Creating Positive Organizational Climates for the Child Welfare Workforce

Background and Purpose: A positive organizational climate is critical for the well-being of the workforce (Glisson et al., 2012), with some research showing that a toxic climate is ten times more likely to lead to staff turnover than is poor compensation (Cull & Cull, 2021). In child welfare, positive organizational climates encourage continual learning and transformational change (Yadav & Agarwal, 2016), while psychological safety reduces moral distress and improves worker well-being (He et al., 2021). Finally, inclusive leadership, where decisions are made fairly, with high transparency, and without bias and discrimination, has been linked to higher job satisfaction among staff (Lawrence et al., 2019). This study utilizes the U.S. Surgeon General’s Framework for Workplace Mental Health and Well-being (2022), which prioritizes five workplace essentials, to examine how organizational cultures of learning, psychological safety, and inclusive leadership impact job satisfaction and retention by reducing the impact of burnout for the child welfare workforce.

Methods: This study used secondary data collected through an organizational health assessment conducted in 2019 at four public child welfare agencies across the U.S. The assessment included measures of Learning Culture, Supportive Organizational Climate, Psychological Safety, Inclusive Leadership, and Burnout, as well as Job Satisfaction and Intent to Stay. The sample for this study included 3,713 survey respondents from all job levels in the agencies (including caseworkers, managers, and directors). Linear regression was used to examine the relationships between the four organizational climate constructs and burnout on job satisfaction and intent to stay in two separate models. Subsequently, the climate variables were tested as moderators of the impact of burnout on each dependent variable.

Results: The overall model predicting job satisfaction was statistically significant, F(5, 2932)=493.36, R²=.46 (p<.001). Parameter estimates indicated that burnout was the strongest predictor (negative association), followed by organizational support, psychological safety, learning culture, and inclusive leadership (all positively associated and significant). The model predicting intent to stay was also significant, F(5, 2923)=128.22, R²=.15 (p<.001). In this model, burnout was again the strongest predictor followed by organizational support, psychological safety, and inclusive leadership, while learning culture was not significant. Moderator analyses predicting intent to stay from burnout revealed that each organizational climate variable was a significant moderator (and buffer) of that association while learning culture was the only significant moderator of the link between burnout and job satisfaction.

Conclusions and Implications: Child welfare professionals who work in organizations that provide psychological safety, organizational support, and cultures of learning experience higher job satisfaction and are more likely to stay in their jobs. Further, positive organizational climates offer some protection for the negative impact of burnout on intent to stay at the agency, highlighting the importance of offering workers protection from harm and the feeling of mattering at work. Suggestions for how agency leaders can use a strength-based approach to build a positive agency climate, support staff well-being, and mitigate effects of burnout will be offered.