Socialarbetare : professionell medmänniska eller byråkrat?

The purpose of this study was to examine how social work professionals view their professional role and how they think about the concept of social work. I also wanted to investigate what they believe characterize a professional social work. For the purposes of this study, I chose a qualitative approach in which I interviewed five people linked to the social work. The theories which I have assumed in the analysis of the results are power theory, organization theory and professional theory. The results of this study show that the respondents believe that a professional social work is performed by someone who has training and experience in the field. They believe that social work is characterized by words such as development, change, relationships and help. The results of the study also show that the social work involves a gamble between power and help just as Skau (1993) raises in the book between power and help. It is the organization, in which the social worker is employed, that sets the guidelines and framework for the formulation of social work. Although social workers often find themselves in bureaucratic organizations, they have a wide discretion and collaboration with other agencies is a necessity in order to help people with social problems