Experienced support at work, team climate and collaboration in teams working with people with mild intellectual disabilities and severe challenging behaviour in residential care: a cross-sectional study.
Daily praise and clear team goals lift residential staff happiness more than perfect outside meetings.
01Research in Context
What this study did
The authors asked 301 residential staff to fill out a survey.
All staff worked with adults who had mild intellectual disability plus severe challenging behavior.
The survey measured how much support each worker felt from leaders, peers, and outside pros.
It also asked about team climate, job joy, and personal well-being.
What they found
More support from any group—boss, peer, or psychologist—meant happier, healthier staff.
Clear team goals and shared pride also lifted mood and job satisfaction.
Surprise: how well outside teams worked together did not predict staff happiness.
How this fits with other research
Lancioni et al. (2011) saw the same link—low support raises burnout.
Kozak et al. (2013) added that role conflict and work-home mix-ups hurt staff most.
Together the three surveys show: fix support AND cut conflict to protect workers.
Johnson et al. (2009) found supervisor support also boosts ABA therapists’ belief they can help kids.
The pattern is the same across jobs—good bosses guard against burnout everywhere.
Why it matters
You can’t control how outside teams mesh, but you can control your own support style.
Praise staff daily, run short huddles with clear goals, and invite psychologist backup.
These low-cost moves raise job joy and keep your best people on the floor.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
BACKGROUND: This study explored the perceptions of staff for people with mild intellectual disabilities or borderline intellectual functioning and severe challenging behaviour in relation to the support they received at work from four groups of professionals (i.e. team leaders, managers, psychologists and other staff members). The team climate, such as the workplace having clearly defined goals for staff, was also explored. In addition, the associations between the support from each of the professionals and team climate with the well-being and job satisfaction of staff were examined. We hypothesised that staff would perceive higher levels of support from professionals around a team (i.e. team leaders, managers and psychologists) and a more positive team climate when professionals around a team experience more positive mutual collaboration. METHODS: An online questionnaire about support at work, team climate, well-being and job satisfaction was completed by 201 staff members from 32 teams at 10 residential service organisations. In addition, professionals surrounding these teams rated their mutual collaboration. RESULTS: Both support received at work from all four groups of professionals and team climate showed significant small to moderate positive associations with job satisfaction. Well-being was associated with support from team leaders, psychologists and other staff members in the team, as well as with team climate. We did not find support for the hypotheses that staff would perceive higher levels of support or a more positive team climate when professionals around a team experience more positive mutual collaboration. CONCLUSIONS: This study highlights the importance of investing in staff support and creating a positive team climate for promoting staff well-being and job satisfaction. Implications for future research regarding staff support, team climate and the collaboration between professionals around a team are discussed.
Journal of intellectual disability research : JIDR, 2023 · doi:10.1111/jir.13045