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

Although this group believe unemployment can have a detrimental effect on the well-being of individuals (Creed and Macintyre 2001), they are critical of DEWR being more concerned with financial accountability than the welfare of people with a disability. In contrast to the first group of respondents, this group sees a potential conflict between the economic objective of increasing labour force participation rates and the welfare of people with a disability. The Department of Employment and Workplace Relations is positioned by this group as placing the economic imperative above the expressed needs of clients. This interpretation is consistent with Saunders (2005: 3) who describes the difference between DEWR and the former Department of Family and Community Services (FaCS) as shifting the 'balance of bureaucratic power away from the more socially-liberal mindset within FaCS to the more hard-nosed economic mindset of DEWR' where the rationale for making social security benefits conditional on the recipient looking for employment is based on the premise that the moral hazard of creating disincentives to look for work is often mitigated by mutual obligation requirements (Ziguras 2004).

Discussion

As identified earlier, previous studies on the effects of contracting out employment services to the nonprofit sector in the Job Network have shown that nonprofit organisations have been forced to adopt the financial strategies and competitive spirit of their for-profit competitors, undermining the social mission of many of these organisations (Considine 2003; Ramia and Carney 2003). This is also demonstrated in this study, as is the findings of earlier research into the Job Network that workers take different approaches to implementing policy guidelines. What we have attempted to do here is to add to this body of research by highlighting the ethical tensions as they are emerging at the front-line of one nonprofit organisation providing disability employment services in a sector that has traditionally been based on voluntary assistance to clients.

A sense of incompatibility between the new contractual environment with its mutual obligation component and the organisation's traditional social mission is expressed as a conflict of organisational values by some ECs:

SUE: Very incompatible, yep. There's a lot of incompatibility there ... in terms of ... our philosophy and DEWR's stated intentions.

LINDA: ... there seems to be a bit of a balancing act in terms of urn, acting in the best interests of a client ... whilst at the same time fulfilling DEWR's requirements and sometimes they don't match up entirely well ... it's very much you've got to demonstrate that you're doing something for the money we give you.

Other ECs have a more definite belief that the new policy and associated contract has resulted in a change in the culture and objectives of the organisation that they are employed by. Although these ECs understand the organisation expects them to treat their clients with respect, they believe results are the prime expectation of them in their role as ECs: