From Needs to Relationships to Organisations: Transactional Complexity in Social Work in the Swedish Social Services

Abstract

This article explores how Swedish social workers in different sectors of the social services understand complexity in relation to the needs found in 'family' and in social work practice. This study is based on interviews with sixty social workers in five service sectors: child welfare, elderly care, disability care, substance abuse and social assistance. The social workers' reports of understanding and dealing with families with complex needs reveal distinctions between deeply rooted and broadly based needs. Complex family needs are transformed into complex cases based on family composition, relationships between clients and social workers and organisational context. Complexity theory, and in particular the term transactional complexity, is applied to describe the interactive relationship in and between complex needs, relational complexity and organisational complexity. The boundaries between these three domains are not distinct, and the interconnectivity and complexities occurring in and between them contribute to the production of much of the 'wickedness' that exists in social work practice. Social workers may gain from this knowledge in order to unravel the often intangible complexity that commonly appears in social work with families.

Application of complexity theory in health and social care research: a scoping review

“…Implications encompassed changes in clinical practice delivery such as huddles, 23 recommendations for motivational interviewing 45 and social work practice guidelines for dealing with families with complex needs. 55 From a policy perspective, recommendations included complexity-informed processes for the implementation of local drugs policy 35 and complexity-compatible policies regarding integrated healthcare. 37 Implications for future research were typically in relation to the phenomenon being investigated and reflection on their own methodological limitations, for example, Gear and colleagues 25 note the need for more diversity in the samples regarding intimate partner violence in a primary care setting while another study promoted the use of social network analysis and ethnographic approaches to explore the shifts in interactions following the implementation of a simulation tool within a healthcare CAS.…”

The Fate of Social Modernity

“…This hints at a second major characteristic of child protection work, namely the experience of what can be labelled indeterminacy of practice. 'Complexity is front and centre' (Khoo et al 2020(Khoo et al : 2105, as many child protection cases prove to be haphazard and intricate. Related collective agency is 'full of complex challenges and emotions and sometimes drama' (Ferguson 2018, referring to home visits in England).…”

“…For many of the encountered problems, there are no 'simple linear solutions'; rather, agents resort to 'quick heuristic or intuitive modes of decision making', as available information often proves ambiguous (Saltiel 2016(Saltiel : 21052106). Despite 'attempts to control complexity through disassembling, sorting, and measuring various aspects' (Khoo et al 2020(Khoo et al : 2102, situational flexibility is a 'must'. Accordingly, leadership in this sector is viewed as being 'demanding, emotionally charged, and unpredictable' (Olsvik and Saus 2022: 467).…”

Understanding complex needs through the concept of recognition. A qualitative study with Swedish young people about their encounters with welfare state actors

“…We have chosen to examine the issue by interpreting their experiences of encounters with welfare state professionals in terms of Honneth's concept of recognition. We see Honneth's theory of recognition as particularly relevant for the purpose of our project, which is to highlight complexity as something that not only concerns individual needs, but also emanates from relationships and organizations (Khoo, Nygren, and Gümüscü 2019;Gümüscü, Nygren, and Khoo 2020). Complexity is an inherent aspect of social work (Green and McDermott 2010), and social problems are 'wicked problems'; they are complex, characterized by uncertainty, and difficult to define, and different actors may have diverging opinions about causes and remedies (Head 2008;Rittel and Webber 1973).…”