Study of job satisfaction of public social workers in local government has great importance in that they lie in the core of civil services. They play a crucial role in deciding the quality of services provided to clients. This study aims to identify t...
Study of job satisfaction of public social workers in local government has great importance in that they lie in the core of civil services. They play a crucial role in deciding the quality of services provided to clients. This study aims to identify the factors that affect the degree of job satisfaction among public social workers and find ways to improve their service quality and expertise so that their work will meet the requirements of employment.
A model is developed based on the previous studies and literature related with job satisfaction to determine the job satisfaction and their impact among public social workers.
The data in this study is gathered from mailing survey to 185 public social workers in a total of 9 cities and counties of Gyeongbuk province.
The questionnaire used for this survey consisted of 4 independent variables and control variables. The independent variables are: ① job attitude ② human relationship within organization ③ job environment ④ job attributes. The control variables are consist of sociodemographic characteristics.
Analysis was conducted to identify the impact and differences among the variables. It revealed that job attitude factor was the greatest factors that affect their job satisfaction and then job environment, job attributes in a row. Human relationship factor within organization was found to have little statistical significance.
Among job attitude factors, work itself, feeling of achievement, expertise were found to be the greatest ones that affect their job satisfaction. For job environment factor, promotion, job stability and organizational policy were the important factors in that order. A salary and work condition was found to have little statistical significance. For job attributes factor, interaction with clients was the most important variable while workload was not one of the factors.
The findings from this study suggest the followings.
First, education for professional social work is required for public social workers so that they can understand the value of their job and improve their expertise.
Second, professional relationship with clients needs to be improved. To this end, counseling room should be utilized fully. In addition, professional skill should be learned for public social workers who help the problematic clients. Cooperation with professional social welfare agencies in community also needs to be pursued.
Third, to provide welfare services for local residents more effectively, more public social workers are recruited. The recent developed social welfare delivery system have not plan to recruit additional social workers. With recruiting additional public social workers, new delivery system will be more effective.
Forth, the job environment surrounding public social workers working in Dong offices(urban areas) needs to be upgraded. It was found that their job satisfaction was lower than that of their counterparts working in city hall, and Eup/Myeon offices(rural areas). They, in particular, showed difficulty in interacting with clients, which must be taken into account for the upgrade.
Fifth, public social workers should be given more opportunities for promotion. Fair opportunities for promotion will motivate them to focus on their job to the fullest.