Kontakt 2013, 15(4):413-421 | DOI: 10.32725/kont.2013.049

Determinants of particular types of staff communication in residential facilities for seniorsHealth and Social Sciences - Original article

Ingrid Štegmannová^*, Zuzana Havrdová, Jiří Šafr

Univerzita Karlova v Praze, Fakulta humanitních studií, katedra řízení a supervize v sociálních a zdravotních organizacích, Praha

Communication is an important part of team cooperation in an organization and also one of the conditions for setting high-quality processes of individual planning care for clients in social care service. The contribution considers the relationship between three areas of communication, the influence of working environment in the organization and confidence of the staff with the aim to identify closer determinants of particular types of communication. We use the data from questionnaire survey carried out in eight senior homes on the territory of Moravian-Silesian Region. The research set is created by 434 workers of direct care. Different areas of communication are operationalized by items of the questionnaire evaluating mutual change of information among the employees and interaction between the employees and management that are the part of the instrument to find out the rate of individualization of care for clients with dementia ICI (Individualized Care Inventory). Working environment is represented by the concept AWLS (Areas of Work Life Survey), which enables to see different areas of working life with eyes of the employees. As this concept finds out congruence between working environment and the needs of the worker, it is possible via this concept to deduce conclusions in direction to threat the workers by burnout syndrome. The sphere of confidence was followed in four levels: general confidence to people, to co-workers, to management and to clients. The research results show the importance of care for general environment and conditions for workers in the organization which can be purposefully influenced by managers and thus to support communication and team cooperation in the framework of care for clients. Greater attention should be focused on workers in social care service, who compared to other groups of workers of direct care seem to be put aside taking into consideration their suggestion on improving care for clients. This fact is reflected back in minor confidence in management and generally minor satisfaction with the working environment in the organization of this group of employees.

Keywords: communication; seniors; individualization of care; areas of working life; confidence

Received: December 18, 2012; Accepted: June 5, 2013; Published: December 20, 2013  Show citation