The objective of this study was to review the work-family balance, namely, the anticipation of the work-family balance, of those who are working in the social welfare facilities, and to determine the influencing factors on their marriage and the work-...
The objective of this study was to review the work-family balance, namely, the anticipation of the work-family balance, of those who are working in the social welfare facilities, and to determine the influencing factors on their marriage and the work-family balance. This study further aimed to identify the ways to improve both the effectiveness of the social welfare services, and the quality of the social workers’life.
The study was performed in the form of a survey, with data being gathered from the unmarried women and men of the age of above 20 years old, who were working in the social welfare facilities located in the capital metropolitan area. The questionnaire was initially distributed to 300 targets, and the resulting 269 responses were analyzed. The collected data were analyzed with the SPSS Statistics 22.0 program, in terms of the factors of frequency, percentage, average and standard deviation, reliability analysis, t-test, one-way ANOVA, correlation analysis, and hierarchical regression analysis.
The main results of this study are shown as follows:
First, regarding the relationship between the demographic-sociological characteristics and the main variables, in the independent marriage values among the marriage values, female participants showed a higher marriage-independence than the male participants, showing a significant gender difference. The view of children, which is a variable of family values, and the work autonomy, personnel affairs·wage·workload, and the compensation system, which are the variables of job satisfaction, all showed a significant gender difference. All the variables of burnout, which are the reduction of the sense of achievement, emotional exhaustion, and depersonalization, showed a significant difference with respect to the gender. Regarding the variables necessity for marriage and the work-family balance, both the two variables showed a significant difference only in terms of the gender.
Second, an analysis was made regarding the relationships between the marriage and family orientation, job satisfaction, and burnout. In terms of the marriage orientation, those who had higher instrumental marriage values, had a greater family-orientation, emphasized the value of the children, felt a greater work autonomy and the sense of achievement was found to have a higher degree of romantic perspective on marriage. In contrast, those who showed a higher degree of the independent marriage values and open-minded family values were shown to have a less romantic perspective on marriage. In terms of the family values, those who are more children-oriented, and are highly appreciating the compensation system in the workplace were identified to put more importance on the family values. However, it was found that if a participant had a more open-minded family values and felt emotional burnout more frequently, he or she tended to show the family orientation. In terms of the job satisfaction and burnout, people showed a greater satisfaction about the personnel affairs·wage·workload and the compensation system, and showed a lower degree of burnout in every aspect, when they recognize a higher degree of work autonomy in the workplace. People had a positive attitude toward the compensation system and achievement, and less emotional exhaustion in the burnout, when they are more satisfied with the personnel affairs·wage·workload in the workplace, and it was found that the compensation system was related to a higher level of achievement. In terms of burnout, people showed a lower level of feeling emotional exhaustion and depersonalization when they had a higher sense of achievement, and the recognition of depersonalization was shown lower when they feel less degree of emotional exhaustion.
Third, an analysis was made to determine the influential factors on the necessity for marriage and the work-family balance. The analysis of the influential factors on the necessity for marriage showed 6.9% of the explanatory power in the first phase and the male necessity for marriage was found to be higher for the male participants. In the second phase, it showed the explanatory power of 31.8% when the marriage and family values were added. This result implies that when the gender is male, when there is a greater attitude of instrumental marriage values, when the marriage independence is lower, when the open-minded family values are lower, and when there is a higher view of children, there is a higher necessity for marriage. All the variables of job satisfaction and burnout were added in the third phase, and as a result, it showed 35.7% of the explanatory power. Thus, it suggests that when the gender is male, when the marriage independence is low, when the open-minded family values are low, when the view of children is high, when the sense of achievement becomes greater, when the emotional exhaustion is high, people believe that marriage is necessary.
Next, an analysis was made regarding the influential factors on the work-family balance. In the first phase, it showed 6.9% of the explanatory power, and it was found that the work-family balance was higher when the gender was male. In the second phase, the marriage and family values were added, and it showed 13.5% of the explanatory power. This result suggests that when the gender is male, and when the romantic perspective on marriage is low, people tend to have a higher work-family balance. In the third phase, the job satisfaction and burnout variables were added, and the total explanatory power was 17.0%. This result implies that when the gender is male, when the romantic perspective on marriage is low, and when the sense of emotional exhaustion is low, people tend to have a higher work-family balance.
In this study, we discussed the social workers’ marriage and family values, through the observation on their recognition of marriage and work-family balance. Also, this study discussed the effects of the field of social welfare as a workplace upon the social service workers’ work-family balance. In addition, this study has an implication that it could be used to enhance the recognition of the unmarried social welfare workers on their marriage, and could contribute to preparing the political measures about the balance between work and family. Lastly, this study has a significance that it provided a foundation for the workers in the social welfare facilities to promote the necessity for marriage, and the work-family balance, by making suggestions of the administrative measures.