How different are organizational culture and climate across public child welfare organizations with different turnover rates?

Background & purposes: The performance of child welfare agencies depends on competent and stable workforce for meeting complex needs of vulnerable children and families they serve. Many child welfare agencies have experienced high turnover rates. In spite of increasing interests in the effect of organizational culture and climate on employee's turnover in child welfare agencies, little research has been conducted regarding about the differences in organizational culture and climate across child welfare agencies with different levels of turnover rates. Recognizing the importance of organizational culture and climate, this study investigates the differences between high turnover rates counties (HTC) and low turnover rates counties (LTC) in terms of organizational culture and climate.

Methods: Data were collected from 25 counties in the State of New York. Those counties are classified into two groups, i.e., one group consisting of counties with high turnover rates, and the other group consisting of counties with low turnover rates. Data on turnover rates were obtained from the New York State Office of Children and Family Services (OCFS).

Organizational culture is measured in three aspects, i.e., Achievement/ Innovation/ Competence (AIC), Cooperation/ Supportiveness/ Responsiveness (CSR), and Emphasis on Rewards (ER). Organizational climate is measured in four aspects, i.e., Role Clarity (RC), Personal Accomplishment (PA), Emotional Exhaustion (EE), and Workload (WL). The independent sample t-tests were conducted, and box plots were drawn to see the spread of values in organizational culture and climate across high and low turnover agencies.

Result: The independent sample t-tests show the significant differences in organizational culture and climate between high and low turnover agencies. In particular, Emphasis on Reward (ER) and Workload (WL) are significantly different between two groups.

Interestingly, according to box plot graphs, high turnover agencies showed very thin and tight spread of values in organizational culture and climate, while low turnover agencies showed very broad spread in values.

Implications: These findings suggest that positive organizational culture and climate might be the necessary condition for decreasing turnover rates in child welfare agencies, but not the sufficient condition.