Evidence-Based Knowledge, Attitudes toward Evidence-Based Practice, Job Autonomy and Service Quality Perception: The Case of Social Workers in China

Abstract

Evidence-based knowledge is seen as an important factor for improving service quality perception, yet empirical knowledge of the potential mechanisms is relatively limited, especially among social workers. The purpose of this study is to investigate the serial mediation effect of attitudes toward evidence-based practice and job autonomy in the relationship between evidence-based knowledge and service quality perception. The study is based on a sample of 1159 social workers, which comes from the China Social Work Longitudinal Study (CSWLS) 2019. Results indicate that a serial mediation path from attitudes toward evidence-based practice with job autonomy is posited to operate between evidence-based knowledge and service quality perception among social workers. These findings suggest that the government and social service organizations should collaborate to offer evidence-based courses, enhance evidence-based practice training, and improve organizational climate to promote positive service quality perceptions among Chinese social workers. Future research should delve into social workers across diverse cultures and countries and examine the effect of other factors, such as social workers’ evidence-based skills and abilities, on perceived service quality to broaden the current research.

Keywords:

• Evidence-based knowledge
• attitudes toward evidence-based practice
• job autonomy
• service quality perception

Acknowledgments

Data used in this study were from the China Social Work Longitudinal Study (CSWLS) 2019 collected by East China University of Science and Technology. The authors appreciate the assistance in providing data of 2019 CSWLS.

Consent to Participate

Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study.

Disclosure Statement

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Ethical Approval

All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards. Research ethics approval was received from East China University of Science and Technology. In addition, the study obtained IRB approval from the Ethics Committee for Social Work at Zhejiang University for secondary data analysis.