Instrumental, Interpersonal or Holistic: Social Work Managers' Conceptions of Safety in the Psychosocial Work Environment

Social work managers are accountable for risks and safety in the psychosocial work environment. This article aims to understand how social work managers deal with safety in the psychosocial work environment in social service organizations with potentially conflicting logics of regulation and security, by answering the questions: How do social work managers conceptualize safety in the psychosocial work environment?; What are the implications of different conceptions of safety in the psychosocial work environment for social work management? Through a qualitative phenomenographic analysis of semi-structured interviews with 27 managers in the Swedish social services, three conceptions were found: an instrumental, interpersonal and holistic conception. As each conception encompasses the former and thus increases the level of comprehensiveness, tensions between the logics of regulation and security increases. Managers with a comprehensive conception must therefore reflect on the way regulations for safety may conflict with social relationships. Implications for social work management are the need to discuss how safety management relates to social work professionalism, and the self-regulation due to the integration of safety thinking in social work professionalization. Future research could investigate how the conceptions relate to managerial and professional practice and how different parts of the social services conceptualize safety.