This chapter follows on from Chapter Six to illustrate social workers’ experiences of self-conscious emotions within child and family social work. This chapter will use the case example, used throughout this book, to demonstrate how these emotional experiences were constructed in relation to identifying with the organisational representation of a social worker within the Council, that is, the meanings, expectations and characteristics of an ideal form of practice. Identification can be seen as practising in line with the meanings and expectations associated with the organisational representation. By considering the details of how the forms of identification were manifested, the role that pride and shame played in these processes can be analysed. Indeed, those who enacted the organisational representation felt safe from being shamed and humiliated as a result of focusing on meeting the pressures, expectations and demands placed on them. The focus on the organisational needs reduced their capacity for empathy with the family, protecting them from any feelings of shame, guilt or embarrassment as a result of organisationally sanctioned actions. With minimal conflict between the meanings and expectations held within their own social worker identity standard and the externally imposed organisational representation, the social workers felt proud of what they were doing and could share this with others. Those who complied with the organisational representation, meanwhile, did not accept the meanings and expectations associated with it as their own. Indeed, there were greater conflicts between the social workers’ identity meanings and the organisational representation, greater levels of empathy for the families, and a greater sense of vulnerability to being shamed. Consequently, social workers felt unsure as to what they should do but prioritised shame avoidance, while, at the same time, seeking to alleviate any subsequent feelings of shame and guilt. This chapter outlines these strategic responses to organisational processes of emotion regulation in attempts to establish control over practice and considers the experience of the parents as a result. Indeed, within the context of a dominant discourse of dangerousness and risk to children, practising in the ‘appropriate’ manner often resulted in shaming and humiliating experiences for the parents.

Enacting

A social worker could be considered to enact the organisational representation where they actively and willingly sought to practise in a manner consistent with its meanings and expectations.