Joy and sadness among social workers in Italy: An exploration through group concept mapping

The exploratory research reported in this article sought to identify sources of joy and sadness among social workers and to infer the possible implications for social work practice from the findings. After considering the theoretical context of social work approaches to joy and sadness, this article outlines the methodology deployed here based on the concept mapping approach. It involved forty-seven Italian social workers recruited via social networks using snowballing techniques and produced 100 statements describing situations of joy and sadness. Thirty-seven of these social workers also participated in the subsequent stages of the research, generating a concept map representing fifteen clusters of statements. The findings suggested that good relationships with service users and colleagues are the main sources of joy. The most frequent sources of sadness were professional failures, a worsening of service users' conditions, incorrect or unethical behaviour by colleagues, frustration caused by the inadequacy of the welfare system, and clashes between institutional and professional mandates. The article presents the main findings of a research study aimed at identifying the main sources of joy and sadness among social workers. The methodology was based on a concept mapping approach. Using a specific software program, the data were collected from forty-seven Italian social workers and were processed to create a concept map that helps explore and understand when social workers feel joy and sadness in their professional practice. The findings show that joy mostly springs from good and mutually cooperative relationships with service users and colleagues. Sadness is mostly due to a sense of their own failures, the struggles faced by service users, difficult relationships with colleagues, and inefficiencies of the welfare system. The findings of this research may offer insights that could help improve work practices, education, management, and supervision, and potentially contribute to the growing literature on worker well-being, which in turn may support the development of better work conditions and, consequently, enhance service delivery.