Who to serve? The ethical dilemma of employment consultants in nonprofit disability employment network organisations

Australian Journal of Social Issues, Autumn, 2009 by Stephen Thornton, Greg Marston

In this particular context, it is organisational policy that ECs are responsible for determining when to submit participation reports (PRs) to Centrelink. While ECs do not, therefore, technically breach clients when they have lost contact with a client, their reporting actions may trigger a financial sanction being applied when a client fails to engage in job seeking activities as detailed in their Activity Agreement. Activity Agreements are a 'written agreement negotiated between a DEN Participant and an Employment Service Provider (ESP) or Centrelink that outlines a DEN Participant's terms of participation, both compulsory and voluntary' (DEWR 2006). Ultimately, it is the role of Centrelink to decide whether or not to impose sanctions on clients for breaches of these Activity Agreements. Nonetheless, front-line employment consultants in the Disability Employment Network now find themselves in a situation where their duty to the client and their duty to the organisation (and through them the government) may conflict. How employment consultants manage this tension is explored in the next section of the paper.

Reporting Regimes of Nonprofit Disability Employment Network Consultants

In July 2007, 12 months after the implementation of the Welfare-to-work policy, we undertook a street-level ethnographic study of policy implementation at one Brisbane metropolitan nonprofit DEN services provider. The use of ethnography is especially useful in street-level policy implementation studies due to the process dynamics of 'decision making, communication, bargaining, negotiation and conflict' (Schofield 2004: 288) and the 'complex interaction, over time, among a distinctive set of key actors and events at any given site' (Yin 1982: 45). The rationale for using one particular study site rather than multiple sites was largely due to resource limitations. Therefore, the intent of this study is to understand the reporting regimes and the ethical dilemmas of ECs in the early stages of the policy in the context of a well established, local niche nonprofit organisation where ECs' reporting regimes are not only influenced by the rules and regulations of DEWR but also by the culture of the organisation. As noted earlier, however, there can be a tendency over time for practices of front-line staff to converge, more in line with the intentions of policy architects.

In terms of the physical practice environment, the organisation has a small number of offices in the Brisbane area with one main office acting as the hub. It is from this office the study was conducted. The organisation assists people with a range of disabilities and ages and has been operating for almost 20 years. The main office is situated in a modest business precinct in what might be considered a lower middle class socio-economic area of Brisbane. This crude classification is made by observing the type and age of motor vehicles in the street, prices of food in local shops, and age and repair of surrounding homes. Perusal of the repair of surrounding businesses suggests it is consistent in appearance with these businesses. The internal office spaces are in need of refurbishment. The organisation has contracts with DEWR to provide both Capped and Uncapped disability employment services. Prior to the introduction of the Welfare-to-work policy, only Capped places were provided and clients did not typically have mutual obligation requirements. A sense of the organisational culture is described by ECs further on.