The 5 Attributes of Social Work as a Profession

(Ernest Greenwood)

I. Systematic Body of Theory

 The skills that characterize a profession flow from and are supported by
a fund of knowledge that has been organized into an internally
consistent system called a body of theory.
 The practice of a profession involves the application of scientific
knowledge leaned during the course of professional education; it is not
a hit-or-miss, trial-and-error kind of activity.

Note:
 Theory serves a base in terms of which the professional rationalizes his operations
in concrete situations.
 Acquisition of skills require a prior or simultaneous mastery of the theory
underlying that skill.

3 Types of Knowledge SW
a. Tested Knowledge
- Knowledge that has been established through scientific study (research)
- Comes in the form of borrowed knowledge from different professions
and disciplines.
b. Hypothetical Knowledge
- Still has to undergo transformation into tested knowledge, even if
tentatively such knowledge may be accepted to explain certain facts
c. Assumptive Knowledge
- Practice wisdom

II. Professional Authority

 Extensive education in the systematic theory of her discipline provides the
professional with a type of knowledge which the layman does not have.
 In the helping relationship, the professional’s judgement and authority are
respected and accepted by hi “client”, unlike in a transaction with a non-
professional where the rule is “the customer us always right”.
  The authority ascribed to the professional by reason of her educational
background gives the client a sense of security that the professional has the
capacity to help him with his problem.
 The professional social worker, like any other professional, should guide
or assist her client only along her area of competence or she would violate
the authority of another professional group. She should not exploit her
client for her own end, especially since her “superior” position gives her a
psychological advantage of her own client.
 The right to decide is always the client’s prerogative.

III. Community Sanction

 The community sanctions a profession’s authority by way of giving it
certain powers and privileges.

IV. Regulative Code of Ethics

 Social work, just like any other professions, has a built-in regulative code
which compels ethical behavior on the part of its members.
 This code serves to check possible abuses which can arise out of a
profession’s exercise of authority, and is accompanying power and
privileges.

How does a profession enforce the observance of its ethical code?

 Self-discipline (Greenwood), which is achieved informally and formally.
 Informal discipline comes in the form of subtle and the not-so-subtle pressures that
co-professionals exert upon one another, such as in the use of referral and
consultation.
 Formal discipline is exercised by the professional associations, which usually have
some system of censuring unprofessional behavior.

V. Professional Culture
 Interactions of social rules required by the formal and informal groups
generate a social configuration unique to the profession.
 Consists of its values, norms and symbols.
Professional Norms
 The accepted standards of behavior of doing things, which guide the professional
in various situations, such as how to gain entry into formal and informal groups,
how to handle consultations, how to relate to superiors, colleagues and
subordinates, how to treat clients, how to challenge an outmoded theory, how to
present a new idea, and so on.

Social values
 Refer to the basic and fundamental beliefs of a professional group, practically the
reason for its existence.

Symbols (of a profession)

 A profession’s “meaning-laden items” including emblems, insignias, dress,
history, its idioms and vocabulary and its stereotypes of the professional, the client
and the layman

Social work is already a profession; it as too many points of congruence with the model to
be classifiable otherwise. (Greenwood)