Understanding Frontline Social Services Practitioners’ Professional Autonomy Via Learning Organizations in China: A Model-Comparison Approach

Background:

Despite the importance of frontline social service practitioners’ autonomy in providing services, few scholars have considered the influence of individual and organizational factors on professional autonomy (hereinafter, PA). To fill the gap, this study developed two comparative models from emotional labor (hereinafter EL), and new managerialism (hereinafter, NM), each representing different individual characteristics, to examine the effects of cynicism and professional competence (hereinafter, PC) on social service practitioners’ PA through learning organizations (hereinafter, LO). Additionally, the research proposed an unprecedented framework of emotion/competence-bureaucratization within which to identify the PA of frontline social service practitioners.

Methods:

The stratified sample of 1853 frontline social workers from mainland China were collected using a cross-sectional design. A confirmatory factor analysis was first conducted to guarantee the scale validity and reliability. Then, for the structural model, we applied the structural equation modeling analysis procedure based on maximum likelihood to analyze goodness-of-fit, path coefficients, and coefficients of determination (R²), while we conducted a bootstrapping process using 2,000 randomly generated subsamples to boost the level of accuracy, and we used the bias-corrected percentile method to test the mediation effect. Last, we compared models with a measure referred to as the f² effect size.

Results:

Most participants were female (79.3%), 96.3% held an associate bachelor degree or above, 53.8% had graduated with a major in social work, and 62.3% held a social work certificate. Their mean age was 28.7(ME=27) while their annual income was RMB 41, 900 (SD = 19, 300).

The EL model indicated that social workers’ cynicism had a negative effect on LO (β = -0.36***) while LO had positive effect on PA (β = 0.63***). The model’s fit was good (X²/df = 4.781; CFI = 0.996; RMSEA = 0.045). Besides, the NM model suggested that social workers’ PC had a positive effect on LO (β = 0.56***) while LO had positive effect on PA (β = 0.49***). The model’s fit was also good (X²/df = 4.899; CFI = 0.985; RMSEA = 0.046). Further, the learning organization had a large mediating effect in the EL model (f² =0.57) and a medium effect in the NM model (f² =0.303). Both EL model (AIC=595.234, BIC=865.937, R² =.40) and NM model (AIC=946.059, BIC=1299.631, R² =.44) nicely explained Chinese frontline social workers’ professional autonomy.

Implications:

Findings highlight the irreplaceable role that learning organizations play in the formation of frontline social service practitioners’ PA. In addition, the research proposed an integrated framework of emotion/competence-bureaucratization from which to understand frontline social service practitioners’ PA. The framework also applies to the four categories of frontline practitioners’ PA: (a) service-oriented practitioners—emotionally detached workers in a bureaucracy, with a low degree of autonomy; (b) sensibility-oriented practitioners—emotionally attached workers in debureaucratization, with a moderate level of autonomy; (c) professionally-oriented —emotionally attached professionals in a bureaucracy, with moderate autonomy; and (d) intellectually-oriented—emotionally-detached professionals in debureaucratization, with a high degree of autonomy. Finally, we analyzed practical implications that countries where social service industry develops late, such as mainland China, should enhance the critical understanding of autonomy.