The Impact of Organizational Support on Providing Educational Opportunities for Social Workers and the Organization Evaluation Results in South Korea

The impact of organizational support on providing educational opportunities for social workers and the organization evaluation results in South Korea

Background: This study examined the relationship between organizational training support for social workers and evaluation results in community service centers for older adults in South Korea. With the increasing population of older adults, community service centers for the elderly in South Korea have increased from 139 centers in 2009 to 248 centers in 2015 to meet the increased need. The number of social workers and professionals has also increased. In order to ensure the quality of services, social workers and professionals in those centers should be guaranteed training opportunities. However, in South Korea's organizational culture, social workers often face difficulties with accessing training opportunities unless a director or manager of a service center places value on training to improve a social worker's skills. In particular, receiving training outside of centers is more difficult without the permission of director. Community service centers that are non-profit organizations and receive subsidies from the government are required to be evaluated every three years in South Korea through the National Evaluation Center for Social Welfare Facility. The evaluation results not only impact the quality of services for clients but also an organization's reputation and budget because some local governments reduce budgets or give incentives based on evaluation results.

Methods: Data of 248 community service centers in 2015 were collected by comprehensive evaluation teams which were composed of professors in social work, directors of community service centers, and government officials who were in charge of social work in local government through the National Evaluation Center for Social Welfare Facility in South Korea. The data were collected in major cities (44.45%), small and medium cities (31.5%), and rural areas (24.2%). The organization evaluation index was composed of six categories, including facilities and environment, finance and organization management, human resource management, programs and services, client's rights, and relationship with local communities. The average score of evaluation was 85.20 (SD=18.33). Multiple regression was conducted to determine whether the training expenditures and training hours that each social worker received predicted the total evaluation scores.

Results: As a result of a multiple linear regression analysis, inside training expenditure, outside training expenditure, and outside training hours were significant predictors of the total evaluation scores [F(4,243) = 140.039, p < .05]. The model's degree of explaining the variance in the dependent variable was R²=.697. Thus, high training expenditure for social workers both inside and outside of organizations was related to high evaluation results, and a high number of training hours was related to high evaluation results.

Implications: The findings suggested that organizational training support for social workers was important for not only increasing the evaluation results but also for improving quality of service for their clients. In particular, training outside of their organizations increases organizational evaluation results. The results of this study also suggested that nonprofit organizations' leaders should emphasize training and provide more educational opportunities for social workers.