Factors associated with positive work experience among professionals supporting people with intellectual disabilities: a comparative analysis of three welfare organisations in Sweden

Abstract

Given the crucial role professionals play in maintaining the well-being of people with intellectual disabilities, their views on work satisfaction are relevant to analyse. A comparative analysis that takes into account the support provided in different welfare organisations can be of certain importance. The aim is to analyse the most common aspects of professional work satisfaction in work with people with intellectual disabilities in schools, healthcare, and social services, and to apply a comparative analysis of such experience taking into account respondents’ organisational affiliations. Data were collected using a digital questionnaire. Given the aim of the study, we drew on one open-ended question: ‘describe aspects of your work that are most satisfactory for you’. The analysis shows that respondents associated positive work experience with seven aspects: autonomy, competence, nature of the work, collaboration, trust and recognition, work environment, and service users. Findings indicate that discretion is an important facet of work satisfaction among respondents in all three organisations. Flexibility, autonomy in decision-making, the ability to plan and act within certain institutional and legal frameworks, and the ability to prioritise among daily work assignments are empirical examples of this.

Keywords:

• human service organisations
• intellectual disabilities
• job satisfaction
• comparative analysis
• Sweden