Happy Doing Good? How Workers' Career Orientations and Job Satisfaction Relate in Grassroots Human Services

ABSTRACT

Job satisfaction has long been a focus of human services managers and researchers. Yet recent trends in what workers want from their jobs and careers may challenge the current understanding of this important phenomenon. There is limited understanding, in particular, of human services workers' potentially diverse orientations toward their work and how those preferences relate to job satisfaction. These factors are considered using unique data from a population of domestic violence agencies. Results show that newer human services employees report valuing opportunities for entrepreneurialism at work more than their veteran coworkers, while senior staff state stronger preferences for jobs that facilitate work-life balance. Across all employees, a preference for work seen as advancing a social cause is positively linked to job satisfaction, while a desire for job autonomy is negatively related to satisfaction. Finally, the work-life balance preferences only of newer staff are positively related to their satisfaction. The article concludes with a discussion of strategies for managing employees' multidimensional preferences for work.     

Preferences for receipt of care among community-dwelling adults

Preferences for long-term care alternatives include both place of care and persons to provide care. In this analysis, these elements are separated for mature adults (N-1503, ages 40-70) regarding future care needs. Most adults preferred care in home/community settings by kin or non-kin, with few deeming nursing homes acceptable. Demographics and personal knowledge, experience, and expectations were marginally likely to influence preferences; males were more likely to prefer care in paid/professional settings. Women, who more often expressed preference for kin/home care, face demographic trends reducing available female kin who might be caregivers.     

Individual Reactions to Organizational Conflict and Change*

When familiar organizational relationships are drastically changed, it is important to know what factors influence individuals in their attempts to re-establish stable work associations for themselves. In the situation described here, an organizational division (which was not administratively planned) made it necessary for individuals to decide whether to remain in their original jobs, move to a similar new organization created by a splinter group, or leave altogether. Eight hypotheses are tested which examine the effects of three sets of influences on individual decisions: psychological influences (job satisfaction, job tension); relational influences (social rewards, social costs, status consistency); and extra-organizational influences (marital status, professional committment, community involvement). Of the variables examined, the strongest influence is attributed to attempts by individuals to preserve their rewarding social exchanges with other members. The implications of these findings for social exchange theory are emphasized.     

Internship training in computer science: Exploring student satisfaction levels

The requirement of employability in the job market prompted universities to conduct internship training as part of their study plans. There is a need to train students on important academic and professional skills related to the workplace with an IT component. This article describes a statistical study that measures satisfaction levels among students in the faculty of Information Technology and Computer Science in Jordan. The objective of this study is to explore factors that influence student satisfaction with regards to enrolling in an internship training program. The study was conducted to gather student perceptions, opinions, preferences and satisfaction levels related to the program. Data were collected via a mixed method survey (surveys and interviews) from student-respondents. The survey collects demographic and background information from students, including their perception of faculty performance in the training poised to prepare them for the job market. Findings from this study show that students expect internship training to improve their professional and personal skills as well as to increase their workplace-related satisfaction. It is concluded that improving the internship training is crucial among the students as it is expected to enrich their experiences, knowledge and skills in the personal and professional life. It is also expected to increase their level of confidence when it comes to exploring their future job opportunities in the Jordanian market.     

Old Age Care Preferences Among Chinese Middle-Aged Single-Child Parents and the Related Policy Implications

We contrast rural and urban single-child parents’ old age care preferences and factors determining their preferences. The results show that single-child parents are more likely to report specific old age preferences than parents with multiple children; urban single-child parents are also more likely to have specific old age care preferences than their rural counterparts. Pension/social insurance is most preferred by urban single-child parents; whereas the preferences of rural single-child parents are more diverse. The most significant rural and urban differences lie in the effects of social and medical insurance on the respondents’ selection of care sources. Policy implications are discussed in the end.     

Work-related factors associated with psychological distress among social workers

The current study assesses the association between several work-related factors and psychological distress among social workers (SWs) in Israel. The data were collected through structured questionnaires, administered to a sample of 494 SWs. The findings suggest that most of the examined work-related factors (namely, years of professional experience, personal work-related subjection to violence, burnout, compassion fatigue, and sense of coherence), with the exception of compassion satisfaction, significantly predicted psychological distress among SWs. The conclusion is that it is important to embed within the social work practice strategies for reducing sources of psychological distress (job demands) and increasing material, professional, and personal resources. Reducing the levels of psychological distress experienced by SWs will benefit not only themselves, but also their families and colleagues, as well as their clients. Moreover, this has potential benefits for the social work profession and for the general community.     

An exploratory study of early professional experiences and job burnout among BSW graduates in China

Although previous studies have addressed turnover issues among social workers in Western countries, this study explores the early professional experiences (during the first 3 working years) and job burnout among BSW graduates in China and identifies factors influencing their decisions to leave social work jobs. Using semi-structured interviews with 15 BSW graduates in the Shenzhen metropolitan area, this research identifies the primary reasons new social workers leave the profession. Data analysis revealed three themes: personal struggles, work environment issues, and social support factors. This exploratory study highlights the professional experiences and burnout among BSW graduates in China and has implications for social work education and professional practices.     

Urban Residents' Views of Rurality and Contacts with Rural Places1

Little is known about how rural people and places are viewed by the urban majority or the extent to which these images are related to first-hand contact with rurality. Data from a recent mail survey of a sample of people living in Pennsylvania cities suggest that urban people view rural places in positive terms and feel that rural areas and rural lifestyles should be preserved. When asked to consider the desirability of various development strategies, most urban residents indicated that priority should be given to promoting traditional extractive economic activities (farming, forestry, mining); there was little support for other types of business or industrial development Urban residents who visited rural locales for recreation and/or environmental contact were most likely to want to preserve those areas; visiting for social reasons was related to support for development activities. Policy implications of these findings are suggested.     

Migration,unemployment and the urban labour market. A case study of the Sudan

Investigation of migration, unemployment, and the urban labor in Sudan was based on the Household Socioeconomic Survey of Greater Khartoum, conducted in October-November 1974. The survey sample consisted of 15,339 persons, 8904 of whom were natives of the 3 towns (Greater Khartoum) and 6435 were immigrants. Among the latter were 976 children below 12 years of age from whom no migration information was collected. Adult migrants were further subdivided into those who had migrated during the 5 years preceding the survey (947) and those who had migrated 5 or more years previously (4512). During the 5 years preceding the survey, the rate of migration into the 3 towns was of the order of 2.2% per annum. Over 80% of the migrants came from 9 of the 12 northern and central provinces. The 3 southern provinces contributed few migrants to the area. 47% of the recent migrants stated that their last place of residence had been a rural area; 53% reported an urban area. Among recent migrants, 69% of the males and 67% of the females were between the ages of 15-29. Only 4% of the males and 11% of the females were over 50. The migrants had a significantly higher level of education than the average population in the northern and central provinces where most of them originated, but this does not mean that they were necessarily better educated than the native population of the 3 towns. Of the 947 recent migrants, 354 had been working before the move. Of these the great majority, 73% had been in agriculture, 8% in services, 6% in trade, and 3% in construction. 18% of those working before the move were private employees, 6% government employees, and the remaining 76% either self employed or unpaid family workers. In this last category 82% of the self employed and 97% of the unpaid family workers had been in agriculture. The principal pull factors seemed to have been higher average annual earnings, job availability, better educational opportunities, and the low cost of migration due to the presence of friends and relatives in the 3 towns. Dominant among the push factors were population pressure, lack of job opportunities, and climatic conditions leading to low agricultural productivity and incomes. The overall labor force participation rate among recent recent migrants was 79% for males and only 7% for females. A higher proportion of newly arrived migrants worked in services and a lower proportion in transport. The proportion of natives who were engaged in professional, technical, and administrative work was almost double that of the migrant groups. Natives were also relatively more likely to be clerical workers. For both migrants and natives, average annual earnings increased steadily with the level of educational attainment. 50% of the migrants who came to the 3 towns without a job found a job within 6 months and that those who were unemployed for longer than this were supported by family or friends. The evidence suggests that migrants to Greater Khartoum are being absorbed into urban employment rather than relegated to irregular, low status activities on the fringe of the urban economy.     

German fathers and their preferences for shorter working hours for family reasons

This study is among the first to analyze fathers’ preference for shorter working hours specifying that the preference is related to the wish to spend more time with the family. Assuming that preferences are context-dependent, this article explores the relevance of the family and workplace context for preference formation. We develop need-based and capability-based arguments to contrast the job demands–resources approach and the capabilities approach in work–family research. Using a sample of 632 fathers from the German LEEP-B3 data with a representative linked employer–employee design for large work organizations we conclude that fathers’ preferences for shorter working hours are indeed context-dependent and that there is more evidence for need-based arguments than opportunity based arguments. Our results indicate that fathers with young children and fathers with high work demands are more likely to desire shorter working hours, whereas a reduction in working hours appears to be unnecessary for fathers who can satisfactorily reconcile work and family life through support from their supervisors. In contrast to capability-based arguments the perception of a highly demanding work culture was not found to decrease but increase the likelihood to desire to work shorter hours.     

Couples' Views about Planning Fertility in the Philippines*

Abstract This research examines Filipino couples' attitudes toward the occurrence and timing of their most recent pregnancies. Differences between processes operating in rural and urban areas are highlighted. Specific topics include the role of couples' fertility preferences in predicting the intention status of pregnancies, the effect of personal agency in decision making about contraception and childbearing, and whether women who are better able to communicate with their husbands about sex and related matters are more able than other women to avoid unintended births. These topics are explored through survey data and in‐depth interviews.     

Toward a Radical Model of Social Work in Rural Communities

“Rural” areas as distinct from “urban” continue to be defined by greater personal interactions and less emphasis on formal systems of support. This reality rests in contradiction to the overwhelming majority of social work scholarship and theory development which takes place in an urban context. As such the present-day act of being a “social worker” in a rural community can, in many ways, feel like a bad fit, back-applying the model of an urban generalist into an environment whose organic community ties the social work model itself was originally designed to substitute for. In recognition of this, it is necessary to develop a “combined” model of practice for social work with rural communities and peoples. The fundamental distinction to be made is that rural social work, in its most radical form, is less concerned with adapting persons to the Gesellschaft than it is with strengthening the capacity of the Gemeinschaft to provide the kind of support capacity it historically has, taking into account changes and challenges resulting from factors such as globalization, urban sprawl, and cultural change.     

Relationships between person and health factors and job characteristics in women with systemic lupus erythematosus

This study compared personal and health factors and job characteristics in persons with Systemic Lupus Erythematosus (SLE) and a healthy control group and examined factors related to job characteristics. Fifteen women with SLE and 15 healthy controls completed a questionnaire regarding current employment, employer restrictions, job environment, type of work, and health factors interfering with work. Personal factors such as demographic information, disease severity, cognition, and degree of brain injury were also assessed. t-tests showed that persons with SLE worked significantly less than healthy controls but there were no significant differences between the groups for types of job or employee restrictions. In the group with SLE, health factors of mobility, dependence, musculoskeletal problems, neurological problems, and fatigue correlated with perceived social (r=0.53 to 0.67) and physical (r=0.56 to 0.87) work environments. None of the measures of cognition, brain injury or disease severity correlated with job characteristics. In the healthy controls, dependence at work correlated with physical environment and fatigue correlated with the social environment of the workplace. The results indicate that even persons with SLE who have mild disease are significantly different from healthy controls and might be at risk for discontinuing working.     

Making people feel good: Workers' constructions of meaning in interactive service jobs

This paper analyses the experiences of women who work in residential real estate sales, to identify the factors that lead women to choose and keep this occupation. In-depth interviews provide the data for a case study of the importance of various job traits in determining job satisfaction for a specific category of workers. The more general question concerns workers' constructions of the emotional labor involved in interactive service work. Within a general queueing model, this paper focuses on job queues. Specifically, I examine workers' preferences for jobs and the factors that contribute to positive ranking of the job after workers' initial experiences with it. Findings show that although the women's experiences on the job have disappointed their expectations, most remain satisfied with their work and plan to stay in the field. The reasons for this high level of satisfaction are related to characteristics of the workers—the women's educational and skill levels, and the limited alternatives that they perceive for themselves, and characteristics of the job—its autonomous nature and the emotional labor it entails.     

It's no picnic: personal and family safety for rural social workers

This paper reports the key research findings related to personal and family safety of rural welfare and social workers, from a study conducted in rural Victoria, Australia. Significant findings included concerns about personal and family safety, frequency of episodes of work related violence and harassment, and the resultant impact on personal and family activities. A range of useful strategies was identified to combat and cope with both the risk and experience of violence and harassment for the worker, and for their families. Workplaces, professional associations and educators need to recognise the impact of this occupational hazard and respond with sensitivity to these issues, which have particular relevance for rural practitioners where anonymity and privacy are frequently compromised.     

Explaining fathers' involvement in childcare: an ecological approach

The study was conducted among a sample of 113 Israeli fathers, and aimed to examine the variables that explain paternal involvement in care of children between the ages of one and six. Based on Bronfenbrenner’s ecological approach, the study examined the contribution of variables representing three ecological systems of the fathers: the ontogenic system – the fathers' background variables, and their childhood experiences with paternal involvement; the microsystem – children’s characteristics (age and temperament); and mothers' characteristics (education, hours of work outside of the home, and fathers' assessments of maternal gatekeeping); and the macrosystem – type of community of residence (rural or urban). Maternal gatekeeping most significantly explained paternal involvement in most of the domains of childcare that were examined. Fathers living in urban communities who assessed their wives' maternal gatekeeping as high tended to be more involved in the domain of physical care than their counterparts living in rural communities. The child’s temperament explained paternal involvement in the domains of showing love and playing with the children, whereas the fathers' childhood experiences with paternal involvement were related to their involvement in the domain of physical care. The implications of the findings for families and communities are discussed.     

Experience with research paradigms relates to infants’ direction of preference

Interpreting and predicting direction of preference in infant research has been a thorny issue for decades. Several factors have been proposed to account for familiarity versus novelty preferences, including age, length of exposure, and task complexity. The current study explores an additional dimension: experience with the experimental paradigm. We reanalyzed the data from 4 experiments on artificial grammar learning in 12-month-old infants run using the head-turn preference procedure (HPP). Participants in these studies varied substantially in their number of laboratory visits. Results show that the number of HPP studies is related to direction of preference: Infants with limited experience with the HPP setting were more likely to show familiarity preferences than infants who had amassed more experience with this paradigm. This evidence has important implications for the interpretation of experimental results: Experience with a given method or, more broadly, with the laboratory environment may affect infants’ patterns of preferences.     

The ‘Building Blocks’ of Professional Identity among Social Work Graduates

Based on systems theory, the current study aimed to examine the relationships between the following sets of variables: input variables—satisfaction with supervision, self-differentiation, and sense of coherence; throughput variables—values and empathy; and the output variable—professional identity of BSW students. Questionnaires were completed by 160 social work students who were about to graduate the social work program. Path analysis (The AMOS 5 program) was used to analyze the research model. Satisfaction with supervision was the only input variable that was directly related to professional identity. Of the throughput variables, empathy and personal values were directly related to professional identity, whereas sense of coherence was indirectly related to empathic concern, with social values as a mediator. Practical recommendations are discussed.     

Employee exposure to coworker substance use and negative consequences: the moderating effects of work group membership.

The current study assesses: (1) whether the relationship between individual exposure to coworker substance use and negative consequences resulting from exposure depends on work group membership, and (2) whether group-level characteristics moderate the relationship between exposure and consequences. At the group-level, we assessed occupations involving safety risk or high mobility and social factors of drinking climate and group cohesiveness. We conducted Hierarchical Linear Modeling (HLM) across two samples of municipal employees (ns = 650, 878; n of groups = 50, 49). Our results revealed that groups with higher proportions of jobs involving risk (e.g., machine work) and, to a lesser extent, groups with a higher level of drinking climate were those most vulnerable to consequences under conditions of exposure. Importantly, our findings controlled for individual risk factors (e.g., personal drinking, job stress). Our discussion examines the implications of this study for theory and policy related to workplace substance abuse.     

Social work in rural areas: a personal and professional challenge

Australians live in diverse areas, city and country, coast and hinterland, desert and rainforest, urban and remote areas. While much social work practice is located in large population centres, the problem of providing a social work service in rural and remote areas is a challenging one. This article examines some of the issues for rural social workers practicing where networks are small and multilayered, anonymity, privacy and safety for the social worker cannot be guaranteed, and a broad range of knowledge and skills are demanded. As a profession, it is important to acknowledge the complexity of delivering an ethical, responsive and appropriate service in rural areas. For rural social workers, this challenge impacts in both their professional and personal roles.