Att arbeta förstärkt

Sammanfattning: Author: Oskar Nilsson. Title. To work reinforced. A qualitative study of the changes within the social assistance benefits work in Malmö. (Translated title). Supervisor. Torbjörn Hjort. In august of 2018 the local board of labor market and social services in Malmö decided that all inhabitants receiving social assistance benefits should have monthly scheduled meetings with their social worker. This implied a large shift in the work carried out by the organizations engaged within the field of social assistance towards a more meeting oriented work method called the “reinforced method” (det förstärkta arbetssättet). During the time of my study the goal for each social worker in Malmö was to conduct forty meetings per month, which includes about two thirds of their total client group. The aim of this study is to shed light on the process where municipal political decisions are implemented within local social service agencies and the consequences this has on the social workers affected. The method used in my study was semi structured qualitative interviews. During my fieldwork I interviewed six social workers working according to the new reinforced method and two social workers in leading roles responsible for overseeing the implementation of the new method. While analyzing my findings I used a range of sociological theories that helped to highlight the various levels of the social work surrounding social assistance benefits and the relationship between organizational goals and workforce priorities. My study shows the complexity in the alignment between organizational goals and the social workers workload and own priorities. The reinforced method is described as an effective but blunt instrument. The social workers in my study expressed that they prefer the new method in relation to a more conventional approach but that while striving to have a fixed number of client meetings they discard other parts of their jobs that they sometimes find more urgent and fruitful.