The nature of counselling organizations
John McLeod (1998 : 294-296) One of the most valuable concepts to have emerged from the field of organizational studies has been the idea of the open system (Katz and Kahn 1978). From this perspective, organizations are seen as consisting of sets of overlapping and interconnecting parts, which combine to form an organizational system. Change in any element or part of the system will affect what happens elsewhere in the system. Furthermore, the system exists in an environment, and is open to influence from external factors. The purpose of the organizational system is to produce ‘throughput’: there is an input of ‘raw materials’ which are processed and then leave the system as ‘output’. A typical counselling agency, therefore, could be viewed as a system made up clients, counsellors, supervisors, managers and administrators, receptionists and fund-raisers. The throughput of the agency is represented by the number of clients seen, and external environment may include funding agencies, professional bodies and members of the general public. A systems perspective is particularly useful in providing a framework for beginning to understand the ways in which other parts in the system may have an impact on the client-counsellor relationship. For example, successfulpublicity and outreach work may increase the number of clients applying for counselling. The long waiting lists which may then result can lead to pressure to place a limit on the number of sessions offered to clients. Some of the counsellors may find thispolicy unacceptable, and leave. This very brief, simplified (but not fictional) example gives a sense of how an organizational system might operate. Other examples will be explored later in the chapter.
In his analysis of the organization of human services providers, Hasenfeld (1992) makes two observations that are highly relevant to counselling agencies. He suggests that an appreciation of the nature of these organizations must take into account the fact that they are engaged in ‘moral’ work and in ‘gendered’ work. Counselling organizations ultimately exist because of an assumption that certain groups of people deserve help and resources. A person who is depressed, or who is abusing drugs, is entitled to the time of a therapist. The fact that a counselling agency has been set up to provide counselling for such clients implies a value position. Other people, however, may not share this value position, and may argue on moral grounds that these problems do not deserve a share of public resources. Counselling agencies may, as a result, need to work to establish their legitimacy in the eyes of external group, such as funding bodies and the public at large (McLeod 1994a).
Historically, the task of caring for people has been work for women. In counselling and other human service organizations, women predominate in frontline service delivery roles, although men are proportionally more heavily represented in management roles. This pattern is even more apparent in voluntary couselling agencies where male counsellors can be thin on the ground. In general, female occupations enjoy lower status and rates of pay than male occupations, and this tendency can be seen in the field of counselling. Another issue arising from the gendered nature of counselling is the influence of feminist values on counselling organizations. Taylor (1983:445) has suggested that organizations dominated by women are more likely to espouse values such as ‘egalitarianism rather than hierarchy, cooperation rather than competition, nurturance rather than rugged individualism, peace rather than conflict’. This set of values is congruent with the values of counselling as a whole, and can lead to misunderstanding, tension or difficulty when counselling agencies attempt to develop hierarchical structures, or operate in host organizations which embody different beliefs. Another set of issues that must be faced by counselling organizations concerns the position to be taken regarding professionalism and voluntarism. There is a long and respectable tradition of counselling as voluntary work. People trained and practiced as counsellors on a part-time basis because of the intrinsic satisfaction of the work, and also for the altruisc motive of giving to others who were less fortunate. There is also a tradition of counselling as a profession, carried out by paid experts. Difficulties arise in situations where these traditions confront each other; for example, in voluntary agencies where some training and supervisory staff are paid, but counsellors are not, or in agencies seeking to make the transition from voluntary to professional status.