Social Worker Turnover under the Lump Sum Grant Subvention System in Hong Kong: Organisation-Level Analyses Haijing Dai *, Niantao Jiang and Ruobing Li Department of Social Work, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shatin N.T., Hong Kong *Correspondence to Haijing Dai, Department of Social Work, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shatin, N.T., Hong Kong. E-mail: hjdai@swk.cuhk.edu.hk Abstract Increasing turnovers of social workers under the managerialist system of service sub- vention in Hong Kong have aroused much concern, but systematic and evidence- based investigation of the problem remains limited, particularly at the organisational level. Using organisation-level data collected from the managers of 101 service organi- sations, this study examines how organisational characteristics and management prac- tices associate with the turnover rates of social workers. The results show that starting salaries of social workers, income inequality between social workers and managers and service types of organisations affect the odds of emerging social worker turnover. Meanwhile, hiring practices that replace social worker positions with lower-paid jobs and lack of peer support in larger service organisations increase the odds of both emerging and severe turnovers of social workers. Differentiated employment terms and income stratification amongst social workers in the same organisation, however, do not have a significant relationship with social worker turnover. Our findings sug- gest that social workers tend to demonstrate solidarity as a professional group under the managerialist welfare and service administrations in Hong Kong. Organisational justice in salary distribution and organisational respect for their professional values and team spirits may retain them in service delivery for longer times. Keywords: Hong Kong, managerialism, organisation-level analysis, social worker, turnover, welfare reform Accepted: June 2021 Frequent turnover of front line social workers is a shared problem in so- cial service provision worldwide. To promote effective, consistent and www.basw.co.uk # The Author(s) 2021. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of The British Association of Social Workers. All rights reserved. British Journal of Social Work (2022) 52, 1683–1702 doi: 10.1093/bjsw/bcab148 Advance Access Publication July 19, 2021 Downloaded from https://academic.oup.com/bjsw/article/52/3/1683/6327302 by KIM Hohenheim user on 23 April 2022