Program Overview

Unit Overview

The unit THSP637 - Supervision: Leadership and Governance is designed to deepen participants' understanding of the practice, purpose, and implications of Supervision within the modern workplace. This unit examines the relationship of Supervision to questions concerning leadership and governance in contemporary organisations.

Unit Rationale, Description, and Aim

Graduates of programs in Supervision for the helping professions need to develop knowledge, understanding, and skills in this discipline and demonstrate a capacity to evaluate the various ways in which their personal development impacts upon and contributes to their professional roles. The aim of this unit is to deepen participants' understanding of the practice, purpose, and implications of Supervision within the modern workplace.

Learning Outcomes

To successfully complete this unit, students will be able to:

1. Explain issues emerging for supervisors in the context of leadership and governance.
2. Apply contemporary understandings of leadership and governance to professional supervisory practice.
3. Evaluate the professional accountabilities of supervisors in ways that include mature and insightful self-reflection.

Unit Content

Topics will include:

• Leadership and governance in contemporary organisations
• Supervision in church-based organisations and issues relating to safeguarding children and other vulnerable people
• Systems thinking of organisational structure, culture, and governance
• Establishing and maintaining cultures of safety in the workplace
• Personal and professional accountabilities of supervisors, including maintenance of professional boundaries
• Legal frameworks for the exercise of supervisory roles
• Duties of care for supervisors
• Ongoing supervision for supervisors
• Maintaining critically reflective practice and mental hygiene

Assessment Strategy and Rationale

The assessment strategy of this unit has been designed to enable students to demonstrate a clear understanding of leadership and governance structures and accountabilities within their own or another organisation and to locate their supervisory practice within that context.

Assessments

• Workplace Analysis (1000 words or equivalent, expressed as a diagram): This task is designed to demonstrate students' understanding of the leadership and governance structures of an organisation and the various points at which supervisors are personally and professionally accountable in their practice. (Weighting: 20%)
• Case Study (2000 words): This task is designed to assist students in identifying and deepening their understanding of issues emerging for supervisors in the context of leadership and governance. (Weighting: 30%)
• Oral Examination (30 minutes): This task is designed to enable students to apply contemporary understandings of leadership and governance to their own practice of supervision and to evaluate areas of strength and weakness in that practice. (Weighting: 50%)

Learning and Teaching Strategy and Rationale

This unit involves 150 hours of focused learning, which reflects the standard volume of learning for a unit in a university qualification of this Australian Qualifications Framework type. The unit is normally offered in scheduled online mode, blending the use of online delivery of learning materials and activities that can be undertaken synchronously and asynchronously.

Representative Texts and References

• Australian Institute of Company Directors. Not-for-profit Governance Principles. 2nd Ed. Sydney, NSW, 2019.
• Barnes, Gill Gorell, David Campbell, and Barry Mason. Perspectives on Supervision. London: Routledge, 2018.
• Burck, Charlotte. Mirrors and Reflections: Processes of Systemic Supervision. 1st ed. London: Routledge, 2018.
• Catholic Religious Australia & Australian Catholic Bishops' Conference. Light from the Southern Cross: Promoting Co-Responsible Governance in the Catholic Church of Australia. 2020.
• Davys, Allyson, and Liz Beddoe. Challenges in Professional Supervision: Current Themes and Models for Practice. London: Jessica Kingsley Publishers, 2016.
• Jirek, Sarah L. "Ineffective Organizational Responses to Workers' Secondary Traumatic Stress: A Case Study of the Effects of an Unhealthy Organizational Culture." Human Service Organizations: Management, Leadership & Governance 44, no. 3 (2020): 210–228.
• Morgan, Julie. Mission, Governance and Executive Leadership." In Danielle Achikian, Peter Gates, Lana Turvey, and Stephen B. Bevans. The Francis Effect: Living the Joy of the Gospel. North Sydney, NSW: Catholic Mission, Catholic Religious Australia, 2013.
• Oliver, Christine. Reflexive Inquiry: A Framework for Consultancy Practice. London: Taylor and Francis, 2018.
• Rubio, Julie Hanlon, and Paul J Schutz. Beyond 'Bad Apples': Understanding Clergy Perpetrated Sexual Abuse as a Structural Problem and Cultivating Strategies for Change. New York: Fordham University Press, 2022.
• Schein, Edgar H., and Peter Schein. Organizational Culture and Leadership. 5th ed. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley, 2017.

Unit Details

• Credit Points: 10
• Year: 2026
• Locations: Online