New social workers' satisfaction with supervision and with their job overall

Abstract

The study investigated some of the actions taken by supervisors and their influences upon supervisee job satisfaction and satisfaction with supervision. Data were collected from 196, New York State, National Association of Social Workers members, who graduated with Masters Degrees in Social Work during the years 1985 and 1986. They were surveyed with a mailed questionnaire; the sample respondents included 162 women and 34 men.;Nine hypotheses were examined and supported: Hypothesis 1--the amount of individual supervision was significantly correlated with (corr. coef..317 at p {dollar}<{dollar} 0.000) satisfaction with supervision; Hypothesis 2--the amount of group supervision was also significantly correlated with (corr. coef..149 at p {dollar}<{dollar} 0.035) satisfaction with supervision but at a lower level than the amount of individual supervision; generally, the type of supervision, Hypothesis 3--whether individual or group was positively correlated with (p {dollar}<{dollar} 0.004) satisfaction with supervision; Hypothesis 4--contracting a core skill in the helping process, was significantly correlated with (corr. coef..615 at p {dollar}<{dollar} 0.000) satisfaction with supervision; Hypothesis 5--other specific helpful supervisory actions, which parallel those applied in the client/social worker helping process, were correlated (corr. coef..847 at p {dollar}<{dollar} 0.000) at a very high level, with satisfaction with supervision; Hypothesis 6--the status of the supervisor was also found to be significantly associated (p {dollar}<{dollar} 0.000) with satisfaction with supervision; among the socio-demographic variables; Hypothesis 7d and 8d (p {dollar}<{dollar}.000 and p {dollar}<{dollar}.002) prior work experience and Hypothesis 7h and 8h (p {dollar}<{dollar}.002 and p {dollar}<{dollar}.011) adequacy of M.S.W. education were significantly related to satisfaction with supervision and Hypothesis 7b--(p {dollar}<{dollar}.049) sex was significantly related to job satisfaction overall; finally the study found that Hypothesis 9--satisfaction with supervision is highly correlated with overall job satisfaction (corr. coef. {dollar}-{dollar}.551 p {dollar}<{dollar} 0.000).