Children and Youth Services Review 119 (2020) 105640

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Children and Youth Services Review

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/childyouth

Organizational climate, job satisfaction, and turnover in voluntary child

welfare workers
Yong Li a, *, Hui Huang b, Yi-Yi Chen c
a
California State University Bakersfield, Department of Social Work, 9001 Stockdale Hwy, Bakersfield, CA 93311, United States
b
Florida International University, School of Social Work, 11200 SW 8th Street, Miami, FL 33199, United States
c
National Taiwan University, Department of Social Work, No. 1, Sec. 4, Roosevelt Rd., Taipei 10617, Taiwan

A R T I C L E I N F O A B S T R A C T

Keywords: Turnover among the child welfare workforce has been linked to workforce demographics, individual-level work
Organizational climate attitudes, and organizational conditions. It is relatively understudied how organizational and individual factors
Job satisfaction may be related to each other in predicting turnover among the voluntary (i.e., private, non-profit) child welfare
Turnover
workforce. The main purpose of this study was to investigate the indirect effects of organizational climate on
Voluntary child welfare
Workforce
turnover through voluntary child welfare workers’ job satisfaction. The sample consisted of 849 direct care and
Mediation clinical workers in 13 voluntary agencies under contract with the public child welfare system in a northeastern
state in the United States. Paper-and-pencil surveys were sent out to the agencies. Structural equation modeling
was used to examine the relationship between organizational climate, job satisfaction, and turnover intentions.
To examine the indirect effects of interest, bias-corrected and accelerated bootstrap confidence intervals based on
20,000 replications were obtained. Results suggested that the effect of organizational climate on intent to leave
the agency was fully mediated by job satisfaction (β = -0.16, SE = 0.09, 95% CI = [− 0.342, − 0.002]), while its
effect on intent to stay in child welfare was partially mediated (β = 0.15, SE = 0.06, 95% CI = [0.024, 0.280]).
Voluntary child welfare agencies should consider redirecting their resources and focus on how their efforts into
organizational changes may impact workers’ job satisfaction in pay, benefits, and promotion opportunities.
Given that job satisfaction has a more immediate effect on turnover, it is worth investing in programs specifically
designed to enhance job satisfaction. Limitations of our study and directions for future research are discussed.

1. Introduction found to be associated with intent to remain employed in child welfare

Child welfare workforce retention is an important topic in child
welfare practice and research. Retention can be defined as voluntarily
staying in a particular job (Vandenabeele, 2013). As the opposite
concept of retention, turnover can be a serious problem in both public
and voluntary (i.e., private, non-profit) agencies. In the literature,
turnover is operationalized by both turnover intention and actual
turnover. To understand the underlying reasons for turnover, re­
searchers have examined a large array of underlying factors. Many agree
on three major categories of factors associated with turnover (e.g., Kim
& Kao, 2014; Mor Barak et al., 2001). These categories include work­
force demographics (e.g., sex and age), individual-level work attitudes
(e.g., job satisfaction and organizational commitment), and organiza­
tional conditions (e.g., organizational climate). In a study among public
child welfare workers, supervisory and administrative support was
(Westbrook et al., 2012). A meta-analysis showed that attitudes and
perceptions of public child welfare workers, such as job satisfaction, had
the strongest influence on their retention outcomes (Kim & Kao, 2014).
A handful of studies have also studied the role of job satisfaction in
mediating between organizational climate and turnover among non-
child welfare workers (Filipova, 2011; Lance, 1991).
It is relatively understudied how organizational and individual fac­
tors may be related to each other in predicting turnover. Also, while
studies on the public child welfare workforce are abundant, research on
workers at private, non-profit child welfare agencies (i.e., voluntary
child welfare workers) is still lacking. This paper aimed to bridge these
gaps by examining the indirect effects of organizational climate on
turnover through job satisfaction in voluntary child welfare workers. We
argue that such research is badly needed because 1) the sheer volume of
research on this population is not comparable to that on public child

* Corresponding author.
E-mail addresses: yli12@csub.edu (Y. Li), huanhu@fiu.edu (H. Huang), yiyichen@ntu.edu.tw (Y.-Y. Chen).

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.childyouth.2020.105640
Received 17 July 2020; Received in revised form 21 October 2020; Accepted 22 October 2020
Available online 27 October 2020
0190-7409/© 2020 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license
(http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).
Y. Li et al.
welfare agencies, 2) voluntary agencies are faced with many challenges
(e.g., funding shortages) and experience higher rates of turnover
(Auerbach et al., 2010; Faller et al., 2010; Flower et al., 2005), and 3)
voluntary agencies tend to advocate for resources to improve client well-
being, but not for resources to address regulatory, administrative, or
funding issues related to their agencies (Mosley & Ros, 2011).
1.1. Organizational climate and turnover
Organizational climate has been defined as “a situation and its links
to thoughts, feelings, and behaviors of organizational members” (Deni­
son, 1996, p. 644), or how people perceive their work environment
(Glisson & James, 2002). In the literature, organizational climate, work
climate, job perceptions, and work environment perceptions are often
used interchangeably (Parker et al., 2003).
Organizational climate has been operationalized differently in
various studies. James and Jones (1974) proposed five dimensions to
operationally define organizational climate: job characteristics, role
characteristics, leadership characteristics, social characteristics, and
organizational attributes. Parker et al. (2003) developed a measure with
fewer dimensions: role, job, supervisor, and organization attributes.
While Parker et al.’s (2003) measure does not include James and Jones’
(1974) social characteristics dimension, it loosely matches the other four
dimensions in James and Jones’ study. Finally, Glisson et al. (2012)
developed a unique three-dimension assessment tool on organizational
climate as part of their measure for organizational social context. This
tool includes engagement, functionality, and stress, all of which have to
do with workers’ perceptions about the impact of their work environ­
ment on their personal well-being and functioning (Glisson et al., 2012).
In the literature, organizational climate has been found to be more
significant in predicting turnover than personal and job characteristics
(Hopkins et al., 2010). Some specific organizational factors in deter­
mining child welfare employees’ turnover include tangible incentives
and rewards for job performance (Shim, 2010); workloads and role
conflict (Griffiths et al., 2017; Hopkins et al., 2010; Wilke et al., 2019);
organizational inclusion measured by the levels of employees’ work­
group involvement, participation in decision making, and access to in­
formation and resources (Hwang & Hopkins, 2012); perceived
supervisory support (e.g., Benton, 2016; Dickinson & Perry, 2002;
Griffiths et al., 2017); other organizational support including recogni­
tion and self-care (Griffiths & Royse, 2017). Moreover, a study on the
voluntary child welfare workforce reported that better organizational
climate (measured by organizational justice, organizational support,
overload, and job importance) was associated with a decreased level of
intent to leave the job (Fernandes, 2016).
1.2. Job satisfaction and turnover
Job satisfaction is often defined as feelings or attitudes about one’s
job or job experiences (Locke, 1976). In other words, it is an individual-
level factor reflecting one’s affects and emotions towards his or her job.
Although researchers generally acknowledge job satisfaction’s concep­
tual definition, two approaches to its operational definition have
emerged. The first approach operationalized job satisfaction as overall
satisfaction measured by one or a few items (e.g., Singh et al., 1996;
Vandenabeele, 2013). In Singh et al.’s (1996) study, for example, one
item asks respondents to rate how much they agree with the statement
“My job is very pleasant.” In this direction, some researchers have
argued that using a one-item measure of overall satisfaction has ad­
vantages such as better cost-effectiveness and face validity (Lee & Sab­
harwal, 2016). In comparison, capturing job satisfaction as an affective
response to multiple aspects of a job, a multi-faceted satisfaction mea­
sure has been deemed a more theoretically sound measure (Spector,
1985). Spector (1985) assessed it with workers’ perceptions about nine
job aspects: salary, benefits, promotional opportunities, contingent re­
wards, operating procedures, supervision, coworkers, communication,
2
Children and Youth Services Review 119 (2020) 105640
and nature of work. Meanwhile, Bolton (1997) developed a measure
consisting of five dimensions: satisfaction with work, supervision, pay,
promotions, and coworkers.
The association between job satisfaction and turnover has been
confirmed among many professions of the human service sector. Ex­
amples include nurses (Larrabee et al., 2003), assisted living facility
workers (Chou, 2012), social workers (Lambert et al., 2012), special
education teachers (Adera & Bullock, 2010), high school teachers
(McCarthy et al., 2010), and correctional officers (Lee et al., 2009). Also,
Spector (1985) studied a variety of human service professions and found
that all the dimensions of his job satisfaction measure were significantly
related to intent to leave.
Job satisfaction has also been consistently linked to turnover among
child welfare workers throughout the literature (See Mor Barak et al.,
2001, for a review). A study on the public child welfare workforce
(Weaver et al., 2007), for example, stated that the total job satisfaction
score was negatively related to turnover intent and actual turnover.
Other researchers (Auerbach et al., 2010; Schudrich et al., 2012) have
reported that intent to leave was negatively related to satisfaction with
pay and satisfaction with supervision among front-line child welfare
workers.
1.3. Job satisfaction as a potential mediator
Mounting evidence in the literature has supported the role of orga­
nizational climate in predicting job satisfaction. For example, difficult
working conditions, such as job inflexibility and lack of supervisory
support, have been reported to be associated with lower levels of job
satisfaction among employees in social services agencies (Smith &
Shields, 2013; Strand & Dore, 2009). Job autonomy, as a measure of
organizational climate, was related to job satisfaction after controlling
for workers’ demographic characteristics and pay (Smith & Shields,
2013). Role conflict and role clarity have been linked to job satisfaction
among child welfare workers (Kim & Hopkins, 2017). Perceived orga­
nizational support, peer support, and organizational inclusion were
positively related to job satisfaction among child welfare workers and
other human service professionals (Filipova, 2011; Hwang & Hopkins,
2012; Kim & Hopkins, 2017; MorBarak et al., 2001). Finally, organiza­
tional climate characterized by high engagement and functionality was
predictive of job satisfaction among the child welfare workforce (Glisson
et al., 2012). These findings, coupled with the evidence on the rela­
tionship between job satisfaction and turnover, suggest that job satis­
faction is a potential mediator between organizational climate and
turnover among voluntary child welfare workers.
Existing studies in non-child welfare fields reported that job satis­
faction mediated the relationship between organizational climate and
turnover. One such study (Lance, 1991) found evidence for a mediating
role of job satisfaction among telecommunications workers. Lance
(1991) included the following subscales as indicators for the latent
construct organizational climate: supervisory facilitation and support,
coworker integration, role stress, and organizational dependability.
Turnover intention was measured by three manifest variables: self-
reported search for alternative employment, intention to search for
another job, and desirability of quitting (Lance, 1991). More recently,
job satisfaction was found to have partially mediated the relationship
between organizational climate and intent to leave among licensed
nurses in skilled nursing facilities (Filipova, 2011). Though not from the
field of child welfare, both studies provided evidence for the potential
mediating role of job satisfaction among child welfare professionals.
However, the measure of job satisfaction in both studies was based on
overall satisfaction (e.g., “I am quite happy with my job” and “I find real
enjoyment in my job”), rather than a multi-faceted measure.
1.4. Research questions and hypotheses
The current study examined three questions among voluntary child
Y. Li et al.
welfare workers: 1) Is there an effect of organizational climate on job
satisfaction? 2) Is there an effect of job satisfaction on turnover? 3) Is
there an indirect effect of organizational climate on turnover through
job satisfaction? Accordingly, the hypotheses for this study included: 1)
Supportive organizational climate is associated with higher levels of job
satisfaction; 2a) Higher levels of job satisfaction are associated with
greater intent to stay in the field of child welfare; 2b) Higher levels of job
satisfaction are associated with less intent to leave the current agency;
3a) Organizational climate has an indirect effect on intent to stay in
child welfare through job satisfaction; 3b) Organizational climate has an
indirect effect on intent to leave the agency through job satisfaction. All
hypotheses were tested while controlling for the effects of age, sex, and
salary.
2. Methods
2.1. Sampling and data collection
This study was part of a larger federally funded project designed to
create sustainable system changes that strengthen and support the
voluntary child welfare workforce throughout a large northeastern state
of the United States. A research center on child welfare of a state uni­
versity sent out paper-and-pencil surveys to 13 voluntary child welfare
agencies in the state. Located in rural, suburban, and urban regions
throughout the state, these agencies were under contract with the public
child welfare system to provide essential services such as prevention and
foster care to children and families in need. The survey included ques­
tions on workforce demographics, organizational climate, job satisfac­
tion, and turnover intentions. All employees (N = 2,238) at these
agencies were invited to participate in the paper-and-pencil survey.
Research center staff members and research assistants visited each site
to encourage participation and collect questionnaires upon completion.
The overall response rate was 70%, i.e., 1,567 child welfare employees
completed the survey. Before the survey was sent out, the study had
been approved by the Institutional Review Board of the university to
which the research center belongs.
The original federally funded project included both administrative
staff and front-line staff such as direct care (i.e., childcare worker and
residential care workers) and clinical workers (i.e., social workers,
psychologists, and guidance counselors). The current study focused on
only front-line staff because they tended to have the highest turnover
rate. The study sample included 849 direct care and clinical workers in
voluntary agencies under contract with the public child welfare system.
2.2. Measures
Organizational climate was measured by some items of the Psycho­
logical Climate Survey (PCS; Parker et al., 2003). With a total of 48
Likert-type items, the original survey includes four dimensions (i.e.,
role, job, organization, and supervisor) of individuals’ perceptions of
their work environment. Each dimension further contains three sub­
scales: role (ambiguity, conflict, and overload); job (importance, au­
tonomy, and challenge); organization (innovation, justice, and support);
supervisor (trust and support, goal emphasis, and work facilitation).
More detail about how these subscales are operationalized can be found
in Parker et al.’s (2003) study. Informed by a previous study (Zeitlin
et al., 2016) conducted among voluntary child welfare workers, this
study used a shortened version of the PCS. Specifically, included in this
study were six items from the role dimension, eight items from the job
dimension, five items from the organization dimension, and six items
from the supervisor dimension (see Zeitlin et al., 2016, for a list of all 25
items). All 25 items were rated on a 5-point Likert-type scale, ranging
from “strongly disagree” to “strongly agree.” One example of the role
dimension is “I have more work to do than I could ever get done.” All the
negative items were reverse coded so that a higher score reflects better
perceptions about the work environment. Following what has been done
3
Children and Youth Services Review 119 (2020) 105640
in previous studies (e.g., Lance, 1991), we included the composite scores
of these four dimensions as manifest variables (or indicators) for the
latent variable organizational climate, rather than all individual items
on these dimensions. For each subscale of organizational climate, the
reliability score ranged from 0.75 to 0.89. The reliability score for the
four subscales was 0.93 in our sample.
Job satisfaction was derived from the widely used Job Satisfaction
Survey (JSS; Spector, 1985). Originally, the scale included nine sub­
scales, with four items on each subscale. Li and Huang (2017) validated
a shorter version of the JSS among voluntary child welfare workers,
which included five subscales (pay, promotion, supervision, benefits,
and nature of work) and 19 items. Since our study examined voluntary
child welfare workers, we initially decided to include all five dimensions
of the shorter version of the JSS in our study. However, supervision and
nature of work were dropped from the study because they seem to
overlap with the supervisor and job dimensions of the PCS. For example,
the meaning of “I feel that my work makes a meaningful contribution”
on the job subscale of the PCS and “I feel a sense of pride in doing my
job” on the nature of work subscale of the JSS is similar. The meaning of
“My supervisor treats his/her people with respect” on the supervisor
subscale of the PCS and “My supervisor shows too little interest in the
feelings of subordinates” on the supervision subscale of the JSS is
somewhat similar. The JSS was rated on a 4-point Likert-type scale
ranging from 1 (“strongly disagree”) to 4 (“strongly agree”). One
example item from the pay subscale is “I feel I am being paid a fair
amount for the work I do.” All negative items were reverse coded so that
a higher score reflects a higher level of satisfaction. The composite
scores of pay, promotion, and benefits were included as manifest vari­
ables for the latent variable job satisfaction. For each subscale of job
satisfaction, the reliability score ranged from 0.73 to 0.77. The reli­
ability score of the three subscales was 0.88 in our sample.
Two proxy measures of turnover were included in the study: intent to
stay in child welfare and intent to leave the current agency. Both mea­
sures have been used in previous studies (e.g., McGowan et al., 2009;
Schudrich et al., 2012). We decided to include both measures in our
study because the former focuses on child welfare as a major field of
human service while the latter focuses on the current agency. The two
measures are different because even if an employee leaves the agency,
he/she does not necessarily leave child welfare. Derived from Lands­
man’s (2001) study, the first measure captures workers’ intent to stay in
child welfare. The measure includes three items: 1) “I plan to stay in
child welfare practice as long as possible (Intent 1),” 2) “Under no
circumstance will I voluntarily leave child welfare (Intent 2),” and 3) “I
plan to leave child welfare as soon as possible (Intent 3).” The answers to
these items range from 1 = “strongly disagree” to 5= “strongly agree.”
Intent 3 was reverse coded so that a higher score reflects higher intent to
stay in child welfare. All three items were included as indicators of the
latent variable intent to stay. The reliability score of the three items was
0.97 in our sample.
The second proxy measure of turnover was based on the Intent to
Leave Scale developed by Auerbach et al. (2014). Two items measure
how often workers think about leaving the job, while six items capture
actual job searching activities or how workers act on the idea about
leaving the job. Since the latter appears more closely related to turnover,
we dropped the two items on thinking about leaving the job and kept the
six items measuring job searching activities within the past year. These
items included: 1) “How often have you looked in the paper for a new
job?” (Intent 4); 2) “How often you have looked in professional journals
for a new job?” (Intent 5); 3) “How many phone inquiries have you made
about other jobs?” (Intent 6); 4) “How many resumes have you sent
out?” (Intent 7); 5) “How often do you search the internet for jobs?”
(Intent 8); 6) “How many interviews have you had?” (Intent 9). All six
items were rated on a scale ranging from 1 to 5: “never” to “daily” for the
three items asking about the frequency and “none” to “ greater than 6”
for the three items asking about the number of times. All six items were
included as indicators of the latent variable intent to leave. The
Y. Li et al. Children and Youth Services Review 119 (2020) 105640

reliability score of the six items was 0.97 in our sample.
2.3. Analysis strategy
A two-step structural equation modeling (SEM) technique was used.
The first step tested a measurement model that included four latent
variables: organizational climate, job satisfaction, intent to stay in the
field, and intent to leave the agency (see Fig. 1). After a good model fit
was achieved in the measurement model, which ensured the measures
for the latent variables were appropriate, a hybrid model was con­
structed in the second step. The hybrid model denotes the combination
of the confirmatory factor analysis (i.e., the measurement model) and
the path analysis (i.e., the structural model). The structural paths of the
hybrid model tested the hypothesized relationships between the latent
variables. Sex, age, and current salary were added as three covariates to
the hybrid model. Maximum likelihood (ML) was used as the estimator
for both steps.
Informed by previous research (Browne & Cudeck, 1992; Hu &
Bentler, 1999; Kline, 2016), the current study examined the model fit
using the following fit indices: the χ2 test, the comparative fit index
(CFI), the Tucker-Lewis index (TLI), the root-mean square-error of
approximation (RMSEA), and the standardized root mean square re­
sidual (SRMR). A good fit was determined when CFI ≥ 0.95, TLI ≥ 0.95,
RMSEA ≤ 0.05, and SRMR < 0.08 (Browne & Cudeck, 1992; Hu &
Bentler, 1999; Kline, 2016). All data were analyzed in Mplus version 7.4.

Fig. 1. Results of the Measurement Model. Note. ***p < .001; all loadings are standardized; error covariances omitted; Intent 1 = Stay in child welfare; Intent 2 =
Never leave child welfare; Intent 3 = Plan to leave child welfare; Intent 4 = Frequency of looking in the paper; Intent 5 = Frequency of looking in journals; Intent 6 =
Number of phone inquiries; Intent 7 = Number of resumes sent out; Intent 8 = Frequency of searching the internet; Intent 9 = Number of job interviews.

4
Y. Li et al. Children and Youth Services Review 119 (2020) 105640

2.4. Missing data Table 2

Descriptive Statistics, Reliability Scores, and Missingness of the Main Manifest
Although all study variables contained missing values, no cases with Variables.
missingness were deleted in this study. Therefore, the number of ob­ Variable N Mean SD Min. Max. α # of
servations varied across different variables, including sample de­ Missingness
mographics (see Table 1). The number of missingness for the three Organizational 0.93
covariates, including sex, age, and current salary, was 108, 139, and Climate
161, respectively. The number of missing observations in the major Role 722 3.4 0.8 1.2 5.0 0.81 127
Job 712 3.9 0.5 2.0 5.0 0.75 137
study variables ranged from 75 to 366 (see Table 2). The number of
Organization 704 3.2 0.8 1.0 5.0 0.85 145
missingness was greatest for the six manifest variables of intent to leave Supervisor 718 3.8 0.8 1.0 5.0 0.89 131
the agency (ranging from 339 to 366). Much of the missingness was Job Satisfaction 0.88
caused by participants who checked “no” on the question: “Have you Pay 693 2.2 0.5 1.0 4.0 0.77 156
considered looking for a new job within the past year?” The question Promotion 668 2.4 0.4 1.0 3.8 0.76 181
Benefits 669 2.5 0.6 1.0 4.0 0.73 180
was followed by a series of questions on intent to leave, which were Intent to Stay in 0.97
skipped by those who did not consider looking for a new job within the Child Welfare
past year. Due to this design flaw, it was impossible to recode the var­ Stay in child 774 3.7 1.1 1.0 5.0 75
iables on intent to leave to avoid the missingness issue. welfare
Never leave 765 2.9 1.2 1.0 5.0 84
In the hybrid SEM model, all missingness was dealt with by the Full
child welfare
Information Maximum Likelihood (FIML) method, which is the default Plan to leave 771 4.0 1.0 1.0 5.0 78
when using ML as the estimator in Mplus (Muthén & Muthén, 2017). As child welfare
a model-based missing data technique, FIML “obtains parameter esti­ Intent to Leave 0.97
mates by maximizing the likelihood function of the incomplete data” the Agency
Frequency of 510 2.5 1.3 1.0 5.0 339
(Dong & Peng, 2013, p. 8). According to Enders (2001), FIML can yield
looking in the
unbiased parameter estimates and model rejection rates when the paper
normality assumption is violated. Another advantage of using the FIML Frequency of 484 1.9 1.1 1.0 5.0 365
method is its efficiency with a relatively large amount of missing data. looking in
journals
For example, Enders (2001) demonstrated that as the missing data rate
Number of 503 1.9 1.2 1.0 5.0 346
phone inquiries
Table 1 Number of 498 2.1 1.2 1.0 5.0 351
resumes sent
Demographics of the Study Sample.
out
n % Frequency of 492 2.5 1.3 1.0 5.0 357
searching the
Gender Female 476 64.2
internet
Male 265 35.8
Number of job 483 1.5 0.8 1.0 5.0 366
Ethnicity White 467 65.6
interviews
African-American 160 22.5
or African
Hispanic 35 4.9
Caribbean 30 4.2 increased from 0% to 25%, FIML parameter estimates were more ac­
Other 20 2.7 curate than those of other missing data techniques (such as listwise
Marital Status Never married 349 48.5 deletion, pairwise deletion, and mean imputation). Finally, to retain all
Married or living 282 39.2 cases with missingness on the three covariates, we explicitly brought all
with domestic
partner
of them into the hybrid model by mentioning their variances in the
Divorced 59 8.2 MODEL command in Mplus, which was suggested by Mplus developers
Separated 26 3.6 (Muthén et al., 2016).
Widowed 4 0.6
Type of worker Direct service 415 65.3
3. Results
(childcare worker,
residential care
worker) 3.1. Descriptive Statistics
Clinical (social 221 34.7
worker, As shown in Table 1, most participants were female. More than 60%
psychologist,
guidance
were white, and more than 20% identified them as African-American or
counselor) African. Nearly half were never married, and almost 40% were married
Educational level High school 205 28.1 or living with domestic partners. Most workers (65%) provided direct
Associate’s degree 77 10.6 services (i.e., childcare and residential care). Around 34% had a bach­
Bachelor’s degree 248 34.0
elor’s degree; 23% had a master’s degree; 4% had a doctoral degree.
Master’s degree 169 23.2
Other (e.g., 30 4.1 About half of the participants had an annual salary of less than $30,000.
doctoral degree) More than 60% of participants held a child welfare job for the first time.
Current salary $25,000 or less 199 28.9 The average age of those sampled was 35.3 (SD = 12.0); the average
$25,001–$30,000 169 24. 6 years working in the agency was 6.2 (SD = 7.8); the average years
$30,001–$35,000 111 16.1
$35,001–$45,000 149 21.7
working in the current position was 3.8 (SD = 5.0).
More than $45,000 60 8.8 Table 2 contains descriptive information on the main manifest var­
Held a child welfare job for the first time Yes 435 60.6 iables used in the SEM of the study. As shown in Table 2, workers re­
N Range Mean SD ported highest scores in the job dimension of organizational climate (M
= 3.9, SD = 0.5) and the benefits dimension of job satisfaction (M = 2.5,
Age 707 18–78 35.27 12.03
Years working in the agency 378 0.5–36 6.23 7.80
SD = 0.6). Their highest level of intent to stay in child welfare was re­
Years working in the current position 325 0.5–30 3.78 4.96 flected in their answers to the item, “I plan to leave child welfare as soon

5
Y. Li et al. Children and Youth Services Review 119 (2020) 105640

as possible” (M = 4.0, SD = 1.0). The lowest score of the six items on

Note. *p < .05, **p < .01, †p < .001; Intent 1 = Stay in child welfare; Intent 2 = Never leave child welfare; Intent 3 = Plan to leave child welfare; Intent 4 = Frequency of looking in the paper; Intent 5 = Frequency of looking
0.45†
intent to leave was the number of job interviews in the past year (M =

15
1.5, SD = 0.8).

–
Table 3 shows all the correlations between the main manifest vari­
ables of the study. All bivariate correlations between organizational

0.62†
0.71†
climate and job satisfaction were significantly correlated (r ranging from

14

–
0.10 to 0.36). The three items of intent to stay in child welfare were all
significantly correlated with both organizational climate and job satis­
faction (r ranging from 0.08 to 0.28), except for the correlation between

0.70†
0.53†
0.65†
13
benefits and the item “Never leave child welfare” (r = 0.08, p = .06).

–
Most bivariate correlations between the six items of the Intent to Leave
Scale and the measures of organizational climate and job satisfaction

0.47†
0.41†
0.59†
0.35†
were significantly negative (r ranging from − 0.30 to − 0.10). In addition,

in journals; Intent 6 = Number of phone inquiries; Intent 7 = Number of resumes sent out; Intent 8 = Frequency of searching the internet; Intent 9 = Number of job interviews.
12

–
except for the statistically nonsignificant correlations between one
intent-to-stay item “Never leave child welfare” and the intent-to-leave
items “Frequency of looking in journals” and “Number of phone in­

0.64†
0.55†
0.58†
0.77†
0.45†
11
quiries”, all other correlations between these two variables were

–
significantly negative (r ranging from − 0.09 to − 0.31). This indicates
that intent of stay and intent to leave are negatively correlated.

− 0.12**
− 0.31†
− 0.20†
− 0.21†
− 0.26†
− 0.26†
3.2. Measurement models

10

–
A measurement model was constructed to ensure the validity of the

− 0.12**
indicators for each latent variable. The initial model did not yield a

− 0.09*
− 0.17†

− 0.18†
− 0.05
− 0.06
0.38†
satisfactory fit: χ2 = 469.586, df = 98, p < .001; CFI = 0.892; TLI =

–
0.868; RMSEA = 0.067, 90% CI = [0.061, 0.073]; SRMR = 0.053. Model
modification indices (MI) revealed that many measurement errors were
correlated. Based on Byrne’s (2010) recommendation, the covariances

− 0.14**
− 0.27†
− 0.15†
− 0.16†
− 0.22†
− 0.29†
of 11 pairs of error terms between the indicators of intent to leave were

0.54†
0.61†
specified; all these pairs had an MI larger than 20 in the initial model. 8

–
The revised model yielded excellent fit indices: χ2 = 178.364, df = 87, p
< .001; CFI = 0.973; TLI = 0.963; RMSEA = 0.035, 90% CI = [0.028,

− 0.23†
− 0.19†
− 0.22†
− 0.18†
− 0.19†
− 0.16
0.043]; SRMR = 0.040. Fig. 1 shows covariances between the four latent

0.15†

0.15†
0.08
variables, factor loadings, and residual variances for each indicator. As
7

–
shown in Fig. 1, all the factor loadings were statistically significant at the
0.001 level (standardized loadings ranging from 0.45 to 0.96). Co­

− 0.14**

− 0.15**
− 0.15**
− 0.12*

− 0.11*
variances between the four latent variables were all significant (p <
0.13**

− 0.07
0.32†
0.14†

0.17†
.001), with the estimates ranging from − 0.36 to 0.65.
6

3.3. Hybrid model

− 0.15**
− 0.23†
− 0.20†
− 0.21†
− 0.21†
− 0.18†
0.34†
0.31†
0.24†
0.17†
0.28†

The hybrid model included five structural paths to examine the

5

mediation effects of job satisfaction on the relationship between orga­

nizational climate and turnover (see Fig. 2). It also included sex, age, and
salary as three covariates, which added six additional structural paths
− 0.12**

− 0.15**
− 0.11*
− 0.17†

− 0.04

− 0.06

(see Fig. 2). While keeping the estimator (i.e., ML) and the error co­
0.10*

0.08*
0.19†
0.27†

0.14†

0.17†

variances the same as the measurement model, the hybrid model

4

resulted in good fit indices: χ2 = 318.829, df = 123, p < .001; CFI =

0.945; TLI = 0.925; RMSEA = 0.043, 90% CI = [0.038, 0.049]; SRMR =
− 0.30†
− 0.22†
− 0.20†
− 0.17†
− 0.30†
–0.11*

0.045.
0.58†
0.36†
0.42†
0.24†
0.26†
0.18†
0.28†

Fig. 2 shows the standardized coefficients of all the structural paths

3

and the covariance between intent to stay in child welfare and intent to
Correlations between Main Manifest Variables.

leave the agency. Among the main study variables, all paths were sig­
− 0.14**

− 0.13**
− 0.13**

nificant other than the one from organizational climate to intent to

− 0.03

− 0.08
− 0.03
0.09*

0.08*
0.38†
0.36†

0.22†
0.18†
0.20†

0.24†

leave. In terms of the direction of the relationships, organizational

2

climate was positively associated with job satisfaction (β = 0.65, SE =

0.06, p < .001), which, in turn, was positively related to intent to stay in
child welfare (β = 0.24, SE = 0.10, p = .02) and negatively related to
− 0.10*
− 0.16†

− 0.20†
− 0.04
− 0.03

− 0.01
0.18†
0.46†
0.32†
0.24†
0.18†
0.14†
0.21†
0.16†
0.21†

intent to leave (β = -0.25, SE = 0.13, p = .05). Additionally, age was

1

positively associated with intent to stay in child welfare (β = 0.12, SE =

0.04, p = .004). All other paths involving age, sex, or salary were not
significant.
3. Organization
4. Supervisor

6. Promotion

To examine the indirect effects of interest, bias-corrected and

10. Intent 3
11. Intent 4
12. Intent 5
13. Intent 6
14. Intent 7
15. Intent 8
16. Intent 9
7. Benefits
8. Intent 1
9. Intent 2

accelerated bootstrap confidence intervals (BCa CI) based on 20,000

Variable

1. Role
Table 3

5. Pay
2. Job

replications were obtained (Shrout & Bolger, 2002). The indirect effect
of organizational climate on intent to stay through job satisfaction was

6
Y. Li et al.
Fig. 2. Results of the Hybrid Model. Note. *p < .05; ***p < .001; all coefficients are standardized estimates; covariances between age, sex, salary, and organizational
climate omitted; item loadings and error covariances omitted.
statistically significant: β = 0.15, SE = 0.06, 95% BCa CI = [0.024,
0.280]. The indirect path from organizational climate to intent to leave
via job satisfaction was also significant: β = -0.16, SE = 0.09, 95% BCa
CI = [− 0.342, − 0.002]. The results showed that organizational climate
did not have any direct effect on intent to leave the agency (β = − 0.17,
SE = 0.10, p = .10), indicating that the effect was fully mediated by job
satisfaction. However, organizational climate was significantly associ­
ated with intent to stay in child welfare (β = 0.18, SE = 0.09, p = .04),
indicating that the effect was partially mediated by job satisfaction.
4. Discussion
This study examined the interrelationships between organizational
climate, job satisfaction, and turnover intentions among the voluntary
child welfare workforce. Organizational climate was captured by four
dimensions of the organizational context, including role, job, organi­
zation, and supervision. As one of the important aspects of individual-
level work attitudes, job satisfaction was assessed by satisfaction with
pay, promotion, and benefits. Turnover was measured by two proxies, i.
e., three items on intent to stay in the field of child welfare and six items
on intent to leave the current agency. The examination of the mea­
surement model of these variables in the SEM analyses ensured the
validity of these measures. The inclusion of all these multi-faceted
measures is one of the strengths of our study. Meanwhile, we conduct­
ed mediation analyses with an explicit focus on the indirect effect of job
7
Children and Youth Services Review 119 (2020) 105640
satisfaction among the voluntary child welfare workforce. This is
another contribution to the current literature on the voluntary child
welfare workforce because of the lack of studies with such a focus.
The SEM results supported Hypothesis 1, suggesting that better
organizational climate is related to higher job satisfaction. This finding
is consistent with previous research that reported a positive relationship
between different aspects of organizational climate and job satisfaction
(e.g., Hwang & Hopkins, 2012; Smith & Shields, 2013). Hypothesis 2a)
and 2b) were supported because a high level of job satisfaction was
related to a lower level of turnover intentions in our analyses. This is
consistent with Kim and Kao’s (2014) meta-analysis study that
concluded that job satisfaction was one of the strongest predictors for
turnover intentions. Hypothesis 3a) and 3b) posit that job satisfaction
acts as a mediator between organizational climate and turnover in­
tentions. These were supported as the effect of organizational climate on
intent to leave the agency was fully mediated by job satisfaction, while
its effect on intent to stay in child welfare was partially mediated. This
complements previous studies that found evidence on the mediating role
of job satisfaction among non-social work professionals (Filipova, 2011;
Lance, 1991).
The current study is among the first to find some evidence on the
mediating role of job satisfaction in the relationship between organi­
zational climate and turnover intentions (i.e., both intent to stay and
intent to leave) among the voluntary child welfare workforce. Since
Claiborne et al. (2011, 2013, 2015) published their works on
Y. Li et al.
organizational environment and turnover among voluntary child wel­
fare professionals, studies on this population have been increasing but
still lagging comparing to those on the public child welfare workforce. In
recent years, the number of voluntary agencies that contract with public
agencies in providing child welfare services has been on the rise (Mosley
& Ros, 2011). Unfortunately, it has been reported that child welfare
workers in private, non-profit agencies are more susceptible to turnover
than public agency workers (e.g., Faller et al., 2010). This makes it
incumbent for future research to focus on turnover in these agencies.
This study also supports the significance of improving job satisfaction
among direct care and clinical workers in voluntary agencies, which is
not always prioritized in agency management. As a previous study
(Mosley & Ros, 2011) indicated, voluntary child welfare agencies’ effort
on policy advocacy is more likely to benefit the clients (e.g., the well-
being of children) rather than their organizations (e.g., more funding
support), another reason for more studies on the need for better reten­
tion of these agencies.
4.1. Limitations and directions for future research
The first limitation was that the study did not include a measure of
actual turnover. The self-reported proxy measures for turnover may be
inflated comparing to actual turnover. Some researchers (Cohen et al.,
2016) have pointed out intent to leave is not a reliable predictor for
actual turnover and cautioned against its use as a proxy measure for
turnover. Similarly, the use of intent to stay in child welfare can also be
the subject of scrutiny. People with higher levels of intent to stay may
still choose to leave employment in child welfare (Ellett, 2009).
Nevertheless, many researchers have used intent to leave as a proxy for
turnover because it is the strongest predictor for actual turnover (e.g.,
Lee & Whitford, 2008; Tett & Meyer, 1993). Intent to stay in child
welfare has also frequently been used as a proxy measure in previous
research, although the construct was operationalized differently across
studies (e.g., Chen & Scannapieco, 2010; Ellett, 2009; Faller et al.,
2010). In the future, child welfare researchers may need to consider
using actual turnover rates. In addition, more efforts can be devoted to
understanding the difference between turnover intentions and actual
turnover in the child welfare sector. Inspired by a study in the field of
public administration (Cohen et al., 2016), child welfare researchers
may find the following two questions relevant and worthy of probing: 1)
Do turnover intentions matter in predicting actual turnover? 2) Are the
factors related to turnover intentions the same as those related to actual
turnover?
Secondly, the causal relationships between our study variables
should be interpreted with caution. The paths in SEM analyses are often
meant to signify causal relationships (Raykov & Marcoulides, 2006).
One of the requirements for establishing a causal relationship is time
sequence. However, the data used for this study were cross-sectional,
and a time sequence between organizational climate, job satisfaction,
and turnover intentions cannot be established. Nevertheless, our ana­
lyses provided some evidence that job satisfaction is a mediator between
organizational climate and turnover. Future researchers may consider
utilizing longitudinal data to test the strength of these causal
relationships.
Thirdly, our analyses did not include other individual-level work
attitude factors such as organizational commitment. This was because
the data analyzed in this study did not have a variable on commitment.
Existing theory suggests that organizational commitment, along with job
satisfaction, is often understood as an important dimension of
individual-level work attitudes (Glisson et al., 2012; Parker et al., 2003).
The difference between the two constructs is that the former is attitudes
toward the generic aspect of work, while the latter pertains to specific
aspects of work (Lance, 1991). Researchers have also examined the role
of organizational commitment in mediating the effect of organizational
climate on turnover among nurses (Filipova, 2011). Future studies could
tap into the mediating roles of both job satisfaction and organizational
8
Children and Youth Services Review 119 (2020) 105640
commitment among child welfare workers. Another possible direction is
to examine how the two affect each other.
Lastly, the generalizability of this study is limited to direct care and
clinical workers in voluntary child welfare agencies with workforce
demographics similar to the sample of this study. This study was con­
ducted in a large northeastern state of the United States. Therefore, our
findings might not be applicable to areas with a workforce of different
demographics or areas with different child welfare policies and
practices.
4.2. Implications for practice
Voluntary child welfare agencies need to consider the impact of
organization-level factors (such as organizational climate) when making
plans for workforce retention. Some agencies may have started regularly
assessing organizational climate to diagnose and improve agency per­
formance (Parker et al., 2003); they may have implemented effective
organizational interventions, such as the Design Team Model (Strolin-
Goltzman, 2010). These efforts are particularly relevant and meaningful
given our finding on the positive relationship between organizational
climate and job satisfaction.
Moreover, interventions focusing on workers’ job satisfaction are at
least equally, if not more important. Based on our findings, it appears
imperative to pay close attention to workers’ job satisfaction, because
they may have more immediate effects on turnover intentions. While
improving organizational climate may help, it is worth investing in
programs that are specifically designed to enhance job satisfaction. In
addition to advocating on behalf of their clients (Mosley & Ros, 2011),
voluntary child welfare agencies may need to focus more on advocating
for their agencies and workers, especially for their workers’ pay and
benefits. Existing evidence generally supports that pay and benefits are
essential in the retention of child welfare workers (e.g., Wilke et al.,
2018). While current pay and benefits of child welfare workers do not
match up with the high work demands, the situation may be even worse
in voluntary agencies than public agencies in this field (Flower et al.,
2005). To counter this situation, Flower et al. (2005) recommended that
1) non-profit agencies that contract with government agencies make
better pay and benefits a top priority, and 2) government agencies allow
non-profit agencies to reallocate resources for this purpose.
Considering the financial reality of many voluntary organizations,
promoting professional development can be an alternative way in sup­
porting workers’ retention in the agency. Our findings on the impor­
tance of promotion opportunities echo Chen et al. (2012) study that
found that child welfare workers’ needs for growth, which denote the
needs for more career development opportunities, were more important
than pay and benefits in predicting turnover intent. In this respect,
voluntary agencies could advocate for more training opportunities and
better achievement of advanced professional degrees and certification
for their workers (Flower et al., 2005). As pointed out by Holosko and
Faith (2015), valued employees may leave their agency if they cannot
find meaningful financial support for graduate education. Therefore,
voluntary agencies might seek more training opportunities for their
workers by collaborating with social work programs of local, regional,
and national universities.
5. Conclusion
In conclusion, our study provides some new insights into the re­
lationships between organizational climate, job satisfaction, and turn­
over. We suggest that future research pay attention to the difference
between turnover intentions and actual turnover, utilize longitudinal
designs, and include other individual-level work attitude variables (such
as organizational commitment). Also, we argue that it is time for
voluntary child welfare agencies to make a paradigm shift from advo­
cating for only their clients to advocating for their clients, their agencies,
and workers. While assessment and intervention efforts to improve
Y. Li et al. Children and Youth Services Review 119 (2020) 105640

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