The purpose of this study was to examine the impact of the job stress of youth workers on their burnout and turnover intention in an effort to help foster full-fledged professional youth workers. It's basically meant to step up the successful resoluti...
The purpose of this study was to examine the impact of the job stress of youth workers on their burnout and turnover intention in an effort to help foster full-fledged professional youth workers. It's basically meant to step up the successful resolution of youth problems and to boost the efficiency of youth guidance.
The subjects in this study were the selected workers who were in charge of youth guidance in youth centers in Seoul. A survey was conducted, and the answer sheets from 348 respondents were analyzed. As for data analysis, the statistical package SPSS 18.0 was employed to make a descriptive statistics analysis, correlation analysis and multiple regression analysis. The findings of the study were as follows:
First, concerning the job stress of the certified youth workers by demographic characteristics, there were significant differences in that aspect according to age group, martial status, the length of service in the current workplace and the total length of service. Unlike the certified youth workers, there were significant differences among the uncertified workers(included youth counselors) in job stress just according to the type of employment.
Second, as to the burnout of the youth workers by demographic characteristics, there was a similar trend in that regard, and age group, marital status and position made significant differences to somatization symptoms. Unlike the certified youth workers, there were significant differences among the uncertified workers in occupational skepticism according to the type of employment, and their somatization symptoms were significantly different according to academic credential.
Third, as for the turnover intention of the youth workers by demographic characteristics, the variables that affected their turnover intention were age group, academic career, the length of service in the current workplace and the total length of service. The type of employment was identified as a variable that had an impact on the turnover intention of the uncertified youth workers.
Fourth, in regard to the correlation of job stress to burnout and turnover intention, both of the certified and uncertified youth workers were more burnt out and had a stronger turnover intention when they were under heavier job stress.
Fifth, the job stressors that exerted an influence on the burnout of the youth workers was job demand and job insecurity. In contrast, underpayment was identified as a job stressor that affected the burnout of the uncertified youth workers. The subfactors of burnout were under the partial influence of job insecurity, organizational system and job demand.
Sixth, as a result of analyzing the impact of job stress on turnover intention, underpayment and job demand that were the subfactors of job stress were found to exercise a significant influence on turnover intention. On the contrary, the job stressors that affected the burnout of the uncertified youth workers were organizational system and underpayment. There were similarities between the certified and uncertified youth workers to some extent, but slight differences were found as well.
There are some suggestions on how to relieve youth workers of job stress and change their burnout and turnover intention:
First, every organization should lay out clear job regulations not to make youth workers overwhelmed by heavy workload or responsible for different tasks. And educational programs of time management, health care and stress management should be provided for them to improve the efficiency of their job performance and suffer less stress.
Second, youth workers are likely to be in conflicts with one another when their duties aren't well clarified. Every organization should have an accurate understanding of each youth leader's work, and programs of conflicts resolution and compromise/mediation training should be provided for youth workers to resolve conflicts smoothly if any conflicts take place in association with job performance.
Third, youth workers are likely to want to change their employment when they are underpaid and thereby find themselves to have a lot of job stress. Therefore they should be given more chances to take part in external education such as self-development education.
Fourth, it's necessary to raise awareness of the gravity of burnout, and a workshop should be held to find out ways of easing burnout. In addition, the way people in general look at youth workers should be improved to let them perform their work with confidence.
Fifth, the employment security of youth workers should be guaranteed to let them feel secure about their job, as job insecurity was one of the significant factors to affect their burnout.
Finally, there are additional suggestions on future research efforts about how to change the job stress, burnout and turnover intention of youth workers for the better:
First, what differences there are between youth workers who work in youth cultural centers, training centers and specialized centers and those who work in the whole country should be investigated.
Second, the effects of coping strategies that aim at getting rid of stress should be studied in consideration of major related variables.
Third, follow-up and longitudinal research efforts should be made at different times to keep track of the changes in the job stress, burnout and turnover intention of youth workers.