Socialtjänstens professionella paradox - Emotionshantering och dess konsekvenser hos socialsekreterare som arbetar med barnutredning med fokus på organisatoriska förutsättningar

Sammanfattning: The aim of this study was to examine emotions described by social workers within child protection services in relation to organizational conditions and how these emotions are handled and acted upon. The study was based on nine semi structured interviews with social workers that work within child protection services. The method used to analyse the material was content analysis based on a hermeneutic approach, applying theories of emotional labour by Arlie Hochschild and theories of exit, voice and loyalty by Albert Hirschman. The main findings in this study were the existence of a professional paradox in regards to the social workers descriptions of their thought on what social work should or could be and the reality of the work together with the fact that there was an ongoing individualization of structural problems from both the employer and the social workers themselves. Social workers handled the different emotions and the emotive dissonance that occurred from this professional paradox by working too much so that they were on the verge of having a burnout, lowered the quality of work as a survival mechanism and a lot of the descriptions contained a constant evaluation of exit. The study also showed that voice as a strategy was restrained in use by social workers because of its emotional and timely cost and because of the dependency social workers had towards their organization in regards to gaining work experience. In the end presumed future exit was a common planned strategy for the social workers.