Religious organizations play a significant role in Korean social work as a core non-governmental organization. One of the most important factors
affecting the improvement of social welfare organizations' effectiveness and efficiency is the social wor...
Religious organizations play a significant role in Korean social work as a core non-governmental organization. One of the most important factors
affecting the improvement of social welfare organizations' effectiveness and efficiency is the social workers' job satisfaction level. Workers' job satisfaction is a crucial factor for both the personal and organizational development as it is associated with improving zest for life through reducing the turnover rate, boosting of employees' morale, and increasing the workers' self accomplishment as well as improving quality of life.
Several factors have been examined in association with job satisfaction. One factor that has been specifically examined is the organizational culture. Often compared as the mind of people, it communicates the goal of the organization to the members through common beliefs and values. Positive organizational culture empowers and strengthens the employees and this in turn leads to the members' commitment and devotion to the organization.
One of the strengths of social service organizations led by Catholic Church is its unitary structure which brings cohesiveness to the organization while the hierarchical nature of the Church may also influence the organization in a negative way. Thus, this study was conducted with an aim to examine the organizational culture of Catholic social service organizations and its effect on the job satisfaction level of social workers and provide directions for further development of Catholic social service organizations.
This study used a survey method. Self-administered questionnaires were distributed to social workers working in Catholic social service organizations in Daejeon Diocese and a total of 225 workers participated in the survey. Collected data were analyzed using SPSS 19.0 program. The major findings are as follows.
First, among the organizational culture type, relationship-oriented culture was found to be the strongest predictor of overall job satisfaction of the social workers, followed by development-oriented culture. The more relationship- and development-oriented the organizational culture, the higher the job satisfaction was among the workers. On the other hand, the job satisfaction level tended to be lower among the those who perceived the organizational culture to be more hierarchical and task-oriented. More specifically, their satisfaction levels with leadership, their work, and promotions were lower when they perceived their organizational culture to be hierarchy-oriented. Their satisfaction level with leadership also decreased when they perceived the organizational culture to be task-oriented.
Among the control variables, the number of employees, the status of the director, and the organization history were found to be significant determinants of the overall job satisfaction among the social workers. The workers' job satisfaction level was higher when the organization had a shorter history, more employees, and had a layman or a nun as the director. The satisfaction level with the leadership and the organization was higher when there were more employees and the satisfaction level for the leadership and the work itself was higher when the organization had a shorter history and had a director who was either a layman or a nun.
Factors affecting the satisfaction with remuneration was the employees' age. The younger employees were found to be more satisfied with their remuneration compared to the older employees as the older employees are more likely to have worked for a longer period of time without having proper increase in remuneration. This finding is reflective of the current social work profession as the increase in remuneration tends to be minimal.
Social workers' position in the organization and the period of their employment were found to be significant predictors of their satisfaction with promotions that those holding higher positions and having worked for a shorter period of time were more likely to be satisfied with promotions than their counterparts. This finding indicates that the workers with shorter duration of employment are more likely to have higher expectation and satisfaction level than those who have worked for a longer period of time.
These findings are consistent with those of previous studies examining the effect of the perceived organizational culture on the job satisfaction level of the social workers employed in general social welfare organizations.
Organizational culture is formed through interactions of multiple factors such as individuals' and organization' value, belief, customs, tradition, knowledge, and technology over a long period of time. Such culture may be effective and powerful in some ways, however, it often resists changes even when such needs rise. As Catholic social welfare organizations along with many religious organizations hold very strong and old traditions, effort needs to be made to establish an organizational culture that may increase the job satisfaction level among the social workers in order to carry out more systematic and effective social work practice.