Impact of workplace characteristics on quality of child welfare services

Background and Purpose: A substantial body of research exists documenting the impact of organizational features on the retention of child welfare workers. However, little evidence exists examining the impact of how those same organizational features affect services provided to children and families within the child welfare system. In this study, we examined the effects of multiple workplace characteristics on service quality. We sought to answer two primary research questions: How do worker accommodations, work group support and organizational climate affect service quality in child welfare organizations?; and how does job satisfaction account for differences in service quality? We hypothesize that worker accommodations, organizational climate and work group support will be positively associated with service quality. Furthermore, we hypothesize that increased job satisfaction will account for some of the differences in service quality based on workplace characteristics.

Methods: Data was obtained from the Survey of Organizational Excellence, a biennial survey of all state agencies in Texas. The survey gathers information regarding various workplace characteristics. We examined data from the Child Protective Services division of the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services. This division provides all child welfare related services in Texas. We excluded participants who worked in the state office, who worked part-time or who had missing data on salary. Our final sample included 3,191 employees. A factor analysis was conducted to create constructs of workplace characteristics from the survey questions. Three least squares regression analysis were conducted to examine the effects of workplace characteristics on service quality as well as the potential mediating effects of job satisfaction based on three levels of employee rank: high, mid and low level.

Results:

Results provide evidence that organizational climate is a significant factor shaping worker's perceptions of service quality. Low level employees appear to have more positive perceptions of the workplace features. Mid level employees who are most likely to be caseworkers working directly with clients have poor workplace perceptions and the lowest levels of perceptions of service quality.

Conclusions:

Results suggest that workplace characteristics are significantly associated to service quality. For mid level employees in particular, service quality is affected by negative workplace characteristics. Overall, negative organizational climate appears to be the most important factor in service quality. Because little research has focused on how workplace characteristics affect service quality, our results provide compelling evidence that the stressful and unsupportive environment that dominates child welfare agencies are directly impacting the services provided.