The purpose of the essay is to provide you with the opportunity to examine the potential of social work leadership in a real human service organisation.

All students should identify an organisation that will be the focus of this paper. This may be an organisation in which you work or volunteer, or it may be another organisation within your local community. You are encouraged to access information about the organisation through its published material (e.g. websites), as well as through discussions with staff of the organisation. If you wish, you may present a small number of direct quotes from conversations with relevant staff. You should not, however, engage in a research process with staff – such as administering a survey or conducting formal research interviews or focus groups.

Please note: the focus of this paper is not reflection on your own personal experiences, although you may write in the first person. You should draw on academic literature and research throughout your paper.

You are to write an essay on social work leadership within this organisation and its external environment. Your essay should address the following questions:

How is leadership exercised in this human service agency?
How might social workers employed by the organisation undertake more leadership responsibilities, both within the agency and more widely within the organisation’s external environment?
Your paper should include an introduction and conclusion. Towards the beginning of the paper, you should outline some key features of the organisation.

Marking criteria

Demonstrated understanding of the concept of leadership as it applies to social work (15 marks).
Application of the discussion of leadership to a specific human service organisation (15 marks).
Identification of strategies to increase social workers’ leadership participation both within the organisation and within its environment (10 marks).
Presentation, including written expression and referencing (10 marks).