Why Study Management?

Abstract

This chapter outlines why it is useful for social workers at all levels to know something of the discipline called management. The assertion made in the introduction that all social workers are managers will be explained and the development of the role of care manager traced. Finally, the issue of whether or not managers should have a background in social work is analysed. (It might be useful for readers to be thinking as they read the material how the agencies in which they work or are on placement operate and in what ways this affects the tasks they undertake.)