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BJSW Advance Access first published online on June 23, 2006
This version published online on November 8, 2006
British Journal of Social Work, doi:10.1093/bjsw/bcl054
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© The Author 2006. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of The British Association of Social Workers. All rights reserved.

Article

Why Are They Leaving? Factors Affecting Intention to Leave among Social Workers in Child Welfare

Pia Tham 1 *

1 Department of Social Work, Stockholm SE-106 91, Sweden

* To whom correspondence should be addressed.
Pia Tham, E-mail: pia.tham{at}socarb.su.se


  Abstract

This article addresses a topic that has not previously been researched in Sweden, i.e. factors associated with the intention of social workers to leave their place of work. A comprehensive questionnaire was distributed to 309 social workers in child welfare in the County of Stockholm (drop-out rate: 3 per cent). The study comprised a total of forty-two workgroups. All the social workers handling referrals and investigating the situation of children and youth in these areas were included. One of the most striking results was that although 54 per cent of the social workers had been at their current workplace for two years or less, 48 per cent intended to leave their jobs. A logistic regression analysis showed that the variable of greatest importance for the intention to leave the workplace was lack of human resource orientation within the organization, i.e. the extent to which personnel are rewarded for a job well done, feel well taken care of and where management is interested in their health and well-being. A final conclusion of this study is that when measuring the impact of different aspects of work tasks compared with some aspects of organizational culture, it becomes clear that the latter seem to be most important in this respect.

Keywords: social workers, child welfare, working conditions, intention to leave.

Footnote 1 from Table 4 has been removed from this version.


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This article has been cited by other articles:


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