TO BE A MANAGER IN SOCIAL SERVICES. A QUALITATIVE RESEARCH ON MANAGERS THAT WORK IN SOCIAL SERVICES: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY AND RESEARCH FINDINGS

"What do managers that work in social services do?" The purpose of this research project is to answer this question by describing the daily activities of six Italian managers that work in social services organizations. ... [ view full abstract ]

"What do managers that work in social services do?" The purpose of this research project is to answer this question by describing the daily activities of six Italian managers that work in social services organizations.

Besides presenting research findings, in this paper I want also to consider the specific methodological aspects of the research.

The research has combined two theoretical approaches, one related to describing the daily practices of management (Mintzberg, 1980, 2010) and the other to social work, “the relational social work” (Folgheraiter, 1998, 2012). The methodological choice to integrate different theoretical approaches was based on the idea of enriching the discussion of “to be a manager in social services” which spans different disciplines.

The main technique used in the research is shadowing, in which the researcher observes the subjects, taking notes of everything they say or do. After an analysis of the literature, I integrated various features of different shadowing approaches in order to exploit the features which were most relevant to the object of research.

Keywords: integration theoretical approaches, shadowing, management, social services