Social workers’ job satisfaction in public institutions

Abstract

Orientation: The effectiveness of social service delivery depends on the motivation of social workers to perform their work well. Motivation is directly related to social workers’ job satisfaction.

Research purpose: The study aimed to determine the factors of job dissatisfaction among social workers and identify ways to address them.

Motivation for the study: The research tries to solve the existing problem of low job satisfaction among social workers, given the low wages in this area, the great complexity of the work (associated with emotional tension) and difficult working conditions.

Research approach/design and method: The study relies on a qualitative approach – a subjective approach to the research from the social worker’s point of view.

Main findings: The research found that social workers, being a rather specific category of employees, consider the issue of job satisfaction in a rather complex symbiosis. Factors such as relatively low pay or paper records and documentation keeping are of little importance. Instead, the irrational fear of losing a job influences social workers’ perceptions of work and their job satisfaction the most.

Practical/managerial implications: Social workers value and are satisfied not with the job in the sense of their performance or the result obtained but with the actual availability of the job (the workplace).

Contribution/value-add: Compared with other international studies, the study opens a new vector of scientific inquiry – the elimination of the fear factor from the model of job satisfaction assessment for social workers.