The aim of the case study on which this chapter is based was to capture the experiences of parents with young children working in a social service agency in one of Sweden's largest cities. In this chapter, we will focus on features that block or facilitate the balance between work and family as well as form social workers’ career paths in a context of organisational change. The balance between work and family is often discussed with reference to the overspill from one area to another (Johansson, G., 2002). However, the study of work–family strategies is seldom related to the nature of work performed or to the character of the organisation in question. In this chapter, we will draw on these themes. Furthermore, we will discuss work–family strategies among young working parents. We will use the Transitions project's broad approach with multiple layers of information, and combine focus group discussions with information from biographical individual cases to further the context of work–family strategies (see Chapter Two and the Appendix). Our focus is especially on social workers who are working in face-toface situations with individual client cases. The analysis is based on their accounts, sometimes contrasting these with those of employees in different positions in the organisation as well as with those of managers (see also Bäck-Wiklund and Plantin, 2007).

Against this background, we will provide an analytical picture of the organisation and of some individual career paths, with a focus on the following questions:

• • What does the social agency look like from the perspective of social workers who are new parents?

• • What strategies do managers adopt to meet their needs?

• • What does the nature of work, notably working face to face with clients, mean in this context?

• • What dilemmas and loyalties do the social workers in this case study face in relation to colleagues, clients and family?

Human service organisations: a theoretical approach

Social service organisations are human service organisations and, as such, they have certain characteristics. First, they work directly with and on people whose attributes they attempt to shape. In a sense, people are their raw material. Second, they are mandated – and this justifies their existence – to protect and promote the welfare of the people they serve (Hasenfeld, 1983).