Respond by Day to this colleague below discussion who identified and selected a power resource different from the one you selected. Offer a supportive perspective to his or her choice. Include in your perspective some thoughts on how a social worker can manage the use of his or her power resource. Be sure to support your post with specific references to this week’s resources. If you are using additional articles, be sure to provide full APA-formatted citations for your references. 2 sources Melissa’s Discussion: Power Resources Social Workers use in their Practice and Advocacy: The foremost technique social workers utilize power resources in their social work practice and advocacy is to implement/amend old and new policies, inspire, and motivate stakeholders and basically to encourage/empower the oppressed, vulnerable, minorities, victims, survivors, and defenseless communities and people. Social workers use power resources and relationships throughout the social work network. There nine kinds of power resources: “expert, coercive, reward, referent, authority-based (or legitimation), position, information, connections, and value-based”, Jansson, B. S. (2018). The power resource I would more than likely use is values-based. “The Values-based Leadership philosophy focuses on who we are and how we behave rather than what positional power we hold, and true leadership is about earning authority through our example and actions so that people choose to follow us. Leadership is not about positional power or the ability to make people do our will”, Taylor, Davis, H., (2010). This power resources is the ability for me to pursue another individual based on our mutual ethical commitments. We use this power to advocate and obtain attentiveness from our participants when giving a presentation or meeting. An example, as you know I am a huge advocator against Human Trafficking. Assemblyman Timothy Graysen is also against what I am advocating for. Since there is a commonality between us, the value-based resource power would come in handy in this particular situation. An example against the value-based power is from Jansson, B. S. (2018), who wrote, the Pope who challenged President Trump reporting he wasn’t a Christian. If President Trump was of the religious faith base, he should build bridges instead of walls, per the Pope. So, President Trump should never try to advocate his policies with the Pope. Per Jansson, B. S. (2018), “Power can be used unethically—dishonestly or manipulatively—but we cannot make simple, easy-to-follow ethical rules and someone who is blatantly dishonest to gain a strategic advantage is clearly behaving unethically, but there are grayer areas in ethics.”. The ethical issues or concerns in using this type of power resource are the strategies, manipulation, exploitation, deceit, and corruption which can be used as a benefit for a particular party and a disadvantage to ours. Several ways that can sway a decision maker are bribes, kickbacks, and reward. Some individuals may go against their beliefs and values just to ensure a positive vote for their own power. A variety of ethical principles, as well as the use of utilitarian ethical arguments for supporting specific policies and different ideologies that emphasize, specific values such as equality or fairness (in the case of liberals) or liberty and autonomy (in the case of conservatives and libertarians)”, Jansson, B. S. (2018). Various individuals who listen and observe the recommendations of others, tend to share their values and principles. As an ethical person, prior upon combating with an opponent, would be forthcoming on the issues and how commencement would begin aforementioned upon attacking their position. If we withhold information, that isn’t considered a lie but rather ethical dilemma. This conflicts with our values and morals when being honest and fighting against social injustice. “Faced with this ethical dilemma, you would certainly want to reflect carefully and seek consultation before acting”, Jansson, B. S. (2018). Any use of manipulation or falsification is an ethical conundrum. These tactics are considered immoral and “counterproductive”. If an opponents or policy makers finds out that manipulation was applied, there would be a cynicism and skepticism towards you on further advocacies you bring forth. The flip side is, your opponents might use “hardball tactics”, so in order to succeed, you may have to use some sort of manipulation. References: TIMOTHY S. GRAYSON Representing the 14th Assembly District. (2021). TIMOTHY S. GRAYSON Representing the 14th Assembly District. https://a14.asmdc.org Jansson, B. S. (2018). Becoming an effective policy advocate: From policy practice to social justice (8th ed.). Pacific Grove, CA: Brooks/Cole Cengage Learning Series. Chapter 10, “Developing and Using Power in the Policy-Enacting Task” (pp. 372-419) Rocha, C., Poe, B., & Thomas, V. (2010). Political activities of social workers: Addressing perceived barriers to political participation. Social Work, 55(4), 317–325. Taylor, Davis, H., (2010). The Power of Value-Based Leadership. www.davishtaylor.com/documents/ThePowerofValuesBasedLeadership-Final.pdf#:~:text=The%20Values-based%20Leadership%20philosophy%20focuses%20on%20whowe%20are,the%20ability%20to%20make%20people%20do%20our%20will.
