THE MEDIATION EFFECT OF BURNOUT ON SELF EFFICACY AND JOB SATISFACTION FOR SOCIAL WORK IN MACAU

In many studies of social workers, topics such as burnout and job satisfaction are relatively
frequently studied and discussed. There are even fewer relevant studies on social workers in Macau. Therefore, research on self-efficacy, burnout, and job satisfaction among social workers in Macau will be a relatively new research topic. The purpose of this study is to investigate whether and to what extent job burnout mediates the effects of self-efficacy and job satisfaction. We explored the relationships between: (1) the positive relationship between self-efficacy and job satisfaction; (2) the negative relationship between
self-efficacy and burnout; (3) the negative relationship between burnout and job satisfaction; and (4) burnout has a mediation effect in the relationship between self-efficacy and job satisfaction. Quantitative and cross-sectional design research was applied by using an online self-response survey (N = 100), conducted using a snowball sampling technique among Macau's full-time social workers. Results from simple linear regression showed that the findings demonstrate significant results on the relationship between social workers' self-efficacy, burnout, and job satisfaction in Macau. Overall burnout had a significant negative prediction towards overall self-efficacy (r = -.47, p <.001); overall self-efficacy can significantly positive predict overall job satisfaction (r =.31, p <.01); Burnout can significantly negatively predict job satisfaction (r = -.43, p <.001), so multiple linear regression analysis was performed. The results showed that when burnout was used as one of the
predictors, although burnout had a significant negative prediction on job satisfaction, burnout had a significant negative impact on self-efficacy and job satisfaction. The relationship between them has a very complete mediating effect. This means that the relationship between self-efficacy and job satisfaction is fully mediated by burnout. If corresponding resource policies and strategies are developed to improve social workers' self-efficacy, thereby reducing burnout and improving job satisfaction, this may be beneficial to both employees and organizations. Our study contributes to the direction in which positive expectations influence individual turnover intentions of Macau social workers. This study has theoretical implications for organizations and employees, and future research should continue to explore suggestions such as the limits and causal relationships of self-efficacy to help policymakers develop strategies to reduce social worker turnover.