Multi-kulturele maatskaplikewerk in die bedryf

Abstract

The abolition of apartheid brought big changes to South Africa. Virtually no aspect of the society remained untouched. These changes also had considerable impact in the field of the rendering of social services. The social worker who has a Western orientated reference framework is now forced to render services to clients from a cultural background totally different from his own. This causes misunderstandings because of cultural differences with the result that effectual and professional services can not be supplied. Nowadays the social worker is forced to adapt his services in order to make it culturally acceptable to all groups. It will demand a lot of extra preparation from the social worker to learn to know the other culture so well that he could adjust to the needs of his client. Because the industry could to a great extend be seen as a micro-cosmos of South Africa, it was decided to investigate the industry as an environment for the practice of cross-cultural social work. Seeing that, as far as could be ascertained, no research has so far been done on this subject, an explanatory design was used for the purpose of this investigation. The aim was to ascertain what kind of social work is being done across cultural borders in the industry and how it is handled by social workers. Furthermore the researcher wanted to determine the ways in which social workers prepare themselves for this situation and what problems are encountered. Of the most important conclusions the researcher arrived at, are that the social workers in the multi-cultural situation are of the opinion that their training did not equip them sufficiently for services in the multi-cultural situation. At the moment industrial social workers find themselves in a situation where they feel that they do not have the necessary equipment to render the quality services expected of them. The conclusion implicates that training facilities for students should be adapted to this need. In other words, to be really able to deliver effectual services, the social worker in the multi-cultural situation must have knowledge of a wide variety of aspects of the reference framework of the client coming from another culture. Of the most important recommendations to be made, is the establishment of training courses to promote the cultural sensitivity of social workers. Social workers should be encouraged to study a black language in order to eliminate communication problems. The industry offers the ideal opportunity for social workers to experiment with techniques of assistance and help together with the research of its suitable application. Employers of industrial social workers ought to make such opportunities available.