Public relations and customer service: Employer perspectives of social media proficiency

Social media has enhanced integration between marketing and public relations. As such, public relations professionals have had to adapt and grow their knowledge and skillsets to stay relevant and current throughout the evolution of the digital landscape (Gesualdi, 2019). One of the growing areas of focus for public relations professionals has been customer service skills online. This specialization, often referred to as social care or social customer service, has been promoted and discussed heavily in industry circles and publications, but not in academic research. This study focuses on the survey results from 396 employers exploring the social media skills they most prefer university graduates to possess when entering the workforce. The results indicate that public relations and customer service are the social media skills most sought after by employers of university graduates ahead of proficiency in areas such as social media content production, strategy development and analytics. The potential implications of these findings to the public relations profession are examined and future research is also discussed.     

Snowball sampling: using social networks to research non‐heterosexual women

This paper explores snowball sampling, a recruitment method that employs research into participants' social networks to access specific populations. Beginning with the premise that research is ‘formed’, the paper offers one account of snowball sampling and using social networks to ‘make’ research. Snowball sampling is often used because the population under investigation is ‘hidden’ either due to low numbers of potential participants or the sensitivity of the topic, for example, research with women who do not fit within the hegemonic heterosexual norm. This paper considers how the recruitment technique of snowball sampling, which uses interpersonal relations and connections between people, both includes and excludes individuals. Following this, the paper contends that due to the use of social networks and interpersonal relations, snowball sampling (in)forms how individuals act and interact in focus groups, couple interviews and interviews. Consequently, snowball sampling not only results in the recruitment of particular samples, use of this technique produces participants' accounts of their lives. Doctoral research with (rather than on or for) 28 non‐heterosexual women is used to examine the inclusions and exclusions of snowball sampling and how interpersonal relations form research accounts.     

Service-user participation in developing social services: applying the experiment-driven approach

ABSTRACT

Participatory approaches are needed in Finland for service users to participate in designing and developing social services. New collaborative methods are the focus of this research, as this pilot case-study analyses the experiment-driven design approach and its consequences on service users’ agency and participation. This practitioner research belongs to the pragmatist research tradition. The data comprises transcribed focus group and individual interviews of service users and social workers in group operations in a Finnish municipal adult social service organisation. The data are evaluated by content analysis. The experiments with service prototypes allowed the service users to observe the consequences of their actions in practice. Instead of only being heard and consulted, the service users found they could influence the practice in concrete ways. The professionals and organisation shaped the service users’ participation and agency by operating as gatekeepers in sharing power. The service users reported that collaboration with professionals and participation in the group gave them a sense of renewed citizenship, improved social skills and helped to manage with personal illnesses or daily struggles. The research concludes that experimentation can provide a way to utilise experiential knowledge in developing social work collaboratively.     

Reflective Photobooth – a way to visualise,and challenge perceptions and representations of distanced social groups

Taken-for-granted knowledge about people from other social groups is a key challenge for overcoming stereotypes. This article describes a novel arts-based research method to visualise participants’ frames of distanced social groups and aims to trigger reflections among them. The Reflective Photobooth invites participants to dress up as members of distanced social groups, stage a scene, produce pictures, answer prompting questions, and discuss their visualisations. We argue that the artistic re-enactment that underlies the visualisation process can attract diverse groups of participants to engage with research topics, create places for the articulation of critical statements against existing societal clichés and stereotypical media representations, and trigger reflections among participants about taken-for-granted knowledge. The method was tested within the Frame-a-Farmer project, in which the social distance between consumers and food producers in modern agrifood systems was addressed. Results indicate that despite the method bearing some risks and facing some challenges, three promising areas of future application could be identified: (i) raising awareness among large groups of people, (ii) collecting stories or topical vignettes, and (iii) deconstructing taken-for-granted knowledge and societal clichés.     

Supporting people with intellectual disabilities to take part in focus groups: reflections on a research project

This paper discusses how support offered to people with intellectual disabilities who take part in research might affect the resultant data. People with intellectual disabilities from a long‐stay hospital, a day centre and a self‐advocacy group, all in the UK, participated in focus groups during a research project on nurse advocacy. Their supporters were staff employed by those services who were familiar with and to the group members. The support given to participants reflected the ethos of the services involved, relating either to the medical or the social model of disability. The paper argues that the philosophy of care influencing supporters of research participants with intellectual disabilities may have profound effects on the support provided. It may facilitate or inhibit open exchange of information. It may also aid clarification or cause contamination of the resultant data.     

Revealing habitus, illuminating practice: Bourdieu, photography and visual methods

Having taken taking as one of its starting points a concern to avoid fetishising method – or employing any form of method for its own sake – this paper then argues that visual methods of research may be particularly helpful in investigating areas that are difficult otherwise to verbalise or articulate. These include Bourdieu's understanding of habitus; our predisposed ways of being, acting and operating in the social environment that Bourdieu himself suggests are 'beyond the grasp of consciousness, and hence cannot be touched by voluntary, deliberate transformation, cannot even be made explicit' ( Bourdieu, 1977 : 94). Having outlined what Bourdieu means by habitus and considered some of the difficulties surrounding its operationalisation, the paper goes on to consider Bourdieu's own use of photography and understanding of photographic practice. It is then argued that we can move beyond Bourdieu's position by employing visual methods specifically to uncover and illuminate aspects of habitus. Where research participants are directly involved in this process this also means that visual methods can be potentially transformative, allowing for the development of forms of critical self-awareness amongst research participants of the sort that Bourdieu attributes to 'socioanalysis' ( Bourdieu, 1999 : 611).     

Accompaniment in a Mexican immigrant community: Conceptualization and identification of biopsychosocial outcomes

Taller de Jose (TDJ) offers accompaniment in a Mexican neighborhood in Chicago, helping service participants navigate health, judicial, and social service systems. Using a community-based participatory approach, the current study conceptualizes the accompaniment service and identifies psychosocial outcomes. Focus groups with service participants and staff were conducted, using a grounded theory approach. The data provides support for a conceptual model of accompaniment based on interdisciplinary knowledge in ministry, social work, and public health; and a consideration of social context, values, and outcomes such as increased social support, knowledge of community resources, and improved self-efficacy.     

Developing Family-Centered Models of Genetic Services

Abstract

This article reports the findings of an exploratory, multi-method study conducted for a state health authority to examine stakeholder perceptions of existing genetic services and service ideals using survey and focus group methodologies. A web-based survey of medical providers and allied health professionals (N = 567) examined the knowledge needed by service providers to deliver competent genetic care. A second web-based survey of programs (N = 15) viewed as potential partners in the delivery of genetic services was conducted to explore the potential for interagency coordination, the family-centered nature of these services, existing training, and general agency ideals and values. Focus groups were also conducted with 4 groups of families and 3 groups of service providers to explore their perceptions of current and ideal services. The strategies yielded important information around service needs, resource issues, barriers to service, psychological issues, and education and information needs related to the delivery of genetic services. Implications for professional education, especially social work education, are also covered.     

Knowledge Management in Social Work–Towards a Conceptual Framework

SUMMARY

Knowledge management (KM) is receiving increasing attention in the human services such as social work. Social service organizations have started to use information and communication technology for knowledge management purposes with the aim of improving service efficiency and effectiveness. Existing KM studies, particularly in the commercial or industrial sectors, mainly focus on the reductionistic “knowledge-as-object” view, while other perspectives such as “knowledge-as-process” are less discussed. This paper argues that these mainstream conceptions of knowledge in KM do not fully fit with that of social work knowledge, and that a spectrum view may be more useful for future practice and inquiry in the area.     

Intercultural education and academic achievement: a framework for school-based policies in multilingual schools

The paper reviews quantitative and qualitative research evidence regarding the relationship between intercultural education and academic achievement among students from socially marginalized communities. Intercultural education is conceptualized as including a focus both on generating understanding and respect for diverse cultural traditions and challenging inequitable distribution of resources and educational opportunities across social groups. As such, intercultural education incorporates notions such as critical literacy and culturally responsive education. By definition, socially marginalized communities have experienced social exclusion and discrimination, often over generations. Thus, educators who adopt an intercultural education orientation are also committed to challenging the operation of coercive relations of power within their school environments. The operation of societal power relations that affect marginalized group students’ academic achievement can be conceptualized along a continuum ranging from structural/societal, through structural/educational, to interpersonal. Structural/societal forms of discrimination are largely outside the scope of what educators can influence directly (e.g. housing segregation). However, the research evidence suggests that educators have considerable power to resist and challenge coercive power relations operating at both structural/educational (e.g. curriculum materials) and interpersonal (e.g. classroom interactions) dimensions of the continuum. Thus, the proposed framework represents an explanatory model to account for patterns of school success and failure among marginalized group students and a predictive model to specify educator behaviors that are likely to promote academic achievement.     

The challenge of rural civil Society: Response to the paper by Lloyd m. Sachikonye

The article takes a radical democratic starting point arguing the importance of the rural focus of research as a corrective to excessive emphasis on urbanism. Civil society is weak and autonomous public spheres hardly exist outside urban areas. But the author argues that the social and cultural resources that are present in the Southern African villages are both interesting and promising elements for future change. More research and more work will help develop a genuin ‘rural public sphere’.     

Assessment as the Site of Power: A Bourdieusian Interrogation of Service User and Carer Involvement in the Assessments of Social Work Students

The centrality of service user and carer involvement in social work education in England is now well established, both in policy and practice. However, research evidence suggests their involvement in student assessments is underdeveloped and under researched. This study focused on the positioning of service users and carers in relation to other stakeholders involved in the assessments of social work students in England. Using narrative research methodology, 21 participants, including service users, carers, social work students, social work employers and social work educators, were offered a semi-structured individual interview. Participants’ narratives revealed different power relations among those involved in social work students’ assessments and a lack of confidence among service users and carers in making failed assessment recommendations. The paper concludes by arguing the case for social work educators and service user organisations to provide joint training to support service users and carers in their role as assessors of social work students.     

Meeting Life Challenges

SUMMARY

Mental health and social service providers need to understand the contextual experience of diverse aging populations and the types of life challenges they have encountered. This research examined the life challenges specified by a purposive sample of 75 urban community-dwelling low-income older adults from four high-rise housing facilities. Thirty-four study participants were Jewish American and 41 were African American. Results indicate that many participants of both groups identified personal events such as bereavement and health as stressors, but only the Jewish Americans identified societal events such as World War II. Both groups found social resources moderately valuable in meeting life challenges, but religious resources were frequently identified by African American older adults and personal resources were highly endorsed by Jewish Americans, resulting in a hierarchy of coping styles for each group. Results suggest that mental health and social service providers can create interventions to reinforce and strengthen natural client resources that may vary according to ethnic and racial differences     

Construction of Peer Support Groups in Child Protection Social Work: Negotiating Practicalities to Enhance the Professional Self

This paper reports on a research project that was developed between a cohort of child protection social workers in the Republic of Ireland and the authors. The focus of the research was on researching participants’ experiences of developing peer support groups (PSGs) in child protection social work. Eleven participants formed two PSGs; one group had six participants, the other had five. This qualitative research study involved focus groups with each of the peer groups at the beginning, middle and end of the 12-month period. Data from the focus groups were analysed using thematic analysis (Braun & Clarke, 2006). Findings from the research indicate that the organic development of a PSG involves negotiating a range of practicalities which, working together, help to promote reflective practice and to advance the development of the professional self. A number of important and interconnected subthemes emerged within the texts of the focus groups. These included: the establishment of PSGs as a work activity; consideration of logistical matters in forming PSGs; identification of the influence of group dynamics in structuring and negotiating PSGs; PSGs as a conduit for integrating personal and professional values and as a context for facilitating and enabling an increased consciousness of self in practice. Drawing on these findings, the authors consider the implications for integrating PSGs within child protection agency services.     

Service Users,Social Work Education and Knowledge for Social Work Practice

This paper explores the implications of service user contributions to social work education in the light of historical critiques of disability research. The paper reflects on the authors' dual service user and academic perspectives as well as their dual disability studies and social work disciplinary affiliations. Referring back to early critiques of disability research, it argues that isolated user involvement in social work education can be problematic, particularly where that involvement is under the control of the academy. Drawing on feminist critiques of traditional social science, the authors present arguments for the collective involvement of service users in research and underpinning knowledge for social work as well as in social work education.     

From Clinic to Community: The Evolution of a Group for Women with Postpartum Mental Illness

Since 1980, national and international research knowledge on carers and care-giving has been accumulating. However, the theoretical bases of this research are usually unstated and implicit. Theory is vital in shaping social work research programs and types of social work intervention. This paper examines and critiques the social work theories influencing published social work research on care-giving. A search of key social work journals from 1980 to 2001 identified a total of 102 research articles about care-giving. The perspectives informing these articles fall into four groupings: positivist; interpretivist; systems; and feminist/radical. Building on the model developed by Howe (1987), which differentiates theories of radical change from those concerned with social regulation, each perspective is critically analysed for its underlying assumptions, level of analysis, research methodology and implications for policy and practice. Our review indicated that research on care-giving is dominated by a positivist approach that focuses on stress-coping and social support theories. These approaches are essentially individualistic, focus on the burden of care and prescribe interventions that assist carers to adjust to or cope with the care-giving role. Future social work research on care-giving should be informed by critical social work theories offering deeper structural analysis. This would be more consistent with our discipline's concern for social change and social justice.     

Making it Work: Supporting Group Representation in a Liberal Democratic Organization

Providing oppressed social groups with rights of representation is one suggestion for counteracting bias towards privileged groups in society. In order to counteract a bias towards their white, male, heterosexual, able‐bodied membership, a number of trade unions have provided social groups with resources to self‐organize and represent their group interests to mainstream decision‐makers. However, enabling group representation at the same time as individual representation is problematic in trade unions that are organized along liberal democratic lines. This case study of UNISON shows that while the union supported the self‐organization of oppressed social groups, these groups were excluded from matters affecting pay and working conditions. The article argues that this outcome reflects the difficulty of reconciling the representation of social groups with the representation of individuals in a liberal democratic organization. The implications of this organizational framework are illustrated by contrasting the organizing strategies of two women's self‐organized groups. While one strategy (the organization of women shop stewards) fits the prevailing organizational structure, the other (the organization of all women) attempts to be different and may have more potential for counteracting the bias towards privileged groups in the future. The article argues that a radical organizational framework is required if oppressed social groups are to gain real power within trade unions.     

Engaging communities: Ostrom's economic commons,social capital and public relations

This article discusses the research of economics Nobelist Elinor Ostrom. It argues her analysis of long term community co-operation contains important insights for public relations, especially in the area of community engagement. Informed by Ostrom's focus on common pool resource management, the article highlights the importance of organisations adopting an attitude of mutuality to the external stakeholder environment. It also associates public relations practice with the promotion of a social commons. It then examines Ostrom's insights on the role that face-to-face communication plays in the generation of social capital and the norms of behaviour that promote co-operation. The article ends with a discussion of the implications of these findings for the practice of public relations in organisations and suggests areas for further research.