Unit rationale, description and aim
Fundamental to Social Work is the need to understand organisational contexts in which professional practice takes place. This unit will develop students' ability to analyse organisational contexts in which their professional practice and/or scholarship takes place. The nature, processes, and impact of organisational change on service delivery and management will be critically analysed. Emphasis will also be given to the role of information technology in contemporary social service work. Students will be encouraged to draw on their experiences of working in organisations, in particular the agencies in which they have undertaken their field placement. This unit aims to support students' in developing advanced knowledge of how organisations deliver services, and skills in identifying areas of unmet need and to explore how they will approach working collaboratively with colleagues from a range of professional backgrounds and disciplines.
Campus offering
No unit offerings are currently available for this unit.Learning outcomes
To successfully complete this unit you will be able to demonstrate you have achieved the learning outcomes (LO) detailed in the below table.
Each outcome is informed by a number of graduate capabilities (GC) to ensure your work in this, and every unit, is part of a larger goal of graduating from ACU with the attributes of insight, empathy, imagination and impact.
Explore the graduate capabilities.
Integrate relevant organisational theories in anal...
Learning Outcome 01
Critique the impact of organisational change on so...
Learning Outcome 02
Demonstrate skills of collaborative practice in wo...
Learning Outcome 03
Analyse the organisational construction of social ...
Learning Outcome 04
Evaluate the impact of various organisational cult...
Learning Outcome 05
Critically reflect on the interface between social...
Learning Outcome 06
Content
Topics will include:
Introduction to Organisational Practice
- Understanding organisations
- Organisational construction of social work practice
- Collaborative practice
- Interdisciplinary practice
Organisational Cultures
- Organisational structures
- Defining organisational culture
- Influence on social work practices
- Leadership and management styles;
- Teams and team building
- parallel teams
- consultative teams
- collaborative teams
- co-ordinated teams
- multi-disciplinary teams
- interdisciplinary teams
- integrated teams
Organisational Change
- Change theories
- Bureaucracy, managerial, technocratic theories
- Systems and functionalist theories
- Culture and communication theories
- Human relations theory
- Critical theories
- Postmodern theories
- Change processes
- Change and resistance in organisations
- Organisational change models
- Social workers as “change managers‟ and facilitators of change
- Responding to client/service user and community need
Planning and Strategic Development
- Strategic planning
- Goal setting
Human Relations
- HR issues and workplace bullying
The Role of the Social Worker in Human Service Organisations
Challenges to workers
- Organisational analysis against principles of
- efficiency
- effectiveness
- evaluation,
- excellence
- Maintaining professional identity
- Working collaboratively in multidisciplinary teams
- Working collaboratively with consumers in service development
- Working collaboratively with a range of government and non-government services
- Identify areas of unmet need
Assessment strategy and rationale
Three assessment approaches are utilised in this unit. The first, an Organisational Analysis requires students to apply the concepts they are learning to an organisation that they have direct experience of through their field placements. The second assessment enables students to think more broadly and conceptually about the nature and application of collaborative practice in organisations. The final, an in-class test, provides students with the opportunity to demonstrate their understanding of key organisational theories and application to practice settings.
Overview of assessments
Organisational analysis: enables integration of r...
Organisational analysis: enables integration of relevant organisational theories in analysing organisational culture and context.
40%
Collaborative Practice task: students further dev...
Collaborative Practice task: students further develop and apply understanding of collaborative practice
40%
In-class test: demonstrate understanding of key o...
In-class test: demonstrate understanding of key organisational concepts and theories
20%
Learning and teaching strategy and rationale
Teaching and learning strategies for this unit will include lectures, small group discussions, and/or Canvas online activities. A number of complex, organisational case studies will be presented to students to give them the opportunity to explore a range of approaches to working effectively in organisations and engaging effectively with colleagues. In order to benefit from interactive learning activities and to achieve learning outcome 3, which requires the demonstration skills of collaborative practice, a minimum tutorial attendance of 80% is required in this unit.
AASW Graduate Attributes
On successful completion of this unit, students should have developed an ability to:
AASW Practice Standards (2013)
This unit has been mapped to the ACU Graduate Attributes, AASW Graduate Attributes and the AASW Practice Standards. The following table sets out the broad relationship between the Learning Outcomes, ACU Graduate Attributes, AASW Graduate Attributes and the AASW Practice Standards