Empowerment of clients has become a popular goal of social work practice. However, empowerment of social workers in their workplace has received much less attention. In order for human services organizations to transform themselves to meet the challenges that lie ahead, they must empower their staff and genuinely involve them in the process of redesign. While worker empowerment has been embraced by business corporations and other public service organizations, the social work profession has paid little attention to it.This paper examines the prevailing model of worker involvement in organizational change in human services organizations, and suggest that this model be revised in light of new demands and new understanding of organizational change. It identifies and challenges three main assumptions of this approach, and then proposes a new model in which worker involvement is formally sanctioned and is viewed as part of the professional social worker's role. It is also viewed as part of a continuous process of organizational learning and improvement.The paper details two illustrations of how this new model might
The authors discuss some of the challenges encountered in educating the millennial generation of Civil Engineers. This generation, born during the 1990's, may be characterized by their exposure to smart devices and computers connected to the Internet starting from their toddler years. They have developed a natural affinity and curiosity to take advantage of the computers for play and entertainment, reading, studying and especially communicating. Most millennial students are meanwhile proving to be less/or/uninterested in classical math and mechanics, and in group-thinking and groupstudying, and in anything that involves non-virtual media.Alongside with their special skills of naturally interfacing with software that promise instant digital and virtual rewards, there are justified concerns in educating this generation due to their general lack of interest in a physical, conceptual grasping of the real world. Without an interest in observation and exploration outside the virtual world this generation also appears to trust what the virtual world presents to them. These challenges add to the difficulties of the Civil Engineering profession and education that are among the slowest in introducing technology and innovation.
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