Intentions to remain employed in child welfare: The role of human caring, self-efficacy beliefs, and professional organizational culture

This study reflects the national concern about high employee turnover rates in child welfare (CW). Personal and organizational factors contributing to CW employee's intentions to remain employed in CW were studied as an alternative to more traditional studies of employee burnout and turnover. New measures of intent to remain employed in CW, human caring, self-efficacy beliefs, and professional organizational culture were developed and administered to all CW staff in two states (n = 941). Reliability estimates for the new measures ranged from .79 to .92. Core findings supported relationships hypothesized among the measures and identified human caring as an important, new variable linked to CW employees' intentions to remain employed in CW. In two discriminant function analyses, the human caring variable was the most heavily weighted variable in linear combinations of the study variables that differentiated extreme intent to remain employed groups (upper and lower quartiles). The measure of self-efficacy beliefs about capabilities to accomplish work tasks was positively and more strongly related to human caring than to professional organizational culture. Explanations of the core findings are provided and implications for theory development, education and practice in CW, and future research are discussed.