Enacting change through leadership practice in social work: A social identity approach

Abstract Leadership in social work is often met with ambivalence, as traditional models are seen to conflict with the profession’s core values of inclusion, equity, and social justice. While existing research highlights the importance of leadership in enabling professional practice and workforce well-being, there remains a critical gap in understanding how social workers can lead in ways that authentically embody these values. This paper explores a social identity approach to leadership that can empower social workers to influence and motivate others by Creating, Advancing, Representing, and Embedding (CARE) a shared social identity (a sense of ‘us-ness’) within the groups they lead. Drawing on research from organizational psychology and allied health contexts, alongside practice examples from social work, we discuss how this approach enables social workers to create a unified sense of purpose within contemporary practice contexts. Through the introduction of the 5R programme (Readying, Reflecting, Representing, Realizing, and Reinforcing), we outline a practical intervention to operationalize the CARE model which equips social workers with tools to develop inclusive leadership practices. This paper advances social work leadership scholarship by providing a theoretical foundation and practical framework that aligns leadership effectiveness with the profession’s commitment to anti-oppressive practice and social justice.