Children in foster care and their expectations in relation to organizational framework : A qualitative study from social worker's perspectives

The work of social workers is complex as they need to relate to different demands and expectations. They need to relate to the expectations of children in foster care, while they also have the organizational frameworks in consideration. This essay has studied social workers' experiences of children in foster care and their expectations of a relationship with social workers and how this can be understood in relation to organizational frameworks. This essay has also studied how social workers describe the unification of these expectations and demands. Lipsky's (1980) theory about street-level bureaucrats has been used to describe the complex role of social workers. In order to gather empirical data, eight semi-structured interviews with social workers who work with children in foster care were conducted. Qualitative content analysis was used to analyze the empirical data. Based on the interviews, the conclusion can be drawn that the organizational framework frames the relationship between social workers and children in foster care, and therefore the children's expectations can be understood on the basis of the organizational framework. Another conclusion that can be drawn is that social workers mostly don't experience any expectations on a relationship from children in foster care, and thereby they don’t experience any difficulties in the unification of the expectations and organizational framework. However, there are a few social workers who experience that some children may have high expectations on a relationship, which social workers experience are difficult to attain. This can make it difficult to unify the children's expectations with the organizational framework. Therefore, it can lead to contradictions in the work of social workers, which also was a part of the aim of the study