Introduction and Statement of Purpose
Social work has long sought a conceptual framework to describe both its most basic approach to service delivery -- generalist social work practice -- and the underlying and normative ethics and values which must be operationalized in the delivery of client services. Generalist social work might accurately be described as a perspective that focuses on the interface between systems, on a client-centered and problem-focused philosophy, and on an openness to multiple theories and approaches for improving peoples' well-being (Schatz, Jenkins, & Sheafor, 1990).
In this context, as Schatz, et al (p. 219), have pointed out, all social workers have been charged with the task of acquiring knowledge about their communities and client groups so as to better understand normative and value systems. Additionally, social work values and philosophy express
the important recognition within the profession that practice be carried out with the ultimate respect for the worth and dignity of the person or system and the expectation that each client will achieve his or her destiny within a process that maximizes self-determination
and self-actualization (Hepworth & Larson, 1986, pp. 19-20).
Although no single social work philosophy has been promulgated, the intent of a social work philosophy is to offer various principles for social work practice that stipulate general beliefs about how the profession generally views the world (Hepworth & Larson, 1986, p. 20). The purpose of this report is to examine the literature describing the generalist social worker's ethical and value orientation, and to find evidence of how social workers express these ethical and value orientations in practice settings; this generalist orientation is the perspective of this writer, whose selection of literature (below) reflects a set of practice and theory assumptions and addresses selected concerns of social worker and...