Spirituality and Job Satisfaction of Social Workers at a Social Service Agency

The primary purpose of this descriptive study was to study the effect of spirituality on job satisfaction in one child welfare agency in Knoxville, Tennessee. Social workers from Child and Family Tennessee (CFT) were the target population and all professional social workers were surveyed. A secondary purpose was to determine possible relationships between job satisfaction, spirituality, and the demographic variables of age, gender, time employed by the agency, marital status, and ethnicity.

The researcher surveyed 211 social workers employed by CFT. Social workers who were contacted at staff meetings were told about the study and received a packet that contained the Job Satisfaction Survey (JSS), the Finding Meaning and Purpose at Work (FMPW), demographic questions, an informed consent form, comment sheet, and an envelope. Social workers contacted through interoffice mal received the same information, with the addition of a cover letter that explained the study. A return rate of 61.2 was achieved for the study.

The following statistical methods were utilized in the study to evaluate the scores of the JSS and FMPW for hypotheses 2-11: calculated means, standard deviations, one-way analysis of variance (.05 level of probability with 95% confidence interval), and multiple analysis of variance. The Pearson r test was used to test the effect of spirituality upon job satisfaction as outlined in hypothesis one.

Findings of the study showed that (a) the majority of respondents were single, white females employed full-time by CFT; (b) the relationship between spirituality and job satisfaction produced a strong positive correlation among the total survey scores, as well as the subscales scores of each survey; (c) the independent variable, age, was found to illustrate statistical significance concerning job satisfaction and spirituality; and (d) the independent variable, amount of time employed by CFT, was found to illustrate statistical significance concerning job satisfaction and spirituality.