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Background: The paper explores the associations between retention and attitudes towards practice in public child welfare as outcome variables and work locus of control (WLOC) as an explanatory variable.
The WLOC construct proposes a continuum between external and internal locus of control. Individuals with an external locus of control think that they have little control over events and circumstances, and individuals with an internal locus of control believe that they are responsible for their achievements and their failures (Oliver, Jose, & Brough, 2006).
The relevance of WLOC stems from the hypotheses that where one locates a sense of control impacts job motivation, job performance, job satisfaction, turnover, and leadership style (Macan, 1996), which Ng, Sorensen, and Eby (2006) supported in a comprehensive meta-analysis. In spite of the construct's relevance, it has largely been neglected in the social welfare literature.
Methods: We used survey data (n=263) collected in a large state's evaluation of the career paths of Title IV-E stipend recipients. WLOC scores were determined by Spector's Work Locus of Control instrument. Retention, intent to leave, perception of influence, confidence in knowledge and skills, sense of personal responsibility, self-evaluated success, and importance of success were measured by dichotomized responses. Logistic regression was used to determine the relationship between the aforementioned constructs as outcome variables and WLOC and other potentially significant variables (i.e. race, sex, age, region, method of practice, and years spent working in child welfare) as explanatory variables.
Results: We fit seven logistic regression models. In all models except for one as noted below, race, sex, age, region, method of practice, and years spent working in child welfare had no significant relationship to the binary outcome variables.
WLOC was not significantly associated with retention despite previously published studies that found significant relationships between WLOC and retention.
All aforementioned attitudes towards practice were significantly associated with WLOC. Externals report greater intent to leave (OR = 2.09, p < .10), lower perceptions of influence to positively affect clients (OR = .29, p < .01), less confidence in knowledge and skills (OR = .33, p < .10), a lesser sense of personal responsibility for clients' welfare (OR = .40, p < .01), less success in achieving goals set for clients (OR = .38, p < .01) with evidence of statistically significant racial differences, and finally less importance in success with clients in determining whether to stay or to leave public child welfare (OR = .54, p < .05) than internals.
Implications: Given the significant differences between internals and externals in their attitudes towards practice, it is surprising that retention between internals and externals is not significantly different. The paper suggests that future research should consider observing differences in practice, rather than self-reported attitudes, between internals and externals. Upon such observation, the paper suggests that research could inform supervisors to engage with externals in constructive ways to encourage more internally oriented behaviors since WLOC may be malleable over time.