Attitudinal Professionalism Among Social Work License Holders in China

Background and Purpose: As a profession that originated from Western culture, social work may experience a differing process of professionalization in China. Most of the Chinese social work community feels that the overall lack of professionalism is the most severe problem the field currently faces. In the process of social work professionalism, higher education has played a crucial role, the first research question of this study is: Among Chinese licensed social workers, is the acquisition of formal social work education associated with the level of attitudinal professionalism? Considering the potential significance of bureaucracy in buffering professionalism, this study also identified and illustrated the potential impact that bureaucracy has on the relationship between education and professionalism. The second research question is: Do bureaucratic dimensions of social workers’ agencies moderate the relationship between their educational background and attitudinal professionalism? If so, which bureaucratic dimensions moderate the relationship, and what are the moderating effects?

Methods: The study utilizes a cross-sectional, survey method to examine the attitudinal professionalism of licensed social workers in China. The population of social work license holders in Shunde was invited by text message or email to participate in an online survey, which was composed of the Chinese-translated Professionalism Scale and Bureaucracy Scale, as well as some demographic questions. A total of 256 social workers completed the survey, representing sixteen percent of the population. Regression models were conducted to assess associations with level of professionalism, educational background, and experiences with organizational bureaucracy.

Results: The first hypothesis that having a social work degree would indicate higher degree of professionalism was only partially supported. Compared to the participants without a social work degree, social work educated participants reported significant higher degree of Belief in Self-Regulation and the overall attitudinal professionalism; yet they reported significant weaker Sense of Calling. After controlling for the demographic variables, only the negative relationship between social work degree and the Sense of Calling remained. The moderating effect of bureaucracy scale and subscales on the Sense of Calling after controlling for the demographic variables was examined. None of the interaction effects was significant; hence the second hypothesis that bureaucracy would moderate the effect of social work degree on attitudinal professionalism was not supported.

Conclusions and Implications: The findings of this study demonstrated that the majority of social work license holders had not received social work formal education; formal education failed to predict greater professionalism; some aspects of bureaucracy were positively associated with some aspects of professionalism; and the professional socialization occurring in the field may be more effective than current formal social work education in cultivating practitioners’ attitudinal professionalism. Four suggestions were drawn from this study to promote social work professionalism: encourage social work educators and researchers to be more active in the field, create more social work positions/titles in the traditional social service delivery system, strengthen the functions of professional associations, and enforce continuing education among social work license holders. These suggestions may also be useful for other countries that lack educational resources to develop social work profession.