An exploratory study of political activity and manipulative tendencies by professional social workers
Description
Since its inception, the profession of social work has pursued the objectives of individual change and social reform. In reference to social reform, the social work literature is replete with efforts exhorting professional social workers to become more involved in the political process at the local, state, and national levels as the appropriate road to social change. Part of the discussion on political activity both in social work and in related fields generally includes the utilization of strategies and techniques for participation. One of the more common techniques mentioned is manipulation. The purpose of this research was to ascertain the extent of political activity and manipulative tendencies by professional social workers and to explore the relationship between them This study employed three questionnaires in order to gather data relative to the research questions. Besides the questionnaire that sought demographic characteristics, one was a modified version of Woodward and Roper's Political Activity Index while the other was the Machiavellian Scale developed by Christie and others at Columbia University. These three questionnaires were mailed to a sample of 470 professional social workers selected at random from the approximately 3000 members of the Michigan chapter of the National Association of Social Workers Of the 470 questionnaires mailed, 314 were returned by the final cut-off date, but 25 were unusable leaving a very respectable sample size of 289 or 61%. The demographic characteristics of this study coincided very closely with comparable information received from NASW's Manpower Data Bank. The findings of this study revealed that by any existing benchmark of participation, professional social workers are more politically active than the general population. In addition, when social workers are compared with other professional groups, they are at least as politically active. Within the profession itself, the most politically active are blacks, older workers, and those earning between $20-$25,000. Interestingly, those individuals working in Public Welfare, Education, and Politics are significantly more politically active, while those individuals in Administration, Community Organization, and Teaching are also significantly more politically active The findings also demonstrated that professional social workers have greater manipulative tendencies than the general population and have at least the manipulative tendencies as others in the helping professions. Within the profession itself, only age was a significant demographic characteristic. As age increased, the Mach score decreased which was in direct contrast to the finding for political activity. It was surprising to find that individuals who are high in manipulative tendencies are not concentrated in any single field or area of practice, but permeate every facet of the profession, though individuals in Mental Health demonstrate significantly greater manipulative tendencies than those who are not. On the crucial question of the relationship between political activity and manipulative tendencies, no correlation is apparent It is concluded from this research that professional social workers in Michigan are politically active and they have manipulative tendencies though these two variables are not related. It does seem clear from this study that social work as a profession concerned with the policies and legislation that impact the poor and disenfranchised needs to realistically debate such controversial concepts as manipulation, power, and conflict in a more constructive and empirical manner. The appropriate operationalization of these concepts within the profession is essential from both a practice and educational perspective