Advancing case manager motivation in child welfare: Job control's curvilinear relationship and instrumental feedback's moderating influence

To date, no published empirical studies in the field of child welfare (or social work) have investigated the curvilinear relationship between job characteristics and any aspect of employee functioning. The present study addressed this research gap by testing job control's direct and interactive curvilinear effects on motivation using a sample of 419 county-based public sector child welfare case managers. Consistent with Cavanaugh, Boswell, Roehling, and Boudreau's (2000) challenge–hindrance framework, study findings revealed a significant curvilinear job control × linear instrumental feedback interaction. No support, however, was found for a direct curvilinear effect for job control. Empirical results advance the child welfare literature by being the first to demonstrate how job characteristics impact the motivation of child welfare case managers in a curvilinear manner. Study data also clarify prior nonsignificant tests of Warr's (1987) vitamin model and extend seminal findings from Karasek's (1979) job demands–control model. Finally, instrumental feedback's capacity to integrate three well-established but previously unrelated models of occupational health is discussed.     

Relationships between work–life balance and job-related factors among child welfare workers

This study examined the relationships between work–life balance and several job-related factors among 573 public child welfare workers in a northeastern state in the United States of America. It explored job-related correlates of work–life balance and the possible mediating role of work–life balance between these factors and job satisfaction. Multiple regression analysis demonstrated that the job-related factors organizational support, job value, work time, and income were significantly associated with work–life balance among child welfare workers. It also confirmed that work–life balance partially mediated the associations of organizational support and job value with job satisfaction. Implications for child welfare research, policy, and practice are proposed based on the empirical findings.     

Job conditions, unmet expectations, and burnout in public child welfare workers: How different from other social workers?

The purpose of this research is to compare public child welfare workers' perception of job conditions, unmet expectations, and burnout to those of social workers in other settings. Using data from a sample of 408 social workers identified from a cross-sectional random survey of California registered social workers, a series of ANOVA and multiple regression analysis was performed. Results of ANOVA revealed that public child welfare workers experienced higher workloads, greater role conflict, and depersonalization, and had lower personal accomplishment. However, they had similar levels of unmet expectations and emotional exhaustion as other social workers. Adjusted for perceived job conditions and demographic characteristics, regression analyses revealed that public child welfare workers had significantly higher levels of depersonalization than those of private child welfare workers. Finally, workers in public settings exhibited significantly lower levels of personal accomplishment than social workers in private settings did, regardless of their practice field. Implications for organizational practices and future research are discussed.     

Attitudes,Perceptions and Concerns of Student Social Workers: First Two Years of a Longitudinal Study

A longitudinal study was initiated by the authors in September 2001 to monitor the changing attitudes, perceptions, concerns and experiences of 32 social work students during their two‐year MSW training at University College Dublin, subsequently following the students into their first three years of practice. This paper reports on the findings from the first two years of the study, exploring how much the attitudes of the respondents changed towards different areas of social work practice while they were full‐time students. Both quantitative and qualitative data have been collected by means of mixed method questionnaires, taken at four points over a two‐year period, and a focus group. Issues examined included the students' changing perceptions of stress, job satisfaction and levels of expertise in different areas of social work practice. The study also monitored their willingness to work in specific areas of social work after graduation. Statistical analysis revealed that students consistently rated social work in the areas of child protection and welfare as requiring high levels of expertise, but they associated the area with higher levels of perceived stress and lower levels of job satisfaction. These attitudes remain relatively stable throughout their two‐year professional training. However, the study revealed greater changes in the students' willingness to work in different areas. For example, specialist family services such as fostering and child/adolescent became more popular choices for future work settings. This change was noted to have occurred between the start and end of the course. Also noteworthy was that general medical, probation and welfare showed the most negative change.     

Professional development opportunities as retention incentives in child welfare

This study examined the career paths of 415 Title IV-E MSW graduates in one state retrospectively over 180 months post-graduation to discover factors that could be important in affecting retention in public child welfare agencies. The Title IV-E educational program is designed to be a retention strategy at the same time as it is a professionalization strategy. We surmised that perceived organizational support (POS) contributes to retention by acknowledging the workers' needs for career development support. The median survival time for these child welfare social workers was 43 months for the first job and 168 months for the entire child welfare career. The initial analysis showed steep drops in retention occurred at 24–36 months post-graduation, approximately at the end of the Title IV-E work obligation. Upon further examination, Kaplan–Meier tests showed organizational factors relevant to workers' professional career development predicted retention. Having access to continuing education and agency-supported case-focused supervision for licensure were correlated with retention at the 24–36 month post-graduation mark. At 72 months post-graduation, promotion to supervisor was a significant factor found to encourage retention. Being a field instructor for MSW students and being promoted to a managerial position were not significantly related to retention.     

Exploring the relationship between employment-based social capital, job stress, burnout, and intent to leave among child protection workers: An age-based path analysis model

Research suggests that age and organizational factors are consistently linked with job stress, burnout, and intent to leave among child protection workers. However, no study has contextualized how age matters with regards to these adverse employee outcomes. We conducted a theory driven path analysis that identifies sources of employment-based social capital, job stress, burnout, and intent to leave among two age groups. We used a statewide purposive sample of 209 respondents from a public child welfare organization in a New England state in the United States. Results suggest that the paths to job stress, burnout and intent to leave differed by age group. Social capital dimensions were more influential in safeguarding against job stress for older workers compared to younger workers. Our results justify creating workplace interventions for younger workers that target areas of the organization where relational support could enhance the quality of social interactions within the organization. Organizations may need to establish intervention efforts aimed at younger workers by creating different structures of support that can assist them to better deal with the pressures and demands of child protection work.     

Factors impacting intention to leave in social workers and child care workers employed at voluntary agencies

Introduction

To ameliorate high turnover in child welfare, researchers have attempted to identify factors that lead to undesirable turnover. While this has been studied extensively, little attention has been paid to turnover based upon job roles. Like social workers in child welfare, the field of child care also experiences high turnover. Child care workers employed in child welfare settings are no exception. The current study seeks to understand differential factors that impact intent to leave for preventive and child care workers employed in child welfare agencies.

Materials and methods

Data for prevention workers (n = 538) were obtained from all preventive service programs under contract with the City. Data for child care workers (n = 222) were obtained from three voluntary agencies located elsewhere in the State. The instrument was a modified version of a survey developed to examine job satisfaction and potential turnover among public child welfare workers. Domains measured included job satisfaction, intention to leave, career commitment, and agency investment. Data were analyzed using bivariate analysis and Structural Equation Modeling (SEM).

Results

Child care workers had more positive perceptions of child welfare and planned to stay in child welfare longer. Despite this, prevention workers felt more invested in their work. Child care and prevention workers had different levels of satisfaction with their jobs although overall job satisfaction did not differ nor did their intention to leave. Tenure at the agency was predictive of career investment. Investment, perceptions of child welfare, satisfaction with nature of work, and contingent rewards were associated with career commitment. Commitment and satisfaction with supervision were the greatest predictors of intention to leave.

Discussion

There is a gap in literature addressing child care workers in child welfare, and future study of this group is needed. Child care workers are just as likely to intend to leave their jobs as prevention workers. For both groups, it appears that investment in their jobs increases commitment to the field which reduces intention to leave.     

Organizational tenure among child welfare workers,burnout, stress,and intent to leave: Does employment-based social capital make a difference?

Research has shown that child welfare organizations have a prominent role in safeguarding their workers from experiencing high levels of job stress and burnout, which can ultimately lead to increased thoughts of leaving. However, it is not clear whether these relationships are shaped by their length of organizational tenure. A cross-sectional research design that included a statewide purposive sample of 209 child welfare workers was used to test a theoretical model of employment-based social capital to examine how paths to job stress, burnout, and intent to leave differ between workers who have worked in a child welfare organization for less than 3 years compared to those with 3 years or more of employment in one organization. Path analysis results indicate that when a mixture of dimensions of employment-based social capital are present, they act as significant direct protective factors in decreasing job stress and indirectly shape burnout and intent to leave differently based on organizational tenure. Thus, organizations may have to institute unique intervention efforts for both sets of workers that provide immediate and long-term structures of support, resources, and organizational practices given that their group-specific needs may change over time.     

Exploring patterns of employee psychosocial outcomes among child welfare workers

Child welfare workers continue to suffer from increased levels of job stress and burnout, often resulting in an intention to leave. Although the literature on these psychosocial employee outcomes is extensive, much of it is limited in that it has failed to determine if variability exists across these constructs in a way that can be systematically categorized. This cross sectional exploratory study utilized a statewide purposive sample of respondents (N = 209) from a public child welfare organization in a Northeastern state. Two complementary cluster methods and discriminant function analysis were used to determine if subtypes of job stress, burnout, well-being, job satisfaction and intent to leave exist among public child welfare workers. Since the results yielded three different clusters of workers, an Analysis of Variance was used to identify significant group differences, while Scheffé post hoc tests were examined to determine which groups differed. Findings show that the all three clusters significantly vary from one another in terms of the adverse employee psychosocial outcomes. Our findings suggest that child welfare workers represent a heterogeneous group with dissimilar psychosocial needs. To meet those employee needs and maximize their work output, child welfare administrators should make a concerted effort to better understand the unique needs of this strained workforce.     

Messages to Social Work Education: What Makes Social Workers Continue and Cope in Child Welfare?

This article examines the positive elements which make social workers continue their career with a focus on statutory child welfare. Such analysis is needed, as existing research tends to highlight stress, exhaustion and career break-up issues. The empirical data consist of focus groups of 28 social workers and a questionnaire addressed to 56 professionals in child welfare in two Finnish urban municipalities. The focus groups were targeted at novice, expert and veteran social workers. The analysis presents organisational, person-related and client-work-related positive elements from the point of view of social workers. The results highlight that social work in child welfare may be experienced as being rewarding and professionally challenging. The positive elements vary among novice, expert and veteran social workers, with the latter especially viewing their work as independent expert work with major opportunities to make a change in children's lives. Commitment to care of children is one of the key motivating factors. The study suggests that social work education should recognise that the subjective motivation to do social work may change during one's career and that social work may be simultaneously both stressful and rewarding. Students should learn how to balance these aspects of their work.     

The Labor Market Orientation of Single Mothers on Welfare in The Netherlands

Since the implementation of the new General Assistance Act (1996) in The Netherlands, single parents on welfare have become obliged to seek work as soon as their youngest child has become 5 years old. This article presents a study of 1,049 Dutch single mothers on welfare. Using LISREL, a conceptual model is examined for the effects of both the past and current circumstances of the mothers on their labor orientation and on their steps toward a full‐time job. An individual mother's motivation to work is particularly related to the importance she attaches to caring (care ethos) as opposed to working (work ethos) and to the problems she anticipates in combining care and work.     

Do child welfare job preview videos reflect evidence on retention and turnover?

To maintain a well-trained, competent work force and reduce turnover, child welfare agencies must use effective recruitment and retention practices. Many states use realistic job preview videos to recruit and retain appropriate, well-matched staff. The purpose of this study is to assess the content of child welfare realistic job preview videos to determine whether the content reflects current evidence on child welfare retention and turnover, and the mechanisms through which realistic job previews are most effective. The study involves content analysis of realistic job preview videos posted at the Child Welfare Information Gateway. A comparison of video content to findings from research on child welfare retention and turnover, and to research on realistic job preview effectiveness reveals some ways that the content of child welfare recruitment and retention efforts could be strengthened.     

Speaking up and stepping back: Examining the link between employee voice and job neglect

How does an employee attempts (or lack thereof) to improve or change work related circumstances influence one's ability to do one's job? This longitudinal study sought to examine this question by testing the relationship between employee voice and two distinct forms of job neglect (active and passive neglect) among child welfare workers at baseline (time 1: n = 359) and six month follow-up (time 2: n = 187). Path analysis results revealed significant yet unexpected relationships between employee voice and the forms of job neglect. At time one, results showed that as employees voiced, they engaged in active neglect; yet this relationship shifted over time. In that, employees who exercised voice at time 1 were less likely to engage in active job neglect at time 2. With respect to passive neglect and voice, employees who indirectly limited their work effort at baseline were more likely to speak up at time 2. This study examines this unique finding and the role that both employee voice and job neglect play as workers attempt to manage dissatisfying work conditions or promote positive organizational change.     

Job burnout and affective wellbeing: A longitudinal study of burnout and job satisfaction among public child welfare workers

Workplace experiences that threaten the affective well-being of child welfare workers pose a hazard to child protection organizations as a whole. This study tests a series of proposed interrelationships of workplace demands and resources as predictors of burnout development and the subsequent impact of burnout on affective worker well-being (e.g. job satisfaction) using longitudinal data collected from a sample of public child welfare workers. This study uses multi-group path models to test hypotheses about the temporal order of the relationships between work demands and resources, burnout, and job satisfaction. The hypothesized models were tested individually by social support in the workplace and specialized child welfare training. The overall theory-driven conceptual model tested performed as was hypothesized with some noteworthy exceptions. Findings from the multi-group path models suggest that the type and level of job resource moderate the relationship between job demands, burnout and job satisfaction. Job demands had diverging effects on several relationships in the model with the exception of two relationships. The relationships between emotional exhaustion and depersonalization and emotional exhaustion and job satisfaction were consistent across all groups and models. This finding suggests that regardless of social support and specialized training, emotional exhaustion is positively related to depersonalization and negatively related to job satisfaction. All models demonstrated good model fit. This article describes the implications of study findings on future research and workforce management practices in child welfare organizations.     

Intention to leave in social workers and educators employed in voluntary child welfare agencies

Introduction

Individuals employed in child welfare settings can have a profound impact on children in care. Research shows that direct care staff can have an effect on emotional and physical outcomes for children with whom they work. This paper seeks to expand knowledge of the child welfare workforce by studying educators employed in child welfare settings and comparing their job satisfaction and intent to leave with that of prevention workers employed in similar settings.

Materials and methods

Data for prevention workers (n = 538) were obtained from workers employed at all preventive service programs under contract with a large municipality. Data for educators were obtained from voluntary agencies located elsewhere in the state (n = 139). The instrument was a modified version of a survey developed to examine job satisfaction and potential turnover among public child welfare workers. Domains measured included various aspects of job satisfaction, intention to leave, and whether workers regretted taking their jobs. Data were analyzed using bivariate analysis and structural equation modeling (SEM).

Results

While both educators and prevention workers varied on different domains of job satisfaction, their overall satisfaction did not differ nor did their intention to leave their jobs. Satisfaction with contingent rewards, the nature of the work and opportunities for promotion along with not regretting taking one's job were predictive of thinking about leaving one's job. Thinking about leaving was predictive of taking concrete steps towards actual leaving.

Discussion

While people both prevention workers and educators report different levels of job satisfaction and work conditions in their agencies, job title itself has less to do with a worker's intention to leave, as measured by both thinking about leaving and taking steps towards actively looking for a new job, than other factors. Larger contextual factors may be at play in workers' decisions to stay employed. Suggestions are made for reducing turnover intentions along with suggestions for further study to clarify the role of organizational factors in workers' intention to leave.     

Child welfare workers go to court: The impact of race, gender, and education on the comfort with legal issues

This study examines perceptions of 425 public and private agency child welfare workers from one state in terms of their level of comfort with the court work components of their jobs, at baseline, which is after their initial training but before beginning their child welfare work, and again after six months on the job. Bivariate and multivariate analyses were undertaken. Bivariate analyses reveal that being older and male were associated with higher court comfort levels at baseline and at six months. Being white was associated with higher comfort levels at six months. In addition, private agency workers were more comfortable with court at baseline and six months. Workers with a social work education had higher court comfort levels at baseline and six months, when compared to those with criminal justice or other education. In the multivariate analysis, there were no significant differences in level of comfort with court work based upon worker characteristics at baseline. However, at six months on the job, predictors of comfort with child welfare work were being white and being male; having a social work education approached statistical significance. When change in comfort level was examined, the only significant positive predictor of court comfort was having a social work education.     

NCWWI Traineeships: A National Cross-Site Evaluation of Child Welfare Stipend Programs for Ethnically Diverse Students

The task of recruiting and retaining ethnically diverse, qualified, and committed social workers in child welfare is challenging. Federal funding supporting BSW and MSW education has been a catalyst for university–agency partnerships across the country. An important goal of these partnerships is to prepare social work students with the knowledge, skills, and competencies for effective child welfare practice. The National Child Welfare Workforce Institute’s innovative child welfare traineeships program prepares students from 12 social work programs around the country. This study focused on diversity, competency attainment, and readiness for the job. Results showed that programs recruited ethnically diverse students, and after receiving child welfare–specific content and hands-on experiences in the field, students felt competent and prepared for child welfare work.     

ECONOMIC ROULETTE

Complementing previous literature on welfare reform and the character of jobs in the low-wage labour market, we illustrate the lack of regularity and security that mark the jobs held by many low-income mothers. To do so, we present a typology of mothers’ work patterns and illustrate their experiences through case examples. Our qualitative analysis of longitudinal pathways-to-work in three cities involved an examination of the experiences of 99 diverse, low-income working mothers with a young child. The work patterns that emerged from this analysis include: continuous duration of a single job; multiple job spells; underemployment; and churning in and out of employment. Findings indicate that a complicated ‘coming together’ of well-paying stable jobs, consistent aid from public systems and stable family networks are necessary for mothers to take even the first steps into stable employment.     

Washington State's adoption of a child welfare practice model: An illustration of the Getting To Outcomes implementation framework

Despite a great need for evidence-informed practices in child welfare, very few child welfare systems have implemented evidence-based case management models state-wide. While the literature on implementation from the perspective of model developers and researchers is steadily increasing, there has been little attention to the process of implementation originating from the reverse direction, by community organizations themselves, or with regard to going-to-scale implementation in child welfare. The Getting to Outcomes (GTO) model, which was originally created to help organizations choose and implement prevention programs, is a promising guide for child welfare systems seeking to initiate system-wide implementation of evidence-based practices. The GTO framework provides a step-by-step guide for surveying a system, building motivation, training, and evaluation. This article will illustrate the state-wide implementation of Solution-Based Casework (SBC), an evidence-based model of case management, by Washington State's Children's Administration, following the GTO framework. Despite some barriers and obstacles, the GTO model proved to be feasible and to aide in the implementation of SBC. Implications for the GTO model as a framework for empowering community organizations to choose and implement relevant evidence-based practices will be discussed.     

Organizational climate and child welfare workers' degree of intent to leave the job: Evidence from New York

With increasingly unstable workforce in child welfare agencies, it is critical to understand what organizational factors lead to intent to leave the job based on job search behaviors. Using recent survey data collected among 359 child welfare workers from eight agencies in New York State during 2009–2011 and a Structural Equation Model (SEM) method, this study examines the relationship between employee perceptions of organizational climate and the degree of intent to leave the job (thinking, looking and taking actions related to a new job). Fifty-seven percent (n = 205) reported that they had considered looking for a new job in the past year. Bivariate analyses indicated that there were significant differences between those who looked for a job and those who did not look for a job in the past year. SEM analysis revealed that four organizational climate factors were predictive of decreasing the degree of intent to leave the job: Perceptions on organizational justice was most predictive factor for thinking of a new job followed by organizational support, work overload and job importance. The findings of this study help us understand the employee perceptions of different organizational factors that impact employee turnover especially from the time an employee thinks of leaving the job to actually taking concrete actions related to a new job.