published_or_final_version / Social Work / Master / Master of Social Work

M.A. (Social Science) / The work environment in which social workers are fulfilling their duties are today demanding more and more of them. These demands are different from those demands of other professions and is the result of the distinctiveness of the helping professions. Social workers boast that they are because of their work situation always in a state of emotional exhaustion. To this the literature refers as the burnout syndrome. Articles and research reports on the topic of burnout appeared in the past on a regular basis and are new articles and reports published regularly. A research study was undertaken to determine what the extent of burnout is in social workers and to determine if there are reason for the widespread claims that they are victims of the burnout syndrome. The aim was also to determine those factors that are involved in causing burnout. A literature study were undertaken with the aim to describe the burnout syndrome. The literature showed that burnout is a syndrome characteristic of the helping professions. The literature also describes specific elements by which burnout could be recognised. It further gave some indications of those factors that are instrumental in the development of burnout. A sample were selected, a questionnaire compiled and distributed with the aim to collect information on the appearance of burnout. The results of the study showed different results. The most important result that was established was the lack of high levels of burnout in the sample. Only a small percentage of the respondents displayed high levels of burnout. The results also indicated that work dissatisfaction, a lack of autonomy, role problems (role conflict and role ambuguity) related to high levels of burnout. A sample were selected, a questionnaire compiled and distributed with the aim to collect information on the appearance of burnout. The results of the study showed different results. The most important result that was established was the lack of high levels of burnout in the sample. Only a small percentage of the respondents displayed high levels of burnout. The results also indicated that workdissatisfaction, a lack of autonomy, role problems (role conflict and roleambuguity) related to high levels of burnout in respondents. The results of the study led to certain recommendations concerning the prevention of burnout in social workers.

Thesis (M.S.W.)--University of Hong Kong, 1990.

published_or_final_version / Social Work / Master / Master of Social Work

published_or_final_version / Social Service Management / Master / Master of Social Sciences

Thesis (M.S.W.)--Smith College School for Social Work, Northampton, Mass., 2007 / Thesis submitted in partial fulfillment for the degree of Master of Social Work. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 55-57).

M.A. (Social Work) / Stress is a well-known phenomenon in our everyday lives, and has a serious impact on our personal and social functioning. Stress is experienced by almost all individuals, especially in their work-environment, and has a huge impact on their functioning, motivation, performance, colleagues and even clients. Within the Department of Social Development there is a lot of red tape, challenges and situations that create stress for the employees on an ongoing basis. If these situations are not handled and managed correctly and effectively through successful stress management, intervention methods, and also support systems, it can prove detrimental to employees on the level of service delivery. Within the Department of Social Development, social workers are irreplaceable in their roles, as they fulfil the core functions of the Department. They are responsible for the social work services to clients and the public, and also all other duties that go hand in hand in improving their clients’ social functioning. Observations by the researcher in her own work environment (Ekurhuleni region) showed that social workers and other employees are overworked and stressed out, and sick leave is taken regularly for stress-related problems. Some of the current workplace trends have been determined in a pre-study by the author during March/April 2008 (Maré, 2008). The reason for the study was to determine if social workers in the Ekurhuleni Region experience negative stress, and if it is related to their work. The aim was to discover if the source of their stress is work-related, and if they can successfully cope with this work-related stress and deal with it. The researcher is a social worker in the Ekurhuleni Region and has been in the position of having to cope with tremendous work-related stress in conditions which made coping with it difficult. With this study, the researcher wanted to investigate the stress experience of social workers and their way of coping with it, in order to develop guidelines from the results that would assist the social workers in effectively handling their work-related stress. These guidelines should not only improve the functioning of the social workers, but also impact positively on the service delivery of the organisation. Social work is a helping profession in which social workers draws from themselves to be able to assist clients with their problems and stress. This in itself can turn out to be a stressful situation, as social workers ignore their own stress through focusing on the client. The social worker’s own functioning is not as important as the client’s, and therefore the social worker’s needs are forgotten or ignored. The researcher hopes that with this study a positive contribution will be made in understanding the needs of the helper, instead of only focusing on the helpless.

This thesis explores the relationship between work environment and burnout by examining the question: Do workers experiencing burnout see their work environment more negatively than co-workers who are not burned-out? The goal is to explore the potential usefulness of measures of work environment and burnout to guide efforts at burnout intervention and prevention. Thirty-nine family and childcare workers from five sites in the Vancouver area responded to a survey to test hypotheses addressing this question. The work environment and burnout were found to be highly interactive with the work environment variables of supervisor support and clarity identified as key factors in burnout. The Maslach Burnout Inventory and Moos (1981) Work Environment Scale were found to be useful instruments for intervention and future research. / Arts, Faculty of / Social Work, School of / Graduate

Occupations involve regular contacts and associations with stigmatized or degraded people (e.g, policemen, nurses, social workers) are referred to as socially dirty work (Hughes, 1951; Ashforth & Kreiner, 1999; 2014).Socially dirty workers dealing with clients who are stigmatized by the society may encounter identity threat and negative societal perceptions towards their work (Kreiner, Ashforth & Sluss, 2006). Though the clients are stigmatized by the society, professional trainings of socially dirty workers advocate treating the clients as equal and respectable individuals. Hence, socially dirty workers face a big challenge to handle conflicting perceptions towards their clients– taking the professional side or the societal side. / Drawing on the conservation of resource (COR) framework (Hobfoll, 1989; 1990), I examined the effect of work dirtiness on socially dirty worker’s job outcomes and investigated the effects of two contextual factors. In particular, I proposed a construct called the intensity of social work dirtiness (ISWD) –the extent to which clients are stigmatized by society: when the clients are more stigmatized by the society, socially dirty workers are more likely to experience resource loss and job strain. I also proposed employees’ work orientations (calling / job orientation) and professional-client relationship quality, would moderate the effect of intensity of social work dirtiness on employees’ stressful experience and work outcomes. / Data were collected at three time points from 16 hospitals in Mainland China. Results showed that the intensity of social work dirtiness was positively related to job strain and further affected employees’ job satisfaction, turnover intentions and psychological wellbeing. The moderating effects of work orientations and relationship quality were also supported in the analysis. / 现代社会有许多职业需要经常接触污名化的客户 （如警察、护士、社工），这类职业被定义为社会型厌恶性工作(Hughes, 1951; Ashforth & Kreiner, 1999; 2014)。 社会型厌恶性工作者往往会遇到自我身份认同的难题和承受社会对他们的负面印象(Kreiner, Ashforth & Sluss, 2006)。 另一方面，这类型的工作者通常都接受了职业价值观的训练:要平等对待和尊重他们的客户。因此，社会型厌恶性工作者常常面临挑战：如何看待工作中接触的污名化客户 -- 是跟随社会大众的看法还是保持职业的看法。根据资源保存理论 (Hobfoll,1989)。当客户的污名化程度越严重，这类型工作者越可能承受更大的压力。 / 我提出员工的工作导向以及员工与污名化客户的关系会调节客户污名化程度对员工压力的影响。 / 我在中国内地的医院和香港的社工组织中收集了数据并作了详细分析，模型中的部分假设得到了验证和支持。 / Wen, Shanshan. / Thesis Ph.D. Chinese University of Hong Kong 2015. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 101-117). / Abstracts also in Chinese; appendix includes Chinese. / Title from PDF title page (viewed on 06, October, 2016). / Detailed summary in vernacular field only. / Detailed summary in vernacular field only. / Detailed summary in vernacular field only.

published_or_final_version / Social Work / Master / Master of Social Sciences