Engaging Our Workforce: How Job Demands and Resources Contribute to Social Worker Burnout, Engagement and Intent to Leave

An abstract of the dissertation of Sara Laura Schwartz for the Doctor of Philosophy in Social Work and Social Research presented May 1, 2007. Title: Engaging our Workforce: How Job Demands and Resources Contribute to Social Worker Burnout, Engagement and Intent to Leave Social worker stress and burnout are pervasive problems that harm workers, organizations, and clients. Past research has identified burnout, a psychological response to work stress, as an important predictor of intent to leave and ultimate turnover. An emerging body of research has examined work engagement, considered to be the opposite of burnout, as a predictor of retention. The problem of bumout and turnover within organizations employing social workers has been addressed in the literature for many years. This dissertation responded to a call in the literature for a greater emphasis on bumout prevention and enhancement of workforce engagement and retention. The three goals of the study were: 1) to measure levels of work engagement; 2) to examine the psychometric properties of two new instruments that measure bumout and engagement; and 3) to use the Job Demands-Resources model to test a hypothesized model of the unique relationships between job demands, resources, bumout, engagement and intent to leave. Survey data were collected from 243 public child welfare workers employed with Oregon’s Department of Human Services, Children, Adult and Families Division, Service Delivery Area 2 serving Multnomah County. Findings revealed that half of the workers were highly engaged and that engagement explained 18% of the variance of intent to remain employed. An alternative measure of bumout, the Oldenburg Bumout Inventory, demonstrated good internal consistency, convergent validity with the MBI, and explained 26% of the variance of intent to leave. A series of path analyses indicated support for a partially-mediated model. The findings demonstrate that bumout and engagement mediate the effects that demands and resources have on intent to leave. Supervisor support exerted both direct and indirect effects on intent to leave. The results support the inclusion of work engagement in bumout research, demonstrate the psychometric soundness of two new instruments to measure engagement and bumout, and support the applicability of the Job DemandsResources Model to a sample of social service workers employed in public child welfare. The findings indicate that job demands and resources play an important role in worker intent to leave. Research, education, policy, and practice implications are addressed. DEDICATION In loving memory of Donald James Schwartz ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to acknowledge and thank my Dissertation Chair, Nancy Koroloff, and the rest of my Committee: Diane Yatchmenoff, Barbara Friesen, Norm Wyers, Richard Hunter, and Robert Sinclair. I appreciate the time and effort that you put into helping me through this process. I am incredibly grateful for the analysis support and guidance that I received from Daniel Coleman and Robert Sinclair. Thank you for responding to the many cries for help that I sent your way. This project would not have been possible without the support of Katharine Cahn and the Child Welfare Partnership. Thank you for the many opportunities that you provided me and for your commitment to my enormous dissertation study idea. I would like to thank the employees of the Oregon Department of Human Services, Children, Adult, and Families Service Delivery Area II. Thank you for graciously opening your door to me and letting me peek inside of the world in which you work. I am particularly grateful for the attention Chuck Dimond and Jerry Bums paid to my project and for the guidance and support that they provided throughout this process. I would like to express my appreciation for Kristine Nelson. Thank you for believing in me and supporting my path throughout my time at Portland State University. I am unable to express in words how much your support has meant to me. I feel incredibly grateful to have had the opportunity to go through this process with Jodi Kerbs and Rebecca Block. Our friendship and camaraderie has deepened this experience for me. I would like to express my deep appreciation for my family and my friends. Thank you for supporting me, believing in me, loving me, answering the telephone when I called, accepting my neuroses, proofreading my drafts, and helping me find humor in the process. I would specifically like to thank my mother, Judith W. Schwartz, for your unconditional support and love.