In my research, I am researching teamwork in social work centres. In the theoretical introduction, I first defined what social work centres are and the need for teamwork at social work centres, then I defined teamwork and types of teams. I briefly presented the functions and responsibilities of team members, the contribution of social work to team cooperation, the success and efficiency of teamwork and the impact of teamwork on the satisfaction of professional workers and as an opportunity for learning.
The research I conducted is qualitative, as the data was collected using a partially standardized interview on a non-random and convenient sample of seven professional workers employed at the Social Work Centre Ljubljana. The research questions are related to the structure of teams at the social work centre, the opinion of professional workers on the impact of teamwork on the quality and efficiency of services, the challenges and advantages of teamwork, and the opinion of professional workers on the contribution of teamwork to employee satisfaction and to the development of knowledge and skills of employees at the social work centre.
I found that the structure and functioning of teams at the social work centre have a diverse form and depend on the nature of the case. Professional workers include users in teams mainly within multidisciplinary teams and the convener of the team is usually a professional worker employed at the social work centre. Professional workers report that teamwork enables better and more thoughtful decisions, at the same time includes a greater scope of knowledge, enables a comprehensive approach, sharing of responsibilities and offers the opportunity to connect with other professionals. The main challenges of teamwork were highlighted as lack of time, group thinking, organizational problems, conflicts and unresponsiveness of professional workers. Teamwork at the social work centre is very important for professional workers, as it significantly contributes to their job satisfaction, sense of belonging and professional motivation. Teamwork also encourages continuous learning and has a positive impact on the professional workers sense of self-confidence. Based on the research, I conclude that teamwork at social work centres is an indispensable practice that significantly contributes to the success of solving challenges and at the same time provides support to employees.
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