the worker’s
use of self in the art of leadership.
• Tacit knowing differentiates the master
practitioner from the novice.
Declarative Knowledge
Normative Frameworks
• Because the desired end-goals of social
policies and programs, reform, and change
efforts are value-based and normative,
students also require:
(1) knowledge of ethical decision-making
(2) knowledge of moral philosophy
(3) knowledge of theories of social justice
The Relationship of Leadership
• Relationship or the use of self in policy,
advocacy, community and management
practice is characterized as the exercise of
leadership through the use of authority,
influence and power.
• Whereas relationship is the art of healing in
clinical practice, relationship is the art of
leadership in indirect practice.
Definition of Leadership
• Leadership is defined as the exercise of authority,
influence, and power to accomplish tasks for
which there is some degree of consensus (between
leaders and followers) as to the desired outcome of
organized, structured, activities.
• Leadership is a complex concept about which
much is written.
• There are over 850 definitions, one thousand
empirical studies and more than 2,000 books
(written in 1999 alone) on leadership.
Definition of LeadershipContinued
• Despite the number of definitions, empirical
studies, books and articles written, no single
definition of leadership provides a wholly
adequate explanation of leadership.
• Initially, only political philosophers and historians
wrote about leadership.
• Subsequently the literature has focused on
leadership as a management skill, focusing on the
personal qualities and attributes of a chief
executive officer.
Definition of LeadershipContinued
• Most often, leadership was regarded as a benign
concept.
• From the 1990’ to date, however, the literature on
leadership has focused on the pervasiveness of bad
leadership in all domains of public and private
endeavors (Kellerman, 2005).
• According to Kellerman, defining bad leadership
and knowing how it happens (cause-effect) can
advance good leadership.
The Credentials of Leadership
in Social Work
• MBA: Master of Business Administration
Degree leading to position of leadership in
business
• MPA: Master of Public Administration
Degree leading to position of leadership in
government or public service.
• MSW: Master of Social Work
Master of Social Work
Administration
• The MSW is the terminal practice degree
regardless of concentration.
• Students usually choose a second year
concentration in administration if they aspire to be
agency administrators.
• Students with clinical concentrations may be
promoted from within agencies to head agencies.
A clinical director must oversee clinical staff.
Master of Social Work
Leadership in Policy
• Students who aspire to leadership within the
field of policy advocacy, choose second
year concentrations in policy analysis,
development and implementation.
• Such students benefit from advanced
courses in research as well as from courses
on political and legislative processes.
Master of Social Work
Leadership in Advocacy Practice
• Students who wish to engage in social change
involving societal structures benefit from courses
in small and large group dynamics.
• Such students benefit from courses on planning
and organizing.
• Such students benefit from courses that increase
their skills in public speaking, speech writing, and
the use of other media mediums.
Master of Social Work
Leadership-Community Practice
• Students who aspire to leadership in community
practice benefit from courses on inter-group
conflict, conflict negotiation and consensus
building.
• They benefit from courses on planning for
incremental change within existing social
structures and a law and order perspective.
• They benefit from courses on grant writing and
fund raising.
Teaching and Supervising
Leadership
• The exercise of leadership as part of student
learning often goes untaught and unmonitored.
• The consequence of an unexamined and
unmonitored use of self in a relationship of leader
and led is as dangerous as the unexamined use of
self in clinical practice.
• Bad leadership affects many direct and indirectly;
through bad decisions or good decisions left
unmade.
Typologies of Leadership
• Given that inability to define leadership,
scholars have attempted to conceptualize it
through the use of typologies.
• Five typologies of leadership are explored
in this chapter: (1) power, (2) bureaucracy,
(3) inspiration, (4) morality, (5) effective
and ethical
The Typology of Power
• Power is the basic energy needed to initiate
and sustain action. It translates intention
into reality.
• Power is the the quality without which
leaders cannot lead.
• Leadership and power are inevitably linked.
• Despite this, curricula on leadership has
systematically neglected this topic.
Sources of Power
French and Raven
1. Legitimate: Power resides in the position of a
hierarchically ordered organization not the
person; often referred to a authority.
2. Expert: power based on individual’s expertise.
3. Reward: power based on an individual’s
capacity to reward or punish others.
4. Referent power based on social factors of
influence i.e. position within social, political and
financial hierarchy.
5. Coercive: The ability to inflict physical,
psychological or social pain to secure support
Weber’s Typology of the
Bureaucracy
• Bureaucracies are based on rational
principles and a chain of command.
• Bureaucracies are designed to be efficient
by limiting the direction of interaction – top
down chain of command
• Not all rational behavior is moral.
• Under the influence of authority, individuals
often suspend their conscience.
Followers
Technical Bureaucrats
• In the case of the technical bureaucrat
(Weber) critical thinking and/or moral
judgment are often suspended under the
obligation to follow orders.
• Followers lack internal control over actions
that have their origin in authority i.e.
Milgram’s experiment of administering
shocks and Zimbardo’s prison experiment
Typology of Inspiration
• Inspirational leadership is an emotional
transaction between leader and led.
• The inspirational leader captures hearts,
minds, and souls based on a leader’s
passionate, uncompromising strength of
conviction or particular worldview.
• The downside of such conviction and
passion is intolerance.
Typology of InspirationContinued
• Inspirational leaders are as likely to lead others in
the commission of immoral acts (unjust wars,
genocide, torture) as they are to lead them in acts
that elevate humankind and the human condition.
• Examples: -Downside are Hitler, Stalin, Mao-TseTung; Upside are Mahatma Ghandi. Reverend
Desmond Tutu, Reverend Martin Luther King
• Charismatic leadership is known to produce
outcomes that are good or evil’ principled or petty,
or a mixture of both
Followers
Typology of Inspiration
• Emotionally aroused individuals or groups,
under the influence of a charismatic leader
often engage in behavior they would not
otherwise engage in under ordinary
circumstances.
• In the presence of emotional arousal,
individuals often suspend critical thinking
and moral judgment.
Typology of Morality
Transformative Leadership
• According to Bennis and Nanus, leadership is a
creative and deeply human process that speaks of
moral character not charisma.
• Transformative leadership (MacGregor, 1996) is
defined as that occurrence where one or more
persons engage with others in such a way that
leaders and followers raise one another to higher
levels of motivation and morality.
• Transforming leadership ultimately becomes
moral in that it raises the level of human conduct
and ethical aspiration
Typology of Morality-Continued
Moral Demagoguery
• Some of most atrocious acts against humankind
have been carried out in the name of religion
(God) and patriotism.
• All leaders,regardless of tactics, lay claim to the
moral high ground.
• The determination of “moral” requires critical
thinking and the capacity to differentiate the
symbols used to portray morality from the actual
performance of moral acts themselves.
Kellerman’s Typology
Effective and Ethical
• Kellerman proposes a 4X4 typology within which
we can understand good and bad leadership.
• Good leadership is
(1) Effective and ethical.
• Bad leadership may be:
(2) ethical but not effective
(3) effective but not ethical
(4) effectively unethical
What Accounts for Bad
Leadership?
According to Kellerman three factors
account for bad leadeship: (1) human nature
(2) human motivation, (3) followers:
According to Kellerman, human beings
(whether leaders or followers) cannot be
relied upon to behave well. We behave
badly because of who we are (character)
and because of what we want (motivation).
The Need for Power
As A Character Flaw
• Kellerman uses the term,”character flaw” to
denote the intractability of core dimensions of
personality related to one’s moral compass.
• When bad leadership is linked to character flaws,
the leader seeks power to compensate for feelings
of inferiority and anxiety (Gummer, 1990). Being
able to control, manipulate and/or hurt others
brings satisfaction. Unconscious needs disable
moral judgment.
• As part of human nature, bad leadership is also
linked to needs for affiliation.
The Need for Affiliation
As a Character Flaw
• Leaders with affiliative needs are more
concerned about being liked than with
exercising power.
• Such leaders fail to appropriately address
internal organizational conflict allowing it
to escalate and become more destructive.
Bad Leadership
The Motivation Of Greed
According to Kellerman leadership is bad
when it is motivated by greed; the desire for
more power, more money, greater prestige,
increased social status, more material
goods, more of anything.
Why We Follow Bad Leadership
• Because leadership is a dyadic relationship
(leader and led) Kellerman examines why
followers follow bad leadership.
• Followers usually follow even when they know
that a leader is misguided or malevolent.
• Followers follow because even bad leaders satisfy
basic human needs for safety, simplicity, and
certainty.
Why We Follow Bad Leadership
Self Preservation
Self preservation is the strongest motive for
following bad leadership.
Going along – self preservation depends on going
along;. Often it is in the followers best interest to
go with the flow. Not going along takes time,
energy, and more often than not courage.
Preference for simplicity – obeying authority is
the easiest way to keep life simple; easier to
assume leaders know what they doing than to
challenge them.
Why We Follow Bad Leadership
Continued
Being on a winning team – we value camaraderie
over being isolated. We want to be a “star” on a
winning team.
Security – workplace security is tied to where one
lives on the organizational chart. Security seekers
are willing to yield to authority in exchange for
financial security and a meaningful definition of
self within the organization.
Dysfunctional Organizational
Cultures
• Poor performing organizations usually have
strong dysfunctional cultures.
• Such cultures are characterized by polarized
factions each of which seeks to solidify its
power base at the expense of other factions
and the organization as a whole.
• Tactics of coercion are common within
dysfunctional organizations.
Dysfunctional Followers
• According to Kellerman, going along with a
bad leader is one thing but to knowingly
and deliberately commit oneself to an
unethical leader is something else.
• Kellerman identifies three types of
followers associated with unethical
leadership:
Followers that Support
Unethical Leadership
According to Kellerman, those who consciously
and deliberately support unethical leadership are
themselves “bad”. They stand to benefit
financially or politically. They fall into three
categories:
(1) bystanders- those who go along
(2) collaborators –those who actively participate
in unethical behavior (means-ends).
(3) co-architects – true believers and coarchitects of unethical means and ends.
Theories of Leadership
Overview
1. The great man theory- leaders are born
2. The great event – events and the availability of
followers make leaders out of ordinary people.
3. The crucible – leaders are formed through some
confluence of forces that meld character; some
turning point.
4. Rationalism and Enlightenment –18th century
perspective- leaders reflect a belief in reason,
progress and perfectibility of man.
Theories of Leadership
Overview-Continued
5. Freud and Weber – 19th century perspective
Not all leaders are rational and not all leaders are
moral.
6. Personal Traits -20th century perspective.Numerous empirical studies- concept of
leadership traits is mixed – good an bad traits coexist side by side in same person.
7. Leadership Style – democratic style better than
autocratic (authoritarian) or laissez-faire.
Theories of Leadership
Management
8. The efficient leader/manager - time and motion
studies; science informs leadership
9. The humanist leader/manager – human
relations and sensitivity model. Employees work
best when their emotional needs are taken into
account.
10 Theory X – employees are motivated by their
paychecks; they work best under supervision
Theories of Leadership
Management
11 Theory Y: positive incentives rather than
negative reinforcements.
12. Theory Z: A combination of X and Y motivates
employees and keeps morale high.
13. Contingency Theory – Belief that context
determines leadership. There are endless
contingencies and therefore endless varieties of
leadership.
Empirical Evidence on
Leadership
• Leadership is a concept lacking conceptual clarity
and therefore empirical verification.
• One cannot measure what eludes definition.
• Conceptually, leadership is in the exploratory
stage of research with a focus on definition
through the creation of typologies.
• The only consensus among scholars is that
leadership is not a benign concept.
The Exercise of Authority,
Influence, and Power
• See the leadership checklist in the text.
• See sample process recording of
administrative meeting in text.
• See sample minutes of a meeting.