Social workers and politics: Direct political involvement and encouragement of client involvement in politics

Abstract

The research focused on two aspects of political involvement among social workers. The first was the direct political involvement of social workers on behalf of their clients, and the second, the social workers’ encouragement of their clients’ involvement in political activity. The main purpose of the research was to identify the factors that explain these two types of political involvement among social workers. The data were collected by means of a structured questionnaire from a research sample of 165 social workers in 50 social services departments in Israel. The findings indicate that the factors of the community (as opposed to clinical) field of practice, political self-efficacy, management support, low level of perceived organizational politics, and work in a rural setting contribute most to the explanation of political involvement of social workers. The perception of political involvement as a professional activity did not explain its prevalence among the social workers. The article discusses the theoretical and practical implications of the findings.