Improving organisational efficiency at Cape Town Child Welfare Society.
Introduction
South Africa is known to have a lack of Social Service Professionals and the country, therefore overloaded with cases. Due to being over worked, burnout seemed to be a problem in many production fields where the social workers experienced stress and accounted for the loss in production of an organization or institution, as well as the lowered morale among the social workers as the staff in those settings. One of these institutions is the Child Welfare Society, where each social worker has between 100 to 203 cases (Ramklass, N. & Whitaker, P. 2011).
The term "burnout" was coined by Herbert Freudenberger in 1981, and was initially defined as: "a debilitating psychological condition brought about by unrelieved work stress, resulting in: depleted energy and emotional exhaustion, lowered resistance to illness, increased depersonalization in interpersonal relationships, increased dissatisfaction and pessimism, and increased absenteeism and work inefficiency." (Freudenberger & Richelson, 1981). Christina Maslach expanded on the definition: "Burnout is the index of the dislocation between what people are and what they have to do. It represents an erosion in values, dignity, spirit, and will...It is a malady that spreads gradually and continuously over time, putting people into a downward spiral from which it 's hard to recover"(Maslach & Leiter, 1997,).
According to Zastrow, (1992:646); "A stressor is a demand, condition, or circumstance that disrupts a person 's equilibrium and initiates the stress response."
Fineman, (1985: 16), saw stress as; "A psychological state of high anxiety, reflected in self-descriptions such as 'very unhappy ', 'fearful ', 'overwhelmed ', and 'all screwed-up inside ' ".
The main contributors to burn-out
Smit (1990) stated that burnout does exist in social work practice in the Cape Peninsula, and that there are certain organization/management- related factors that form trends of causation. Schmid (2012) noted that due
South Africa is known to have a lack of Social Service Professionals and the country, therefore overloaded with cases. Due to being over worked, burnout seemed to be a problem in many production fields where the social workers experienced stress and accounted for the loss in production of an organization or institution, as well as the lowered morale among the social workers as the staff in those settings. One of these institutions is the Child Welfare Society, where each social worker has between 100 to 203 cases (Ramklass, N. & Whitaker, P. 2011).
The term "burnout" was coined by Herbert Freudenberger in 1981, and was initially defined as: "a debilitating psychological condition brought about by unrelieved work stress, resulting in: depleted energy and emotional exhaustion, lowered resistance to illness, increased depersonalization in interpersonal relationships, increased dissatisfaction and pessimism, and increased absenteeism and work inefficiency." (Freudenberger & Richelson, 1981). Christina Maslach expanded on the definition: "Burnout is the index of the dislocation between what people are and what they have to do. It represents an erosion in values, dignity, spirit, and will...It is a malady that spreads gradually and continuously over time, putting people into a downward spiral from which it 's hard to recover"(Maslach & Leiter, 1997,).
According to Zastrow, (1992:646); "A stressor is a demand, condition, or circumstance that disrupts a person 's equilibrium and initiates the stress response."
Fineman, (1985: 16), saw stress as; "A psychological state of high anxiety, reflected in self-descriptions such as 'very unhappy ', 'fearful ', 'overwhelmed ', and 'all screwed-up inside ' ".
The main contributors to burn-out
Smit (1990) stated that burnout does exist in social work practice in the Cape Peninsula, and that there are certain organization/management- related factors that form trends of causation. Schmid (2012) noted that due
References: Erbes, K. 2009. Child Welfare Social Worker Retention: Influential Factors and Promising Practices. CA: San Diego State University School of Social Work. Fineman S. 1985. Social work stress and intervention. Great Britain: Gower Publishers. Freudenberger, H. & Richelson, G. (1981). Burnout: The High Cost of High Achievement. New York: Doubleday. Maslach, C. & Leiter, M.P. 1997. The truth about burnout. New York. Jossey-Bass, Ramklass, N. & Whitaker, P. 2011. Cape Town Child Welfare 2011 Annual Report. South Africa: Cape Town Ramphele, T. Z. 2004. The factors predisposing social workers to burnout in the social services organizations of the Eastern Cape. East London:Rhodes University Smit. A de V. 1990. Burn-out in Social Work: Its incidence and trends in causation. Maatskaplike Werk/Social work: 26 (2) Zastrow C. 1982 4th edition. The practice of social work. USA: Library of Congress Publication.