The circumstances of rapidly changing society and the human desires which are getting various require systemic and professional services, so that each occupation spares no effort to look for the identity according to the profession. In the studies abo...
The circumstances of rapidly changing society and the human desires which are getting various require systemic and professional services, so that each occupation spares no effort to look for the identity according to the profession. In the studies about a profession, they are the significant issues that whether the job is accepted as a profession, whether system is set as a profession, and how much the members working on the professional field recognize the professional identity. The professional identity and behavior are under a discussion since the social workers are considered to work in a profession field which has a professional system.
The social welfare system is defined as a reciprocal action between individuals or families who are in difficulties and social workers, and the success or failure of the social welfare system is closely related with the quality of the workers as well. Therefore, it is important to secure qualified workers and support them efficiently.
Considering this, job satisfaction and recognition of professional identity of social workers is essential for the management of the organization, the accomplishment of affairs, and the improvement of service quality.
As a consequence, this study has the objects to measure social workers' job satisfaction and the degree of the recognition of professional identity, to analyze the influence of the recognition of professional identity on the job satisfaction, and to present the scheme to improve social workers' job satisfaction with the outcome of the study. The investigation was carried out to the 210 social workers working in the social welfare facilities in Kyung-Ki province by having them fill out the question sheet. The investigator mailed the sheet or visited the social workers. 127 sheets are used, and the main analyzed consequences are as the following.
First, social workers' job satisfaction recorded the highest level in the relationship between the colleges, second in the relationship with bosses, third in the matters about the facilities, and the lowest in the matters about the remuneration.
Second, social workers' level of recognition of professional identity recorded somewhat higher in the belief in public service and the sense of calling to the field, and the belief in autonomy and the belief in self-regulation were the second rank. Finally, the use of the professional organization as a standard of behaviors recorded the lowest rank among the subordinate items of the professional identity.
Third, in the result of measuring the level of professional identity according to the work environment, as the work experience was added more, as the position and the annual income were higher, the level of professional identity recorded higher level. The position was meaningful in the record of the use of the professional organization as a standard of behaviors (p<.05), type of the facilities was meaningful in the record of the belief in self-regulation (p<.05), and whether the social workers have the license was meaningful in the record of the sense of calling to the field (p<.05).
Forth, in the stepwise regression record, in which population sociology factors are controlled, social workers' work environment and professional identity explained the job satisfaction 41.6%(R =.416). In the record of the work environment, annual income (p<.001), and the number of the facility workers (p<.05) were meaningful, and in the record of the professional identity, the sense of calling to the field (p<.05) and the belief in autonomy (p<.001) were meaningful statistically. In sum, as the annual income is higher, as the number of the facility workers is more, as the sense of calling to the field and the belief in autonomy were higher, job satisfaction recorded higher level. Since "autonomy" is necessary for every professional occupation, "belief in autonomy" significantly influenced the job satisfaction, recognized by professional social workers.
As the study shows, since the annual income acquires significance for both job satisfaction and professional identity of social workers, it is considered as main factor to menace the social welfare service. Therefore, it is required to present integrated and identical remuneration guideline. Moreover, it is helpful to increase the job satisfaction and professional identity to make the social workers have self-confidence about their vocations and feel the necessity to activate their judgments, and to let their decisions be final in the most of the situations.