Abstract
In a special issue of Research on Social Work Practice 21 (4), 2011, Ram Cnaan
and Thomas McLauglin launch an academic debate about ways to quantify the accomplishments
of social work and social services as unique contributions to society.
They argue that for too long social work has failed to claim this contribution since it
was not expressed as a monetary value but only justified by recording and reporting
what social work does. Cnaan and McLaughlin notice that whereas the for-profit
private sector easily accounts for the value of items or services in monetary terms,
the non-profit fields that rely on ‘soft’ technologies find it difficult to assess their
value to society with the economic denominator of money as a criterion for valuation.
Cnaan and McLaughlin call for a debate about valuation and cost-effectiveness
in social work and social services, ‘assessing the financial value of a public good
or a problem’ (2011, p. 386). According to them, this way is challenging, complex
but needed, and will be ubiquitous in the future (2011, p. 385–387). A similar suggestion
is made by Ros Scott (2011) in relation to the assessment of the value of
volunteers working in hospitals: ‘If volunteers are to be fully recognized as a strategic
asset, we must be brave enough also to describe volunteers in business terms.’
and Thomas McLauglin launch an academic debate about ways to quantify the accomplishments
of social work and social services as unique contributions to society.
They argue that for too long social work has failed to claim this contribution since it
was not expressed as a monetary value but only justified by recording and reporting
what social work does. Cnaan and McLaughlin notice that whereas the for-profit
private sector easily accounts for the value of items or services in monetary terms,
the non-profit fields that rely on ‘soft’ technologies find it difficult to assess their
value to society with the economic denominator of money as a criterion for valuation.
Cnaan and McLaughlin call for a debate about valuation and cost-effectiveness
in social work and social services, ‘assessing the financial value of a public good
or a problem’ (2011, p. 386). According to them, this way is challenging, complex
but needed, and will be ubiquitous in the future (2011, p. 385–387). A similar suggestion
is made by Ros Scott (2011) in relation to the assessment of the value of
volunteers working in hospitals: ‘If volunteers are to be fully recognized as a strategic
asset, we must be brave enough also to describe volunteers in business terms.’
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Title of host publication | Religion and Volunteering: Complex, Contested and Ambiguous Relationships, Cham: Springer, |
| Editors | Lesley Hustinx, Johan von Essen, Jacques Haers, Sara Mels |
| Place of Publication | Cham |
| Publisher | Springer |
| Pages | 329-343 |
| Number of pages | 14 |
| ISBN (Electronic) | 978-3-319-04585-6 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - 2015 |