The Impact Organizational Factors Have on Role Ambiguity Amongst School Social Workers

Author

Melissa KichuraFollow

Campus Location

Abilene Campus (Residential)

Date of Award

Spring 5-2019

Document Type

Thesis

Department

Social Work

Degree Name

Master of Science

Committee Chair or Primary Advisor

Kyeonghee Jang

Second Committee Member or Secondary Advisor

Thomas L. Winter

Third Committee Member or Committee Reader

Terra New

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to explore what organizational factors increase or decrease role ambiguity amongst school social workers. This study attempted to provide practical information for schools on the influence of specific organizational factors on role ambiguity so that they can provide a supportive work environment for school social workers and students. A cross-sectional survey design was used to provide a snapshot of the current organizational factors impacting the ambiguity of school social work roles from a sample of 73 members of the School Social Work Association of America. Some findings were not congruent with the literature. The results showed that the majority of participants in the study reported to “agree slightly” that their role was clear in the aspects of method, scheduling, and criteria. In opposition, the majority of participants reported to “disagree slightly” to feeling “neutral” when it came to ranking the efficiency of organizational factors (employee engagement, internal communication, and supervision). In a direct regression model, supervision and job experience were the only two factors that had an impact on role ambiguity. In a moderating regression model, the moderating variable, job experience, showed to have a significant moderating effect on the impact internal communication and supervision had on role ambiguity. However, it did not show to have a significant moderating effect on the impact employee engagement had on role ambiguity.

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License.

Recommended Citation

Kichura, Melissa, "The Impact Organizational Factors Have on Role Ambiguity Amongst School Social Workers" (2019). Digital Commons @ ACU, Electronic Theses and Dissertations. Paper 149.
https://digitalcommons.acu.edu/etd/149