Michàlle E. Mor Barak

The Impact of Supervision on Worker Outcomes: A Meta‐analysis

Effective supervision is a vital aspect of service delivery in social service organizations. This article provides a meta‐analysis of 27 qualified research articles published between 1990 and 2007. The analysis thus includes a combined sample of 10,867 workers in child welfare, social work, and mental health settings. The results indicate that supervisory dimensions of task assistance, social and emotional support, and supervisory interpersonal interaction are positively and statistically significantly related to beneficial outcomes for workers. The dimensions of social and emotional supervisory support and supervisory interpersonal interaction are found to be negatively and statistically significantly related to detrimental outcomes for workers. All effect sizes were moderate (r at the 0.30 to 0.40 range). These findings underscore the importance of effective supervision in fostering beneficial outcomes and in limiting detrimental outcomes for workers. They also indicate that social service agencies should devote resources to training supervisors across all supervisory dimensions.

The Challenge of Workforce Management in a Global Society

Abstract Social work managers are increasingly challenged by the growing need to effectively manage workforce diversity and to create a welcoming and inclusive organizational environment. This is particularly important in light of the disproportional representation of women and members of minority groups in human service organizations and the gap between diversity of the client population versus the diversity of the staff. With social identity theory and inclusion-exclusion conceptual framework as a backdrop, this study tests a comprehensive theory-based model of the relationship between diversity, organizational culture, and employee outcomes. Using structural equations modeling, the proposed model was tested in a representative sample of one hundred and fourteen employees in a high tech company in Israel. The results point to significant paths between diversity and organizational-culture variables and between organizational-culture variables such as fairness, inclusion, stress, and social support to employee outcomes of well-being, job satisfaction, and organizational commitment. Within the context of globalization, implications for social work management practices are drawn, particularly for implementing policies and practices that promote an inclusive organizational culture and a sense of belonging, satisfaction, and commitment in employees.

‘I'm So Stressed!’: A Longitudinal Model of Stress, Burnout and Engagement among Social Workers in Child Welfare Settings

The well-documented day-to-day and long-term experiences of job stress and burnout among employees in child welfare organisations increasingly raise concerns among leaders, policy makers and scholars. Testing a theory-driven longitudinal model, this study seeks to advance understanding of the differential impact of job stressors (work–family conflict, role conflict and role ambiguity) and burnout (emotional exhaustion and depersonalisation) on employee disengagement (work withdrawal and exit-seeking behaviours). Data were collected at three six-month intervals from an availability sample of 362 front line social workers or social work supervisors who work in a large urban public child welfare organisation in the USA. The studys results yielded a good model fit (RMSEA = 0.06, CFI = 0.96, NFI = 0.94). Work–family conflict, role ambiguity and role conflict were found to impact work withdrawal and exit-seeking behaviours indirectly through burnout. The outcome variable, exit-seeking behaviours, was positively impacted by depersonalisation and work withdrawal at a statistically significant level. Overall, findings, at least in the US context, highlight the importance of further examining the development of job burnout among social workers and social work supervisors working in child welfare settings, as well as the utility of long-term administrative strategies to mitigate risks of burnout development and support engagement.

The Promise of Diversity Management for Climate of Inclusion: A State-of-the-Art Review and Meta-Analysis

ABSTRACT Applying a theory-based conceptual model of organizational diversity, climate of inclusion, and beneficial/detrimental outcomes, this study analyzes 30 qualified studies (N = 496,740 workers) published during the past 2 decades. Results indicate that although diversity is associated with both beneficial and detrimental outcomes, diversity management efforts that promote a climate of inclusion are consistently associated with positive outcomes (? = .42, 95% CI = .29, .54) (N = 290,854). Findings suggest that human service organizations should move beyond a sole focus on increasing diversity representation to developing policies and practices that engender a climate of inclusion.

Support in the Workplace: Buffering the Deleterious Effects of Work–Family Conflict on Child Welfare Workers’ Well-Being and Job Burnout

ABSTRACT We examined the impact of work–family conflict (WFC) on worker well-being and job burnout, as well as the role of social support in the workplace as a potential buffer against the influence of WFC. Results of hierarchical multiple regression analyses in a cross-sectional sample of 361 public child welfare workers indicate that WFC was related to reduced well-being and increased job burnout, whereas supervisory support moderated the relationship between WFC and well-being. Findings from this study hold implications to workforce management practices aimed at improving worker well-being in human service and child welfare organizations. Human resource management policies designed to manage worker schedules should aim to facilitate workers’ ability to meet work and family demands through programs such as flexible work schedules and telecommuting. Recommendations for future research on WFC and worker well-being are discussed.

Inclusion is the Key to Diversity Management, but What is Inclusion?

“Diversity makes business sense”—this slogan greeted me as I walked into the lobby of a large international high-tech company headquartered in California. I was there at the invitation of the CEO to evaluate the company’s diversity policies. As a first step, before embarking on a large-scale organizational study, I asked members of upper management to allow me to conduct qualitative interviews with employees from different levels in the organization and of various backgrounds. Although some interviewees expressed the belief that the company was “blind to ethnic and gender differences” and therefore fair in its practices (a mistaken perception of fairness), many women and members of racial and ethnic minority groups talked about lost job opportunities, missed promotions, and lack of engagement. Interviewees with diverse backgrounds indicated that they were not recognized or appreciated for their true identities but were expected to conform to the mainstream culture in the organization. The word most often used by interviewees to describe their emotions was exclusion. They felt left out of social and informational networks and barred from the organization’s decision-making process. One middle-aged Latina manager, recalling the difficulty in rising to her current position, told me that her promotion was initially blocked because her supervisor expressed a concern that she “did not possess the communication skills needed for a managerial job.” “That was nonsense,” she said. “The fact was that I just didn’t fit in—and management’s solution was to exclude me.” She fought the decision and eventually was promoted. She was not alone. One interviewee after another recounted similar stories of being excluded from networks of information and decision making because they were different than the mainstream. After more than 30 in-depth interviews, it finally dawned on me that inclusion was the key to effective diversity management and that we needed to understand what inclusion meant. That was almost two decades ago. Since then we have made some strides in (1) recognizing the importance of inclusion in the context of diversity; (2) laying out the theoretical foundations for understanding inclusion; andAll human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.–Universal Declaration of H...

Social Work Science and Identity Formation for Doctoral Scholars Within Intellectual Communities

Three themes are central to preparing doctoral students for the professoriate: identity formation, scientific integration, and intellectual communities. In this article, we argue that these three themes are not separate pillars but interlocking circles. Our main thesis is that (1) social work must develop into a distinct integrative scientific discipline; (2) this recognition is core to the identity formation of doctoral scholars and, reflectively, their identity formation is central to the future development of social work as a scientific discipline; and (3) the sustainability of social work as a scientific discipline is dependent upon the development of intellectual communities. Developing social work as an integrative discipline will foster and congeal the identity of our scholars while allowing them to flourish within intellectual communities. Implications include nurturing a scientific sense of identity through a dialogical approach to doctoral education, creating and supporting intellectual communities, and making identity formation explicit in mentoring practices.

Mechanisms of the Effect of Involuntary Retirement on Older Adults’ Self-Rated Health and Mental Health

ABSTRACT This study examined mechanisms of the effect of involuntary retirement on self-rated health and mental health among adults aged 50 or older. Using two waves of the Health and Retirement Study (2006 and 2010), we selected a sample of 1,195 individuals working for pay at baseline who responded to a lifestyle questionnaire in both waves. Regression-based path analyses were conducted to test the mediating effects of financial control, positive and negative family relationships, and social integration on the relationship between involuntary retirement and self-rated health and mental health. Results of mediation analyses indicated that transition to involuntary retirement was directly negatively associated with subsequent self-rated health and indirectly negatively associated with mental health via perception of less financial control. Voluntary retirement was indirectly positively associated with both self-rated and mental health via perception of more financial control. No significant direct or indirect effects of retirement were found when retirement was measured with an aggregate measure without specifying its voluntariness. Findings emphasize the importance of specifying the voluntariness of retirement and recognizing the heterogeneity in the mechanisms of involuntary and voluntary retirement.

Job stress and mental health among nonregular workers in Korea: What dimensions of job stress are associated with mental health?

ABSTRACT Although nonregular workers experience higher job stress, poorer mental health, and different job stress dimensions relative to regular workers, little is known about which job stress dimensions are associated with poor mental health among nonregular workers. This study investigated the association between job stress dimensions and mental health among Korean nonregular workers. Data were collected from 333 nonregular workers in Seoul and Gyeonggi Province, and logistic regression analysis was conducted. Results of the study indicated that high job insecurity and lack of rewards had stronger associations with poor mental health than other dimensions of job stress when controlling for sociodemographic and psychosocial variables. It is important for the government and organizations to improve job security and reward systems to reduce job stress among nonregular workers and ultimately alleviate their mental health issues.

Increasing Workplace Inclusion: The Promise of Leader-Member Exchange

ABSTRACT With increased workforce diversity, human service organizations are recognizing the need to create inclusive workplaces; yet little is known about how leaders can enhance workplace inclusion. We collected data at three time points in 6-month intervals from a public child welfare organization (n = 363). Using latent change score models, we analyzed whether leader-member exchange influenced how inclusion changed over time. Results indicate that favorable perceptions of leader-member exchange are associated with increased feelings of inclusion 6 and 12 months later. Findings highlight the importance of improving leadership interactions with their employees to increase workplace inclusion.