STAGES AND METHODS OF MAKING EFFECTIVE DECISIONS IN THE PROFESSIONAL ACTIVITIES OF SOCIAL WORKERS

Abstract

The need to plan and organize the process of making effective decisions in the professional activities of social workers is due to a wide range of areas of activity and the need to perform related tasks (implementing advocacy activities and providing services for representing interests, managing social projects, participating in conducting social expertise, managing cases). The article examines effective decision-making in the professional activities of social workers as a type of activity aimed at solving the problems of recipients of social services., improving the quality of social services by finding the optimal solution among possible alternatives, based on current information, taking into account possible risks for prompt response and adjustment of actions. The authors include the following conditions for making effective decisions in the professional activities of social workers: the validity of the decision based on information analysis; the timeliness of the decision; the completeness of the content of the decision based on the defined goal/goals; the authority (validity) of making the decision; responsibility and consistency of the decision with decisions that were made earlier. The stages of making effective decisions in the professional activities of social workers are characterized (decision preparation, decision making, implementation of the decision made). Methods of making effective decisions in the professional activities of social workers are systematized: by the subject of making decisions (collective/group, individual), by the method of forming a decisive choice among possible alternatives (heuristic, logical-formalized, game-theoretical), and their advantages and disadvantages are outlined. The authors note that the analyzed and systematized methods are dynamic and can be found in different classification features and applied repeatedly at all stages of decision-making.