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ON WORKING FOR PUBLIC WELFARE: A DESCRIPTIVE ANALYSIS OF THE WORKING ENVIRONMENT FROM THE PERSPECTIVE OF SOCIAL SERVICE WORKERS
Abstract
The hypothesis of this study is that the welfare system's negative treatment of the social service caseworkers within their working environment is closely aligned with the negative attitude the welfare system has towards its clients. This situation encourages an identification process of workers with their clients which inversely affects service delivery. One hundred and fifty personal interviews were conducted with direct social service workers in 68 percent of the Community Service Centers within the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Using a qualitative methodology, emerging categories from the interview materials were coded and subsequently analyzed. The major conclusions were: (1) most individuals interviewed perceived their job situation as insecure due to civil service regulations, temporary job status, and an unfair reward and punishment system; (2) job training was viewed as limited and generally inappropriate; and (3) frequency of policy changes, time lags, and excessive paper work were seen to be highly detrimental to the delivery of services. In addition, seventy-five percent of the individuals interviewed felt they lacked involvement in agency policy development, worked in inadequate environments for interviewing and counseling. They were also the recipients of an unproductive interagency communication process. Herzberg's Motivation-Hygiene Theory provided a framework for concluding that the present working environment of some social service caseworkers in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts contributes significantly to job dissatisfaction and subsequently to poor worker performance. Another important phenomenon which emerged from the interviews and the experience of this writer was the parallel way the welfare system deals with its caseworkers and its clients. Both groups perceive their treatment by the system as dehumanizing, and verbalized similar negative self-perceptions. Apparently there is unconscious identification for some stigmatized caseworkers with those clients "no one else will touch." The value of this study lies in its focus on the impact and implications of personnel administration policies for the overall delivery of human services.
Subject Area
Social work
Recommended Citation
HARRALL, DOLORES P, "ON WORKING FOR PUBLIC WELFARE: A DESCRIPTIVE ANALYSIS OF THE WORKING ENVIRONMENT FROM THE PERSPECTIVE OF SOCIAL SERVICE WORKERS" (1980). Doctoral Dissertations Available from Proquest. AAI8101329.
https://scholarworks.umass.edu/dissertations/AAI8101329