250 words
Chapter 1 of your text, Supervision in Social Work (linked in Resources), introduces you to many aspects of social work supervision including definitions, functions and objectives, ecology, cultural aspects, demography, and stakeholders. After having read the chapter and the Best Practice Standards in Social Work Supervision, what is your perspective of supervision? What key considerations of supervision stand out to you and why? Be specific in your discussion and cite sources relevant to your points.

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Transformational Leadership in the Social Work Context: The Importance of Leader Continuity and Co-Worker Support
Susanne Tafvelin*, Ulf Hyvönen, and Kristina Westerberg
Susanne Tafvelin is a Ph.D. candidate at the Department of Psychology at Umeå University in Sweden. Her thesis is devoted to leadership in social work with a focus on transformational
leadership. Ulf Hyvönen, Ph.D., is research director at the Field Research and Development Unit at Umeå Social Services in Sweden. Besides his interest in questions concerning the
interplay between research and practice, he has been engaged in national and international research on child welfare and child protection for many years. Kristina Westerberg, Ph.D., is currently Associate Professor at the Department of Psychology at Umeå University. She also
holds a part-time position as research leader at the Field Research and Development Unit at Umeå Social Services in Sweden, where her area of research concerns organisation, learning
and leadership.
*Correspondence to Susanne Tafvelin, Department of Psychology, Umeå University, 901 87 Umeå, Sweden. E-mail: [email protected]
Abstract
Social work leadership has attracted growing attention in both social work practice and
research. As social service organisations have changed in a variety of ways during the last
decades, knowledge of how leaders should act in these transformed organisations is
crucial. However, few empirical studies have examined what kind of leadership these
changed organisations benefit from and how the continuing organisational change
might affect the impact leaders have. The present study aimed at exploring the effect
of transformational leadership of first line managers in a social work setting. We used
a randomised sample of 158 employees in a Swedish social service organisation, and
examined the direct and indirect effect of transformational leadership on two important
employee attitudes—commitment and role clarity. The results demonstrate the contri-
bution of transformational leadership in creating a workplace where employees are
committed and know what their assignment is. Interaction effects of leader continuity
and co-worker support indicate the need for some stability in the organisation in
order to increase the positive influence transformational leaders have on employees.
This study has implications for leadership training in social work and is a contribution