Social Work With Groups - Guiding Values

Guiding Values

Northen and Kurland (2001) identify the value system informing group work practice with “the ultimate value of social work” which they suggest is “that human beings have opportunities to realize their potential for living in ways that are both personally satisfying and socially desirable” (p. 15). Humanistic values guide social work practice with groups, inform worker role and use of self, and the understanding of membership in a social work group. Humanistic values "cast people in society as responsible for and to one another” (Glassman & Kates, 1990, p. 13). The perspective espoused by several social work group work experts is that not only are people responsible for one another but that mutual interdependence is preferable to individualism (Falck, 1989; Getzel, 1978; Glassman & Kates, 1990; Northen & Kurland, 2001; Schwartz, 1961; Shulman, 2006; Steinberg, 2004).

The following humanistic values have been highlighted by social work educators, such as Gisela Konopka, as integral to social work practice with groups: 1) "individuals are of inherent worth"; 2) "people are mutually responsible for each other; and 3) "people have the fundamental right to experience mental health brought about by social and political conditions that support their fulfillment" (Glassman & Kates, 1990, p. 14).

Democratic norms of group participation which flow from humanistic values are actively shaped by group workers as they promote cooperation and “fluid distribution of position, power and resources” (Glassman & Kates, 1990, p. 14).