Why Are They Leaving? Factors Affecting Intention to Leave among Social Workers in Child Welfare

This article addresses a topic that has not previously beenresearched in Sweden, i.e. factors associated with the intentionof social workers to leave their place of work. A comprehensivequestionnaire was distributed to 309 social workers in childwelfare in the County of Stockholm (drop-out rate: 3 per cent).The study comprised a total of forty-two workgroups. All thesocial workers handling referrals and investigating the situationof children and youth in these areas were included. One of themost striking results was that although 54 per cent of the socialworkers had been at their current workplace for two years orless, 48 per cent intended to leave their jobs. A logistic regressionanalysis showed that the variable of greatest importance forthe intention to leave the workplace was lack of human resourceorientation within the organization, i.e. the extent to whichpersonnel are rewarded for a job well done, feel well takencare of and where management is interested in their health andwell-being. A final conclusion of this study is that when measuringthe impact of different aspects of work tasks compared withsome aspects of organizational culture, it becomes clear thatthe latter seem to be most important in this respect.