Somebody’s Gotta Be There for These Kids: Importance of Service Orientation for Sustaining Public Child Welfare Workers

ABSTRACT

Research has long indicated that both employees’ perceptions of external support and their own dispositional factors tend to predict satisfaction, intent to stay, and retention. However, the dispositional factor of service orientation has received minimal attention in child welfare or social work research. This article furthers the research on service orientation by utilizing quantitative surveys to test relationships between service orientation and key organizational variables and then exploring qualitative results to gain a more nuanced perspective on how service orientation inhabits the work-related experiences of study participants and its relation to worker retention projections in the field of child welfare.

KEYWORDS:

• Service orientation
• mixed methods
• worker retention
• child welfare

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Amy D. Benton

Amy D. Benton, PhD, LCSW, is an Assistant Professor in the School of Social Work at Texas State University. She received her doctorate from the University of California, Berkeley, School of Social Welfare, and her MSW from the University of Texas at Austin. Prior to getting her PhD, Amy worked for 7 years as a Program Director for a large non-profit organization. Her primary areas of interest are management and administration of child welfare and human service agencies, worker support, development and retention, and policy.

David Chenot

David Chenot PhD, MDiv., LCSW, is the Chair of the Department of Social Work at California State University Fullerton and an Associate Professor. He offers instruction in social work practice (mental health and child welfare), research, and Human Behavior in the Social Environment courses. David earned his PhD at Case Western Reserve University. David’s research interests include: the public child welfare services workforce, spirituality and religion in social work practice, and resilience among vulnerable children and families. Prior to entering academia, David was a social worker in direct practice for many years in public child welfare services and public mental health.

Ioakim Boutakidis

Ioakim Boutakidis, PhD, is an associate professor in the Department of Child and Adolescent Studies at California State University Fullerton. He teaches child development, research methods, and senior seminars focused on cultural and ethnic variations in development. Ioakim earned his Ph.D. at the University of California, Riverside where his research line, focused on ethnic identity and acculturation in parenting practices, continues to this day. More recently his research has focused on at-risk adolescent youth and academic outcomes and interventions revolving around academic motivation and engagement. He recently served as Associate Dean of Student Success in the College of Health and Human Development.