This study was carried out to identify how the social worker's professional capacity in social welfare, learning climate, stress coping strategies and health perception relate to Korean public sector social workers' job satisfaction and organizational...
This study was carried out to identify how the social worker's professional capacity in social welfare, learning climate, stress coping strategies and health perception relate to Korean public sector social workers' job satisfaction and organizational commitment, to forecast the level of influence these factors have on their job satisfaction and organizational commitment, and to analyze their correlation to work related stress. The main purpose of this study is to provide practicable implications that will improve the quality of life of social workers in the public sector and work environment of public organizations so that they may cope better to the environmental changes, thus contribute to improving public welfare recipients' quality of life.
For this study, the factors that were set as independent variables were capacity as social welfare professional(social worker license level, major in social welfare related field of studies, proportions of professional and general activities in work, perception of professional expertise, learning climate, stress coping strategies(active problem solving and depressing coping style), and health perception.
Samples were collected from social workers belonging to the public sector who are working in Daejeon and Kyounggi Province for three week period from October 15, 2002. The samples that were finally used for analysis were 208 copies in total. The analysis methods mainly used were correlation and regression.
From the analysis, the factor with the biggest influence on work stress was identified as health perception. Besides this factor, capacity as social welfare professional, learning climate, depressing coping style were also found to have meaningful influence on work stress. The factor that contributed the least on work stress was identified as major in social welfare related field of studies.
After regression analysis on job satisfaction, only the perception of professional expertise and learning climate turned out to be statistically meaningful variables among the independent variables adopted for this study. When the levels of influence these two variables have on job satisfaction were compared against one another, it was found that the learning climate has a bigger influence than the perception of professional expertise.
When the regression analysis was carried out for organizational commitment, factors such as major in social welfare related fields of studies, perception of professional expertise, learning climate, depressing coping style were found as meaningful variables. When the levels of influence these factors have on organizational commitment were compared against one another, the factor with the biggest level of influence was identified as perception of professional expertise, followed by learning climate, depressing coping style, and major in social welfare related fields of studies. This shows perception of professional expertise has the biggest influence on organizational commitment.
The implications from the results of this study can be found in the fact that it highlights the importance of public sector social worker's professional expertise in social welfare, learning climate, stress coping strategies, health perception with regard to their job satisfaction and organizational commitment.
Based on the results of this study, the following suggestions are made:
First, it is necessary to differentiate the nature and contents of the work of social workers who belong to the public sector, and to provide education and training that will reinforce their perception of professional expertise.
Second, it is necessary to create a positive learning climate within the public sector social worker's work environment.
Third, it will be necessary to reduce public sector social workers' work stress by identifying their work related stressors and by setting up coping strategies, and to develop programs that will help them adopt stress coping strategies that will enhance their job satisfaction and organizational commitment.
Fourth, the program that will enhance the health conditions of public sector social workers will be required.