Michael J. Holosko

Social Work Leadership: Identifying Core Attributes

This article argues that social work academics are educationally remiss for not defining the concepts touted as important for the profession and for our students. Through a content analysis of published literature, the author distilled five core attributes of social work leadership that underpin all other knowledge, personal, and skilled capacities. These core attributes are defined and how they have been used to date is described. This work is aspirational, and the author hopes that other academics and social work professionals may add to its thinking and application.

A Review of Information and Communication Technology Enhanced Social Work Interventions

Objectives: Information and communications technology (ICT) has impacted almost all human service disciplines and currently is evolving in social work. This study provides a systematic review of ICT-enhanced social work interventions, with particular reference to their intervention fidelity (IF), validity, and the role of ICT in the helping relationship process. Method: We assessed specific articles published in journals classified under the “Social Work” research area in the Social Science Citation Index (SSCI; N = 17). Results: All studies that met specific criteria indicated positive intervention outcomes, most of them were of “good” or “fair” quality in terms of their validity, and almost all of them upheld IF. However, there was room for improvement in the conceptualization component of the ICT intervention application. Conclusions: These ICT-enhanced intervention studies established a foundation to enable unique practice insights to advance social work practice knowledge. Additional practice and research in this area are necessary in order to further our understanding about ICT and their use in social work interventions. Implications are discussed and suggestions are provided.

How service users become empowered in human service organizations: the empowerment model

This article presents an empowerment model (EM) to be used by service users in human service organizations (HSOs). The EM is a structure for service user input to be integrated within the HSO at various administrative levels through a four-step sequential process. The article fills a distinct void in the literature as there are numerous accounts about the importance of empowerment, but few on processes that need to be defined to operationalize the concept. Implications are directed toward administrators as they need to take leadership in implementing the EM in order to deliver more efficient and relevant services to their clients.

Research Productivity in Top-Ranked Schools in Psychology and Social Work: Does Having a Research Culture Matter?.

The h-index for all social work and psychology tenured or tenure-track faculty in the top 25 social work programs and psychology departments as ranked by U.S. News and World Report in 2012 and 2013, respectively, were obtained, permitting comparison of the scholarly influence between members (N = 1,939) of the two fields. This involved N = 970 social work faculty and N = 969 psychology faculty. The average h-index for social work and psychology faculty were 6.62 and 15.67, respectively. This more rigorously designed controlled-comparative study contraindicates prior research that showed social work faculty to be relatively equal to psychology, in terms of its scholarly influence. Results are discussed in terms of discipline-specific research pedagogy and practice in psychology.

What Types of Designs are We Using in Social Work Research and Evaluation

This article addresses a void in the literature about social work research and evaluation (R&E) designs, in particular related to the quality of its published work. Data were collected by reviewing three empirically oriented journals, Research on Social Work Practice, Journal of Social Service Research, and Social Work Research over three publication years 2005, 2006, and 2007. A total of N = 329 articles were content analyzed accordingly: research versus nonresearch, designs used, design objectives, sample sizes, primary statistics used, and outcomes. Main findings were (a) social work’s R&E is uniquely characterized by a cohort of nonresearch studies, which assist in understanding our empirically published work; (b) the most frequently used designs were preexperimental (82.2%) and least frequently used were experimental (2.3%); (c) design objectives were equally dispersed across exploration, variable relationships, instrument development, and program/evaluation; (d) primary statistics used were parametric (82.2%); and (e) 96.7% of the studies specified outcomes within them. Implications are directed to better understanding the context of where social work R&E is conducted, not apologizing for the designs the author uses, and how one can and should strengthen our study designs to offset their concerns.

Is Social Work a Profession? The Canadian Response

This article presents an analysis of social work in Canada regarding Flexner’s perception of our professional status. It presents an overview of the content of social work practice, highlighting the uniqueness of Canada’s social welfare system. It argues that Canadian social welfare has characteristics that distinguish it from social welfare in its U.S. neighbor to the south and that such features need to be understood and identified prior to considering the professional or semiprofessional status of social work in Canada.

The Development and Initial Validation of the Empathy Scale for Social Workers

Empathy is a core principle essential to social work. Despite this emphasis, minimal empirical research of empathy has been undertaken by social work researchers. The purpose of this study was to develop and initially validate the Empathy Scale for Social Workers (ESSW). The ESSW is a 41-item self-report inventory designed to assess empathy in social work practitioners. The sample (N = 271) consisted of social workers who had attained the Master of Social Work (MSW) degree. Findings revealed promising psychometric properties for the ESSW, and exploratory factor analysis (EFA) demonstrated content, construct, and factorial validity. Results were encouraging and they lay the ground work for the continued development of the ESSW. This scale addresses a gap in social work knowledge regarding the empirical evaluation of empathy. Results have implications for social work as the scale may be used to assess student training needs and/or as a screening tool for social work supervisors and practitioners.

The Story Behind the Story of Collaborative Networks–Relationships Do Matter!

Abstract This study reports data about the real story behind the current trend of mandated interorganizational collaboration of health and human service agencies. By means of qualitative design (N-22), public health managers were interviewed about the extent and nature of their collaborative efforts in the Healthy Babies, Healthy Children (HBHC) Program in Ontario, Canada. Using a conceptual framework of resource exchange theory, this study found that relational processes specifically: (a) previous relationships with other agencies and (b) interpersonal relations namely: informality, local community, open communication and resolving conflicts were the reasons for successful collaborations. Implications are directed toward: health and social planners, administrators, board members, funding bodies and policy-makers. The study offers new knowledge about a subject which has received minimal attention in the literature.

A Suggested Authors' Checklist for Submitting Manuscripts to Research on Social Work Practice

A checklist of factors to be considered by authors planning to submit an outcome study for editorial review and possible publication in the journal Research on Social Work Practice is presented. This list is intended to help authors assure themselves that their article is indeed appropriate for this journal. It is hoped that the presentation of this type of checklist will further advance the methodological rigor of research into the outcomes of social work practice and stimulate other research journals in our discipline to adopt similarly clear guidelines.

Citation Impact of Women in Social Work: Exploring Gender and Research Culture

Purpose: We assessed citation impact scholarship of women in the top 25-ranked schools of social work in the United States. Method: We used a mixed methodology. Part 1 was a secondary data analysis of the top-25 U.S. News and World Report ranked schools from 2012 using the Hirsch h-index over a 10-year period. Qualitative interviews were conducted with graduates from top-ranked schools. We then examined the faculty websites. Results: The mean h-score was 18.64. The majority of these women were employed at the University of Washington (n = 6), followed by Columbia University and the Universities of Southern California (n = 3, respectively), Michigan, and California at Berkeley (n = 2, respectively). Discussion: The overall impact scores for these women are significant and speak to a number of factors including negotiating long-standing systemic and structural variables. We continue to describe elements of research cultures, which are essential to our profession’s academic development in today’s corporate university cultures.