This study aims to document the specific organizational culture existing in the General Directorate for Social Work and Child Protection (DGASPC) in the Gorj county, Romania. This is a major social work institution in Romania, but one which (like most other social work institutions in this country) have rarely been subject to the type of sociological research as the one reported in this article. The present analysis can help leaders in this organization and other similar organizations to assess and improve the cultural aspects that can influence the achievement of objectives, as well as the quality of the social services provided to service users. Our study has included 286 participants that hold various positions at DGASPC Gorj (social workers, psychologists, and educators). The chosen investigative instrument is the organizational culture assessment instrument (OCAI), a questionnaire designed to interpret organizational phenomena, developed by Cameron and Quinn and based on the conceptual framework of the “competing values framework”. The authors have identified four types of culture (clan, adhocracy, hierarchy, and market culture) and the tool allows an analysis of organizational culture based on the employees’ perception of the existing culture as well as also on their preferences regarding the way they would like to change the organizational culture in the future. The results show that the dominant culture is the hierarchy culture, closely followed by elements of clan culture. Other cultural dimensions are also explored and reported (leadership, success criteria, etc.).

Personal motivation is a key factor in the service of foster care, impending both on the welfare of the child and on the satisfaction of the carer. This paper explores the benefits, challenges and dilemmas involved in the job of professional (i.e. state-supported) foster carer in Romania–a country where the issue of child protection has drawn a great deal of international attention over the last thirty years. The principal hypothesis concerns whether the benefits, challenges and dilemmas identified by foster carers are influenced by the factors that led to their taking up this kind of work. Quantitative research was conducted using a questionnaire as the main tool. The paper takes a descriptive, cross-sectional and multifactorial approach. Sampling was carried out by self-selecting method, and the study involved 51 participants. The research project identified a statistically significant variation in the challenges and dilemmas reported by foster carers. Thus, the results of the study show that the majority of the carers indicate a primarily intrinsic motivation for their work. By way of conclusion, it is argued that social workers, operating in collaboration with multidisciplinary teams, can offer carers support in managing more difficult periods in the child–carer relationship, thus enhancing the sustainability of the foster care service.

For children, a proper environment will support the development of pro-social characteristics, while a hostile environment is likely to lead to anti-social development. Starting from this premise, the main purpose of this work is to determine if and to what degree children’s involvement in Christian practices, acquired as a result of living in a Christian environment, is reflected in their socio-emotional development. This possible association was assessed using Spearman and Pearson correlations and simple linear regression on some religious attributes (as independent variables) and some positive and negative age-specific social manifestations (as dependent variables). The results of the study show that an increased level of religious behaviour could predict a higher chance of positive social behaviour outcomes. Thus, religiosity may be regarded as one possible good influence on children’s development in future adults.

The social and vocational integration of vulnerable groups is an important aspect of social sustainability. Former users of the residential child protection system represent such a group. The purpose of our research was to investigate the social and vocational integration of individuals raised in the child protection system in Romania. Their experiences during and after their time in residential care are analyzed. The research sample was composed of 23 interviewees (18 male and 5 female) with an average age of thirty-five at the time of the interview (SD = 7.49). Our research method was a qualitative one, based on a semi-structured interview. The results paint a generally bleak image of life in such institutions, both before the fall of communism in Romania in December 1989 and subsequently. In addition, the respondents’ transition from institutional life to independent living was full of challenges. Nevertheless, most of the respondents have demonstrated a remarkable level of resilience, based on factors such as education, self-esteem, work, a life partner and the ability to acquire new skills. As a general conclusion, our study has shown that a sustainable social development plan should include social policies which strive for the de-institutionalization of the child protection system by preventing the separation of children from their biological families or, where necessary, by finding family-type solutions for children in difficulty. If institutional childcare is to continue, it must be accompanied by consistent efforts to prepare these children for their transition to independent living.

The Social Justice Values (SJV) scale, as presented in this work, was developed to assess individuals’ attitudes and behaviors towards the values of social justice. Exploratory factor analysis and reliability analysis were employed to ascertain the validity and reliability of the SJV instrument. The investigations revealed that the scale consists of 17 items across three factors, namely, instrumental values of social justice, social terminal values of social justice, and personal terminal values of social justice. The Cronbach alpha coefficient for the entire scale was 0.893. The nomological validity of the proposed scale was assessed by testing its association with two relevant scales: Distributive Justice and Multidimensional Belief in A Just World. Although the investigations indicated that this scale is a reliable instrument for assessing social justice through values among university students, further studies are required to confirm its validity with other samples.

The present article sets out to analyze Luke’s view of the Christian mission to the Jews. Specific attention is paid to the question of whether in any sense this mission may be considered as being successful or it may be regarded as having a future. A key distinction is introduced between Luke’s representation of the Christian mission to the Jews and his interpretation of it. Thus, the first section looks primarily at how Luke represents the Jewish response to the mission, while the second section explores the way in which he interprets this response. The conclusion of the study is that Luke’s concern is neither to show that the mission to the Jews has failed because of a negative response, nor that it has succeeded because of a positive response, but rather that it has achieved its goal and it has a future despite a predominantly negative response.