Social Capital and Sustainable Work: Evidence from Nursery Schools to Nursing Homes

1. Social Capital and Sustainable Work: Evidence from Nursery Schools to Nursing Homes Carrie Leana University of Pittsburgh Center for Health and Care Work www.business.pitt.edu/chcw/ CMU Tepper September 10,2010

2. Recent and On-Going Research • Contexts with important policy public implications: • Childcare centers • Public schools • Special education classrooms • Nursing homes • In each, “organizational performance” has important implications for the larger society • In each, social capital is a real but under-utilized resource

3. What is “Social Capital”? • Nature and Accessibility of Resources Embedded in Relationships • Multi-Faceted Construct • Structural (pattern of connections) • Relational (quality of relationships, e.g., trust) • Cognitive (shared meanings and goals) • Multi-Level Theorizing • Categorical (attributes of/effects on individual) • Compositional (attributes of/effects on collective)

4. What Makes Work “Sustainable”? • Sustainability for the Individual Worker: • Living wage and benefits • Personal meaning and efficacy • Growth and development • Sustainability for the Organization: • Performance • Efficient and effective use of resources • Sustainability for the Larger Society: • Human capital development • Social capital development • Economic development

5. Recent and On-Going Projects: • Work process and quality of care in early childhood education. Academy of Management Journal, 2009 (with Eileen Appelbaum & Iryna Shevchuk). • Crafting work in context: Social and structural moderators of task context on role performance among special education teachers. 2010 (with Brenda Ghitulescu). • Applying organizational research to public school reform: The effects of teacher human and social capital on student performance. Academy of Management Journal, 2009 (with Frits Pil) and on-going work. • A dual driver model of retention and turnover in the direct care workforce. The Gerontologist, 2010 (with Vikas Mittal & Jules Rosen) and on-going work.

6. Childcare Work: • Critical to economic and societal sustainability • As currently organized in the US, childcare system is not sustainable: • For Individual Workers • Low pay; low status; poor coordination • For Organizations Providing Childcare Services • Increased regulatory oversight but with little attention to the uniqueness of the work (K-5 dream) • Improving teacher human capital may not be enough • For Society: • Spotty access and quality, despite clear evidence of benefits

7. Building Social Capital Through Job Crafting: • Job crafting is the active role that individuals play in altering the boundaries of their jobs & shaping work practice • Employee (vs. management) initiated • Informal (vs. part of formal job description) • Reflects employees’ efforts to make the job a better fit to her own preferences and competencies • Individual Job Crafting: Individual making changes • Collaborative Job Crafting: Working together to make changes (e.g., “communities of practice”) • Effects on performance and work outcomes? • Task/process dependent

8. Methods: • 79 Childcare Centers in PA and NJ • 32% for-profit; 11% Head Start • 80% state subsidized for low-income children • 232 Classroom Staff (146 teachers; 86 teacher aides) • On-site surveys in 3- & 4-yr. old classrooms • 95% women; ave. age=38; ave. exp.=4.8 yrs. • Parallel survey measures of individual & collaborative crafting • Outside performance assessment by trained observers With Eileen Appelbaum & Iryna Shevchuk

9. Predictors of Job Crafting: • Individual job crafting: • (+) Discretion • (+) Career orientation • (+) Status • Collaborative job crafting: • (+) Discretion • (+) Interdependence • (+) Supportive supervision • (+) Social ties with peers

10. Job Crafting and Work Outcomes: For Workers: Job satisfaction • (+) Wages • (+) Collaborative crafting (+1 sd = 13% rise) • (-) Individual job crafting Organizational Commitment • (+) Wages • (+) Collaborative crafting (+1 sd = 21% rise) For Organizations: Performance • (+) Wages • (+) Collaborative crafting • Experience x collaborative crafting Turnover intentions • (-) Wages • (-) Collaborative crafting • Quality of care x collaborative crafting

11. Less experienced teachers Quality of Care More experienced teachers - 1 s.d. + 1 s.d. Collaborative Job Crafting Joint Effects of Teacher Experience and Collaborative Job Crafting on Quality of Childcare 17% increase 7% increase

12. High quality of care Turnover Intentions Low quality of care - 1 s.d. + 1 s.d. Collaborative Job Crafting Joint Effects of Quality of Childcare and Collaborative Job Crafting on Turnover Intentions 14% decrease

13. How can childcare work be better managed? • Regulatory oversight must consider uniqueness of the work (and NOT assume K-5 education model will fit) • Collaborative job crafting changes work process and job boundaries • Essential to quality of care and maintaining quality workers • Deliberately informal and invisible • Better performance, stronger commitment • Dilemma: How to manage the invisible?

14. Work as a Teacher in Urban Public Schools • Critical to economic and societal sustainability • As currently organized in the US, public school system is not sustainable: • For Teachers • Low morale; poor collaboration; stressful work • For Schools • Strong public oversight but with little attention to the relational aspects of the work • Improving teacher human capital will not be enough • For Society: • Poor quality (by 5th grade, 40% of children lack basic proficiency; 50% don’t graduate high school with cohort)

15. Explanations for Success/ Failure in Public Schools • Structural explanation: Poverty • Process explanations: Why are some teachers better than others? Human Capital: Superior skill, training, and professional development of teachers lead to better student outcomes Social Capital: Individual connections to others lead to better outcomes Why are some schools better than others? Human Capital: Unique skill bundles and contextualized learning lead to better performance Social Capital: • Information exchange, trust, and common goals facilitate coordinated action, resource accumulation and positive risk taking

16. Linking Teacher Human and Social Capital in Schools Human Capital Low High Low Social Capital High

17. Methods: • Nested Data Structure • 24,187 student (4th & 5th grade) • 1,013 teachers (4th & 5th grade) • 239 teacher teams (4th & 5th grade) • Human Capital Measures • Experience • Ability to teach math (measures by Ball, et al.) • Social Capital Measures • Horizontal Ties: strength of ties with peers (frequency + closeness) • Vertical Ties: Strength of ties with Principal • Instrumental Ties (Who do you talk to about math?) • Outcome Measures • Change in student achievement scores in math With Frits Pil

18. Human Capital Measures: Assessment of Teachers’ Ability to Teach Math* SAMPLE ITEM: Takeem’s teacher asks him to make a drawing to compare 3/4 and 5/6. He draws the following: and claims that 3/4 and 5/6 are the same amount. What is the most likely explanation for Takeem’s answer? (Mark ONE.) • Takeem is noticing that each figure leaves one square unshaded. • Takeem has not yet learned the procedure for finding common denominators. • Takeem is adding 2 to both the numerator and denominator of 3/4, and he sees that that equals 5/6 . • All of the above are equally likely. *Based on University of Michigan Learning Math for Teaching Project (Hill, Shilling & Ball, 2004)

19. Summary of Significant Predictors of Growth in Math Achievement Student Characteristics Teacher Human Capital Team Social Capital Teacher Human Capital Combined With Team Social Capital

20. Joint Effects of Teacher Ability and Team Horizontal Ties Highest payoff on horizontal social capital: Teachers with strong human capital Teacher Human Capital Gains in Student Achievement in Math Ties Among Teachers in Team Horizontal Social Capital

21. Joint Effects of Teacher Ability and Team Vertical Ties Teacher Human Capital Gains in Student Achievement in Math Highest payoff on vertical social capital: Teachers with weak human capital Team Ties with Principal Vertical Social Capital

22. How Can Public Schools be Better Managed? • Team Context Matters: • For high-ability teachers, strong team interaction results in higher student achievement gains in math. • For low-ability teachers, interaction between team members and principal results in higher student achievement gains in math. • Conclusions: • Talk must be centered on teaching math • Interaction must be both frequent and close • Principal should concentrate their interactions on low-ability teachers (and leave high-ability teachers alone). • BUT high-ability teachers need to be in teams with time and space to interact to be most effective.

23. Work as a nursing aide: • Critical to economic and societal sustainability • As currently organized in the US, eldercare system is not sustainable: • For Individual Workers • Low pay; low status; poor collaboration; stressful work • For Organizations Providing Services • Strong regulatory oversight but with little attention to the relational aspects of the work • Improving worker human capital will not be enough • For Society: • Poor quality and unstable workforce

24. Building Social Capital Through Client Relationships Why do people stay in such difficult jobs? • Collaborative job crafting and social capital • But with clients/patients rather than peers • Patient advocates • Close bonds • Sense of calling • Shared religiosity/spirituality • Shared identity

25. Methods: • Data Collection: • Observation • Focus groups • Intensive interviews • Analyses: • Qualitative analysis of transcripts • Quantitative stance analysis (looking for emotional “hot spots”) • Demographics: • Gender: almost all female • Ethnicity: 60% White; 34% African-American • Age: 65% 40+ years • Family status: 69% Single; 40% dependent children • Education: 22% high school grads; 62% some post-HS training; 13% college grads • Work Experience: • 83% work in nursing homes • 83% work full-time • 93% certified in field (e.g., CNA) With Jules Rosen, Vikas Mittal & Emily Stiehl

26. Findings: Why do people leave these jobs? • Because of the lack of respect for their work: • By management and other staff • By the larger society • Because the work is managed so poorly • Because they are given too much work

27. Why do People Leave? • Lack of respect: • [Administrators] were very rude to the aides. They treated us horribly. • I’d like it if there was more respect for aides. Doctors and nurses should treat us like a partner and rely upon our knowledge of the patients. • There’s not really shame in it, but a lot of people—when you say what you do—they’re like, ‘Oh, you wipe butts for a living. You’re a professional butt wiper.’ That’s how people look at it. • Bad management: • They would hire anybody to [be a manager]. • I worked in assisted living . . .that place was so chaotic no one would come in and run it. One time we came in there was all workers, wasn’t no [administrators] in there. I mean, it was really bad for the residents. • Over-work: • I feel like I’m doing two people’s work. • I struggled to give good care to my patients. I was just given too many patients.

28. More Intriguing Findings:Why do people stay in these jobs? • Because they are “called” to help others • Because they are advocates for patients • Because they have close personal relationships with residents and families • Because of they share religion/spirituality with patients • Because they can relate to patients’ hardship

29. Why do people Stay? • Being “called”: • I get a lot of satisfaction from my work and a lot of peace knowing that I’m doing good for others. • I really appreciate the ‘thank you’s’, the ‘I love you’s” and the gratitude. I feel like I’ve really contributed and accomplished something. • Well, I’ve come out of the job actually very sad at times and wanting to leave and thinking it’s too much. But then I go back because I have so much in common with them and I feel that I’m really good for patients. • Patient advocacy • Pretty soon, you’re part of [the residents’] lives, and you don’t want to stay [for overtime] when you’re mandated, but you do because who’s going to take care of them? • When someone dies, you’re their last support. Patients shouldn’t die alone. There should be more support. • A lot of people don’t respect the elderly. My residents deserve respect.

30. Why do People Stay? • Relationships with residents • I enjoy taking care of elderly that doesn’t have family, and you get involved in them. You do start – after a while, you start loving them. • I want to be the one that’s interacting with the residents and, you know, being able to come in their room and make them smile and make them happy. • Shared religion/spirituality • You go in and pray with these people and talk more openly about spiritual things . . . They’re more open to it at that point, and I enjoy that. • I pray a lot. Through my job, as well as otherwise. . . it gets me through the night shift. • A strong faith and my Christian background is absolutely essential. • Shared identity of hardship • When I go to work I’m actually in a better mood than I am at home because I have to be. I mean there’s days I don’t want to go home. • I’m humbled by my job when I see my patients go through very difficult things. It helps me deal with my own life.

31. Other Intriguing Findings: 1. High turnover workers engage in more: • Depersonalization: • Some people, those people vs. my residents • Polarization: • “Lazy” nurses, “bad” administrators, “whining” residents • Credential comparisons: • Frequent reference to titles • Tendency to talk about nursing as a possible job while at the same time expressing resentment of nurses

32. Other Intriguing Findings 2. Aides informally customize their work – Both expanding and contracting job scope: Expanding Scope of JobContracting Scope of Job Job Facet: Tasks Emotions Cognitions Relationships

33. Collaborative Job Crafting: • I’ve changed everything for myself. But when the [supervisor] finds out who trained me, they frown upon it. But it’s like, “mine’s more efficient,” but they’re not willing to change. • When the state comes around—you know how you can’t mix [food], but some residents won’t eat unless some stuff’s mixed. We have a women who [won’t eat her food without something sweet in it]. Yep, if there’s no ice cream in that, like, pureed meat, she won’t touch it. But you can’t do that. That’d break the rules. So, but that’s not the only thing that’s modified usually, I’d imagine. I know I’m not the only one that does it.

34. Other Intriguing Findings 3. Do we take advantage of people conditioned to hardship by encouraging them to play the role of “Super-woman”? • Isn’t it amazing, you know, as women, what we can deal with on a day-to-day basis? • I’ve never left a job without a job because I’ve always had to be the responsible one because I’m the one that takes care of everything. • I have three kids. I sleep when they’re at school. • My son calls me at 10:15 and tells me, ‘. . . I’m moving to Florida on the first of June.’ So then, you know, you go to work [at 11 o’clock], you’ve been crying for 45 minutes. . . and you have to walk in the door and act like nothing’s going on. • After my son [died] – when I first went back to work, I wanted to quit. I hated it because you can’t go through something like that and then try to go take care of [older people]. That don’t make sense when you’ve lost somebody young and healthy. And then my husband said, ‘No, don’t quit, just give it some time.’ And I did.

35. How can Health Aide Work be Better Managed? • Management and regulatory oversight should consider relational aspects of the work (NOT assume medical outcomes are the only important ones) • Dignity • Essential to staunching turnover • Social capital/ Collaborative crafting: • Essential to retention • Quality care means relational care • Dilemma: Multi-level change

36. What Have We Learned About Social Capital and Sustainable Work? • In Nursery School: collaborative job crafting • In Public Schools: team collaboration • In Nursing Homes: collaborative client care • Overall: • Organizational effectiveness is not attained through human capital alone • Policy-makers and practitioners continue to under-value social capital • Systems to manage critical societal functions (e.g., education, eldercare) continue to be unsustainable

37. What Is To Be Done? • Valuing the work and it’s larger contribution to society: • Public subsidies • Higher standards • Enhanced status • Building more effective models of work organization: • Human capital • Social capital • Work design and coordination

38. Integrated (and Mutually Reinforcing) Change: