Work-family conflict and its impact on job satisfaction of social workers

Job satisfaction of social workers has captured the attention of social work researchers for many decades. Several organisation and client-related factors have been associated with reduced job satisfaction among social workers. Scant attention has been given to work–family conflict as a potential contributor despite growing evidence of its detrimental impact on the job satisfaction of varied sample groups of working men and women. The present study examined the impact of three forms of work-to-family conflict (WFC) and family-to-work conflict (FWC): Time, Behaviour and Strain, on job satisfaction of social workers in Australia. Data were gathered via an online survey from members of the Australian Association of Social Workers which yielded 439 usable data. Hierarchical multiple regression analyses showed that, in the direction of work-to-family conflict, WFC-Time and WFC-Strain were significant predictors of reduced job satisfaction. In the direction of family-to-work conflict, FWC-Behaviour significantly predicted reduced job satisfaction. These findings have implications for social work workforce planning and retention of social workers, and it emphasises the importance to have organisational policies that enhance the ability for social workers to manage their work and family commitments responsibly.