Att vara chef i välfärden : om praktisk kunskap och reflektion

Sammanfattning: This essay has the form of a scientific essay. It explores and reflects on the practical knowledge and the importance of reflection for managers in the social welfare. The starting point is stories from my own experience of various managerial assignments, which are discussed and tested with theories about different kind of knowledge. The essay describes a background and gives a context with the help of scientific studies on leadership and reflection. The central themes that are explored in the essay are wisdom, understanding, individual responsibility and reflection. The theories used are focusing on the type of knowledge that manifests itself in action. They origin from the philosophers Aristotle, Kjell S. Johannessen, John Dewey, Hans-Georg Gadamer, Ludwig Wittgenstein, Simone de Beauvoir and Donald Schön. This essay gives examples of how the practical knowledge that managers in welfare sector uses can be understood and how reflection is an important part and a prerequisite for the development of knowledge.