Social workers’ work effort, engagement, and reward: Evidence from Beijing

Summary As community respondents to disease prevention and control, social workers faced extreme demands and challenges during the coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic. Based on data collected from 762 social workers in Beijing's urban area in 2022, this study conducts a moderated mediation model with Bootstrapping analysis to investigate how their effort-reward imbalance influences their work engagement and what role professional identity and perceived performance appraisal play in this relationship. Findings The results show that when social workers perceive an effort-reward imbalance, their professional identities become weaker, and their work engagement decreases to avoid aggravating the imbalance. In addition, a top–down designed and controlling performance appraisal can enlarge this relationship. Applications Social workers, as the frontline respondents to the pandemic where high efforts are unavoidable, should be granted more rewards to correct the effort-reward imbalance. Also, any management measures, including performance management or appraisal, shall be fairly designed as a useful source, helping social workers’ improvement and acknowledging their efforts, rather than merely imposing control.