Israeli social workers' supervision preferences and practices: An example of a professional ideology

The purpose of this paper is to explore similarities and differences between professional and organizational supervision ideology as expressed by workers' preferences and actual supervisory practices within the Israeli welfare system. One hundred and ninety eight social workers from various public welfare agencies were interviewed using a closed item interview schedule which included questions related to workers' preferences and actual supervisory practices. Analysis of the subjects showed a strong cross-agency and cross-worker consistency in supervision preferences and actual practices. On the other hand significant differences were found between the perception of supervision by trained and non-trained social workers. These findings were indicative of the existence of a professional supervision ideology which is interpreted as more influential than the organizational one.