Educational Alternatives, Volume 19, 2021

Abstract: Previous research on the application of the individual approach in social work service organisations shows that institutional guidelines of the profession operate in social work practice in different organisational contexts. The paper’s intention is to describe the organisational barriers and supportive conditions that professional counsellors face, and the strategies of conduct they use when trying to apply an individual approach to their long-term unemployed clients. Based on the identified themes arisen in past qualitative research representing modifications of the individual approach by counsellors as a response to perceived organisational barriers and supportive conditions, we formulated our hypotheses. We chose a quantitative research strategy. The research sample was formed through a total sample of all workers holding a position in organisations providing professional counselling and/or social services to the long-term unemployed in the Moravian-Silesian region. The region has for long been ranked among those regions with the highest number of job seekers and a high proportion of the long-term unemployed. To collect data, we opted for an online questionnaire survey. A design of the online questionnaire was thematically divided into areas according to the sub-research questions: characteristics of an individual approach, organisational barriers, and supportive organisational conditions in its provision. We used a statistical method of data analysis. The sub-results of the research point to the importance of the reactions of counsellors who, through their actions and conduct, create change in institutional guidelines.