Introduction
The word supervision is composed of two Latin words – super, i.e., above average, and videre, i.e., vision, understanding. It is a term for an activity associated with visual sensory perception. In literal translation, this means an exceptional vision of the future. Supervision is meant to provide social workers with sufficient stimuli so that they search for new ways of practicing their profession. Supervision remains unknown in many areas. Its gradual expansion will be increasingly beneficial for the whole of society. The aim of supervision is to give social workers stimuli to seek new ways of solving clients’ economic and psychosocial problems. It offers possibilities for improving the quality of work in the professional performance of social work. Supervision is a counseling method used to increase the quality of professional activity.
Supervisor – professional
A professional supervisor in performing his or her profession faces many challenges. In order to carry out this activity, natural aptitudes are necessary. Empathy, constructive conflict resolution and emotional equilibrium are essential.
Other required prerequisites are higher education, while social work is among the recommended fields. After completing higher education, a future supervisor must undergo accredited supervisor training according to the provision of the Social Services Act No. 448/2008 Z. z. Motivation is a strong motivating factor in this context. After completing higher education and accredited supervisor training, in addition to motivation and natural gifts, practical experience is necessary. Only through practice can a supervisor refine professional skills. The supervisor, after completing supervision training and carrying out practice, must not stop with further self-study useful in his or her profession. In this way, expertise should be increased. It should be confronted with theory and own practice. Thus, professional growth can occur.
In addition, the supervisor should be personally engaged when solving complex problems. A special approach is required. Emotional equilibrium and the adoption of a neutral attitude when viewing problems from the supervisor’s side are desirable.
The principle of personal involvement and the simultaneous requirement of neutrality put significant demands on the emotional balance and performance component of social workers. A good prerequisite for this is when the supervisor comes from an external environment that is not drawn into the organization’s problems, in contrast to internal employees. “Professionalism is required from the supervisor and natural humanity expressed through respect, empathy, tolerance, which is the basis for professional conduct in social service facilities.” 2 The supervisor provides his or her professional competencies to workers in social services. “The provider of social services must respect and support the development of his or her employees’ abilities, skills and knowledge also through supervision.” 3 Better acquaintance with employees helps in more effectively achieving the work goals of social service institutions.
Supervision occurs in individual organizations. It may include individual enterprises with a higher level of work organization and a more complex structure of operation. The goal of the supervisor is to search for solutions, process conflicts arising at the workplace, in communication and in workplace relationships. The supervisor must verify the fulfillment of assigned tasks arising from supervision. In addition, the supervisor may correct ineffective procedures that occur in the organization. It also may verify the correctness of procedures in work with clients, with groups and with families. Supervision can be a prevention against incorrect decisions that could negatively affect the client themselves.
Supervision is among the effective tools for eliminating the burnout syndrome that has already arisen. Burnout syndrome represents a serious state in which a social worker is frustrated by professional performance. If this syndrome remains unresolved, the quality of work can decline, and the final and definitive departure from the profession in the field of social work may follow.
“Burnout syndrome is a phenomenon of this era, when a person in any work position forgets about family, friends and free time.” 4 Burnout syndrome represents a serious condition that can have a negative impact on a social worker’s close environment and family if the social worker suffers from it. Supervision is a necessary tool for eliminating this problem.
Supervision looks for possibilities of professional development and verifies the correctness of work procedures. It searches for alternatives, pathways and options. It leads to more effective professional performance. It is helpful in raising the status of the profession.
Functions of supervision
The managerial function of supervision focuses on guiding the performance of the supervisee in the organization. It concerns observance of moral and ethical values, legal norms and internal organizational norms. The managerial function of supervision is a managerial function. Its advantage is that it is often oriented toward management within the organizational structure of the institution. It represents a certain level of control over the worker. This is intended to motivate the employee to improve work performance and lead to beneficial changes. Within this function of supervision, more effective use of human resources is included, through which functional achievement of organizational goals is possible.
The educational function of supervision helps the supervisee in professional development. It teaches the supervisee to respond to the needs of the organization, society and clients themselves. The aim of the educational function of supervision is reflection and self-reflection. To some extent, this is pedagogical activity by the supervisor toward the supervisee.
In the supportive function of supervision, reducing subjective feelings of work burden and finding new methods and alternatives that help eliminate negativity in professional performance and in the functioning of the organization are important. The supportive function of supervision should bring some relief from problems, their resolution and achievement of satisfaction for social workers.
In defining supervision besides functions, we know several forms of supervision. Supervision can be divided by:
- the relationship between the supervisor and the supervisee,
- the presence of the supervisor,
- urgency,
- the number of supervisees.
By the relationship between the supervisor and the supervisee, we distinguish vertical supervision and horizontal supervision. 6
In vertical supervision, the supervisor provides his or her skills and knowledge. Such supervision is linked to training and preparation of new supervisors. Vertical supervision can also consist of transferring experience from a more experienced supervisor to a less experienced or novice supervisor. In vertical supervision, there may be two supervisors, with the less experienced supervisor in the role of assistant, observer and with only certain competencies assigned to them. It is not excluded that the less experienced supervisor is under the supervision of a more experienced supervisor.
Horizontal supervision is based on a different relationship than vertical supervision. In vertical supervision, the relationship is often that of the superior supervisor to the subordinate supervisor. Horizontal supervision is based on collegial supervision. It involves exchanging experiences, mutual support, the continuous process of learning and professional refinement. It also helps in improving professional procedures. The goal of this supervision is also professional growth of professional performance.
According to the presence of the supervisor, we distinguish direct and indirect supervision. Direct supervision consists of the personal participation of the supervisor. His or her participation can be direct. In it, they intervene in consultative work. In this supervision, the supervisor may also hold the position of observer. Indirect supervision helps provide information and established facts related to a specific case. Often this involves an audiovisual or audio recording made through available electronic aids. During playback, one can return to it, analyze it, conduct discussion and thus reach evaluation and specification of improvement procedures.
Planned supervision together with crisis supervision belong to supervision classified by urgency. Planned supervision is carried out according to a set schedule. In the schedule, meetings are agreed upon in which the procedure may already be planned. It is typical for organizations that have requested supervision. This is supervision for which the supervisor must prepare in advance and which requires time-intensive preparation. Crisis supervision is that which is necessarily required on the basis of urgency. It may involve ad hoc meetings that flow from the main, long-term planned supervision. Supervision can be carried out only between the supervisor and the supervisee. In this case, we are speaking about individual supervision. Group supervision takes place between the supervisor and a collective of supervisees. Collective supervision can be discussed when at least 2 supervisees participate.
By the number of people being supervised, we know individual and group supervision. Individual supervision takes place between the supervisor and one social worker. Group supervision takes place between the supervisor and at least two social workers.
In terms of place of practice, or in terms of the supervisor’s position, supervision is internal and external. 7
External supervision is a form of supervision in which the supervisor comes from an environment outside the organization. Before supervision is performed, this organization must be learned through information and other verified sources. A disadvantage of this type is the time-consuming nature of its preparation. In addition, the supervisor gets acquainted with this organization during the actual supervision in the organization. Therefore, the supervisor’s foresight and prompt responses are necessary. The advantage of this supervision is that the supervisor enters, for him or her, a foreign organization. They are not influenced by the functioning and work relationships in the organization. On problems and their solutions, they are placed in a more neutral position.
For internal supervision, the supervisor is a member of the given organization. In it, he or she can perform his or her additional role. Its advantage is that the supervisor knows the organizational and work structure of the organization well, as well as workplace relationships in the collective. There is no need to get acquainted with the organization and its operation. Information from external sources is not necessary. The disadvantage of this supervision is that the supervisor himself or herself, as a colleague in the social organization, may not be received as someone different—i.e., the person who proposes new impulses for conflict resolution. They may often be labeled as a colleague whose work is the work they most often perform themselves. Likewise, the supervisor themselves can be negatively affected by poor relationships in the collective. When dealing with problems, they can often fall into subjectivity.
For supervision to be effective, pre-supervision interviews are needed. These are conducted through communication with the leadership of organizations, centers and institutions. A project is developed that should include the objectives of supervision, the place of implementation, the timetable, scope, financial planning and the desired form of supervision sessions. In the project, the target group of supervisees, responsibilities of contract participants, monitoring and evaluation of the whole supervision process should be identified. “It is useful to ensure clarity of purpose, and the group must be clear about how it stands on this, verifying whether its expectations are realistic. The factor of time and number of clients that can be supervised must be taken into account.” 8 In supervision, mothers caring for children should be taken into consideration. Quite often this group of workers may be missing in an organization due to care duties. “The possibility of reconciling working life with family care is taken into account by women with children more often. In this case, the requirements regarding distance to employment and working hours usually derive from the operating hours of childcare institutions such as kindergartens, after-school clubs at primary schools, or other forms of child care.”9 Therefore, supervision should also address these factors, which should lead to compromise or satisfaction for both sides of the organization—the management and employees.
Supervision is not psychotherapy, but it includes its elements. It also works with tools from psychotherapy. The difference between supervision and psychotherapy lies in that supervision is focused on the profession of the social worker and the improvement of that profession. Based on theoretical concepts of social work as a separate academic discipline and the goals of social work, expected outcomes in supervision are changes in the individual, group or community and his or her social environment. 10 Supervision takes care that the social worker becomes a better professional, not a better person. That is already the task of psychotherapy.
CONCLUSION
Supervision is still unknown in many areas. It can sometimes be confused with psychotherapy. It is oriented more toward the work and experience of the social worker. The center of supervision’s attention is the professional activity of the social worker, not his or her private life. Positive experiences with supervision in individual organizations can motivate other organizations to apply it in their organizational structures. In this way, the use of supervision can gradually spread. Its practical problem is that people tend to solve problematic situations through habitual solutions, which are often ineffective and insufficient. In current times, with the gradual increase in use of supervision, such self-developed ways of solving conflicts may be reduced, at least to some extent. Supervision is useful because it helps in searching for new solutions, perspectives and ways for supervisees in their difficult situations.
Author: Mgr. JUDr. PhDr. Stanislav Bujda, PhD. Vysoká škola zdravotníctva a sociálnej práce sv. Alžbety
LIST OF USED LITERATURE
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HUNYADIOVÁ, S. Applied reflections on supervisions. Nowy Sacz : VŠZSP sv. Alžbety Zrkadlenie, o. z. 2019. 238 s. ISBN 978-83-65196-40-8.
SCHAVEL, M., HUNYADIOVÁ, S., KUZYŠIN, B.: Supervision in social work. Theory, practice and research. Bratislava : Spoločnosť pre rozvoj sociálnej práce, o. z., 2013. 207 s. ISBN 978-80-971445-0-0.
SCHAVEL, M., TOMKA, M.: Basics of supervision and supervision in practical teaching in social work. Bratislava : VŠZaSP sv. Alžbety, 2010. 193 s. ISBN 978-80-89271-87-0.
Act No. 448/2008 on social services
https://www.pulib.sk/web/kniznica/elpub/dokument/Skyba2/subor/3.pdf (18. 11. 2020, 15:30)
BUJDOVÁ, N.: Single-parent families are nothing extraordinary in our society. In.: Kolokvium kazuistík 2019. VŠZSP sv. Alžbety : Nowy Sącz, 2019. ISBN 978-83-66394-13-1, p. 15 – 22.
BUJDOVÁ, N.: Supervision in social services. In.: Supervision days in 2018. University of Health and Social Work, of St. Elizabeth, Nowy Sącz, 2018. ISBN 978-83-66394-11-7. p. 7 - 11.
1SCHAVEL, M., HUNADYOVÁ, S., KUZYŠIN, B.: s. 41 In.: Supervízia v sociálnej práci. Teória, prax a výskum. Bratislava : Spoločnosť pre rozvoj sociálnej práce, o. z., 2013. 2 BUJDOVÁ, N.: Supervision in social services. In.: Supervision days in 2018. University of Health and Social Work, of St. Elizabeth, Nowy Sącz, p. 7. 3 BUJDOVÁ, N.: Supervision in social services. In.: Supervision days in 2018. University of Health and Social Work, of St. Elizabeth, Nowy Sącz, p. 7. 4 BUJDOVÁ, N. 2015 Supervízia v edukačnom procese. In Hunyadiová, S. – Bujdová, N., Mánya, Z. 5 Compare Schavel, M., Tomka, M.: p. 22-31 In Základy supervízie a supervízia v praktickej výučbe v sociálnej práci. Bratislava : VŠZaSP sv. Alžbety, 2010. 6 Schavel, M., Tomka, M.: p. 22 In Základy supervízie a supervízia v praktickej výučbe v sociálnej práci. Bratislava : VŠZaSP sv. Alžbety, 2010. 7Compare SERVICE-LEARNING AND SUPERVÍZIA. p. 106 In https://www.pulib.sk/web/kniznica/elpub/dokument/Skyba2/subor/3.pdf (18. 11. 2020, 15:30) 8 Hunadyová, S. p. 115, 2013, In.: Supervízia v sociálnej práci. Teória, prax a výskum. Bratislava : Spoločnosť pre rozvoj sociálnej práce, o. z., 2013 9 BUJDOVÁ, N.: Jednorodičovské rodiny – nič výnimočné v našej spoločnosti. In.: Kolokvium kazuistík 2019. VŠZSP sv. Alžbety : Nowy Sącz, p. 22. 10 HUNYADIOVÁ, S.: Aplikačné reflexie supervízií. Nowy Sacz : VŠZSP sv. Alžbety Zrkadlenie, p. 19.