Korean society is facing an aging population that is unprecedented worldwide. This rapid aging population has raised interest in social care for the elderly and has led to the demand for policies for elderly care at the national level. Accordingly, th...
Korean society is facing an aging population that is unprecedented worldwide. This rapid aging population has raised interest in social care for the elderly and has led to the demand for policies for elderly care at the national level. Accordingly, the state has come to provide elderly care services along with long-term care systems at the social insurance level. There were a total of 6 projects for elderly care services, and the system needed to be reorganized as they were implemented in segments and fragments according to the service target and type. In line with this, the Ministry of Health and Welfare has integrated and expanded into a customized care service project for the elderly for integrated care for the local community while covering an increasing number of elderly care targets. The elderly customized care service project, which provides services by integrating the existing six projects, not only expanded the target, but also promoted diversification and preventive care by providing customized services based on the concept of community integrated care and needs.
This study targets life support workers who play a very important role in the elderly customized care service project. As it is thought that the ability of the life support worker, who is the direct service performer, will determine the success of the project in the delivery system of the customized care service for the elderly, it is intended to examine how the self-efficacy of the life support worker, which is a human resource, will affect the quality of service.
One of the individual characteristics, one of individual characteristics, one of the individual characteristics of individual characteristics, and ultimately provide policies, and practice direction in improving service queries.
This study collected data through a self-report questionnaire for 300 out of 115 living support workers working as living support workers at 115 organizations in 31 cities and counties in Gyeonggi-do, and used the response data of 259 out of the 289 finally recovered data for analysis. SPSS 28.0 and AMOS 28.0 were used to analyze them with a structural spinning model.
The main research results are as follows. First, it was found that the self-efficacy of life support workers had a significant positive effect on the quality of service, and a significant positive effect on organizational commitment, but organizational commitment had a negative significant effect on the quality of service. Second, it was found that the self-efficacy of life support workers had a significant positive effect on empowerment, and the empowerment of life support workers had a significant positive effect on the quality of service. Third, it was found that the self-efficacy of life support workers did not affect the quality of service through organizational commitment. However, it was found that the self-efficacy of life support workers affected the quality of service through empowerment.
As a result of the study according to the characteristics of the study subjects, it was found that more than half of married women in their 50s or older who had no work experience in elderly-related facilities with a high school diploma or higher and many living support workers who had more than three years of experience. However, it was found that those who were in poor economic conditions were employed at the economic level. As a result of the difference in the main variables according to the individual characteristics of the study subjects, the self-efficacy was relatively lower in the group of less than 3 million won per month and less than 3 million won and 5 million won or more than in the group of more than 5 million won. The perception of service quality was higher in women than in men. The perception of organizational commitment was higher with age and lower with younger age. In addition, the higher the educational background, the lower the perception of organizational commitment was, and the lower the educational background, the higher the perception of organizational commitment. The results of empowerment were relatively higher in women than men.
Based on the above research results, the following theoretical, practical, and policy implications were derived.
First, from a theoretical point of view, unlike the research results of other occupations (social workers, nurses, teachers, kindergarten teachers, nursing care workers, childcare teachers, clinical pathologists, public officials, hotel workers, service workers, etc.), the results of organizational commitment showed a negative influence relationship in the influence relationship between self-efficacy, organizational commitment, and the quality of service, and the mediating effect could not be verified. As a result, the hypothesis that "the self-efficacy of life support workers will affect the quality of service through organizational commitment" could not be supported. In addition, the higher the education level, the lower the perception of organizational commitment, and the younger the age, the lower the perception of organizational commitment. The rest of the results were supported by the results of previous studies.
Second, from a practical point of view, it is thought that the organization that carries out the customized care service for the elderly should come up with various measures to increase the level of awareness of the life support workers' self-efficacy, empowerment, and organizational commitment by reflecting the degree of awareness of the major variables according to their individual characteristics. Given that raising the level of living support workers is crucial for the successful settlement of personalized care services for the elderly and the improvement of the quality of the business, it is thought that various measures through education, personnel management, and supervision should be discussed. In particular, it is necessary to find a way to improve the negative impact relationship between organizational commitment and service quality in consideration of the unique working patterns of life support workers.
Third, from a policy point of view, in order to achieve the policy goals and successful settlement of the elderly customized care service project, it is necessary to supplement policies for central and regional institutions, local governments, performing institutions, and performing personnel in the delivery system so that the project can be carried out well from the perspective of community integrated care by reflecting the research results related to life supportors. It is necessary to provide a stable work type guarantee for performing personnel (life support workers, dedicated social workers), and to provide a system guarantee (dispatch of management personnel) to manage and operate dedicated personnel in the performing institution, and to prepare a training, support, and support system for living support workers in the central, metropolitan, and local governments.
In light of what has been discussed so far, the self-efficacy of life support workers who directly provide personalized care services for the elderly has been identified as a factor affecting the quality of service, and the self-efficacy of life support workers has been identified as a meaningful factor in improving the quality of personalized care services for the elderly. Therefore, this study suggests that policy interventions that can improve the self-efficacy, organizational commitment, and empowerment of life support workers are required to improve the quality of service using the parameters of self-efficacy, organizational commitment, and empowerment of life support workers.