My literature review was conducted on Rethinking decision making: An ethnographic study of worker agency in crisis intervention. From my review of the literature, Smith (2014) describes the problem of decision-making among social workers during crisis intervention. She explains how formal training in Therapeutic Crisis Intervention, a systematic crisis prevention and management program for workers in youth care, is mobilized during crisis intervention “ (p.2).through the decision-making process . This study documents how mental health workers at the University. According to Smith (2014), “while much literature on decision-making in social work is normative, some authors have focused more descriptively on the range of ways in which social workers actually make decisions in specific fields of practice”. (P.1) The author suggests that the social work literature on decision making may benefit from further studies of the ways in which workers mobilize knowledge in their work with clients” (p. 2). Therefore, the literature does show a gap in research on how social workers ultimately make decisions in the workplace.
Smith (2014) describes the findings of her study, “these studies reflect ongoing developments in the fields of judgment and decision-making more generally, which have increasingly complicated or challenged the classical rational actor model of decision-making” (p. 3).
The author’s rationale for the problem is clearly stated. Smith (2014) explains, “I selected UHS as the site of this study because “it offered the opportunity to intensively study how workers did or did not use a formalized decision-making process taught in a crisis intervention” (p. 11 ).
The author also framed the problem in a way that was consistent with her research approach. Smith (2014) notes “Preliminary interviews with UHS executives revealed that the organization was interested in working with a researcher to learn more about how workers made decisions and selected interventions. After speaking with executives, she interviewed “all UHS workers involved in management, clinical training, direct care, or mental health treatment of clients to participate in this study. She conducted approximately 1,560 hours of participant observation with 78 consenting UHS mental health workers over the course of 13 months”
(p. 12).
The targeted population was described in the article as she identified the research study sample which was “conducted at a residential treatment center and school serving approximately 45 children and young adults between the ages of 5 and 20 whose emotional and behavioral symptoms had not been adequately managed in less restrictive environments” (p. 10 ).
Smith (2014) revealed that the clients often had a long-documented history of behavioral, emotional, and social difficulties, as well as outpatient therapies, school-based interventions, hospitalizations, or other residential placement”. (p. 10 )
VICTORIA
BY DAY 6
Respond to a classmate who was assigned a different article than you by further supporting his or her critique or respectfully offering a differing perspective.
VICTORIA
The author’s theoretical framework is grounded in Bourdieu’s theory of practice. Through this conceptual framework, the author frames the literature to “suggests that the social work literature on decision making may benefit from further studies of the ways in which workers mobilize knowledge in their work with clients”(p.28). In conclusion, the citations are not within the past 5 years.
References
Smith, Y. (2014). Rethinking decision making: An ethnographic study of worker agency in crisis intervention. Social Service Review, 88(3), 407–442. https://doi.org/10.1086/677846Links to an external site.
Babbie, E. (2017). Basics of social research (7th ed.). Boston, MA: Cengage Learning.
