• Journal of the Korean association of regional geographers
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• v.18 no.1
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• pp.86-100
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• 2012

This study examines turnover intentions of social workers in the public and private sectors from a comparative perspective. Major findings of this study are as follows: 1. There exists a paradox between public and private social workers that private social workers show their turnover intentions more saliently than public social workers, even though the former is paid much less, but more satisfied with their jobs, and then expresses turnover intentions more often than the latter. 2. The 'voice hypothesis' can be an alternative explanation to figure out why the paradoxical difference exists between the two groups of social workers when we include the mechanism of empowerment into the equations regarding social workers' turnover intentions and job satisfaction. 3. The equity theory of motivation can explain the paradoxical difference if we make use of the meaning of the 'equity' formula which stands for the ratio between inputs and outputs exerted by the social workers.