Handling conflicting expectations
Learning Objectives
After considering this resource, you should understand who expects what of social workers in a multi-disciplinary setting and how social workers may handle these conflicting expectations.
Collaboration with people from other professions, as well as different social workers and agencies is a major characteristic of social work today. Multi-disciplinary working brings with it new learning challenges as different roles are bought together with differing expectations of each other.
The following activity helps you to identify who expects what of social workers and how you may handle these conflicting expectations.
Reflective Questions
- Look again at the different roles you considered. How might the organisational cultures they work within differ? How might they compare with the culture of other organisational structures?
- Think about a role from another profession you will or have come into contact with, but know little about. What can you do to address this?
- Consider the areas in which barriers are maintained in multi-disciplinary working. What conflicts may arise from these?
- Think about how social workers are portrayed in the media. What impact might those portrayals have on professionals you come into contact with in a multi-disciplinary setting, and their expectations of you? How damaging are these stereotypes?