Major Models of Group Work in Social Work
Social work does not merely comprise of activities for the sake of benefitting the ones in need. Those have to be systematically channelized and executed so that the benevolent actions undertaken have the desired impact. Having a knowledge of the systemic dynamics is extremely important as group activities involve the necessity to deal with quite a lot of people (Toseland et al., 2011). One is thus expected to have an idea of how to deal with conflictuous situations and maintain the group solidarity. It is also expected that the one extending a helping hand has a proper knowledge of dealing with various kinds of beneficiaries so that no one is deprived of assistance. Thus it is very clear that social work is not just an action emanating out of magnanimity, it also has an educative impact on both the beneficiaries and on the ones extending the help. Social work is both an opportunity to apply the concepts that one learns as a part of one’s academic curriculum, and an indulgence to broaden the horizon of ones thought process and also the conception about the world (Howe, 2017). In this particular essay, five situations related to group activity in the field of social work shall be analyzed against the backdrop of the theoretical explanations. In the following sections, solutions shall be provided to solve the conflict situations, and that shall demonstrate what has been imbibed from the course material.
In this situation, an intriguing situation has been illustrated whereby the leader of an educational group has been faced with a not so innocent rhetorical question while orienting them about the need to take a stand against any form of intimidation, be it physical or mental. The group consists of youths who are of the age in which being student is the only apt occupation. Suddenly a thirteen year old candidate by the name Ruben rises up and challenges all that the leader was trying to disseminate. Ruben considers that those sermonizations were useless as he had already come across those things before, but those have never saved him from the habitual onslaughts of the bullies.
The question from the child definitely did intrigue me, as it very clearly implied that the hardships of the young boy had somewhat led him astray, hence he chose the policy of non-reliance on morality. His response is very much reflective of the human nature that if some principle did not serve the benefit of the individual, then they should not be relied upon. I thought, that Ruben could not be judged for holding such a viewpoint as that would belittle his predicament (Hepworth et al., 2016). Rather, I as the leader of the group must allow him to express his views first and try to understand the situation from his perspective. Ruben’s experiences made him feel excluded from the group culture, hence it is the duty of the leader of the group to orient him to the relevance of what he is disseminating (Payne, 2015). As a leader I must be prepared to deal with the tension that is bound to arise since one cannot and should not expect that even in a group consisting of members who think alike, opinions shall never differ. The leader must be able to find a common ground between the dissenter and himself or herself. That shall not be possible if the leader views things as either wrong or right (Doel, & Marsh, 2017). Sometimes it so happens that a seemingly wrong action cannot be considered as wrong, if a due consideration is given to the situation (Greene, 2017).
Encountering Ethical Issues in Group Work
First and foremost, I would like to apologise to Ruben for what he has faced, and then I shall on my own capacity try to instill courage in him so that he does not lose hope in humanity. I shall try to make him reconcile to the fact very convincingly that he has the moral support of all the members of the group who shall help him out in times of distress, in case he faces trouble in reporting the matter to the authorities at his school. I shall also try to inspire hope in him by asking some victim of bullying to share their ordeal and how they overcame it. That shall inspire him to fight.
This particular situation is somewhat similar to that described in the previous one, in the sense that a degree of superordinance and intimidation is involved. The faction consisting of old members of the organization has an upperhand over the new entrants to the organization. It was not that the seniors exerted an overtly dominating influence on the juniors, rather, the latter themselves suffered from a kind of insecurity complex which is very evident from the fact that they spoke up only on being persuaded by the seniors.
I had been observing that happening for over four sessions. It was a matter which sooner or later I had to bring up in the group, in the presence of everyone, since that could affect the vibrancy of participation in the group. I felt deeply for the group spirit and also more importantly about the members who did not participate in the group discussions with enthusiasm. I thought, that I, as the leader of the group must act as the motivating agent in saving the group from the perils of being fragmented from within (Netting et al., 2016). I was almost about to conclude that the phenomenon of one group trying to control the entire group was happening, but then I realized that it would have been a wrong assessment of the situation. The seniors undertook efforts to motivate the new members to engage in the group activities. As a leader of the group, in this situation I must be proactively to bridge the gaps. First of all, it is my duty to locate the issue as to why the junior members are behaving the way they are doing, as in what is holding them back from communicating with the other members of the group (Turner, 2017). I must be taking into the account the viewpoints of both the sides. The leader of a collectivity must always arrive at conclusions on the basis of having an overview of the opinions of both the factions. Giving a sweeping judgement on the basis of being aware of just one side of the story would be unfair (Sue, Rasheed & Rasheed, 2015). I would also be unwise to go by what I observe, as there is every possibility that the reality could be very different from I could perceive. Hence, I must ensure that there remains no barrier in the communication process at all. It would be ideal in this situation to organize some group discussions guided by the motive to interact with each other and get to know each other (Coady & Lehmann, 2016). As much as possible, work related topics must be kept aside, and forging interpersonal bonding must be given due importance (Parker, 2017).
Modes of Recording and Writing in Group Work
I must convey the message to the team members verbally in clear and unambiguous terms that my duty is to ensure that each members of the group can cherish what equality is meant to be in a collectivity. My first and foremost duty is thus to convey the members, that by virtue of the fact they are in a group, all of them are equal, none less or more than the other hence they must not have any inhibitions. That is how, cohesion in the group can be maintained.
This particular situation is a classic demonstration of demotivating factors playing a role in inhibiting members of a group from interacting and sharing their experiences. The situation portrayed shows that the leader is getting quite exhausted in the process of interacting with the trainee caregivers who are receiving instructions in dealing with the cancer patients. They are not showing any substantial interest in communicating with their leader. Their attitude shows that they are not finding any interest in interacting with their leader, and even if they are doing, they are very lethargic in their efforts.
On seeing this, I thought that they might as well be feeling detached from the job, or they are not finding it comfortable to accept the fact that I am their leader. I did find such an occurrence quite intriguing and I did start questioning myself, as to where could I have gone wrong. It did made me feel that there must have been some fault in me. I even felt that I was dealing with a group of trainees who are deliberately not participating in the discussions, since they are not interested in the kind of job they are supposed to do. However reaching conclusions on the basis of assumptions is not desirable at all. Hence, I am supposed to interact with them openly and let them have a knowledge of the issue which I felt as a leader. It is not always necessary that the leader shall be the one who himself or herself shall not be having any problem, and shall always be the one to solve the problems (Gould & Taylor, 2017). In this particular situation, the leader is facing a dilemma, for which the assistance of the trainees or the subordinates is extremely necessary. Until and unless the leader comes to know about the issue that is bothering the trainees, no solution can be reached at (Parrott, 2014).
Developing Communication and Relationship Building Skills
I shall as the leader try to break the tense situation by expressing to them the issue which I am facing, and that their inactive, reluctant and lethargic attitude is kind of giving me an impression that they are not satisfied with the state of affairs. I expect that they would be honest enough to give me a feedback and on the basis of which I shall be trying my level best to bring about a solution. I shall very clearly convey to them that I must know where exactly are they facing a problem, and shall instill hope in them.
As per the requirement of the group project, students from different faculties have gathered here to complete this project. As the students have different backgrounds in terms of specialisation in studies, it is natural that they would have different opinion and aspects on the topics. Although each member of the group has been cooperating as much possible as they could during the past sessions, I have sensed a growing feeling of discontent among the them regarding the lack of seriousness and active contribution of Tom and Jerry. Today, when we are approaching the deadline, the clear indication in Mandy’s comment stirred the atmosphere of the group in quite a negative way. In this situation, I find myself in position where I have to deal with the situation in a way that is justified to everyone and no one feels that they are being underappreciated for their effort.
My first step should be to focus on improving the group dynamics (Rothman, 2018). In order to do that, at first, I would arrange a one-to-one session with Tom and Jerry to understand the reasons for their lack in contribution. After diagnosing the cause of the problem, I would try to mitigate those challenges (Healy, 2014). Along with this, I would also make a clear point to them that they should pay more attention and give more effort in the project, as this is beneficial for their academic careers (Baldwin, 2016). I would try to know which segment of the project interests them the most and assign them tasks related to that area of the project. In addition to this, I would also ask them to chalk out a plausible action plan for the rest of project, and take updates on their progress on a regular interval (Thompson, 2015).
Each of the member for this project was selected based on their qualities and capabilities. Each of the members needs to understand this and cooperate rather than making comments. Coming to the responsibility of managing the discontent of others, I would arrange group exercise so that the students know each other better. I expect that meeting in other circumstance, which does not involve work, would help everyone understand each other more, and grow a positive relation. This would help us to relate more with each other as a group and increase the harmony.
The Helping Process in Small Group Work
As a therapist, my job is mitigate the issues through support and understanding. This particular group therapy for the perpetrators of family violence has been going on well until now. Each member of the group has demonstrated significant amount of progress and experienced high level of cohesion, as they have been able to interact openly and share freely to each other. However, in the last few session I have noticed that John is seeking more attention and trying to overshadow anyone else. It is unusual for him to focus on himself only and talk about his experiences. I am worried about this new situation, as this continuous interruption of John is making the other members are annoyed, which, in my opinion can lead back to the violence.
As this action of John can lead to their previous condition of disagreement and violence, the situation needs to be resolved as soon as possible. There are multiple measures that can be taken to resolve this issue. In order to do that, I could allocate a specific time to each member for sharing the experiences they had, and tell them that whoever interrupts them will have to tell the experience from the beginning that have been interrupted. This would make John interrupt less, as this does not help his aim of putting the focus on himself (Walsh, 2014). In addition, I could arrange a session where everyone has to select another member of the group and tell his progress and experience so far, instead of his own (Hohman, 2015). Another way of solving this problem is to ask each member write down the key points of each other’s experiences. In this way, John will be busy to pay attention to others to write the notes. In my expectation, these strategies would help to make John listen to others rather than interrupting them, and in that way, resolve the issue (Knight, 2015).
In the concluding it can be said that until and unless one has a proper knowledge of the methods on is supposed to undertake in order to solve a crisis situation, it can be very difficult to deal with problematic situations. On the basis of the analysis of the situations provided it becomes clear that the theoretical positions are to be used just as models and they have to be implemented with modifications. It is thus necessary that a judicious decision is made while implementing the theoretical principles. The best way to do that is by judging upon the situation and then deciding what position to take, since practical situations could be very complex.
References
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Doel, M., & Marsh, P. (2017). Task-centred social work. Routledge.
Gould, N., & Taylor, I. (2017). Reflective learning for social work: research, theory and practice. Routledge.
Greene, R. R. (2017). Human Behavior Theory and Professional Social Work Practice. In Human Behavior Theory and Social Work Practice (pp. 31-62). Routledge.
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Hepworth, D. H., Rooney, R. H., Rooney, G. D., & Strom-Gottfried, K. (2016). Empowerment series: Direct social work practice: Theory and skills. Nelson Education.
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Rothman, J. (2018). Social work practice across disability. Routledge.
Sue, D. W., Rasheed, M. N., & Rasheed, J. M. (2015). Multicultural social work practice: A competency-based approach to diversity and social justice. John Wiley & Sons.
Thompson, N. (2015). Understanding social work: Preparing for practice. Macmillan International Higher Education.
Toseland, Ronald W., Rivas, Robert F. (2011). An Introduction to Group Work Practice (7th Edition). Pearson Education, Inc.
Turner, F. J. (2017). Social work treatment: Interlocking theoretical approaches. Oxford University Press.
Walsh, J. (2014). Theories for direct social work practice. Nelson Educatio
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