Att vara socionomkonsult : En professionell outsider?

Sammanfattning: The usage of agency social workers in Sweden have increased during the past few decades and there is a lack of research on this topic. This study aims to describe how the agency social workers experience the work within the swedish social services and how it affects their role with regards to their deviant type of employment. The study is comprised of qualitative interviews with seven agency social workers who have differentiated experience in social services assignments. The results of the study is based on thematic analysis and Becker’s theory of outsiders. The results show that the agency social workers don’t necessarily regard themselves as outsiders in a negative sense, but rather in a positive way. However, they tend to use strategies to avoid behaviour that can appear deviant and therefore avoid being labelled as outsiders. This includes for instance living up to both formal and informal expectations, being careful when it comes to criticizing the hiring organisation and being cautious in their involvement in social relationships to the permanent staff. Opposed to previous studies, these results indicate that the agency social workers expresses more positive experiences in relation to the hiring organisation.