Stress and Pressures in Mental Health Social Work: The Worker Speaks

Two-thirds of councils with social services responsibilities(CSSRs) took part in a UK survey of mental health social workers.A one in five sample of front line workers was drawn, and 237respondents completed a questionnaire and diary about theirwork context and content, and their attitudes to their work,their employer, mental health policy and the place of mentalhealth social work in modernized mental health services. Thequestions, that called for free-text responses, were completedin detail and at length. This paper reports the results of aqualitative analysis of these responses using NVIVO software.The paper is structured around the themes emerging from theanalysis: pressure of work; staffing matters; job satisfactionand well-being; recruitment and retention issues; and beingvalued. The conclusions are that the social workers value faceto face contact with service users, and that their commitmentto service users is an important factor in staff retention.The most unsatisfactory aspects of their work context arisefrom not feeling valued by their employers and wider society,and some of the most satisfactory from the support of colleaguesand supervisors. Without attention to these factors, recruitmentand retention problems will remain an unresolved issue.     

Multilevel relationships between organizational-level incivility,justice and intention to stay

Abstract

This study extends incivility theory and research by applying multilevel theory and analysis to explain the effect of group-level incivility on intention to remain. Previous research has shown that experiencing workplace incivility is associated with adverse individual well-being and behaviour, such as turnover intentions, but the majority of research has been at the individual level of analysis. Consequently it is unknown whether incivility is also a group-level phenomenon, and what the effects of group-level incivility are on the individual. Results from over 34,000 employees working in 179 organizations across Australia and New Zealand showed that target reports of incivility could be aggregated to the level of the organization to form a shared stressor, incivility environment, which affected employees’ intention to remain over and above their personal experience of incivility. This shared or environmental incivility also had a cross-level interaction effect on the negative relationship between individual incivility and intention to remain, highlighting the importance of context on targets of incivility. The role of interactional justice climate was also examined and the data are consistent with justice having a mediating effect on the cross-level relationship between environmental incivility and intention to remain. The findings are relevant to studies of bullying and harassment.     

Trends and challenges of developing human capital in Singapore: an analysis of current practices and future potentials

As one of the most vibrant nations of Asia, Singapore is well known for its dynamic and innovative human capital development initiatives. These are driven mainly by the government policies, with inputs from public sector organizations and large local companies. Human resource development (HRD) related legislations, financial incentives, infra-structural support and deployment of management and info-communication technologies (ICT) help to sustain the national HRD initiatives. This paper presents an analysis of the current practices and future trends and challenges faced by organizations in Singapore. Some of these challenges are: ageing workforce, talent retention and development, rapid technological changes and cross-cultural skills development for working in the emerging markets. Eight trends and challenges identified here are expected to significantly impact the HRD profession in future. Implications of the trends and challenges are also discussed for future research and professional practice.     

Distant Friends,Mobility and Sensed Intimacy

Abstract

This article draws on a qualitative, interview-based project to argue that emotionally close friendships at-a-distance can create distinctive spatial sensibilities of friendship. These sensibilities are formed when friends move apart geographically. In part, they are composed of the tangible forms of friendship practices (such as visiting), but their main constituent is the more intangible emotional bond between friends which can extend across considerable distances. The spatial sensibilities of friendship thus form particular geographies of intimacy; they shape how individuals come to understand and ‘feel’ spatial distances, and influence individuals’ own feelings about moving.     

Finding and Keeping Child Welfare Workers

Summary

Administrators in public human services are constantly involved in the exhausting challenge of recruiting and training staff in the child welfare arena. This article describes a program that the Commonwealth of Kentucky developed in order to address the recruitment and retention issue. The Public Child Welfare Certification Program is a special multi-university preparation program designed to recruit excellent workers from BSW programs who are prepared to take on complex cases with normal supervision within weeks of employment and to sustain those workers over time. Evaluation of the pilot indicates that the program is a great success in preparing students for child welfare work. Implications are discussed.     

The Social Lives of the Elite: Friendship and Power in Pakistan

The ways in which elite individuals perpetuate their power and privilege and so reinforce existing social inequalities within developing country contexts are analysed in this article. I argue that in highly politically and economically unstable environments, socialising between the uppermost bureaucratic, political, military and business elite serves to create intimacy and obligation between individuals who may be functionally useful to one another, and strengthens and reinforces elite privilege. In examining the motivations that drive the ways in which elites socialise, I contend that the blending of affective and instrumental relationships is reflective of the deep insecurity experienced by elites in contexts where they cannot expect their power and privilege to be upheld by the state.     

A Study of Older Chinese in Hong Kong

Abstract

Objective: We extended the volunteer process model (Omoto & Snyder, 1995) to identify factors influencing the persistence of volunteer activities in older Chinese.

Method: We individually interviewed 318 older Chinese volunteers about their demographic information, history of volunteer activities, subjective health status, perceived social support, motivation for volunteering, integration into volunteer group, satisfaction from volunteer work, and intention to continue volunteering in the coming year.

Results: Bivariate correlation analyses generally supported the volunteer process model. In particular, intention to continue volunteering was related to antecedent factors of high educational attainment, mental well-being, social support, and fulfillment of altruistic and self-oriented motives as well as volunteer experiences of integration into the volunteer group and satisfaction with volunteer work. Results of a multiple regression analysis indicated that fulfillment of self-oriented motives was the most salient factor in predicting the persistence of volunteer activities when shared variances of various factors were also considered.

Discussion: Research and practical implications were discussed to facilitate the retention of older Chinese volunteers.     

乡村教师留任的环境因素及其改进措施--基于环境匹配视角

为研究环境因素对乡村教师留任的影响,对黑龙江省10个地区的乡村教师展开调研,显示有三点研究结果。第一,环境因素对乡村教师留任有独立且显著的影响。在单独分析环境因素的作用时,结果显示,不论有无背景因素参与,不同的环境匹配度对乡村教师留任都有显著影响,相比之下,低环境匹配度对乡村教师留任的影响更大。第二,不同环境匹配度下组织承诺的多重中介效应显著。高环境匹配度模型和低环境匹配度模型的研究结果均显示,环境因素通过组织承诺的中介效应显著地提高了乡村教师的留任率,相比之下,高环境匹配度对提高乡村教师留任率的作用更大。第三,支持性条件的调节效应显著。研究结果显示,支持性条件在环境匹配度与组织承诺水平、环境匹配度与乡村教师留任中起到显著的正向调节作用,相比之下,较好的支持性条件其调节效应更显著。从环境匹配角度看,留住乡村教师需要采取以下有效措施:改善支持性条件,提高乡村教师组织承诺水平;完善招聘与培养培训制度,提高乡村教师与乡村环境匹配度;建立乡村教师留任监控数据库,强化教育行政管理部门监测意识,完善问责机制。     

Transient analysis of an M/M/c queuing system with balking and retention of reneging customers

In this paper, we study an infinite capacity multi-server Markovian queuing system with balking and retention of reneging customers. The transient analysis of the model is performed. The probability generating function technique along with Bessel function properties is used to derive the time-dependent state probabilities explicitly.     

“Strivers”, “doers”, and “seekers”: Social workers and their commitment to the job

Amid considerable interest in the experiences of early career professionals in social work in England and internationally, and the relationship between these and retention and progression, this article reports on the findings of one element of a larger evaluation. It reports the findings and analysis of interviews with 42 relative newcomers to social work, some 3 years following qualification, focusing on their current career orientations, and how these appear to affect their future intentions. We identified three distinct groups, designated as “strivers,” “doers,” and “seekers.” Each of these groups demonstrated a different kind and level of commitment to their social work role and identity: Strivers were oriented towards career progression and taking on senior roles; doers were committed practitioners who saw themselves as continuing in front line service delivery for the foreseeable future; and seekers, although still committed to social work in principle, tended to be more unsure about their future place in the profession. This typology appears to be reasonably robust on the basis of our investigation and has implications for career planning and supervision of social work professionals, especially at the early stages of their careers.