Supervision

Supervision
Author’s Name
Institution

Abstract
The following paper is a review of two articles that discuss supervision in the context of social work. The first article aims at showing that supervision is not politically innocent since it varies depending on context. Further, this article also indicates that resilience is not the only issue that matters when it comes to supervision since context also does matter. The author also points out that the theories adopted by social workers when applying supervision should be considerate of the context of the application. A lesson I learned from this article is that if supervision is appropriately applied in an organization, it promotes the well-being of the personnel. The second article makes use of the theory of communicative action when handling the issue of ethics expertise. The communicative action theory to points out that to attain goals, social actors have to arrive at a common understanding. The lesson I learned from the second article is that the communication approach chosen profoundly influences the relationship that emerges between a professional and a beneficiary.

Adamson, C. (2012). Supervision is not politically innocent. Australian Social Work, 65(2), 185-196. Retrieved from http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/0312407X.2011.618544
Summary
The author applies resilience literature to indicate that supervision, as applied in social work, is not an organizational or political neutral aspect since it has to be conscious of its application, purpose, and context.

Social work literature further acknowledges that supervision can be applied in diverse contexts. Other than the social work profession, supervision in the professional setting has also been adopted in fields like health and human services, counseling, education, and psychotherapy. There are several functions of supervision, and they include occupational health, professional development & competence, risk management & accountability, sustainability, and efficiency, effectiveness & cost-effectiveness (Adamson, 2012).
The model applied is the lens of resilience. The author also shows that no unique theory can be applied to the resilience of supervision. Resilience is termed as the capacity to withstand tough circumstances. In social work, resilience is impacted by individual characteristics, and the environmental and contextual impacts and interaction. Apart from the resilience, the author indicates that supervision can be used to sustain and maintain a workforce. For instance, supervision promotes the welfare of early-career social workers. Further, proper supervision also has been shown to promote the emergence of positive worker outcomes such as worker retention, job satisfaction, and organizational commitment. The author also indicates that applying resilience in a harsh environment faces challenges since structural and systemic issues also impact social workers. The author concludes that supervision lacks political neutrality.
Author’s purpose in writing the article
The central focus of the author for writing this article is to show that supervision faces its challenges if the structural and systemic issues are not addressed. That is, supervision may be applied but fail to achieve the intended results since some issues have not been handled. Also, the author wanted to point out that the theories adopted by social workers when applying supervision should be considerate of the context of the application. This is to imply that different theories will function differently depending on the context of the application.
Lessons from the article and its adaptability
The lesson I learned from this article is that if supervision is properly applied in an organization, it promotes the well-being of the personnel which translates to worker retention, job satisfaction, and being committed to the organization. This, in turn, boosts productivity since the workers are motivated. The second lesson I have learned from this article is that resilience should be considered while applying supervision since context matters.
The content could be adapted in my work environment by applying resilience depending on the context.
Frunză, A., & Sandu, A. (2016). Updating ethics expertise: Supervision of ethics as a communicative action. Journal of Social Work Values and Ethics, 13(1), 73-84. Retrieved from http://jswve.org/download/2016-1/articles/13-1-2016-73-Updating-Ethics-Expertise.pdf
Summary
The authors of this article aimed at addressing the ethics expertise by applying the theory of communicative action. Communication is an essential aspect of creating relationships with otherness. The model used is the communicative action theory. Habermas came up with the communicative action theory, and it indicates that cooperation and consensus are the key elements when social actors want to arrive at a common understanding and organize schedules. Therefore, strategic-action-oriented is not applied in the communicative action theory when it comes to attaining goals. Habermas’ theory aims at encouraging the existence of latent communication in organizations. The necessity of having supervision of ethics is to ensure that there exist specific communication channels and a code of conduct in the organization. There are numerous sections of communicative action with social intervention being one even though it is categorized in social work. Another aspect evidenced by the authors is that the kind of communication put in practice will determine how a social worker and beneficiary relate (Frunză & Sandu, 2016).
There are several social work activities as evidenced by the communicative action. The instrumental activity focuses on acquiring resources. Gaining social success and power as inspiration is the focus of strategic activity. The last activity is the communicative action that focuses on having an inter-comprehensive understanding of the social actors. In conclusion, the authors show that supervision will dictate the action strategies of the experts hence professional supervision should be applied to foster professional efficiency. Therefore, ethics expertise should be updated to ensure that professional and organizational values are harmonious.
Authors’ purpose in writing the article
The authors aim at showing that the communicative action adopted will determine the kind of relationship that emerges between a social worker and a beneficiary. The authors also indicate that there are three kinds of social activities and each has unique traits depending on the benefits.
Lessons from the article and its adaptability
The first lesson I have learned from this article is that the communication approach picked will highly influence the relationship that emerges between a professional and a beneficiary. It is therefore important to adopt a communication action that does not compromise an organization’s moral norms or code of conduct. I have also learned that supervision should be applied to promote efficiency at the place of work since it encourages the occurrence of professional efficiency. Professionals should know what is expected of them since their manner of communication can greatly impact the norms or code of conduct of an organization.
This article is adaptable since it describes how the communication is paramount and further describes the uniqueness of each communicative action and what relationship it is likely to develop.

References
Adamson, C. (2012). Supervision is not politically innocent. Australian Social Work, 65(2), 185-196. Retrieved from http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/0312407X.2011.618544
Frunză, A., & Sandu, A. (2016). Updating ethics expertise: Supervision of ethics as a communicative action. Journal of Social Work Values and Ethics, 13(1), 73-84. Retrieved from http://jswve.org/download/2016-1/articles/13-1-2016-73-Updating-Ethics-Expertise.pdf