Research On The Influence Of The Social Capital Of Social Workers On Turnover Intention

Since 2006,social work,as a modern occupational category,has gradually risen from the practical exploration at the local level to the institutional arrangement at the national level in China.Since the 19th CPC National Congress,the central and local governments have continuously issued relevant policies to strengthen the construction of social workers’ talent team.However,the construction of professionalization and specialization of social work in China still has a long way to go.Social workers,as professional helpers,have long faced various professional difficulties.Behind the phenomenon of “high loss” of social work talents is the reality of low salary and welfare,low social status,and generally low professional satisfaction and recognition.Social workers are under pressure from all sides and are between professional logic and administrative logic,which not only limits the professional advantages of existing social workers,but also affects the enthusiasm of excellent social work graduates to enter the field of social services and social governance,leading to a certain degree of career crisis in the development of social work industry.Therefore,from the perspective of social capital,it has important theoretical value and practical significance to carry out the research on the turnover intention and its influence mechanism of social workers,and deeply explore the professional identity and professional mobility of social workers.The existing studies on social workers’ turnover intention mostly focus on the influencing factors such as external environment,organizational culture or individual characteristics as the attribution path,which not only provides theoretical and empirical references for explaining social workers’ turnover intention,but also leaves space for us to further scientifically answer social workers’ professional identity and professional mobility.Based on the social capital theory and the micro theory of career identity,this paper divides social capital into two dimensions—static social network and dynamic social support—constructs an analytical framework for the impact of social external factors on individual career performance,attempts to understand the generation process of turnover intention from the level of individual internalization,and explains the change path of individual turnover intention from the dual perspectives of job satisfaction and career identity.In addition,the existing studies on the turnover intention of social workers in China mostly use regional samples,which limits the overall representativeness of the research results and is difficult to summarize the overall status and general characteristics of social workers in China.This paper is based on the China social work dynamic survey(CSWLS)database,whose data comes from the questionnaire survey of social workers in 30 provinces,autonomous regions and municipalities directly under the central government(excluding Tibet Autonomous Region,Hong Kong,Macao and Taiwan).A total of 56 representative large-and medium-sized cities were included in the project sample,and 6,776 valid questionnaires of social workers were finally obtained.The author participated in the design and survey process of the database questionnaire,and was mainly responsible for the scale design of social capital variables.The study found that under the appearance of the overall high occupational turnover rate,the turnover intention of social workers presents an obvious internal tension,and the generation of their turnover intention has profound economic,social and cultural roots.First,on the whole,the current turnover intention of social workers is significantly more than the retention intention.Of course,in the time dimension,the turnover intention in the short term is not obvious;the turnover planning in the medium and long term(within six months or three years)is more prominent;the turnover intention of social workers does not directly correspond to the low degree of professional identity.Second,the social support and social network of social workers will directly affect their willingness to leave.Specifically,on the one hand,social workers’ job support can affect social workers’ turnover intention,professional identity and job satisfaction,and the support from work practice is the core type of social support that affects social workers’ turnover intention.On the other hand,the top of the strong relationship network in the social network of social workers can directly affect the turnover intention of social workers,while the total amount of network capital of social workers can affect their own professional identity and job satisfaction,and then indirectly affect the turnover intention.Thirdly,social support and social network of social workers will indirectly affect their turnover intention through the intermediary role of professional identity and job satisfaction.The job satisfaction of social workers plays a complete intermediary role in the influence of professional identity on turnover intention.Fourth,the turnover intention of social workers significantly affects their work efficiency and career planning.On the one hand,social workers’ turnover intention significantly affects their work efficiency.Social workers with high turnover intention have lower work participation than social workers with low turnover intention.On the other hand,the turnover intention of social workers will have a significant impact on their future career planning.Different from previous research conclusions,this paper finds that there is a certain boundary between the impact of social capital on social workers’ professional stability.That is,social capital at the individual and family levels can not significantly improve their professional stability but social capital closely related to their professional activities can have a positive impact on their professional stability.From this conclusion,in order to ensure the career stability of social workers,policies need to work on how to affect the turnover intention of individual and family social capital to social workers through professional social capital,so as to improve the overall career stability of social workers.In addition,from the concept of strong relationship and weak relationship in social network theory,this paper reveals that those who can really affect the turnover intention of social workers are those “highly respected”members in close relationships such as family and relatives.Their influence on the career choice of social workers is much greater than that of non-intimate contacts and individuals who have no voice in intimate contacts.Social network has a typical “key personal effect” in the process of influencing social workers.In short,the turnover intention of social workers is on the high side as a whole,and there are obvious differences within it.Through the systematic study of social workers’ turnover intention,we not only get a glimpse of the current institutional environment for the development of social work,but also reveal the future direction of optimizing the professional environment of social work.Therefore,how to establish a sound policy support system for the development of social work from the social,organizational and personal levels,create a positive public career recognition,optimize the working environment of social workers,build a scientific career development path,formulate a reasonable vocational training system,cultivate a friendly organizational cultural network,improve the professional atmosphere of social work institutions,enhance moderately embedded social capital,stimulate responsibility-driven professional motivation and promote social workers’ self-quality of adhering to the original intention of their careers,is a social issue worthy of continuous and in-depth discussion.