Socialchefer inom socialvården på Åland - Varför söka sig till socialchefsarbetet och varför bli kvar eller sluta?

Sammanfattning: Author: Jonna Granberg Title: Social directors in social work at the Aaland Islands – why become a social director and why stay or leave? Supervisor: Karin Kullberg Assessor: Håkan Jönson The purpose of this article was to examine which factors that influence the choise to become a social director and which factors that influence the desire to stay or leave the profession. To obtain the purpose, in-depth interviews were carried out with eight respondents, all social directors at the Aaland Islands. I was inspired by the analytical method Grounded Theory in the analysis. The finding is that the motivation of the social directors is multifaced, complex, often emotionally charged and contradictory. My conclusion is that the social directors chose the job because of future carrier opportunities, because of the interest in social work and because of the possibility of obtaining a higher salary. Too much administrative work at the recent job was another motivator and the solitude of the profession of a social director somewhat hindered them. The results further showed that the social directors stay at their jobs because of a feeling of satisfaction originated from a sense of community with others, a sense of having a meaningful job and status. For some of the social directors the opportunities for achievement, the salary, to work with certain work tasks, closeness to the clients, the wide line of work, the support within the organization and the possibility to influence and have power and the municipal resources was motivating. For others the opportunities for achievement seemed claim filled, certain work tasks was demotivating, the salary was considered too low, the influence and power meant too much responsibility and the support within the organization was not enough. The social directors further experienced the work load as too great and felt they had too little staff. This entailed stress and dissatisfaction, which ultimately might increase the social directors will to resign.