“The Missing Bit” Emotional Intelligence as counterbalance to managerialism

1. “The Missing Bit” Emotional Intelligence as counterbalance to managerialism Joanna Rawles London South Bank University rawlesj@lsbu.ac.uk Joanna Rawles London South Bank University

2. Qualitative Research Project Semi-structured interviews • 9 Practice Educators/field instructors • 2 recent social work Masters graduates • How relevant is EI to social work practice? • To what extent can/do students use these skills? • How are they being enabled to do so in practice? • How equipped are PEs to assess for this? Joanna Rawles London South Bank University

3. What brought me to this topic? Very little on social work and EI, even less on social work education and EI Student “I would have no emotional reaction” My own social work experience 1990s & 2000s Research on What service users want from social workers Students’ failing placements Joanna Rawles London South Bank University

4. Managerialism From the late 1980s in the UK • Shifting relationship between the state and citizens – neo liberalism • The marketisation of welfare • A mistrust of public services • From professional autonomy to accountability • Performance management “controlling the front line” Kirkpatrick et al (2005) Joanna Rawles London South Bank University

5. How does the social work role appear to a student? • The purpose– “identification with the organisation rather than with a specific profession” (Ferguson 2008 p47) • The task – to fulfil the procedures of that organisation through increasingly mechanised and prescriptive ways. • The aim – defending resources rather than engaging with the human situation Joanna Rawles London South Bank University

6. Emotional Intelligence “The ability to monitor one’s own and others feelings and emotions, to discriminate among them and to use this information to guide one’s thinking and actions” Salovey and Mayer’s (1990: 189) • EI as “a discrete set of emotional processing abilities” (Morrison 2007:252) rather than an affective state as in other interpretations e.g. Goleman Joanna Rawles London South Bank University

7. Mayer-Salovey-Caruso Four Areas of EI abilities • Perceive emotion • Use emotion to facilitate thought • Understand emotional meanings • Manage emotions in oneself and others Salovey (2006) Joanna Rawles

8. Intrapersonal skills = Self Awareness Interpersonal skills = Other Awareness Joanna Rawles London South Bank University

9. Its importance to social work “hugely important” “fundamental” All PEs could immediately recognise and recall those students who had excelled in this area and those who had struggled Joanna Rawles London South Bank University

10. Students who use EI well were defined in the following way They “flew”; were “exceptional” “her ability to relate to other people.. Intuitive.. self aware..reflective, able to appraise situations quickly, able to respond in the moment” “able to articulate feelings… able to identify what belongs to her or what might have been getting in the way” “she acknowledges feelings but is not overwhelmed by them” “Aware of team dynamics..notices if people are getting quite stressed and tries to offer to do things” Joanna Rawles

11. Students whose use of EI was limited “if anything went outside the prepared question he wasn’t able to see where that person was coming from.. He would just freeze” “just stunned about everything like it was a shock to her, the work and what she was exposed to” “she missed a key opportunity to acknowledge somebody’s pain and hurt…she was so busy giving information” “she read a file with all these incestuous relationships in and I know it really affected her but she was loath to tell me” “blank look” “its incredibly difficult to read her emotions with clients” Joanna Rawles

12. Themes on its relevance concur with the view in social work /EI literature • Decision making • Resilience • Understanding and engaging with service users (Morrison 2007; Howe 2008; Munro 2011) Joanna Rawles London South Bank University

13. Limited skills in this area was linked to a lack of understanding of its relevance “well I think she was quite defensive…“why do you want to know” almost, “why do you need to know how I was feeling” you knew what went on and what happened etc etc why do you need to know what the impact of that was?” PE Joanna Rawles London South Bank University

14. Its place within the managerial context of contemporary social work “I think it’s the missing bit in terms of the new performance indicators and check lists and all the managerialism that’s crept into the profession so I think that getting back to kind of understanding how other people feel and really being empathic and understanding our own feelings I think its really important.” PE Joanna Rawles London South Bank University

15. “I am struggling with the student who needs more support in this area with how to raise it without it feeling very personal” PE “In this team, people do the work its bang bang bang but whilst doing that we have at the back of our mind we know that there are children out there.. it doesn’t mean you don’t think about it, I certainly did, I was thinking poor things how is it going to effect them. I need to find out from my student …. if she was actually thinking the same thing” PE Joanna Rawles London South Bank University

16. Student “like being given a map of an area you know fairly well…. The title Emotional Intelligence and the definition is really helpful… its not just a name it helps you to apply it and understand it more” Joanna Rawles London South Bank University

17. Student Social Worker Activity - Emotional Intelligence is important for … Joanna Rawles London South Bank University

18. References Beresford, P (2007) The Changing Roles and Tasks of Social Workers from a Service Users’ Perspective: A Literature Informed Discussion Paper: Shaping Our Lives Damasio, A (2006) Descartes’ Error: Emotion Reason and the Human Brain: London. Vintage Ferguson, I (2008) Reclaiming Social Work: London. Sage Gardner, H (1983) Frames of Mind: The Theory of Multiple Intelligences: New York: Basic Books Goleman, D (1996) Emotional Intelligence: Why it Can Matter More than IQ. London: Bloomsbury Howe, D (2008) The Emotionally Intelligent Social Worker. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan Kirkpatrick, Ackroyed & Walker (2005) The New Managerialism and Public Service Professionals: Basingstoke. Palgrave MacMillan Mayer, J (2006) ‘A New Field Guide to Emotional Intelligence’ in Ciarrochi, J, Forgas, J, Mayer, J eds (2006) Emotional Intelligence in Everyday Life. Hove: Psychology Press Munro, I (2011) The Munro Review of Child Protection: Final Report: A Child Centred System. Department of Education: London Salovey, P & Mayer, J (1990) ‘Emotional Intelligence’ in Imagination, Cognition and Personality 9, 181-211 Morrison, T (2007) ‘Emotional Intelligence, Emotion and Social Work: Context, Characteristics, Complications and Contribution’ in British Journal of Social Work 37, 245-263 Joanna Rawles