The purposes of this study are to find out the effects of basic variables, individual factor, organizational support factor, and supervision factor on career commitment, the relationship between career commitment and expertise, and career development ...
The purposes of this study are to find out the effects of basic variables, individual factor, organizational support factor, and supervision factor on career commitment, the relationship between career commitment and expertise, and career development methods. The secondary purpose of this study is to contribute to the establishment of human resource development through the findings of this study.
This study examined the concepts of career commitment and expertise and the factors affecting expertise and career commitment through literature review. In addition, a survey of 130 social workers working for government agencies in Ulsan area was conducted. 92 people(64%) returned the questionnaire and their responses were analyzed.
The socio-demographic analysis of the respondents showed that only 5 respondents(5.4%) worked for the social welfare dept. of Ulsan City government, which is a problem.
The analysis of group difference showed that existence of Grade 5 manager in charge of social work made a difference in career commitment and organizational support factors.
The correlation analysis showed that among the individual, organizational support, supervision, career commitment, and expertise factors, all factors except the career commitment and expertise factors were correlated.
The results of regression analysis showed that the roles and efforts of organization, supervisor, and individual, which are the three major elements of career development, affect career commitment and expertise positively. Specifically, organizational support affected career commitment positively while individual and supervision factors affected expertise positively. Furthermore, organizational support factor affected individual factor directly(positive). Organizational support factor did not affect expertise directly but it affected expertise(positive) indirectly through career commitment(positive) and individual factor(positive). One peculiar result from the analysis was that the higher the career commitment, the lower the expertise(negative) but it was found that career commitment affected expertise(positive) through individual factor(positive). The existence of Grade 6 social worker also affected career commitment(positive). The sub factors that affected career commitment were education and training(positive; organizational support factor) and professional knowledge and skills(positive; individual factor). The sub factors that affected expertise were efforts to maintain professional workers and develop human resources(positive; organizational support factor), managerial position acquisition(positive; organizational support factor), professional knowledge and skills(positive; individual factor), self development efforts(positive; individual factor), and professional capabilities(positive; individual factor). The sub factor that affected individual factor was education and training(positive; organizational support factor).
Specific career development methods were derived from above results. Firstly, for the establishment of career development system, the organization needs to recognize the importance of the role of professionals, employee social workers continuously, increase education and training budget, and provide diverse education sessions, programs, and contents. For job performance evaluation, it is necessary to establish objective standards, electronic performance management system and personnel management system. It is necessary to establish a multi-source feedback system in which people with excellent professional capabilities can be promoted. Furthermore, to expand career paths, it is necessary to restructure the organization so that the city government employee many social workers. To provide diverse work experiences, it is necessary to adopt an appropriate job rotation system and appoint people to the positions they want. For this, a human resource development department needs to be established.
In addition, Grade 4 and Grade 5 level social worker positions need to be established for Ulsan city government and a Grade 5 level social worker position needs to be established for each of 4 ward offices. A Grade 6 level social worker position needs to be established for the county government and a grade 6 level social worker position needs to be appointed as section chief(In charge of livelihood support) for each eup, myeon, and dong office.
Secondly, among the major factors, the influence of supervision was the weakest and the organization and individuals need to pay a lot of attention to this factor. The organization needs to create management environment where the supervisors could exercise their supervision capabilities. In other words, a performance management system in which supervisors with excellent supervision capabilities get good evaluation points needs to be established. Furthermore, it is necessary to establish mentor and mentee relationship between supervisors and subordinates for the social workers to achieve their career objectives. In addition, a supervision course must be included in the education and training program.
Thirdly, individual social workers need to manage their own careers by identifying what they want and establishing firm and feasible plans. To acquire professional knowledge and skills, it is necessary for them to read social work related books, participate in study groups, familiarize themselves with manuals, read more than 2 academic articles or books, publish articles in academic journals or newspapers, and improve information search capabilities. In addition, other efforts such as obtaining degrees and certificates, taking language tests, participating in conferences are needed to achieve their career objectives. To be empowered at work, they need to cultivate good image, learning habit, and smooth interpersonal relationships with others.
To establish a career development system, the leadership and will of city mayor, ward mayors, and county mayor are most important and the efforts of managers, supervisors, and social workers are needed.
Lastly, this author wants to emphasize that the voluntary efforts of social workers are needed more than anything to expand/reinforce political influence of social work, protect the rights of recipients of social welfare benefits, improve the expertise of social workers, and maintain their professional authority.