A Study of Social Workers' Empowerment Level and Its Predictors : Cases of Social Workers in Community Welfare Centers

사회복지사의 임파워먼트에 영향을 미치는 요인에 관한 연구 : 지역사회복지관 사회복지사를 중심으로

Little empirical study has been conducted concerning social worker' empowerment that has very important function on clients' empowerment. Using the sample of 222 social workers selected from 92 community welfare centers, this study attempted to identify social workers' empowerment level and its predictors. This study used the empowerment scale developed by Leslie, Holzhalb, Holland (1998) that focuses on measurement of social workers's empowerment in social work agencies. Using confirmatory factor analysis, it was confirmed that the scale has three factors such as control of work environment, work relationships, and personal work orientation. This study showed that using 5 points scale, mean of social workers' empowerment is 3.67. In identifying predictors of the empowerment, this study used variables from the following aspects: organizational characteristics, job characteristics, and individual characteristics. Using regression analysis, it was found that variables related to job characteristics such as role ambiguities, role conflicts, and skill varieties are statistically very significant predictors of social workers' empowerment. Self-esteem in personal characteristics and participation in decision making and transformational leadership in organizational characteristics are also statistically significant predictors of social workers' empowerment. This study also revealed that self-control and self-esteem variables function as moderator in the relation with variables such as role ambiguities and role conflicts. Finally, this study discussed the direction of future research in social workers' empowerment and the areas that management efforts should be focused on for promoting social workers' empowerment.