Case Assignment Principles for Achieving Worker Well-Being, Organizational Justice, and Casework Quality.
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| Title: | Case Assignment Principles for Achieving Worker Well-Being, Organizational Justice, and Casework Quality. |
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| Authors: | Steen, Julie A, Stewart, Chris |
| Source: | Social Work. Jul2026, Vol. 71 Issue 3, p221-228. 8p. |
| Subjects: | Child welfare, Supervision of employees, Social workers, Personnel management, Qualitative research, Research funding, Medical case management, Content analysis, Psychological well-being, Right to work (Human rights), Human rights, Research methodology, Data analysis software, Employees' workload |
| Abstract: | This qualitative descriptive study was designed to identify case assignment principles and capture the ways supervisors and case managers experience these principles. A total of 59 supervisors and 127 case managers from the child welfare field responded to two open-ended survey questions about the case assignment principles used in their agencies. The first aim was to provide a description of case assignment principles. Coding of responses revealed eight principles that guided case assignment. These eight principles include rotation, equalization of caseload, equalization of the number of families/children served, equalization of caseload complexity, matching to case manager competence, matching to case manager interest/convenience, respecting case manager safety, and supervisor discretion. The second aim was to provide a description of experiences with these varied case assignment principles. Authors identified three themes of fairness/organizational justice, worker well-being, and casework quality. The results outline the varied ways in which case assignment is conducted and point to the difficulties in simultaneously achieving the three goals of fairness, worker well-being, and casework quality through a single case assignment method. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR] |
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| Database: | Psychology and Behavioral Sciences Collection |
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| Abstract: | This qualitative descriptive study was designed to identify case assignment principles and capture the ways supervisors and case managers experience these principles. A total of 59 supervisors and 127 case managers from the child welfare field responded to two open-ended survey questions about the case assignment principles used in their agencies. The first aim was to provide a description of case assignment principles. Coding of responses revealed eight principles that guided case assignment. These eight principles include rotation, equalization of caseload, equalization of the number of families/children served, equalization of caseload complexity, matching to case manager competence, matching to case manager interest/convenience, respecting case manager safety, and supervisor discretion. The second aim was to provide a description of experiences with these varied case assignment principles. Authors identified three themes of fairness/organizational justice, worker well-being, and casework quality. The results outline the varied ways in which case assignment is conducted and point to the difficulties in simultaneously achieving the three goals of fairness, worker well-being, and casework quality through a single case assignment method. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR] |
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| ISSN: | 00378046 |
| DOI: | 10.1093/sw/swag022 |
