A Study on the Effect of Supervision of Social Welfare Officials on Job Performance: Focusing on Seoul Metropolitan City

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to empirically investigate and analyze the impact of supervision on the job performance of social welfare officials, who are social service providers in the public sector, and to make practical and policy suggestions for improving their job performance. The study utilized 190 questionnaires from 6th to 9th grade public servants in 25 boroughs of Seoul to analyze the data and conducted multiple regression analysis. The results showed that the three functions of supervision-administrative, educational, and supportive supervision-as well as the frequency and duration of supervision in practice were positively related to the job performance of social welfare workers in Seoul and affected job performance. The regression coefficient significance test revealed that among the three functions and practices of supervision set as independent variables, only the lower dimension, supportive supervision, is statistically significant and has a strong influence on the dependent variable, job performance. The implications of this study are, first, that all three functions of supervision are important, but that supportive supervision is a particularly necessary function of supervision for social welfare employees who are experiencing a lot of burnout due to the nature of their work, and that it is most important to enhance the function of supportive supervision in the organization to improve job performance. In addition, the study suggested the necessity and importance of supervision for social welfare workers as a profession that provides human services and suggested the need to expand the infrastructure for systematizing supervision.