Principled Leadership Development Model for Aspiring Social Work Managers and Administrators: Development and Application

There is an emerging trend in social work administration where many direct practice-oriented social work students get promoted after their graduation to supervisory or managerial positions, yet haven't mastered macro-level competencies during their social work education. This places these recent graduates in the untenable position of stepping into professional roles they didn't envision and might not be prepared for. This may inhibit their advancement in administrative hierarchies because they do not have the leadership/managerial qualifications that those from other professions have by virtue of their educational and practice experiences. The Principled Leadership Development Model addresses this gap by providing educators and administrators a generic template that can be used to create customized leadership development initiatives for social workers in their professional careers. The six integrated components of the model are discussed. A case example of the application of the model in creating a leadership development academy for post-graduate social workers in maternal and child health settings is presented.