A Unified Personal Social Service : A quantitative study about the social workers view on specialization and collaboration within personal social services in Gävle

The aim of this study was to examine the social workers’ views on the working conditions within specialized personal social services. The study was conducted by an online-survey administered to all social workers within personal social services in Gävle. The analysis was supported by previous research, collaboration theory and organization theory. The results showed that the social workers were on an overall level satisfied with the specialized organization. The social workers agreed more on the advantages with specialization than with the disadvantages. Furthermore, the results showed that the social workers were of the same opinion regarding the consequences affecting the clients, for example too many social workers involved in client’s cases. The results also showed that the social workers believed that more knowledge about each other and each other’s areas of responsibility facilitates collaboration. Similarities and differences between how social workers responsible for exercising public authority and those who work with treatment and support experienced a specialized personal social service as well as limitations regarding the work with clients were discussed.Syftet med denna studie var att undersöka socialarbetarnas upplevelse av arbetsvillkoren i en specialiserad organisation. Detta har genomförts genom en webbaserad enkätundersökning som distribuerades till alla socialarbetare inom individ- och familjeomsorgen i Gävle. Analysen gjordes med stöd av tidigare forskning, samverkansteori samt organisationsteori. Resultatet visade att socialarbetarna generellt sett var nöjda med den specialiserade organisationsformen. De instämde i större utsträckning i fördelarna än nackdelarna med specialisering. Vidare visade resultatet att socialarbetarna var eniga om specialiseringens konsekvenser för klienter, bland annat att för många socialarbetare involverades i klienters ärenden. Socialarbetarna uppgav även att mer kunskap om varandra och varandras enheters ansvarsområden underlättar samverkan. Likheter och skillnader mellan behandlare och utredares upplevelser av den specialiserade organisationen samt begränsningar i klientarbetet har diskuterats