DQ

What does it mean to be an ethical leader? How is ethical leadership demonstrated in social work practice? As a leader in the social work profession, you have to achieve a balance between your professional and personal ethics. At times, these may be aligned with each other, but there may be situations in which they conflict. Because leadership includes value and moral dimensions, your character, actions, and goals as a social work administrator should reflect ethical leadership.

Required Reading

 

1. Northouse, P. G. (2018). Introduction to leadership: Concepts and practice (4th ed.). Washington, DC: Sage.

Chapter 12, “Addressing Ethics in Leadership” (pp. 273-300) Attached Document

2. Northouse, P. G. (2013). Leadership: Theory and practice (6th ed.). Los Angeles: Sage Publications. Chapter 16, “Leadership Ethics” (pp. 423–449) Attached Document

Websites

3. Stephenson, M. O., Jr. (2011). Considering the relationships among social conflict, social imaginaries, resilience, and community-based organization leadership. Ecology and Society, 16(1). Retrieved from http://www.ecologyandsociety.org/vol16/iss1/art34/  Open website

https://www.ecologyandsociety.org/vol16/iss1/art34/

Website NASW Code of Ethics 

National Association of Social Workers. (2017). Code of ethics of the National Association of Social Workers. Retrieved from https://www.socialworkers.org/About/Ethics/Code-of-Ethics/Code-of-Ethics-English.aspx Open Website

For this Discussion, consider the characteristics of ethical leadership and the challenges associated with practicing ethical leadership.

Discussion Question

Post  1 page pager your definition of ethical leadership as it relates to the social work profession. Explain what it means to be an ethical leader and describe the challenges of being an ethical leader.

DQ

Dudley (2009) points out that social work practice is usually embedded in programs. While you looked at practice evaluation using single-subject design in Week 3, this week, you shift focus to program evaluation. Program evaluation serves many purposes, including accountability to funders and to the public. Often, funding sources such as government agencies or private foundations requires periodic program evaluations. These evaluations can help provide answers to many different questions and can contribute to improvement of services. There are a variety of program evaluation models that are appropriate for addressing different questions as well as facilitating the collection and analysis of many different types of data.

 Required Reading

1. Document: Logan, T. K., & Royse, D. (2010). Chapter 13 Program evaluation studies. In B. Thyer (Ed.), The handbook of social work research methods (2nd ed., pp. 221–240). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage. (PDF)

2. Dudley, J. R. (2014). Social work evaluation: Enhancing what we do. (2nd ed.) Chicago, IL: Lyceum Books.

· Chapter 1, “Evaluation and Social Work: Making the Connection” (pp. 1–26)

· Chapter 4, “Common Types of Evaluations” (pp. 71-89)

· Chapter 5, “Focusing an Evaluation” (pp. 90-105)

NOTE: You are going to have to pick a program within an agency that you are familiar with or locate one if you are not familiar with. 

To prepare for this Discussion, identify a program within an agency with which you are familiar, which could benefit from process evaluation and outcome evaluation. You do not need to identify the agency in your post. Also, review the different evaluation models highlighted in this week’s resources (needs assessment, program monitoring, client satisfaction study, outcome evaluation, or cost benefit study).

Post a brief summary 1 page of the program that you selected. Recommend a program evaluation model that would answer a question relevant to the program. Explain the potential benefits of the program evaluation that you proposed (both process and outcome). Identify 2–3 concerns that stakeholders might have about your proposed evaluation and how you would address those concerns. Then explain 2–3 concerns that stakeholders may have about your proposed program evaluation and how you would address those concerns.