Creating Positive Change for Human Service Organizations: The Promise of Work Unit Inclusion

Background: Finding ways to increase employee job satisfaction and commitment is critical for social work agencies striving to increase employee performance and retention. Social work research suggests that workplace inclusion (i.e., helping employees feel valued for their unique personal characteristics) can increase employee job satisfaction and commitment. However, little is known about how inclusion in immediate workgroups (co-workers that share the same work unit) or departments (colleagues outside of one’s immediate work unit) influence employee job satisfaction and ultimately commitment. In essence, do feelings of inclusion in immediate work units matter more for increasing job satisfaction and employee commitment relative to feeling included in the overall department? This information is critical for developing targeted workplace interventions (either at the unit or department level) designed to increase employee job satisfaction and workgroup and department level employee commitment. This has the potential for uncovering how human service leaders can use inclusion as a tool for improving social work organizations.

Method: Longitudinal multilevel structural equation modeling was used to examine how work unit and department levels of inclusion influenced employee job satisfaction and ultimately commitment in both the work unit and overall department. Data were collected at three time points 6-months apart from a diverse nonprofit hospital department (Time 1 n = 213, Time 2 n = 245, Time 3 n = 239).

Results: The sample was diverse with 41% of respondents self-reported as Asian, 21% as White, 20% as mixed race or other, 14% as Latinx, and 4% as African American. The model fit the data well (χ²= 27.748, df= 20, p = .12; CFI = 98; TLI = .97; RMSEA= .05). Results indicated that work unit inclusion positively influenced department level inclusion (β = .52, SE = .08, z = 6.81, p < .001), work unit inclusion positively influenced job satisfaction (β = .52, SE = .14, z = 3.72, p < .001), and job satisfaction positively influenced employee commitment in both work units (β = .48, SE = .10, z = 4.96, p < .001) and overall departments (β = .20, SE = .10, z = 2.03, p < .05). Last, work unit inclusion positively influenced work unit commitment through increasing employee job satisfaction (β = .25, SE = .09, z = 2.95, p < .01).

Conclusions: Results suggest that work unit inclusion is key to increasing inclusion at the department level, employee job satisfaction, and employee commitment in both the work unit and department level. This suggests that social work leaders need to invest in helping direct supervisors build inclusive work units; and that creating targeted interventions at the work unit level may be the best avenue for increasing job satisfaction and commitment. Given that nonprofit human service and social work organizations often have limited financial resources to improving the work environment, it is important that leaders know where to channel the resources they do have to ensure they maximize their efforts. This study provides evidence-based information critical for informed decision making that can positively change social work organizations.