Leadership in Geriatric Social Work
By Sandra K. Edge-Boyd

Do you consider yourself a leader in social work practice or social work education? Do you find yourself in situations where leadership is needed but you don’t know what to do? Do you want to be more of a leader, but don’t know which leadership qualities are most effective? The CSWE Gero-Ed Center emphasizes building the gerontological leadership capacity of faculty and students.

Most of us are aware that by 2020, an estimated 54.6 million Americans will be age 65 and older, which will increase to 71.5 million by 2030 (AOA, 2005). The implications of this dramatic shift in longevity and the subsequent growth of the older population will have a dramatic impact on individuals, families, and institutions of all types, including social work and higher education (Scharlach, Damron-Rodriguez,  Robinson,  Feldman, 2000). Leaders are needed to unite and encourage social work faculty to prepare students for the reality of this demographic shift. Leaders are needed to envision and energize the way faculty include competencies and content on older adults and create innovative, engaging curricula for today’s students.

Leadership involves an influential relationship among leaders and followers that leads to authentic changes, reflecting shared goals ( Harrison, 1999). Some traditional interpersonal styles, such as authoritarian or passive, do not result in the trust and motivation of others that is needed for leadership in geriatric social work education and practice (Avolio, Bass, & Jung, 1999). The 21 st century educational environment requires leaders with styles that are intellectually stimulating, inspirational, collaborative, and forward-looking (Avolio, Bass, and Jung, 1999; Harrison, 1999; Maccoby, 2001).

Five exemplary leadership practices are identified as follows: modeling the way, inspiring a shared vision, challenging the process, enabling others to act, and encouraging the heart (Kouzes & Posner, 2002). These practices are congruent with social work education and practice. A style of leadership, identified as transformational, is shown to have a more significant and positive impact on innovative effectiveness than the traditional transactional or paternalistic management styles (Kou, 2004). If leadership is essential in social work education and practice, as I believe it is, then the preparation of social work leaders is imperative and our graduate programs must prepare transformational, ethical, and visionary leaders (Siegrist, 1999). Those of us who can and are willing must step up to the task of preparing ourselves and our students for leadership. Further social work leadership research is also needed to bring about the organizational changes needed to respond to our rapidly changing aging environments (Gellis, 2001).

Please join with the CSWE Gero-Ed Center in its focus on gerontological leadership capacity-building. Meet with Geriatric Social Work Leaders at the CSWE APM and watch for the RFP for the Cycle 2 Curriculum Development Institutes Program. Your active involvement is essential in social work education and practice to meet the demographic challenges of the 21 st century.

Professor Sandra Edge-Boyd, MSW, is an Adjunct Assistant Professor at the University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center and Program Director of the Interdisciplinary Graduate Certificate in Gerontology. She was a GeroRich Project Director and CDI Mentor and continues to serve as an adjunct faculty member of the OU School of Social Work to advocate for aging curricula and field education.

References

Administration on Aging, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. (2005). Fact Sheet: A statistical profile of older Americans aged 65. Retrieved June 5, 2006, from http://www.aoa.gov/

Avolio, B.J., Bass, B.M., and Jung, D.I. (1999, December). Re-examining the components of transformational and transactional leadership using the multifactor leadership questionnaire. Journal of Occupational and Organizational Psychology, 72(4), 441-462. Retrieved May 26, 2006, from ProQuest database.

Gellis, Z.D. (2001) Social work perceptions of transformational and transactional leadership in health care. Social Work Research. 25(1), 17-26. Retrieved June 18, 2006, from ProQuest database.

Harrison, B. (1999). The nature of leadership: Historical perspectives and the future. Journal of California Law Enforcement, 33(1), 24-30. Retrieved June 18, 2006, from ProQuest database.

Kou, C.-C. (2004). Research on impacts of team leadership on team effectiveness. Journal of American Academy of Business, Cambridge. Sept.:266-277.

Kouzes, J.M. & Posner, B.Z. (2002). The Leadership Challenge. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

Maccoby, M. (May, 2001). Successful leaders employ strategic intelligence. Research-Technology Management, 44(3)58. Retrieved May 2, 2006, from InfoTrac OneFile.

Scharlach , A. Damron-Rodriguez. J., Robinson, B., and Feldman R. (Fall 2000). Educating social workers for an aging society: A vision for the 21st century.Journal of Social Work Education. 36(3) 521-539. Retrieved July 13, 2006, from ProQuest database.

Siegrist, G. (1999). Educational leadership must move beyond management training to visionary and moral transformational leaders. Education, 120(2), 297. Retrieved Tuesday, July 04, 2006 from the Academic Search Premier database.