Career Patterns of Social Workers: Constructing a Vision for the Next Decades

Background and Purpose: In the past two decades, the profile of the social workers has undergone several modifications and changes. Recent literature shows that in the past few years, social workers tend to develop their professional identity through their career and not vice versa as it stood in the past. One outcome of this change is that employees might see the social work profession as one career path, but not the only one, as some workers tend to choose the social work profession not only by its values, but also considering its match with their ambitions and career goals. In case of a low fit between employees' values and professional values, the former could choose to leave the social work profession and seek alternative career paths.

Hence, the main objectives of this study were to examine the career patterns of social workers, and to analyze the factors that predict them. According to Planned Behavior Theory (PBT), there are three main career patterns: (a) the Kaleidoscope career; (b) the Protean career; and (c) the Boundaryless career. Under the rationale of PBT, this study suggested three main factors for predicting social workers’ career patterns: (a) attitudes toward the given behavior; (b) subjective norms towards conduct; and (c) perception of behavior control.

Methods: The study population was comprised of 606 social workers from the private, public, and third sector in Israel, with varying degrees of tenure, experience, and specialization. The research tool was a closed questionnaire comprised of 72 items, divided into six sub-questionnaires.

Results: The results show that the main factor for predicting career patterns was perceived behavioral control. SEM analyses of the complete model showed that career patterns were predicted by demographic (gender, level of education), organizational (organizational sector, tenure in the social work profession, receiving supervision), and attitudinal variables (attitude towards career, subjective norms in the context of work-family balance, and perceived behavioral control regarding one's career).

However, the integrative SEM model of our study was found to be different from Ajzen’s original Planned Behavioral Theory, as we found that perceived behavioral control predicted all three career patterns: Kaleidoscope, Protean, and Boundaryless career patterns.

Conclusions and Implications: Social workers took an active stance towards developing their career according to their beliefs. Thus, when they perceived their behavioral control as low, they found it difficult to develop their career, regardless of their type of organization. In contrast, when social workers had higher perceived behavioral control, they were more characterized by an active approach towards their career development. The main conclusion is that social workers' perceived behavioral control is a strong and meaningful component in managing, planning, and developing their careers. The organizational structure of welfare services all over the world is changing and becoming more complex in the three sectors, so we can expect that in the coming decades, social workers will move between positions and organizations. Therefore, research on the career development of social workers is significant and can teach about the future.