Job Embeddedness and Job Engagement: Recommendations for a Supportive Social Work Environment

Abstract

Burnout and employee disengagement are common occurrences in the social work field. Many leaders believe improving job engagement will mitigate burnout. However, after a review of the literature, we believe mediating burnout is not as simple as engaging the employee. To support our assertion, we review the theories of organizational culture, procedural justice, conservation of resources, and job embeddedness to place the concepts of burnout, engagement, and embeddedness in an organizational perspective. We provide managers and leaders of social work organizations with recommendations to reduce burnout and increase employee engagement and job embeddedness.

Keywords:

• burnout
• conservation of resources
• engagement
• job embeddedness
• organizational culture
• procedural justice