Research on the Job Stress and Job Satisfaction of Social Workers at Welfare Institution for the Disabled

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1 , pp Research on the Job Stress and Job Satisfaction of Social Workers at Welfare Institution for the Disabled Jong-Pil Kim 1*, Sung-je Cho 2** 1 Department of Education at Dongbang Graduate University 1-34, Isa-dong, Dong-gu, Daejeon , Korea 2 Department of Education at Dongbang Graduate University, Seoul, Korea 60, Seongbuk-ro 28gil, Seongbuk-gu, Seoul , Korea Abstract. The purpose of this research is to investigate the job stress and job satisfaction of social workers at welfare institution for the disabled. The study targets are the social workers at the welfare institutions for disabled in Daejeon Metropolitan City and a survey was conducted from the 11 th of February to the 10 th of March in For analysis, SPSS WIN 18.0 and Amos 21.0 programs were used to conduct t-test, one-way analysis of variance, correlation analysis and multiple regression analysis at a significance level of 5%. Firstly, according to the result, the level of job stress of social workers at welfare institutions for the disabled varied significantly upon their marital status, while it was found to be independent of gender, age group, religion, education level and annual income. Specifically, social workers, who are single, were found to be experiencing higher level of job stress. Secondly, the level of job satisfaction of social workers at welfare institutions for the disabled varied significantly upon their education level and annual income, while it is found to be independent of gender, age group, marital status and religions. The implication of this study is that it serves the fundamental information for policies on enhancement of the job stress and job satisfaction of social workers at the welfare institutions for the disabled in the future. Key Words: Welfare institution for the disabled, social worker, job satisfaction, job stress ISSN: ASTL Copyright 2016 SERSC

2 1 Introduction The recent development of medical technology and enhancement of life quality, the society has started aging. Accordingly, the number of welfare institutions for the aged is increasing every year to meet the increasing demand for welfare for the aged. As of 2015, the statistics on the welfare institutions for the aged shows that the number of welfare institution for the aged has increased annually from 69,238 in 2010 to 73,774 in 2014 [1]. On the side of welfare for the aged, welfare for the disabled is being issued as well. According to the National Statistical Office in 2015, the number of the disabled in institution has increased annually from 47,627 in 2005 to 80,846 in 2014 [2]. As the number of such social welfare institutions has increased, the number of social workers therein has been increasing as well. Nevertheless, the workers of social welfare institutions are working in a poor environment with lower wage and harder physical labor than workers in other fields. Consequently, the problem of efficient management of social welfare institutions due to decreasing job satisfaction of social workers therein is an important issue on the rise [3]. Thus, this study aims to focus on the job stress and job satisfaction of social workers at the welfare institutions for the disabled and to investigate general influences thereon. 1.1 Issues Raised Research question 1. How does the level of job stress of social workers at the welfare institutions for the disabled vary upon their general characteristic? Research question 2. How does the level of job satisfaction of social workers at the welfare institutions for the disabled vary upon their general characteristics? 122 Copyright 2016 SERSC

3 2 Theoretical Background Currently, there are researches being conducted on the job satisfaction of social workers at the welfare institutions for the disabled and the various problems and situations that are facing [3-6]. Regarding the job satisfaction, it was found that the workers at welfare institutions for the disabled have more awareness on the distributive justice than those at welfare institutions for the aged. Therefore, it is essential to understand that the level of job satisfaction differs for workers at institutions for the aged and that for the disabled as their satisfaction on compensations for their work or past experiences, fairness in complaint process and etc. varies [4]. Accordingly, this study aims to focus on an investigation on the job stress and job satisfaction of social workers at welfare institutions for the disabled. 3 Study Methods 3.1 Research Targets and Methods For this study, 157 social workers at the welfare institutions for the disabled in Daejeon were surveyed from the 11 th of February to the 10 th of March in The sample size of the research target is deduced using G*Power 3.1 program, a statistical power analysis program, based on the Cohen s sampling formula. The minimum sample size is calculated to be 119, with a significance level of 5%, test power of 95% and effect size of 0.15 mid-exponential index. Consequently, of the total number of 200 survey sheets, unanswered or inappropriate results were eliminated and 157 sets of results were used for the analysis. Additionally, one-to-one interview with the surveyor was conducted. Copyright 2016 SERSC 123

4 3.2 Research Tools Social Demographical Characteristics The terms developed by investigation on community health [6] were revised and improved to be used as a research tool. Regarding the demographical characteristics, survey questions were designed on the personal status. The questions include information on gender, age group, marital status, religion, education level, career experience, average working hours, conditions on labor contract, annual income and possession of licenses Scale of Job Stress The terms developed by Seungtaek Park [7] were revised and improved to be used as a research tool. For measuring the job stress, 9 terms on role-conflict, 8 terms on role-ambiguity and 7 terms on role-overload were used. The survey questions were arranged with 5-point Likert scale Scale of Job Satisfaction For the measurement of level of job satisfaction, the survey questions used in a study of Aebyeol Kim [8], which was based on the research of Smith, Kendall and Hulin (1969), were used. The tool consists of 5 point Likert scale from strongly agree to strongly disagree, with the higher sum of all points indicating the higher the level of job satisfaction. The reliability of this scale (Cronbach s a) is Copyright 2016 SERSC

5 4 Research Result 4.1 General characteristics of social workers at welfare institutions for the disabled As a result of investigation on the general characteristics of social workers at welfare institutions for the disabled, 36.5% males and 63.5% of females have responded. The 20s was the largest age group (35.6%), followed by 30s (31.0%), 40s (17.8%) and 50s or over (15.5%). 51.4% responded to be married, while 43.7% responded to be single. 38.5% of the respondents were Protestants, 32.5% has no religion, 12.4% has other religions, 8.3% was Catholic and 8.3% was Buddhists. The majority were graduated from junior college (49.1%), followed by graduated from university (43.1) and graduated from graduate school or higher (7.8%). The majority has annual income of million won (37.1%), followed by million won (28.2%), million won (15.2%), 30 million won or more (14.4%) and 15 million won or less (5.2%). 4.2 Descriptive Statistics on Job Stress As a result of descriptive statistics investigation on the job stress of social workers at welfare institutions for the disabled, it was found that the overall average level of job stress is The subdivisions of job stress of social workers at welfare institutions for the disabled were found to be high in the order of role-overload, role-conflict and role-ambiguity. 4.3 Descriptive Statistics on Job Satisfaction As a result of descriptive statistics investigation on the job satisfaction of social workers at welfare institutions for the disabled, it was found that the average level of job satisfaction is The result shows that Copyright 2016 SERSC 125

6 the level of job satisfaction of social workers at welfare institutions for the disabled is at an average level. 5 Hypothesis Verification 5.1 Influence of the general characteristics of social workers at welfare institutions for the disabled on their job stress As a result of investigation on influence of the general characteristics of social workers at welfare institutions for the disabled on their job stress, it was found that the level of job stress significantly depends on their marital status, while it was found to be independent of their gender, age group, religion, education level and annual income. Specifically, social workers who are single are found to be experiencing higher level of job stress than those who are married. 5.2 Influence of the general characteristics of social workers at welfare institutions for the disabled on their job satisfaction As a result of investigation on influence of the general characteristics of social workers at welfare institutions for the disabled on their job satisfaction, it was found that the level of job satisfaction significantly depends on the education level and annual income of the workers, whereas it is independent of their gender, age group, marital status and religion. In terms of education level, the level of job satisfaction was the highest for social workers who graduated from graduate school or higher, followed by the university graduates and junior college graduates. In terms of the annual income, workers who earn million won as their annual income were found to be having the highest level of job satisfaction, followed by those with annual income of 30 million won or over, million won and 20 million won or less, indicating the workers who earn 20 million won or less annually have the lowest level of job satisfaction. 126 Copyright 2016 SERSC

7 6 Discussion and Conclusion In this study, the job satisfaction of social workers at the welfare institutions for the disabled was analyzed. The discussions on the research results are as follows. Firstly, it was found that the level of job stress of social workers at the welfare institutions is significantly influenced by their marital status, while it was found to be independent of their gender, age group, religion, education level and annual income. Specifically, social workers who are single were found to be experiencing higher level of job stress than those who are married. Such result semantically corresponds with a research result that shows the level of role stress of nursing teachers has a significant negative influence on their job satisfaction [9]. Secondly, it was found that the level of job satisfaction of social workers at the welfare institutions is significantly influenced by their educational level and annual income, whereas it is independent of their gender, age group, marital status and religion. The result shows that the level of job satisfaction of a social worker tends to be higher if the education level is higher and that the level of job stress and job satisfaction of a social worker tends to be lower if the annual income is lower. Consequently, there is a necessity for further researches on the influences of the job satisfaction of social workers at welfare institutions on their life quality. References 1. Ministry of Health and Welfare, (2015). 2. Statistics Korea, (2015). 3. Cha, I. S., Kim, H. M.: A Study on the Influential Factors and Policy Implications for Employees Turnover Intention in Social Welfare Centers, GRI REVIEW, Vol. 14, No. 2(2012). 4. Lee, D. S.: The Effects on the Work Attitude to the Perception of Justice in Employee of the Social Welfare Facilities: Focused on the Aged and Copyright 2016 SERSC 127

8 the Disabled Social Welfare Facilities, Local Government Studies, Vol.12(2). pp (2008). 5. Kim, J. P.: Research on the Job Satisfaction of Social Workers in Welfare Facilities for the Disabled, Advanced Science and Technology Letters 101: (2015). 6. Community Health Survey (2011). 7. Park, S. T.: A Study on the Factors Affecting on Turnover Intention and Burnout of Social Workers : Focusing on Job Stress and Organizational Commitment, Graduate School of Won kwang University, Ph.d( 2012). 8. Kim, A. B.: A Study on the welfare leisure facilities for the elderly of Social workers' Emotion Labor on burnout, Department of Social Welfare College of Social Development Chung-Ang University, (2014). 9. Kim, K. H., Cha, E. J.: Effects of Role Stresses on Turnover Intention Among Child Care Teachers: Focused on the Mediating, Effect of Job Satisfaction, Journal of Korean social welfare administration, Vol. 14(4), pp (2012). 128 Copyright 2016 SERSC

Research on Influence of Job Characteristics of Social Workers at Welfare Institution for the Disabled on their Emotional Labor

, pp.129-136 http://dx.doi.org/10.14257/astl.2016. Research on Influence of Job Characteristics of Social Workers at Welfare Institution for the Disabled on their Emotional Labor Jong-Pil Kim 1*, Sung-je