Management in Social Care: A Cause for Concern or an Adapting Professional Identity

Abstract

Managers in social care are being relied upon to lead and implement substantial change within the sector. Yet the prevailing view is that the pressure being put on managers by managerialism and the increase in the business aspects of their role is in conflict with social care managers’ values, causing concern and challenging managers’ identity. Additionally, managers in social care are presented as being part of the same homogenous group as social work managers, a potential misrepresentation, which again has consequences for how managers identify with their role.

This study aimed to explore and explain how social care managers are experiencing their manager identity and how they categorise themselves from a group perspective. This research was undertaken using a critical realist philosophical approach. The key theoretical framework used is social identity theory.

The study findings have achieved the overall aim of the research, establishing that social care managers appear not to be experiencing any conflict in their identities, that managerialism is accepted by managers and seen to be necessary, and that managers’ values, formed in childhood, are a key aspect of how they undertake their managerial role. In addition, social care managers are not the same as social work managers, their social identity is a synthesis of the multiple groups they are members of with the dominant group being social care, because of this they cannot be viewed as being within the same homogenous group. Neither is the social care manager role distinctive from manager roles in other sectors, however how they undertake the role is. The significance of the study is the contribution to both the existing social care literature and the literature on social identity theory.