Abstract
Social work management education can make use of management practices such as mission statements as a teaching tool. In an introductory anthropology course as part of the interdisciplinary study programme of Social Pedagogics and Management at a German University of Applied Sciences, students were introduced to theoretical approaches in anthropology and culture studies contextualised to social work sciences and management. Additionally, mission statements of social work organisations were utilised to successively develop practical attitudes in applying the newly acquired knowledge to different professional situations, to discuss critically on ethical questions, and to reflect on how their actions and attitudes as prospective social workers are influenced by different images of humankind. The authors develop a didactic approach to combine anthropological insights with practical management practices and demonstrate how theory and professional practice can be connected in a reflective and co-constructive process of teaching and learning. As a result, mission statements can be understood as an objectivisation of a collective culture, the so-called organisational culture. The chapter concludes with implications for the development of social work management education.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Similar content being viewed by others
Notes
- 1.
In the present context, the Autorengruppe FB 4 sfs (n.d., p. 8) refers to the controversial debate on new models of production work that arose in 2005. It mainly concerned the metal industry, in particular assembly in the automotive industry, and revolved around the question whether a re-taylorisation of production work was a necessity or danger, which eventually led to the following brief summary: The “starting hypothesis is that the guiding principles of work organisation in production can only be conceived and understood if they are seen as [embedded] in an overarching economic action and an overall social and cultural context, which is gaining relative importance precisely in view of the ‘dissolution of boundaries’ and ‘subjectification’ of work and which partly has a global effect in each case” (ibid., transl. by the authors). One novel insight it offers is that “[f]rom a social-scientific point of view, guiding principles and guiding ideas are mental concepts that are supposed to help bring together things that divide (knowledge, interests, values, etc.) and push back pure arbitrariness through social obligations. They are not to be confused with ‘guidelines’ as those are formulated as concrete instructions for action, e.g., in the application of labour science findings. Furthermore, while guiding principles are aimed at individual citizens (like the Categorical Imperative in Kant’s practical philosophy: ‘Act in such a way that...’) and are intended to bind them to moral principles, guiding ideas rather work in institutional contexts. They aim at a structured diversity, at a communal setting, at groups in milieus and the structures of meaning and expectation contained therein as well as forms of cooperation (objectification, routinisation, organisation, juridification, empowerment, professionalisation), negotiated solutions, the formation of compromises, a culture of discussion with leeway given, which are the ideational conceptions that are associated with the orientation towards common guiding principles and guiding ideas. Ideas that are connected with the orientation towards common guiding principles and guiding ideas.” (cf. ibid., transl. by the authors).
- 2.
Gehlen (1993) was a supporter of the “National Socialism” in Germany, at least initially. But, unlike many other German thinkers of that era, his considerations do not contain any explicit anti-Semitic, racist, or social Darwinist ideas. Today, he is viewed and accepted as a conservative scholar (Thies, 2000, pp. 15ff.).
References
Arnold, M. (2020). Change management education in social work degree programmes in Germany: Bridging the gap between management science and professional practice. In Sajid S. M., R. Baikady, C. Sheng-li, & H. Sakaguchi (Eds.), The Palgrave handbook of global social work education (pp. 101–117). Palgrave Macmillan. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-39966-5_7
Arnold, M. (2022). Guiding principles and basic questions for mission statements. [figshare]. https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.21568359.v1
Autorengruppe FB 4 sfs. (n.d.). Arbeitsorganisatorische Leitbilder [Work Organisational Mission Statements]. http://www.sfs.tu-dortmund.de/odb/Repository/Publication/Doc/1190/synopse_arbeitsorganisatorischer_leitbilder.pdf
Babnik, K., Breznik, K., Dermol, V., & Širca, N. T. (2014). The mission statement: Organisational culture perspective. Industrial Management & Data Systems, 114(4), 612–627.
Baecker, D. (1994). Soziale Hilfe als Funktionssystem der Gesellschaft [Social work as functional system of the society]. Zeitschrift für Soziologie, 23(2), 93–110.
Bartkus, B., Glassman, M., & McAfee, B. (2000). Mission statements: Are they smoke and mirrors? Business Horizons, 43(6), 23–28.
Campbell, A., & Yeung, S. (1991). Creating a sense of mission. Long Range Planning, 42(4), 10–20.
Commission on Pedagogical Anthropology of the German Society for Educational Sciences. (2020). Kommission Pädagogische Anthropologie [Commission on Pedagogical Anthropology of the German Society for Educational Sciences]. https://www.dgfe.de/sektionen-kommissionen-ag/sektion-2-allgemeine-erziehungswissenschaft/kommission-paedagogische-anthropologie
Desmidt, S., Prinzie, A., & Decramer, A. (2011). Looking for the value of mission statements: A meta-analysis of 20 years of research. Management Decision, 49(3), 468–483.
Elias, N. (1987). Die Gesellschaft der Individuen [The Society of Individuals]. Suhrkamp.
Felten, P. (2013). Principles of good practice in SoTL. Teaching and Learning Inquiry, 1(1), 121–125.
Gehlen, A. (1993). Der Mensch: Seine Natur und seine Stellung in der Welt. Bd. 1 [The Humankind: Its Nature and Position in the World. Vol. 1]. Vittorio Klostermann.
Görl-Rottstädt, D., Arnold, M., Heinrich-Zehm, M., Köhler, M., & Hähnlein, V. (2022). Critical teaching-learning situations in higher education and vocational education – A qualitative analysis of the use of digital approaches and tools in virtual collaborative learning environment. In M. E. Auer, H. Hortsch, O. Michler, & T. Köhler (Eds.), Mobility for smart cities and regional development – Challenges for higher education. ICL 2021. Lecture notes in networks and systems (Vol. 389, pp. 34–45). Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-93904-5_4
Graf, P., & Spengler, M. (2008). Leitbild- und Konzeptentwicklung [Mission statements and the concept development] (5th ed.). Ziel.
Hall, D. T., & Chandler, D. E. (2005). Psychological success: When the career is a calling. Journal of Organizational Behavior, 26(2), 155–176. https://doi.org/10.1002/job.301
Huizinga, J. (1987). Homo Ludens: Vom Ursprung der Kultur im spiel [Homo Ludens: From the origin of the culture as play]. Rowohlt.
Kemp, S., & Dwyer, L. (2003). Mission statements of international airlines: A content analysis. Tourism Management, 24(6), 635–653.
Liedke, U. (2017). Diakonische Profildialoge als Teil der Organisationsentwicklung [Diaconical dialogue as part of the Organisational development]. In M. Arnold, D. Bonchino-Demmler, R. Evers, M. Hußmann, & U. Liedke (Eds.), Perspektiven Diakonischer Profilbildung: Ein Arbeitsbuch am Beispiel von Einrichtungen der Diakonie in Sachsen (pp. 105–250). EVA.
Luhmann, N. (2017). Systemtheorie der Gesellschaft [System theory of the society]. Suhrkamp.
Maak, T., & Ulrich, P. (2007). Integre Unternehmensführung: Ethisches Orientierungswissen für die Wirtschaftspraxis [Integrated Management: Ethical Orientational Knowledge for Business Practice]. Schäffer-Poeschel.
Mecheril, P. (Ed.). (2016). Handbuch Migrationspädagogik [Handbook migration pedagogics]. BeltzJuventa.
Mecheril, P., Castro Varela, M. D. M., Dirim, I., Kalpaka, A., & Melter, C. (2010). Migrationspädagogik [Migration pedagogics]. BeltzJuventa.
Morgan, G. (1998). Images of organization: The executive edition. Sage.
Muckenfuss, K. (2020). Zur Relevanz von Menschenrechten in der Sozialen Arbeit – eine bedürfnistheoretische Begründung [About the Relevance of Human Rights in Social Work – A Needs-theoretical Justification]. In N. Prasad, K. Muckenfuss, & A. Foitzik (Eds.), Recht vor Gnade. Bedeutung von Menschenrechtsentscheidungen für eine diskriminierungskritische (Soziale) Arbeit (pp. 177–190). BeltzJuventa.
Nagel, R., & Wimmer, R. (2014). Systemische Strategieentwicklung: Modelle und Instrumente für Berater und Entscheider [Systemic strategy development: Models and instruments for consultants and decision-makers] (6th ed.). Schäffer-Poeschel.
Parker, P., Arthur, M. B., & Inkson, K. (2004). Career communities: A preliminary exploration of member-defined career support structures. Journal of Organizational Behavior, 25, 489–514.
Pearce, J. A., & David, F. (1987). Corporate mission statements: The bottom line. Academy of Management Perspectives, 1(2), 109–115.
Plessner, H. (1975). Die Stufen des Organischen und der mensch: Einleitung in die philosophische Anthropologie [The steps oft he organic and the humankind: Introduction to the philosophical anthropology]. Sammlung Göschen/de Gruyter.
Sanchez, R., & Heene, A. (2004). The new strategic management: Organization, competition, and competence. Wiley.
Schein, E. H. (2010). Organizational culture and leadership (4th ed.). Jossey-Bass.
Scheler, M. (1994). Schriften zur Anthropologie [Works on anthropology]. Reclam.
Schilling, J. (2000). Anthropologie: Menschenbilder in der Sozialen Arbeit [Anthropology: Images of the humankind in social work]. Reinhardt Ernst.
Schmid Noerr, G. (2018). Ethik der Sozialen Arbeit [Ethics in Social Work] (2nd ed.). Kohlhammer.
Schmitz, H. (2009). Kurze Einführung in die Neue Phänomenologie [Short introduction to new phenomenology]. Karl Alber.
Staub-Bernasconi, S. (2021). Soziale Arbeit und Systemisches Paradigma: Auf dem Weg zur Sozialen Arbeit als kritischer profession [social work and the systematic paradigm: On the way to social work as critical profession]. In M. May & A. Schäfer (Eds.), Theorien für die Soziale Arbeit (pp. 43–64). Nomos.
Stein, M. (2013). Allgemeine Pädagogik [General Pedagogy] (2nd ed.). Reinhardt Ernst.
Thies, C. (2000). Arnold Gehlen zur Einführung [Arnold Gehlen for an Introduction]. Junius.
Vygotskij, L. S. (1992). Geschichte der höheren psychischen Funktionen [History of the higher psychological functions]. In A. Métraux (Ed.), Lev Semënovic Vygotskij: Geschichte der höheren psychischen Funktionen (pp. 26–269). Lit.
Weber, M. (2016) [1904–05]. Die protestantische Ethik und der „Geist“ des Kapitalismus [The Protestant Ethics and the “Spirit” of Capitalism]. Springer VS.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2023 The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Görl-Rottstädt, D., Andrä, M., Arnold, M. (2023). Analysis of Mission Statements of Social Service Organisations as Practical Anthropology – An Example from Teaching in Social Work Management at a German University of Applied Science. In: Arnold, M. (eds) Handbook of Applied Teaching and Learning in Social Work Management Education. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-18038-5_15
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-18038-5_15
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-031-18037-8
Online ISBN: 978-3-031-18038-5
eBook Packages: EducationEducation (R0)