University of St. Thomas, Minnesota St. Catherine University Social Work Master’s Clinical Research Papers School of Social Work 2012 Why Social Workers Remain in the Field: An Exploratory Study on the Protective Factors Associated with Social Worker Perseverance John D. Mack University of St.
Thomas, Minnesota Follow this and additional works at: https://ir.edu/ssw_mstrp Part of the Clinical and Medical Social Work Commons, and the Social Work Commons Recommended Citation Mack, John D., "Why Social Workers Remain in the Field: An Exploratory Study on the Protective Factors Associated with Social Worker Perseverance" (2012). Social Work Master’s Clinical Research Papers.edu/ssw_mstrp/73 This Clinical research paper is brought to you for free and open access by the School of Social Work at UST Research Online. It has been accepted for inclusion in Social Work Master’s Clinical Research Papers by an authorized administrator of UST Research Online. For more information, please contact libroadmin@stthomas.
Why Social Workers Remain in the Field: An Exploratory Study on the Protective Factors Associated with Social Worker Perseverance Submitted by John Mack May, 2012 MSW Clinical Research Paper The Clinical Research Project is a graduation requirement for MSW students at St. Catherine University/University of St. Thomas School of Social Work in St. Paul, Minnesota and is conducted within a nine-month time frame to demonstrate facility with basic social research methods.
Students must independently conceptualize a research problem, formulate a research design that is approved by a research committee and the university Institutional Review Board, implement the project, and publicly present their findings. This project is neither a Master’s thesis nor a dissertation. School of Social Work St. Catherine University & University of St.
Paul, Minnesota Committee Members: Kendra J., LICSW (Chair) Theresa Kelly McPartlin, LICSW Meghan Leach, LICSW WHY SOCIAL WORKERS REMAIN IN THE FIELD ii Abstract Social workers face many challenges and hardships throughout their careers. This study examines the numerous stressors that social work professionals come in contact with on a daily basis, and explores the protective factors that provide these professionals with their drive to persevere in the face of these stressors. Data was obtained through semi-structured qualitative interviews with four professional social workers with a minimum of 15 years of experience in the social work field. Methods such as committee analysis, thematic clustering, and peer reviews were all utilized to analyze data for this study.
The interviews highlighted key themes such as: career satisfaction, stressors, protective factors, the journey to a career in social work, and why social workers choose to remain in the social work field. Findings indicated that factors such as lack of resources, the “do more with less” mentality, balancing self-care and client needs, lack of co-worker support, poor management, and being a witness to the pain of others, all contribute to higher levels of social worker stress. Findings also indicated a number of protective factors that social workers report help to reduce the impacts of stress in their careers such as self-care, work diversity, worker autonomy, work with clients and problem solving, job security, and alternative work fantasies. WHY SOCIAL WORKERS REMAIN IN THE FIELD iii Acknowledgements I want to thank Kendra J.
Garrett for keeping me grounded during this project and reminding me to take each step one at a time. I would also like to thank both Theresa McPartlin and Meghan Leach for being such valuable sources of information and guidance. Last, and certainly not least, I would like to thank my wife, Abby. Without her love and support, this paper may have never seen the light of day.
WHY SOCIAL WORKERS REMAIN IN THE FIELD iv Table of Contents Section Introduction……………………….………………………………………………… 45 WHY SOCIAL WORKERS REMAIN IN THE FIELD 1 Why Social Workers Remain in the Field: An Exploratory Study on the Protective Factors Associated with Social Worker Perseverance The social work field is not for the faint of heart. Those who choose the profession can look forward to long hours, little pay, and both physical and emotional hardships. For example, Bradley and Sutherland (1995) reported that of 67 social workers, emotional exhaustion was a real problem for more than 30% of respondents. Emotional exhaustion was reported to decrease workers’ ability to cope with work demands and, as a result, increased workers’ stress level (Bradley & Sutherland, 1995; Evans et al.
Evans et al. (2006) reported that along with high levels of stress and emotional exhaustion, 47% of mental health social workers surveyed in England and Wales demonstrated signs associated with significant psychological problems and distress. Gillen (2008) even reported that social work respondents expressed physical complaints such as headaches and stomach trouble attributed to work-related stress in social work. As past research has demonstrated, social work is a challenging profession.
With such overwhelming evidence of the negative factors associated with the social work field, the question stands, why would anyone choose to remain in the social work profession? Exploring the answer to this question will provide valuable insight into protective factors that buffer social workers from the hardships attributed to the field of social work. As a result of this insight, young men and women considering a career in social work may even find the courage to say yes to the field, despite its many challenges. WHY SOCIAL WORKERS REMAIN IN THE FIELD 2 Literature Review The majority of professionals in the social work field do not acquire fame or fortune. Instead, social workers have acquired large caseloads, limited resources, and meager pay.
With these less than desired “benefits” obtained along with a career in social work, why do social workers choose to remain in the social work field? A review of the past literature on social workers’ job satisfaction, stress and burnout, and protective factors will provide an appropriate frame of reference for this exploratory study. Social Worker’s Satisfaction with their Careers Research has shown that the majority of social workers tend to have high instances of job satisfaction (Evans et al. 2006; Gibson, McGrath, & Reid, 1989; Papadaki & Papadaki, 2006). Evans et al.
(2006) reported that of 237 mental health social workers in England and Wales 47% stated that they were at least mostly satisfied with their jobs and only 19% reported being dissatisfied. Similar findings were reported by Papadaki and Papadaki (2006) after surveying 61 social workers from Crete, Greece. Of the social workers from Crete, 1.6% were extremely satisfied with their jobs, 46% were very satisfied, 37.7 were moderately satisfied, and only 18% reported being only somewhat satisfied. Gibson et al.
(1989) also reported that out of 176 Northern Ireland field social workers, only 9% stated that they found their jobs to be either dissatisfying or very dissatisfying. In addition to these findings, almost 70% of American social workers reported their plans to remain in their current employment for the next two years (The Center for Health Workforce Studies and National Association of Social Workers Center for Workforce Studies [CHW,NASW], 2006). Papadaki and Papadaki (2006) also supported the reports of high levels of job satisfaction by stressing how more than half of WHY SOCIAL WORKERS REMAIN IN THE FIELD 3 their respondents reported that they would choose their same job if given the opportunity to start any new career of their choice. Even with high reports of job satisfaction there are at times conflicting reports.
Gibson et al. (2006) revealed that when social workers were asked about job satisfaction in general terms they reported job satisfaction was high. When questioned about specific aspects of social work, respondents brought up a multitude of concerns that seemed to uncover lower rates of job satisfaction. Papadaki and Papadaki (2006) reported similar findings, but attributed lower satisfaction in terms of organizational factors within the workplace, instead of relating their findings to lower job satisfaction.
Gibson et al. (1989) also reported that although more than half of the 176 respondents reported high levels of job satisfaction, 73% had considered ending their current social work positions, half of them had contemplated leaving their current jobs within the past year. Stress and Burnout Definitions and Scales Job stress and burnout are real concerns for workers in the social work field. Stress is defined as “a state of mental or emotional strain or suspense” (Webster’s, n.), and burnout is defined as “a psychological syndrome that involves a prolonged response to stressors in the workplace.
Specifically, it involves the chronic strain that results from an incongruence, or misfit, between the worker and the job” (Maslach, 2003, p. Stress and burnout are a dangerous combination when examining job retention in the social work field (Kim and Stoner, 2008). Social workers who experience role-related stress are more likely to experience burnout, and workers who experience burnout have reported higher intentions of resigning from social work (Kim & Stoner, 2008; Soderfeldt, Soderfeldt, & Warg, 1995). The term “burnout” was first used in a human WHY SOCIAL WORKERS REMAIN IN THE FIELD 4 services setting by Herbert Freudenberger.
He applied the term to describe the overall appearance of volunteers’ psychological states while working in alternative health agencies. Before Freudenberger, the term burnout typically referred to the effects of persons with a history of chronic drug abuse (Freudenberger, 1975). The Maslach Burnout Inventory (MBI) is one of the most utilized tools in measuring staff burnout in a wide variety of occupations (Maslach, 2003). The first MBI was designed for workers in the human services and health care fields and consisted of three subscales that made up the different characteristics of the burnout syndrome.
The three subscales were emotional exhaustion (being emotionally drained and fatigued by one’s work), depersonalization (feeling detached and impersonal toward clients), and personal accomplishment (feeling competent and successful in one’s work with clients) (Gibson et al. Another version of the MBI has been revised to widen its occupational application and now includes the three subscales of overwhelming exhaustion, feelings of cynicism, and feeling a lack of accomplishment or feeling ineffective in one’s work (Maslach, 2003). Factors Leading to Stress and Burnout Papadaki and Papadaki (2006) reported that the main sources of lower ratings on job satisfaction for social workers were attributed to different organizational and extrinsic work aspects. Lack of good supervision, limited opportunities for promotion, limited or inadequate resources to meet client needs, and salary were all reported to contribute to lower levels of job satisfaction.
Past research has also reported numerous factors that lead to stress and burnout. These factors include areas such as lack of quality supervision, low social support, poor WHY SOCIAL WORKERS REMAIN IN THE FIELD 5 management, heavy caseloads, negative work environment, poor communication between managers and staff, the bureaucracy and paperwork involved in working with clients, and worker safety (Balloch et al. 1998; Bradley & Sutherland, 1995; Brodie, 1998; Evans et al. 2006; Kim & Stoner, 2008; Morazes, Benton, Clark, & Jacquet, 2010).
Supervision and social support. Morazes et al. (2010) asked social workers to explain the reasons behind leaving the social work field. Numerous respondents reported that they perceived a lack of support and respect from co-workers and supervisors.
These findings are similar to those of Kim and Stoner (2008) who also reported that a lack of social support led to higher intentions of worker turnover. Koeske and Koeske (1989) reported that low social support, especially from co-workers, was the largest contributing factor for worker burnout. Strong social support from co-workers and supervisors provide a workplace in which people can thrive. A workplace where co-workers are happy, provide comfort, and share praise can increase productivity and create a sense of belonging.
If there is a lack of social support and positive connections, workers lose the qualities attributed to their ability to thrive (Maslach et al. In addition to these findings, Gillen (2008) stressed the benefits of supervisors creating a safe time and place for workers to have the opportunity to vent their frustrations and concerns about current cases. Work environment and management. Managers have an effect on the work environment of an agency.
For example, Maslach et al. (2001) stressed the importance of fairness in the workplace.