Kontakt 2006, 8(2):292-300 | DOI: 10.32725/kont.2006.048

Problem of managing professional requirements in social workHealth and Social Sciences

Karel Paulík

Ostravská univerzita, Filozofická fakulta, katedra psychologie a sociální práce

The target of the contribution presented here is to analyze possible moderating effects of personality variables, represented here by components of the Sense of Coherence (SOC), on experiencing and evaluating the workload in social workers (N = 98). The method used comprised interviewing with the use of two printed forms submitted to respondents: (1) the SOC (Sense of Coherence) inventory, as translated by J. Křivohlavý, containing 29 items and determining the stress resistance as a personality variable of a rather global nature with its integral features and (2) a five-item inventory determining the subjective measure of the workload and of the load not associated with work, satisfaction, comparison of the workload itself with other professions, opinions concerning obstacles in managing the workload and tools necessary for managing the given workload without problems.
The results support opinions that the social work belongs to subjectively rather demanding types of occupation. The interviewed social workers considered their workload as rather high (the average of their evaluation approached the degree of the scale "rather a higher load"), higher than the load encountered out of hours and higher in comparison with the load in common, unspecified types of occupation. The reasons for the origination of the enhanced workload were attributed by the responding women to external circumstances as well as internal (personality) variables. As far as the effect of the personality variable of the SOC type is concerned, it was shown to be relatively less considerable. Certain association can be considered only based on the relationship between the SOC component "comprehensibility" and perception of the workload. Thus, in this case, it is particularly necessary to point out requirements for verification of similar relationships in further research programmes. In the present contribution, psychological association between the subjective evaluation of the workload and managing of profession requirements are briefly theoretically analyzed.

Keywords: Social work; workload; stress; adaptation; resistance; coping; sense of coherence

Published: December 15, 2006  Show citation