In a broad spectrum social work is a discipline concerned with enhancing the aspects that promote social functioning in the society in a bid to enhance the well-being of families, individuals and communities in general. Therefore, a social worker is responsible for the actualization of the goals of the profession. It is in the process of actualization of the goals of social work as a profession that social work supervisors are mandated with the responsibility to oversee and run the administration of social work agencies or departments. In their operations, social work supervisors require a well-defined power structure that gives them the authority to oversee their juniors and delegate duties. Therefore, they require authority and power in order to deliver. Authority is the right to exercise control over other by issuing of directives while expecting compliance from subordinates. On the other hand, power is defined as the ability to exercise authority. As established in the Kadushin’s discussion, the sources of supervisory powers are; agency’s administration, the government through the state board of social work examiners and the client being represented.
In the recent past, I’ve had an encounter with a social work supervisor who was responsible in overseeing the affairs of an institution I was attached to. The supervisor was a responsible person who diligently accomplished his duties in a timely manner. I could substantially identify that the sources of his power were from the administration of the institution and the profession. He could effectively implement his plans with a lot of power and authority hence the success we realized in the course of my encounter with the institution. The supervisor frequently used the reward power, the coercive power and the referent power.
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The sources of authority enjoyed by my supervisor and his approach in using the power positively influenced my relationship with him while at the same time impacting my performance. The supervisor could provide supportive reward systems that motivated all the supervisees to deliver the best. Some of the rewards included; promotions, pay rises and provision of supportive services. Since the rewards were given according to individual performance and team performance, every supervisee could work diligently to earn the rewards, including me. I could also identify with the supervisor in the course of accomplishing my responsibilities because I really wanted to be like him in my future career endeavors. His referent power made him a role model to me. A perfect example is when I worked past the normal working hours to ensure that I attended to a client’s needs to satisfaction just to make my supervisor and our client proud of me and the services rendered by the agency in general.
