Organisering av ekonomiskt bistånd – Perspektiv på en integrerad och en specialiserad kommun

Sammanfattning: Author: Merima Colak Title: Organization of financial assistance - Perspective on an integrated and a specialized municipality [translated title] Supervisor: Håkan Johansson Assessor: Staffan Blomberg The purpose of this study was to examine how specialized and integrated social services manage their social assistance. In addition to this the aim was to examine how social workers and officials working within these two forms of organizations experience discretion. Furthermore, a goal of this paper was also to examine if the social workers felt that any of these two organizational forms had any impact on the workload and how that in such case manifested. The study was conducted through a qualitative research method. Six social workers and officials were interviewed for the study. The results from the study demonstrated that the employees in the integrated organization had more general work tasks and that those in the specialized organization had their tasks divided on different units that were more specialized. Findings also showed that employees in each municipality interpret discretion differently. The social workers from the integrated organization interpreted discretion in terms of being able to affect their client’s case. The social workers from the specialized organization, on the other hand, defined discretion as being able to influence their own daily work tasks. Conclusively, the study showed that workload exists in both municipalities and that it was manageable in each of the municipalities, the workload was however higher in the specialized one but it was no burden on the employees in neither the specialized nor the integrated. Key words: Discretion, organizational structure, integrated and specialized organizations, social assistance, workload. Key words: handlingsutrymme, organisationsstruktur, integrerade och specialiserade organisationer, ekonomiskt bistånd, arbetsbelastning.