Jessica Strolin, PhD Jim Caringi, LiCSW

1. The effects of an organizational intervention on child welfare agency atmosphere and workforce stability Jessica Strolin, PhD Jim Caringi, LiCSW Thank you to Hal Lawson, Mary McCarthy, Katherine Briar-Lawson, and Nancy Claiborne for their support and mentoring. Also thank you to the New York Foundling for funding this dissertation and to the Children’s Bureau for providing funding for the development of the DT intervention

2. Introduction • High turnover in public child welfare agencies causes multiple challenges and risks to maintaining the safety and permanency of children within the system. • This study is a quasi-experimental organizational intervention aimed at improving organizational atmosphere and decreasing intention to leave

3. Organizational intervention: The Design Team (DT) • Based on action theory, organizational learning theory, and the solution focused model • Design teams are mechanisms for organizational learning and improvement; creating systems that learn from themselves and adapt as a result of what they learn (Lawson, Anderson-Butcher, Petersen, & Barkdull, 2003).

4. DT intervention continued • Consist of front line case workers, supervisors and management from all levels and units of public child welfare agencies. • Utilize survey data to help prioritize focal issues for change • Use logic models to move from understanding the problem to implementing a solution

5. Rationale for hypotheses • Based on the theoretical foundation of DTs, they are expected to improve • H1 - clarity of practice • H2 - rewards • H3 - burnout • H4 - job satisfaction and commitment When controlling for supervision and propensity score. Through doing so, intention to leave should decrease

6. Design • Experimental group–36 workers in 3 counties • Control Group – 46 workers in 4 counties • Measurement – Workforce Retention Survey

7. Conceptual Framework and Analytic Methods Directed Regression Model • A. Repeated Measures ANCOVA, logistic Regression and McNemar’s test • B. Logistic regression • C. McNemar’s and Logistic Regression

8. Major Findings • No significant improvement in clarity of practice was found. • No significant improvement in rewards was found • The intervention had greater significant decreases in burnout than the comparison counties • The intervention had greater significant improvements in job satisfaction and agency commitment than the comparison counties • Design Team counties had a significant improvement over time in intention to leave, but comparison counties did not; however the between group difference did not reach significance.

9. Discussion of Findings: Organizational Hierarchy • Similar to Maslow’s hierarchy of human needs, perhaps there is an organizational hierarchy where certain variables need to be present (job satisfaction and minimal levels of burnout) before actualization (clear and effective practice) can occur.

10. -- Burnout Rewards Positive client outcomes -- -- Workforce Turnover -- + -- + + Clarity of Practice Job satisfaction and agency commitment Education and training and education + Emerging Conceptual Framework Design Team

11. Future Research • Analyze the effects of DT on actual turnover in child welfare • Analyze the effect of DT interventions on specific child welfare outcomes related to safety, permanency and well being • A full estimation path analysis should be done with a larger sample that will be more effective at mathematically discerning mediating and direct effects.

12. Closing • A stable organizational system may be an obligatory pre-requisite for the success of any child and family treatment intervention. In other words, the most effective practice intervention is doomed to fail in a chaotic organizational system with a high turnover crisis. • The findings in this study provide support that the implementation of Design Teams in rural and suburban districts may very well reduce turnover through the amelioration of burnout and job satisfaction. • New and innovative organizational level interventions that address improvement in agency climate, as well as child welfare outcomes need to be developed, implemented and evaluated.