機関に対するライフモデル・ソーシャルワーク実践の一考察 : 職場内インフォーマル集団の形成とエンパワーメントを通じてのフォーマル課題の変容

抄録

When a social work practitioner intends to influence and change his or her own agency's organizational structure, it is imperative to understand the structural characteristics of the organization and its mandated tasks. Eugene Litwak proposed a conceptual framework to identify optimal matching between the tasks of daily living and the corresponding service delivery systems ranging from a primary group to bureaucratic organizations. However, Litwak's model failed to address the existence and its importance of informal groups within formal human service organizations. Withinorganization informal groups play an especially important role when practitioners plan to influence an agency's formal decision making process and its mandated service delivery system. This paper presents a case study in which the first author was involved in an informal group formation process within the agency and in that group's subsequent empowerment. This process finally led to a formal organizational change. In addition to Litwak's organizational analysis model, this paper demonstrates the usefulness of the life model of social work practice in working not only with individuals and families at a micro level, but also with the practitioners' own agency at a mezzo level. The interrelationship between the practice and research is also discussed from the view point of action research.