Michal E. Mor Barak

Discover the challenges and pitfalls awaiting occupational social workers in the coming years!

Social Services in the Workplace: Repositioning Occupational Social Work in the New Millennium will help you meet the challenges that the rapidly changing world of work today presents. These challenges offer new opportunities for you as a social work professional in general and for the field of occupational social work in particular.

Globalizing economies, downsizing, rightsizing, mergers, and corporate acquisitions continue to challenge work organizations and impact the lives of workers and their families. These trends have led to an increased need for the provision of social work services to employed, unemployed, and transitional workers and their families, and to businesses of all types and sizes. To meet the challenges facing the world of work in the 21st century, the social work profession must put special emphasis on the diverse roles that social workers can take in the workplace--from the micro to the macro--both within workplace settings and in the context of more traditional local, national and global agencies.

Social Services in the Workplace proposes an expanded paradigm for social work practice in the context of the workplace, spanning the gamut from corporate and union settings to 'workfare’or welfare-to-work programs. It provides a wide array of theoretical, conceptual, and empirical examinations of evolving and innovative roles that the social work profession can fulfill in the world of work. Given today's volatile global market conditions, which dictate rapid changes in the organization and conditions of work, Social Services in the Workplace examines opportunities and dilemmas for the social work profession and points to the paths that the profession must take in the near future to remain viable.

Social Services in the Workplace focuses on:

• defining domains for practice
• techniques that work and aspects to emphasize in various workplace environments
• provision of social work services to workers and their families
• welfare-to-work programs
• formulating organizational policies and procedures

Social Services in the Workplace: Repositioning Occupational Social Work in the New Millennium brings into focus the practice of social work in the workplace. With this book, social work students and practitioners can gain a new perspective on the field and learn of new opportunities for employment and practice in the world of work. Academicians can use the book in their Social Work Practice classes, and researchers will discover ideas that will spark innovative research in this field. Corporate executives and human resource managers will gain a new understanding of how the social work profession can benefit their employees, their families, and the work organization. No matter which of these categories you fit into, Social Services in the Workplace will shed light on this expanding field.