The leadership experiences of child welfare supervisors in the state of Maryland department of human resources: Impacts on the dynamics of retaining supervisory leadership

This is a study about the leadership journey of public child welfare supervisors. The purpose of this research is to conduct a qualitative research project with public child welfare supervisors that examines their leadership experiences and ascertains if, and to what extent these experiences impact the key decisions they make including the intent to stay. The leadership literature review yielded vast numbers of leadership studies, but only a few focused on the public child welfare supervisor that opts to stay employed in public service. Specifically, this study seeks to understand the leadership journey of public child welfare supervisors, and the construction of meaning leadership has for mastering the context of their work. It explores the extent, to which their understanding of leadership and perceptions of leadership experiences impacts their intent to stay. Fourteen child welfare supervisors working in the public sector in Maryland were asked through in depth interviews to provide stories regarding perceptions of their own leadership experiences and the importance of leadership as it relates to their intent to remain employed in child welfare.;Themes and patterns were coded using a computerized database, NVIVO 8, which was helpful analyzing similarities, patterns, and differences. A focus group and content analysis of the NASW Code of Ethics corroborated the themes and patterns. Recommendations were offered pursuant to credibility of the interpretations of the a data by persons with extensive field and supervisory experience in public child welfare . This qualitative, interpretive study using narratives, explored leadership experiences of fourteen child welfare supervisors from two jurisdictions in the state of Maryland. Interpretation of the data provided an understanding of the relationship between self defined leadership, mastery of specific contextual elements in public child welfare leadership, and the intent of child welfare supervisors to remain employed in public child welfare. Leadership involves more than the event of promotion. Retention involves more than the act of remaining on the job. Leadership and retention are both complex processes that represent a series of steps in unique professional learning, and adaptability. The meaning of these experiences and leadership as a critical phenomenon of professional commitment is at the core of this research.;Child welfare supervisors are personally and professionally challenged to develop strong perceptions of themselves as leaders to navigate organizational changes and turbulences in their practice. Through their leadership journeys, supervisors develop, and facilitate professional cultures in public organizations that foster their development and growth and also that of others. Leadership is subsequently an interdependent developmental process. The differentiation of oneself as a leader and meanings attributed to leadership experiences are a manifestation of the affective connection one has with his/her profession, and organization. To this extent leadership is an affective interpersonal developmental process.;Professional commitment has been validated in the literatures as a factor tied to retention. Values, norms, mores and ethics, are defining features of the profession that impact professional commitment and the evolution of supervisorial leadership in this study. Subsequently, this study argues a conceptual link between, professional commitment, leadership and intent to stay.;Child welfare supervisors see themselves as leaders. Their shared stories are filled with descriptions of behaviors that indicate they are practicing differential leadership in their work groups and in their organizations. Their commitment to the profession of social work and to child welfare strongly impacts their intent to stay. Moreover, the data from this study indicates that leadership is a cultural process that in the public sector is initially tied to the profession and evolves in stages into personal transcendence, allowing the public child welfare supervisor to adapt, and to resolve organizational stressors that influence their growth as leaders.