Narratives of individual capacities: Positive organisational scholarship amongst child welfare workers in Norway

Child welfare services across the world are often criticised for the quality of service and care that theyprovide. Whilst the validity of some of these criticisms is debatable, critics often neglect to take intoaccount the intense nature and working conditions of this work, staff mental health and well-being, andthe range of work-related psychosocial risks in child welfare workers’ (CWW) daily work. Therefore, theaim of the present study is to explore CWW work experiences and personal capacities to conduct theirwork. We achieve this through the lens of positive organisational scholarship and in-depth interviews withsixteen CWW in Norway. Thematic narrative analysis yielded five distinct personal capacities: showingcommitment and going the extra mile, viewing challenges as opportunities for learning and growth,demonstrating confidence and efficacy beliefs, controlling work behaviours and prioritising work tasks.These personal capacities enabled CWW to perform their work despite excessive pressure and demandsat work, since they serve as protective factors for their wellbeing and performance. Our in-depth findingshighlight the utility of making more resources available for building and maintaining individual capacitiesto support this work group, especially when changing the nature of the work and working conditions is notfeasible.