The problem of workplace bullying appears to be especially common in the hospitality industry and in health, education, and social services. Bullying results in negative effects on the psychological and physical health and well-being of targets, bystanders, and those accused of bullying. I undertook a qualitative research project to investigate the experiences of 17 New Zealand social workers who identified themselves as having been targets of workplace bullying. All participants had experienced negative physical and psychological health impacts. I also found, however, that in the aftermath of their difficult experiences, most considered that they had eventually developed greater resilience. Resilience was enhanced when participants’ sense of control over their situation improved and when they received support from witnesses and managers. I make recommendations to indicate how these resilience-promoting conditions can be achieved in the organizational setting.

From 1993 until 1999, the author was engaged in a qualitative doctoral study that explored the issues that arise for social workers who make a transition from paid agency employment to private practice. The idea for the research study arose from her personal experience of this transition and of the ethical and professional issues this raises. The findings of the study have been previously reported (van Heugten, 2001, 2002, 2003; van Heugten and Daniels, 2001a, 2001b, 2002). This article focuses on tools the researcher employed to overcome some of the methodological dilemmas that emerged due to the insider nature of the research. The author proposes that intersubjective conceptualizations of countertransference that have emerged from the field of psychoanalysis, provide a useful additional aid to the management of potential insider bias. The other methodological issue explored in this article concerns the reliability of respondents’ retrospective self reports about decision making processes.

Workplace bullying has become recognized as a costly workplace problem that may be relatively common in the human services. However, the topic remains underexplored with respect to social workers. In the absence of discipline-specific information, relying on data derived from research with other professions can lead to untested assumptions about causes and about appropriate interventions. A qualitative study was undertaken with seventeen social workers who reported that they had been bullied in the workplace. Whilst participants had experienced significant distress and reported at least a temporary decline in work-related confidence, most considered themselves wiser as a result of their experiences and did not perceive a lasting diminishment of their professional opportunities. There were, however, exceptions to this positive outcome and these appeared to be related to discrimination against participants with minority group status. Grounded analysis led to explanatory theories that locate bullying in the context of stressful changing workplaces in which professional people experience status uncertainty, and compete for job control and respect. Conversely, prevention and intervention require the adoption of health-promoting organizational policies that foster supportive working environments and relationships.

Filial piety is a highly relevant cultural mechanism that mediates the impacts of caregiving experiences on Chinese adult children, worldwide but perhaps especially in rural China. We undertook qualitative research with 24 migrant workers who were caring for an elderly parent diagnosed with terminal cancer. Research aims included building a comprehensive explanatory theoretical model for filial piety’s mediating role in caregivers’ lived experiences. We undertook a culturally sensitive Foucauldian discourse analysis of data, which showed that filial piety can not only function as a positive resource but also (mainly) translate to a requirement for secrecy, including about an ill parent’s prognosis and the need for support for caregivers. The findings challenge the extent of this secrecy and the burdens it places on caregivers. Policy makers should take account of the importance of filial piety and its mediating role both as a resource and hindrance to providing support to caregivers.

• Summary: The Social Workers Registration Act (2003) introduced a system of voluntary statutory registration of the social work occupation in Aotearoa New Zealand. This was hailed as a measure that would protect the public from unsafe practices, and enhance the status of the profession. More recently, however, commentators have noted that these positive effects may not necessarily be forthcoming. This article explores the impact of registration on educational programmes, by placing regulation of the occupation in the context of hegemonic neoliberalism. • Findings: Neoliberal approaches to social care not only constrain the delivery of services, but attempt to shape the perspectives of the social care workforce. Education is a potentially powerful tool for achieving that shaping. Where statutory regulation of social work is in force, competency based training threatens to supplant critical analysis, which is a hallmark of higher education. To retain viability as an academic discipline, social work educators must champion social work’s continuing role in analysing and theorizing the distribution of power in social welfare and social care. • Application: Social work educators have a role in supporting practitioners, who struggle to maintain disciplinary integrity whilst employed within 21st-century human services, by continuing to engage in critical debates, and advancing knowledge about the theory—practice nexus. In advancing such knowledge, they also have much to offer other disciplines in institutions of higher education that are looking to explicate their utility in the ‘real world’.

This article reports on research that explored rural migrant workers’ experiences of returning to their hometown to provide care for elderly parents diagnosed with cancer. The authors used a culturally integrated approach to Foucauldian discourse analysis to consider how 24 participants narrated their experiences of care in China. The discourse of care demonstrated a strong commitment to filial piety despite their unique care challenges, and this commitment was bolstered by discourses that emphasized how much parents had sacrificed, as well as by a persistent forgetting of experiences or background details that suggested any lack of parental sacrifice in recent Chinese history. Policy implications related to enhancing filial care are discussed.