A Study of the Relationships Among Effective Supervision, Organizational Culture Promoting Evidence-Based Practice, and Worker Self-Efficacy in Public Child Welfare

Abstract

The professional literature has not documented the relationship between effective supervision, an organizational culture promoting evidence-based practice, and self-efficacy in child welfare practice. Secondary analysis of survey data from one public child welfare agency was conducted to examine the relationship between these constructs. Results suggest that for inexperienced workers, there is a difference in their self-efficacy based on the effectiveness of the supervision they receive. Respondents receiving effective supervision were more likely to perceive their organizational culture as promoting evidence-based practice. Further, there was a significant difference in levels of self-efficacy based on this perception of organizational culture. This exploratory study supports further research into these promising organizational strategies for performance and outcome improvement.KEYWORDS social work supervision, organizational culture, evidence-based practice, self-efficacy, child welfare Although the important role supervisors play in promoting effective service delivery has received much lip service, there is little research into what makes social work supervision effective, particularly in child welfare, and Recieved:

Attitudes towards poverty, organizations, ethics and morals: Israeli social workers’ shared decision making

“…The importance of organizational cultures, norms and policies in promoting social workers' tendency to utilize one mode of intervention over another has been documented with relation to several professional choices, including the use of policy practice, 46 utilization of research in making practice related decisions 47 and the engagement in evidence-based practice. 48 Moreover, in the current study, the primacy of organizational support of shared decision making exceeded workers' attitudes towards poverty and service users dealing with it in explaining workers' use of participatory practices and ideas. It is plausible to postulate that this significant, though exogenous, role organizational support played in our findings was enhanced by the fact that the vast majority of our sample consisted of social workers employed in public social care and health agencies, in which binding policies and regulations are predominant.…”

“…A second major contributor to social workers’ engagement in shared decision making with service users was the extent to which workers perceived their employing organization as supportive of shared decision making. The importance of organizational cultures, norms and policies in promoting social workers’ tendency to utilize one mode of intervention over another has been documented with relation to several professional choices, including the use of policy practice, utilization of research in making practice related decisions and the engagement in evidence‐based practice . Moreover, in the current study, the primacy of organizational support of shared decision making exceeded workers’ attitudes towards poverty and service users dealing with it in explaining workers’ use of participatory practices and ideas.…”

Promoting Outcome Achievement in Child Welfare: Predictors of Evidence-Informed Practice

“…One of these core implementation components was supervisory coaching; research has demonstrated its significant influence on organizational culture. For example, one statewide study found that perceptions of effective frontline supervision in child welfare explained 53% of the variance in ratings of professional organizational culture promoting EBP (Collins-Camargo & Royse, 2010). While bureaucratic settings have been found to negatively impact workers' attitudes about the use of evidence in informing their practice (Aarons, 2004), frontline supervisors have the opportunity to influence the interpretation of organizational culture, potentially moderating this effect.…”

“…Over time, the empirical literature has documented the influence of social work supervision on organizational, worker, and client outcomes on many levels. This includes a number of aspects of worker practice, such as assessment and treatment of families (Young, 1994), the development of analytic skills (Berkman & Press, 1993), and even client outcome achievement (Collins-Camargo & Royse, 2010). Given that supervisors and workers often form cohesive work groups in practice, it is logical that this work unit-a team of practitioners answering to one frontline supervisoris an appropriate place to promote EIP.…”

Social work supervision in child and family services: Developing a working theory of how and why it works

“…Davys, May, Burns, and O'Connell (2017) have also looked at how supervision is evaluated in practice by supervisors and supervisees in Aotearoa New Zealand. Research from America has helped identify how supervision can improve workers' knowledge of theory and practice models (Smith et al, 2007) and self-efficacy (Collins-Camargo & Royse, 2010), as well as influencing job satisfaction and retention rates (Mor Barak, Travis, Pyun, & Xie, 2009).…”