Better Marketing (Professionalism) or Better Organization (Professionalization): Which Direction for Social Work?

Dover, M. A. (2004, October). Better Marketing (Professionalism) or Better Organization (Professionalization)?  Which Direction for Social Work?  Association of Baccalaureate Program Directors (BPD), Detroit, Michigan. 

In this paper I’m going to try to shed some theoretical light on four possible strategies for the direction of social work, each of which is related to either to ideology of professionalism (which I argue is contrary to social work’s stress on activism) or to the process of professionalization (which I argue, along with Reeser and Epstein, is consistent with activism).

The four strategies are:

(1) better organization for social work.  This would be achieved by the restoration of a national convention week for social work sponsored by NASW/CSWE/BPD/SSWR, with separate calls for papers from each of these four independent organizations.  

(2) a focus on better marketing, such as those elements of the National Social Work Public Education  Campaign which are being carried out in a way which is consistent with the process of professionalization as discussed here, not the ideology of professionalism,

(3) a combination of strategies one and two, done in a way which would link them so that they reinforce each other, 

(4) a focus on better marketing, such as that in the National Social Work Public Education  Campaign, which currently is partially influenced by the ideology of professionalism, according to my analysis.

I will begin by examining the evolution of the organizational field of professional social work organizations and considering whether in recent years we are seeing a process of organizational field differentiation associated with the maturation of a strong social work profession or whether we are seeing a process of organizational field disintegration associated with centrifugal forces which threaten ultimately to de-professionalize social work.  

I will utilize the theoretical distinctions between professionalization and professionalism drawn by Reeser and Epstein (1990) to facilitate this comparison.  I will use a table to integrate the evolutionary comparison with the theoretical distinction in order to facilitate consideration of the individual level and organizational level implications of these theoretical observations.  I will consider whether social work should rely upon our member’s skills in casework, group work, community organization, supervision, social policy analysis and teaching in order to strengthening our profession’s organizational field by restoring an annual national social work convention week.  Or whether social work should rely upon marketing campaigns amongst our membership and within the general public, which I worry will be focused more on image than on substance.  I will conclude by asking you whether I am needlessly worried about some aspects of the the marketing campaign represented by the National Social Work Public Education Campaign.  Do you think we have the energy and wherewithal to do both?  Do we need a unified national social work conference and would having one improve our ability to have an effective marketing campaign as well?