A Study of Psychiatric Social Workers’ Happiness at Work Department of Mental Health, Ministry of Public Health

Abstract

Happiness at work is a significant issue for workers, their colleagues, the organization as well as the people who use their services. This study aimed to investigate their level of happiness at work and compare the selected factors which are age and position and income. The target group of the study was the social workers who work in psychiatric hospitals or institutes, mental health centers, or public agencies under the Department of Mental Health. The subjects were 123 workers. The study employed the method of survey research, using a questionnaire that consists of 2 parts. Part 1 collected the demographic data. Part 2 examined the opinion of respondents on the various elements that cause happiness in the workplace based on the theory of Frederick Herzberg with .94 confidence level. Data were analyzed by a computer program with descriptive statistics including frequency, percentage, average, standard deviation and one-way analysis of variance (One-way ANOVA). The differences found will be compared by LS.D.multiple comparisons.(Least Square Difference).

Results  The results reveal that the psychiatric social workers have an overall high level of happiness at work ,except for the salary factor which is at the medium level.  The results also show that age, position, and income of the psychiatric social workers have an impact on the level of happiness at work. The psychiatric social workers aged between 41-50 years, the psychiatric social workers at Senior Professional Level and those whose income is between 30,000-40,000 baht per month report the highest level of happiness at work.

Conclusion  The psychiatric social workers have an overall high level of happiness at work.  Personal factors including age, position and income have an impact on the level of happiness at work, with a 0.05 difference on statistical significance level (p <.05).