This study builds on work that has examined the effects of workplace environment on retention and engagement, as well as a smaller body of qualitative research on the experiences and motivations of public child welfare employees who have sought advanced social work education.
Retention, intention, and engagement
Research on retention, for both specially educated social workers (Cahalane & Sites, 2008; Dickinson & Perry, 2002; Gansle & Ellett, 2002; Jones, 2002; Scannapieco & Connell-Carrick, 2003) and the general child welfare workforce, seeks to predict turnover by examining how environmental factors, such as work conditions, organizational culture and climate, and personal characteristics combine to create conditions in which public child welfare workers might stay or leave (Bednar, 2003; Blome & Steib, 2014; Ellett, 2009; Faller, Grabarek, & Ortega, 2010; Lee, Forster, & Rehner, 2011; Scannapieco & Connell-Carrick, 2007; Shim, 2010; Williams, Nichols, Kirk, & Wilson, 2011; Yankeelov, Barbee, Sullivan, & Antle, 2009; Zeitlin, Augsberger, Auerbach, & McGowan, 2014). Attention to supervisory and work group support, the organizational environment in proximity, has demonstrated effects on turnover, although these have not always been uniform (Collins-Camargo & Royse, 2010; Kruzich, Mienko, & Courtney, 2014; Landsman, 2007; Smith, 2005). Several researchers (Johnco, Salloum, Olson, & Edwards, 2014; Thompson, Wojciak, & Cooley, 2017; Westbrook, Ellis, & Ellet, 2006) provide insight on retention factors by examining public child welfare employeesâ perceptions directly.
Much of the work on retention and turnover relies on data about intention, rather than actual departure, a relationship that is not necessarily congruent. Recent work raises the equally important construct of engagement with the work, whether or not actual departure ensues. Drawing on research focused on the antecedents of leaving, particularly as they relate to job stress, job satisfaction, and the presence or absence of social and relational support (Lizano & Mor Barak, 2012; Mor Barak, Levin, Nissly, & Lane, 2006; Nissly et al., 2005), some researchers have begun to distinguish varying levels of intention with action (Fernandes, 2016; Griffiths, Royse, Culver, Piescher, & Zhang, 2017).
Interest in the circumstances under which child welfare workers assume active and engaged roles in the workplace or withdraw and disengage (Travis, Gomez, & Mor Barak, 2011; Travis & Mor Barak, 2010) has initiated a new direction in the research that is of particular interest to this study. Organizational supports that encourage engaged practice (Kim & Mor Barak, 2015) and workplace inclusion (Brimhall et al., 2017; Mor Barak et al., 2016) have evident implications for sustaining quality practice. Closely related to the notion of active engagement in the workplace is that of the social capital achieved through inclusion in decision-making, professional autonomy, and relational supports, which can mean the difference between thriving in the organization and just persevering (Boyas & Wind, 2010; Boyas, Wind, & Kang, 2012; Boyas, Wind, & Ruiz, 2013, 2015).
Public child welfare employees and social work education
Social workers appear to have several advantages over their nonsocial work peers in terms of both retention and preparation, performance, and overall confidence in their abilities to meaningfully affect families (Bagdasaryan, 2012; Hartinger-Saunders & Lyons, 2013; Jones & Okamura, 2000; Mathias, Gilman, Shin, & Evans, 2015; Reed-Ashcraft, Westbrook, & Williams, 2012). Among MSW graduates, public child welfare employees may have additional advantages over their less experienced peers. Because of their familiarity with the work and the organization, they may be better equipped to tolerate potential dissonance between what they learned in their MSW education and the experience on the ground, have greater facility to find allies and supports within the agency, and thus be better able to exercise influence (Lewandowski, 1998; Whitaker & Clark, 2006).
Some studies suggest that public child welfare employees who pursue social work education develop relationships, networks, and social capital during their studies that may contribute to their later roles in the agency. Altman and Cohen (2016), for example, note the importance of relational aspects of studying together in cohorts. Studies by Auerbach, McGowan, and Laporte (2008), Hopkins, Mudrick, ...
