This study is to investigate empirically the influence of work environment characteristics and job characteristics of care helpers for the long-term care elderlies on their job satisfaction level, which raises the quality of long-term care services.
...
This study is to investigate empirically the influence of work environment characteristics and job characteristics of care helpers for the long-term care elderlies on their job satisfaction level, which raises the quality of long-term care services.
The followings are questions for the purpose of this study.
Question 1. What are the general factors to effect the satisfaction level of care helpers for the long-term care elderlies?
Question 2. How is satisfaction level by care-helpers' individual characteristics?
Question 3. What is causing the relation among helpers' work environment characteristics and job characteristics and their satisfaction level?
As for the empirical analysis, the samples performed on this study are the questionnaire survey of 155 care helpers who responded to the questionnaires working in Tongyeong/Geoje Cities of Geongnam Province. Based on the Job Characteristic Model of Hackman and Oldham, individual characteristic factors, work environment characteristic factors, and job characteristic factors are hypothesized as independent variables to investigate the influence on care helpers' job satisfaction. Data collected from the sample survey are analyzed through descriptive analysis, T-test, one-way ANOVA, correlation analysis, and multiple regression analysis.
The findings of this analysis are summarized as follows:
First, care helpers' job-satisfaction is revealed to be significant difference according to care helpers' individual characteristic factors as age and marital condition.
Second, it is examined for their job-satisfaction to have significant difference according to their work environment characteristic factors as appropriate workload, relation with coworker, relation with supervisor, wage.
Third, their job-satisfaction tends to have significant difference by their job-characteristic factors as job variety, job significance, job identity, and feedback except job autonomy.
Forth, analysis of multiple regression shows that their job-satisfaction is positively effected on individual characteristic factor of age, work environment characteristic factors of appropriate workload and relation with coworker, and job characteristic factors of work environment, job variety and job significance.
Based on the above results, the followings are suggested for improving care helpers' job satisfaction to raise the quality of long-term care services. First, for the promotion of giving better treatment for the long-term care elderlies, it is necessary to expand enough financial support to come up with the minimum wage, to impose supplement education, and to develop effective education curriculum for care helpers from the government. Second, it is absolutely imperative for main agency of long-term care services to define the range of long-term care services for elderlies and their families. The long-term care service agencies is needed to distribute them appropriate workload with grasping elderlies condition by the detail. And for having their good co-worker relationships, agencies should hold regular meetings to speak candidly of their difficulties, to discuss improvements in them, and to feel a sense of closeness with one another. Third, for making job variety and job significance higher, it is necessary for agencies to carry out job redesign, which re-educate long-term care helpers, enlighten their expertise, variety and speciality in serving the long-term care elderlies. Forth, it is necessary for long-term care helpers to be provided with the intensely specialized and systematic prog1ram-contents. Fifth, at the conception of the project, the various needs of the long-term care elderlies and their family are to be reflected in project programs affording the long-term care services. Also, it is necessary to confirm that its programs have been fully performed in stages, and get feedback about satisfaction level.
First of all, the agency needs to enhance measures such as pay class, support of operation charges and subsidy to enlighten the helpers’ degree of occupational satisfaction. Low salaries and poor working conditions of the long-term care helpers would come into the major obstacles to let them offer stable and efficient services for the long-term care elderlies.