Communication Skills For Indirect Practice

Policy, Advocacy, Management and Community Practice

Chapter Five

Communication Skills for Non-Clinical Practice

• While clinical communication skills may be an asset to social work practitioners in policy, advocacy, administration, and community practice, they are not sufficient for the tasks performed by such practitioners.

• Communication skills different from those used in clinical practice are needed for macro practice.

• Non-Clinical communication skills are needed in steps two, three four, and seven of the decision tree.

Communication Formats in Macro Practice

• Macro communication consists of words in written and oral formats.

• Communication also occurs through visual and artistic formats i.e. posters, public service advertisements, films.

• Communication also occurs as actions i.e. actions often speak louder than words.

Macro Communication Formats -Continued

• Written formats consist of: (a) white papers or position papers, (b) formal narratives, (c) reports, (d) statements, (e) letters, (f) written policies,

(g) written procedures, (h) memos, (i) e-mails, (j) agendas, (k) minutes, (l) budgets) (m) books, (n) data/spread sheets, & (o) monographs. • Oral communication consists of: (a) public

testimony, (b) public speeches, (c) media presentations- telecommunication, teleconferencing, television, film and video.

Macro Communication Formats-Continued

• Communication as action consists of: (a) the creation of advocacy networks, (b) fund raising and social events, (c) political and issue campaigns and (d) small and large group actions to achieve social goals;

Who is the Client in Macro Practice?

• Kirst-Ashman and Hull (2004) define three basic client systems in macro practice:

(1) the beneficiary system – i.e. the client population that will potentially benefit from a policy, program, project or organizing initiative. (2) the target system i.e. those targeted for change because they support the status quo and block needed reform.

Who Is the Client In Macro Practice?- Continued

(3) the change agent system i.e. the practitioner who initiates reform or social change and those who join with the practitioner as allies in the change effort.

Four Types of Communication in Macro Practice

1. Communication that conveys fiduciary responsibilities

2. Communication that facilitates getting the job done (task communication).

3. Communication that deals with public relations (PR)

4. Communication that is motivational; persuasive speech.

Communication About Fiduciary Responsibilities

• Fiduciary responsibilities in policy practice are communicated through the legislative process and court rulings.

• Fiduciary responsibilities in advocacy practice are communicated by legal and regulatory codes.

• Fiduciary responsibilities in community practice are communicated through local political and social structures

• Fiduciary responsibilities in management practice are communicated by regulatory bodies that have oversight functions.

Fiduciary Responsibilities In Policy Practice

• Legislation gets institutionalized as public law. • Court rulings uphold or overturn existing

authorizing legislation or public laws. • Written regulatory policies are located in

governmental organizations that have oversight functions.

• Agency-specific policies and procedures are contained in agency operational manuals.

Fiduciary Misconduct in Policy Practice

• Giving false testimony before a legislative body or court of law.

• Failure to abide by authorizing legislation and funding.

• Failure to conduct policy-based programs consistent with the rules and regulations that determine eligibility and guide the disbursement of resources.

Fiduciary Responsibilities in Advocacy Practice

• Advocates are charged with the responsibility of bringing about reform of policies, programs and structures through existing channels within a legitimate hierarchical system to bring about incremental changes.

• Advocates have the responsibility to challenge the existing status quo through legal recourse, conflict negotiation, consensus building, and non-violent social action.

• Advocates have a responsibility to challenge the existing status quo through tactics that fall outside those legally proscribed if all else fails.

Misconduct in Advocacy Practice

• Participation in tactics that fall outside legal parameters are subject to arrest and prosecution.

• Planned events (marches, demonstrations) require prior notification and a permit.

• Speech may be regarded as incendiary and a provocation to riot.

• The right to assemble may be viewed as trespass.• Destruction of property is a felony.• Written and verbal attacks aimed at an individual or an

entity may result in lawsuits based on claims of libel, slander, or harassment.

Fiduciary Communication In Community Practice

• Proposed initiatives should be based on a needs assessment (survey).

• Proposed initiatives should document patterns of resource utilization (survey).

• Community planners must involve community members in the planning and decision-making process consistent with the laws and regulations of appropriate state, regional, county, city/town governance.

• A fair and participatory democratic process assures informed consent and community self- determination.

Fiduciary Misconduct in Community Practice

• Falsification of data (needs/resources)• Failure to comply with regional, state and

local planning regulations and procedures.• Failure to follow and abide by established

democratic processes in community planning and decision-making.

• Bribery and undue use of influence and power to undermine fair proceedings.

Fiduciary Responsibilities in Management Practice

• Within agency responsibilities are contained in agency mission statements, operational manuals, job descriptions and employee contracts.

• All agencies must have a formal grievance procedure for handling conflicts between employees and between employee and employer.

• Agencies are obligated to take all reasonable precautions to assure the safety of employees on the job

Fiduciary Responsibilities in Management Practice-Continued

Fiduciary obligations to external bodies consists of the following responsibilities:

(1) Compliance with licensing standards and work regulations established by regulatory bodies. (2) Annual fiscal reports are provided to appointed executive boards and outside funding sources (3) Annual program evaluation reports go to regulatory bodies (professional, federal, state, regional or local) that have oversight functions.

Fiduciary Responsibilities in Management Practice-Continued

(4) Managers must communicate in numbers to verify need, progress toward goals, fiscal accountability and outcome success. (5) Communication with regulatory bodies must contain evidence of compliance with specific standards. (6) All agencies must comply with laws in hiring, promotion, and firing and must adhere to laws governing non-discrimination and sexual harassment in the work place.

Misconduct in Management Practice

• Fiscal irregularities; embezzlement of funds• Discriminatory practices and sexual harassment• Noncompliance with regulatory rules and

regulations• Falsification of records, documents, and data• Malfeasance in the execution of administrative

duties (administrators may be charged, fired or forced to resign; if public, agencies may be placed on probation or placed in receivership )

The Purpose of Task Communication

• Communication to facilitate getting the job done is referred to as task communication

• Task communication is contingent upon the method used i.e. policy, advocacy, community or management practice.

• Task communication in policy practice facilitates policy analysis, development and implementation.

Task Communication-Continued

• Task communication in advocacy practice facilitates efforts to remedy an existing status quo that is perceived to be oppressive and non-responsive to the needs of some members of the community

• Task communication in community practice facilitates planning efforts that will benefit the community as a whole.

Task Communication in Management Practice

• Task communication in management practice serves three purposes: (1) to ensure the delivery of a quality product or service,

(2) to establish a co-operative, competent workforce, and (3) to provide corrective feedback.

Task Communication Policy Analysis

Policy Analysis includes communication about a policy’s (1) legislative and judicial history. (2) its value premises, (3) its socio-economic and political impact, (4) its feasibility, (5) its delivery infrastructure – i.e.authorizing legislation, programmatic components, eligibility rules and regulations, intended recipients, level of funding, and organizational structures.

Task Communication Policy Development

• Normative policies require articulation of values. Value differences occur over the desired end goals of policies.• Theories of social justice usually inform

communication about the desired end goal of a policy or policy initiative.

• Communication frequently includes some documentation of need and/or documentation of resource availability and utilization.

Task CommunicationPolicy Implementation

• Persuasive speech is used to inspire support for a policy initiative.• Such speech must attend to audience; supporters,

opponents, those who are neutral; it targets specific interest groups to gain support and minimize opposition.

• Because policy groups differ in their desired end goals, policy implementation often requires the tactics (techniques) of power and influence. Conflict and cognitive political theories inform such tactics.

Advocacy Practice

• The purpose of advocacy practice is to remedy an existing status quo that is perceived to be oppressive and non-responsive to the needs of some members of the community.

• Theories of social and economic justice as well as theories of empowerment and conflict inform advocacy practice.

• As a change perspective, Advocacy practice challenges an order (legal) perspective.

Task Communication in Advocacy-Reform

• As a reform method, advocacy practice targets existing policies, programs and structures to bring about incremental change.

• Communication relies on leadership, empowerment, consensus building and conflict negotiation.

Task Communication: Social Goals Advocacy

• Social goals advocacy targets institutional social structures for change.

• Large scale or radical structural change involves mobilization of small and large groups.

• Social goals advocacy involves consciousness raising and tactics of power (civil disobedience and/or war).

• Social goals advocacy is associated with movements such as civil rights, feminist rights, workers rights, human rights and the rights of those with disabilities.

Task Communication in Community Practice

• Task communication in community practice is facilitated by rationale planning.

• Surveys communicate needs and resources• Public hearings that are informational, that

seek citizen input, and that are deliberative are conducted.• Pert charts and other procedural step models

are utilized to track the planning process.

Public Relations Communicationin Policy Practice

• PR communication in policy practice humanizes social issues.

• Profiles of specific clients are often used to illustrate the inadequacy of resources to meet need.

• Case studies are often presented in testimony before governmental bodies and often appear as features in newspapers or in television reports.

• Books illustrate the need for social policies through the lives they document.

Public Relations Communication in Policy Practice-Continued

• Movies, documentaries, DVD’s, concerts, and videos visualize social issues.

• Topics include poverty, racism, welfare, discrimination, mental illness, classism homelessness, sexual orientation etc.

Public Relations Communication in Advocacy Practice

• The aim of PR communication in advocacy practice is to get a specific (ideology) story out.

• PR presents a one-sided argument for a particular value-based position in opposition to the views and positions presented by others.

• PR often appears as letters to the editor or as an essay on the editorial page.

• PR in advocacy practice is designed to win public opinion and/or engage supporters for the cause.

Public Relations Communication in Community Practice

• PR communication in community practice is aimed at establishing an appropriate working relationship between community planners and community members.

• Community planners must sell themselves as resources and facilitators of community initiatives.

• An effective PR campaign must sell a vision of a valued product (planning outcome), its cost, and a timeline. It must respect local culture and minimize polarization of community subgroups.

Public Relations Communication in Management Practice

• PR communication in management practice occurs with professional constituents, the general population and the clientele of the agency.

• PR conveys what the agency does and how well it does it.

• PR campaigns attempt to create a receptive (or at minimum, neutral) climate among the general public (social work serves stigmatized, disfranchised, and marginalized populations).

Public Relations in Management Practice -Continued

• PR involves hosting galas, and social events to raise funds and to cultivate support from persons with financial, social, or political influence.

• PR consists of advertising agency services to potential clients. Multi-lingual communication must delineate the hours, days of operation and type of services provided.

• PR with professional constituents consists of hosting in-service training, workshops, symposiums and conferences. Students are expected to be agency goodwill ambassadors

Persuasive and Motivational Speech

• Persuasive and motivational speech differs from public relations communication.

• Persuasive speech advocates for a view or action.

• Persuasive speech has the capacity to move hearts and minds and to transform people and situations in remarkably powerful ways

(O’Keefe, 2001)

Persuasive Speech -Continued

• Persuasive speech is concerned with directing and shaping belief, achieving consensus, and moving others to action.

• To be successful, persuasive speech must tap into the audience’s state of mind.

Characteristics of the Persuasive Speaker

1. Credibility: audience perception of the speaker’s competence i.e expertise, knowledge. Some members of the audience are influenced by argument and the evidentiary nature of the facts presented

2. Liking: some members of the audience are influenced by their perception of how likable the speaker is based on physical attractiveness, ethnicity, honesty and sincerity. Some are influenced by the response of others in the audience to the speaker.

Persuasive SpeechMessage Characteristics

• Message sidedness: Refers to how the speaker handles an opposing view

(1) Ignores, (2) offers own side of argument, (3) refutes opponent’s view point by point

• Emotional Appeal: the message may appeal to emotions; pity, guilt, idealism or fear. Fear is the most powerful appeal in that it arouses a sense

of threat if audience does not accept speaker’s proposed course of action.

Message Characteristics- Continued

• Conclusion explicitness: Messages with explicit conclusions are more persuasive than messages with implicit conclusions.

• Messages should conclude with a proposal for a specific action i.e. write or call your congressperson or senator.

Changing Attitudes through Persuasive Speech

1. Expectancy-Value Model: i.e. Social Security Value: Each belief is associated with a valence.

i.e. “Income Security” is associated with a positive valence. However, if security is pitted against increasing one’s income would the valence change e.g. security vs. more income

Expectancy: Factually, is one more secure economically with the current social security system or will one be more economically secure if one supports social security reform?

Changing Attitudes Through Persuasive Speech

2. Functional Model: Attitudes are changed depending upon whether members of the audience base their self-image on instrumental or symbolic needs. One person will “buy” a car based on its gas mileage, repair record, safety features. Another will buy a care based on how they perceive they will look or feel in it.

3. Uncertainty: Members of an audience are likely to change their attitude depending on the degree of uncertainty introduced i.e. maybe social security will go bankrupt; it is not as secure as we think

Persuasive Speech in Motivating Action

• Persuasive speech may change an individual’s attitude about a social issue but it is quite another matter to get that person to change his/her behavior or to engage in activist behavior on behalf of the cause.

• The greater the personal cost in changing one’s behavior the less likely one is to change or to become an activist.

Policy Advocacy Principled Speech or Propaganda• Persuasive speech may be principled or

propaganda. • Propaganda is defined as the spreading of ideas,

information, or rumor for the purpose of helping or injuring an institution, a cause, or a person. (Webster, 1997, 932)

• In policy advocacy, social work students must be taught to distinguish the articulation of values (desired end-goals of policy initiatives) from the oratory of propaganda.

Propaganda

• Propaganda is a deliberate and systematic manipulation of public opinion, generally by the use of symbols such as flags, monuments, oratory, and publication (Webster, 1997)

• The purpose of propaganda is not to inform but to persuade-to encourage belief or action with

the least thought possible (Gambrill, 1997;2005). • Ethically, messaging should be truthful, factual,

and informative.

Persuasive Speech in Advocacy Practice

• Persuasive and motivation speech consists of raising consciousness among the oppressed and the privileged.

• A charismatic leader (Reverend Martin Luther King) uses speech to energize an apathetic citizenry and tap into dormant discontent.

• Persuasive speech creates movements (civil rights) • Speech turns into activism• Legitimatization (through legislation/public laws)

often follows rights achieved through activism.

Persuasive Speech in Community Practice

• Persuasive communication lies in creating networks of influence.

• Practitioners know of and become known as power brokers.

• Practitioners attend or host events where, according to social exchange theory, interactions lead to exchanges that benefit a social work agency or client population.

Persuasive Speech in Management Practice

• Persuasive-motivational speech in management practice is linked to leadership.

• Leadership is discussed in chapter seven.

Decision-Making: Information and Persuasion

• It is important to distinguish rational argument (discourse) from persuasive speech in macro practice.

• Decisions should be based on information and value exploration; not blind ideology

• Gambrill (1997,2005) warns of the illusion of discourse.

Illusion of DiscourseSix Common Tactics

1. To allege certainty in the absence of evidence2. To use sweeping generalizations to credit or

discredit points of view3. To misrepresent an opponent’s position4. To engage in diversionary tactics to draw attention

away from the opponent’s main point5. To appeal to emotion in the absence of evidence6. To substitute opinion for argument. Opinion

reflects unexamined ideology, misrepresentation of the facts, factual errors and a personal agenda.