Auswirkungen psychosozialer Arbeitsbelastung auf die Arbeitszufriedenheit in Sozialer Arbeit unter Berücksichtigung kompensierender Bewältigungsressourcen eine empirische Untersuchung gegenwärtiger Arbeitsbedingungen in SAGE-Professionen
Year: 2023
Type: dissertation
Abstract: Despite its significant societal importance and increasing scope, the working conditions of social work and the associated psychological experiences of professionals are relatively under-researched from an empirical perspective. In this context, work science emphasizes the growing importance of balanced levels of demands and stress, buffering resources, and high potential for job satisfaction in the subjective experience of professional practice and successful goal achievement, not only within social professional organizations. This present study aims to systematically address the identified research gap in social work through a multi-phase strategy, supporting its further professional progress by gaining innovative knowledge. The focus lies on both the theoretical and empirical examination of relevant psychosocial stress effects on job satisfaction among social workers, considering compensatory coping factors. The first half involves the analysis of significant literature and theoretical approaches regarding the interplay of occupational stress factors, coping resources, and levels of satisfaction and well-being. The readers are initially guided through an extended framework of professional and socio-political context, providing insights into historical development processes, professional characteristics, and structural challenges within the current working reality of social work. The theoretical core consists of a extensive review of fifteen different stress and satisfaction concepts, drawing on interdisciplinary perspectives. Based on key findings concerning stress-induced mechanisms, the second half of the study develops a new guiding model on demands, resources, and satisfaction. This model is empirically applied to the data collected from the BIBB/BAuA Employment Survey 2018. Using the Ordered Probit regression method, the interplay of strain and coping effects on various dimensions of job satisfaction among 618 social workers is thoroughly examined. For better contextualization the findings for social work are compared to those in the education and teaching, nursing, and overall economy. Empirical findings reveal that atypically reduced working hours, frequent information deficits, high pressure of performance and time, and challenges in work-life balance particularly contribute to reduced job satisfaction in social work. Furthermore, social support in the workplace is most strongly associated with positive coping effects. Learning and training activities, as well as job autonomy, also demonstrate increased coping features. However, the protective potential of meaningfulness of work against negative demands seems to be comparatively limited. Ultimately, the study provides instrumental implications for shaping a sustainable and healthy practice in social work. Throughout the conclusions, connections are drawn between empirically identified negative stress factors, coping effects on job satisfaction, resulting action options, and the long-term upvaluation of the social work profession.
Author: Pietsch, Marcel
Language: German
Subfield: Public Administration
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W6989465911