Influencing social policies: social workers’ strategies and effectiveness in Albania

Although research on the policy engagement of social workers is expanding, little is known about the strategies social workers use to influence social policies across different contexts. We examine social workers’ strategies and their effectiveness in Albania, a partly free country where the social work profession is relatively new. A total of 30 in-depth interviews were conducted with a purposefully selected sample of social workers serving in governmental and non-governmental organizations. The findings reveal that social workers employ various strategies to influence social policies, such as addressing requests to higher-level officials, discussing policy proposals in municipal councils, testifying in parliamentary hearings and participating in national government committees. Social workers in governmental organizations employed fewer strategies and rated them as less effective than their counterparts in non-governmental organizations. The most frequently cited effective strategy was leveraging personal contacts to influence decision making, whereas participation in national government committees was deemed ineffective. We discuss the strengths and limitations of social workers’ strategies and outline the implications for social work practice, education and research.