<p>Det finns många aktörer på marknaden som säljer hälsofrämjande tjänster till företag, föreningar och organisationer. Två bolag inom Sandvik AB köper en sjuk- och friskanmälningstjänst med telefonrådgivning av Unimed Care AB. Syftet med uppsatsen var att utföra en utvärdering åt de två bolag som köper tjänsten, samt se effekten av den. Tre olika enkäter delades ut till totalt 861 medarbetare. Bortfallet i undersökningen är betydande, 21 % av undersökningspopulationen deltog i utvärderingen. En enkät riktar sig till medarbetare, en till flödeschefer och en till Human Resource (personalavdelningen). För att komplettera insamlat material har information sökts via telefon och mail. Resultatet visar att medarbetares och flödeschefers uppfattningar om tjänsten varierar. För att öka samtligas tillfredställelse med tjänsten behövs mer information och kunskap om tjänsten, samt dess syfte. Det är många som inte vet hur tjänsten kan användas. Flödescheferna kan behöva förslag på hur statistiken kan användas i arbetet med personalfrågor. Sjukfrånvaron har minskat nationellt och även inom Sandvik koncernen under 2006-2008. Att sjukfrånvaron minskat under de år bolagen köpt tjänsten från Unimed kan förklaras som en kombination av samtliga insatser som bolagen genomfört, förändringar i nationella regler för sjukskrivning, samt att sjukskrivningarna minskat i hela landet.</p>

<p>Syftet med denna studie är att undersöka faktorer kring hög korttidssjukfrånvaro (sjukfrånvaro dag 1-14) på Ekgårdens äldreboende i Vingåkers kommun. Metoderna som använts är granskning av frånvarostatistik, intervjuer med tre chefer och enkätundersökning bland de anställda (n=26). Den undersökta gruppen består nästan uteslutande av kvinnor med relativt låg inkomst och utbildning, faktorer som enligt tidigare forskning sammanfaller med hög sjukfrånvaro. Studien visar även att de anställda i den undersökta gruppen fått erfara täta omorganisationer och chefsbyten samt att de upplever vissa brister i den fysiska arbetsmiljön i form av tunga lyft, fysiskt ansträngande arbete och dålig luft samt i den psykosociala arbetsmiljön i form av höga krav och låg egenkontroll. Dessa faktorer kan vara bidragande orsaker till den höga korttidssjukfrånvaron.</p> / <p>The aim of this study is to investigate factors concerning high levels of short term sick leave (absence day 1-14) at the old people’s home of Ekgården in Vingåker. Methods used include statistics revision, interviews with three managers and questionnaire among employees (n=26). The group of employees consists almost exclusively of women with relatively low salaries and low level of educational attainment, which, according to previous research, coincide with high levels of sickness absence. The study shows that the group of employees during the last couple of years has had to endure quite a few reorganizations and changes in management. They also experience some shortages in their physical work environment like heavy lifting, physical demanding work and poor air ventilation and in their psychosocial work environment with high demands and low self control. These factors might be contributing to high levels of short term sick leave.</p>

Syftet med denna studie är att undersöka faktorer kring hög korttidssjukfrånvaro (sjukfrånvaro dag 1-14) på Ekgårdens äldreboende i Vingåkers kommun. Metoderna som använts är granskning av frånvarostatistik, intervjuer med tre chefer och enkätundersökning bland de anställda (n=26). Den undersökta gruppen består nästan uteslutande av kvinnor med relativt låg inkomst och utbildning, faktorer som enligt tidigare forskning sammanfaller med hög sjukfrånvaro. Studien visar även att de anställda i den undersökta gruppen fått erfara täta omorganisationer och chefsbyten samt att de upplever vissa brister i den fysiska arbetsmiljön i form av tunga lyft, fysiskt ansträngande arbete och dålig luft samt i den psykosociala arbetsmiljön i form av höga krav och låg egenkontroll. Dessa faktorer kan vara bidragande orsaker till den höga korttidssjukfrånvaron. / The aim of this study is to investigate factors concerning high levels of short term sick leave (absence day 1-14) at the old people’s home of Ekgården in Vingåker. Methods used include statistics revision, interviews with three managers and questionnaire among employees (n=26). The group of employees consists almost exclusively of women with relatively low salaries and low level of educational attainment, which, according to previous research, coincide with high levels of sickness absence. The study shows that the group of employees during the last couple of years has had to endure quite a few reorganizations and changes in management. They also experience some shortages in their physical work environment like heavy lifting, physical demanding work and poor air ventilation and in their psychosocial work environment with high demands and low self control. These factors might be contributing to high levels of short term sick leave.

The importance of organizations for understanding differences in the working conditions and health of employees is often emphasized but rarely explored empirically. The general aim of this thesis is to describe organizational characteristics of workplaces, and to assess their impact on the psychosocial working conditions and health of employees. In modern working life, it is assumed that employees' working conditions and health are affected by a general transformation of workplaces from bureaucracy to post-bureaucracy.  The organizational data used are based on structured interviews with managers at workplaces in different types of operations in mid-Sweden, whereas the individual data consist of a questionnaire to all employees working in the participating workplaces, resulting in a dataset of 90 workplaces and 4306 individuals. Descriptive analysis was carried out for comparison of organizational characteristics in different types of operations, while multilevel analysis was applied to investigate the magnitude of the organizational impact on psychosocial working conditions, and to analyze associations between organizational characteristics, psychosocial working conditions and health. The results showed that the workplaces were mainly displayed by a combination of bureaucratic and post-bureaucratic characteristics, and these were unequally distributed between types of operations. A systematic variation in the psychosocial working conditions and health of employees was found between workplaces, and the variation in psychosocial working conditions was attributed to several organizational levels. The variation between workplaces was explained by both organizational characteristics of the workplaces and individual characteristics of the employees. Formalization, centralization, job enrichment, individual responsibility, soft control systems, and performance control were associated with psychosocial working conditions when controlled for occupational class, gender and age of employees, and a high degree of customer adaptation was associated with increased sickness absence of employees.   It is concluded that bureaucracy and post-bureaucracy should not be regarded as dichotomies. Organizational characteristics of workplaces have an impact on the psychosocial working conditions and health of employees beyond occupational class. This has implications for both the theory and the practice of occupational health research. / The Healthy Workplace Study

Det finns många aktörer på marknaden som säljer hälsofrämjande tjänster till företag, föreningar och organisationer. Två bolag inom Sandvik AB köper en sjuk- och friskanmälningstjänst med telefonrådgivning av Unimed Care AB. Syftet med uppsatsen var att utföra en utvärdering åt de två bolag som köper tjänsten, samt se effekten av den. Tre olika enkäter delades ut till totalt 861 medarbetare. Bortfallet i undersökningen är betydande, 21 % av undersökningspopulationen deltog i utvärderingen. En enkät riktar sig till medarbetare, en till flödeschefer och en till Human Resource (personalavdelningen). För att komplettera insamlat material har information sökts via telefon och mail. Resultatet visar att medarbetares och flödeschefers uppfattningar om tjänsten varierar. För att öka samtligas tillfredställelse med tjänsten behövs mer information och kunskap om tjänsten, samt dess syfte. Det är många som inte vet hur tjänsten kan användas. Flödescheferna kan behöva förslag på hur statistiken kan användas i arbetet med personalfrågor. Sjukfrånvaron har minskat nationellt och även inom Sandvik koncernen under 2006-2008. Att sjukfrånvaron minskat under de år bolagen köpt tjänsten från Unimed kan förklaras som en kombination av samtliga insatser som bolagen genomfört, förändringar i nationella regler för sjukskrivning, samt att sjukskrivningarna minskat i hela landet.

Muovendo da una vasta ricognizione sulle riviste letterarie degli anni Trenta, la ricerca si è concentrata sui principali periodici a cui hanno collaborato poeti e critici ermetici: Interessanti si sono rivelati i rapporti epistolari tra i poeti e i direttori e redattori delle riviste: nella tesi sono state riportate le lettere più significative, con privilegio per quelle inedite. Sono stati riportati diversi documenti di natura critico-teorica, alcuni testi poetici rari di Mario Luzi (mai confluiti in una silloge e mai riproposti da alcuno studioso) e sono state antologizzate (con trascrizione dei testi e apparato in calce) le liriche di alcuni poeti che presentano varianti rispetto all'ultima edizione in volume: si tratta di versi di Mario Luzi, Umberto Saba, Carlo Betocchi, Giuseppe Ungaretti, Salvatore Quasimodo, Alessandro Parronchi. Almeno un terzo della tesi è dedicato a questo. / Starting from a wide investigation in the literary reviews in the '30s, the research has focused on the major magazines, for which hermetic poets and critics worked. The correspondence between poets and editors in chief and members of the editorial staff has proved extremely interesting; the most meaningful letters, especially the unpublished ones, are presented in the thesis. Many critic-theoretic documents and some rare poetries by Mario Luzi (never collected nor published by critics) are also reproduced. Moreover lyrics by various poets, such as Mario Luzi, Umberto Saba, Carlo Betocchi, Giuseppe Ungaretti, Salvatore Quasimodo, Alessandro Parronchi, have been anthologised (with text transcription and apparatus criticus below); all of them present some changes in text compared to the final version, printed in volume. This analysis represents, at least, the third part of the thesis.

If I relate beauty to nothingness, what happens? Is nothingness sort of an absence of beauty? Or it is portrayed by our culture and society, and, in such case, can I define this absence of beauty? Is it beauty that you cannot even catch? Is its appearance neutral, almost hidden? When we are born, we all have the same degree of beauty and purity, which is progressively lost as long as we start growing up. In a life span, we accumulate wrinkles, and defects and dirt which needs to be concealed in order to fit in certain social categories. But our bodies register all the marks, absorb all the signs and impurities, likewise filters. We don’t necessarly perceive our own dirt or impurities as disgusting, whereas, in the clash with the other, we automatically are ahsamed of it. Same way, we tend to regard the other’s dirt as disgusting, not our own, very private dirt. Dirt is matter out of place, so is ugliness. The stain must be cleansed, purified as it represents a threaten for beauty. It is subtracting clean space to beauty. We are part of a society that intimates us to clean up, shape up, hide your -very human- dirt under the carpet. But beauty, nor humanity, would not exist without that dirt. We do absorb impurities all life long. And that is what makes us what we ultimately are: humans. Dirt paradoxically works as a protection: the dirtier we are, the less afraid of getting dirty we will be. In the society we live in exist many difficulties when it comes to find an identity as humans and a position in it. We are often put in a situation of having to follow: a certain career, a living style, an ideology, somebody’s else opinion, what to consume, school systems. Etcetera. In such a society, and because of this “follower-like”, passive position, where we mostly have to repeat the same living patterns, it got harder and harder to retrieve the meaning of things and to understand where we come from. Who we really are. We tend to put on uniforms or masks to fit in different standardazied situations. Everything and everybody has to fit in its or his standard place. This way our intrinsic human beauty is concealed and somehow controlled. With my essai, I try to look under the carpet, undress, unmask and reach a new definition of beauty: a naked beauty, not concealed nor camouflaged. The beauty we all deeply share, unpretentious and honest. A beauty of nothingness: something I see or feel, but about which I keep wondering whether it is or it is not beauty. To develop such new definition of beauty, I recollect ideas and concepts of beauty from the past, with a main reference to western society: from beauty models in the ancient Greece, Apollonian VS Dionysian, to the Sublime, untill the present time. I try to define what purpose and non-purpose beauty is. What is ugliness and dirt and how they both are a prerequisites of beauty. I finally take a more personal look upon contemporary society and how its mechanisms define a beauty which is standard. It is starting from a reflexion about standard society and beauty, that I then define a more intrinsic human beauty. Such unevokable sensation of beauty is extremely subtle, hard to acknowledge: one needs to train ones eyes and go beyond the layers, to discover the beauty of nothingness.

One of the prevalent notions in the late twentieth century&lsquo / s political philosophy, justice lies at the heart of ethics, politics and jurisprudence. In this study, while I insist on the dominion of politics and the economic mode of production over morality and law, I consider the ethical realm to be also very important in justifying political movements and transformations. Defining the concept of justice plays a role more or less in the realization of justice on the Earth. I try to reveal the bases of justice in the second chapter. My attitude can be defined as foundationalism and realism molded with historical materialism. Subsequently, I attempt to deal with the bearers of justice / i.e., individuals, institutions, or structures. The contemporary political theories on justice pay attention to the notion of the individual and the faculty of rationality. Although I admit the role ofindividuals in ensuring justice, social structures are the main bearers of justice. In the fourth chapter, I cover the main principles or pillars of justice, namely, equality, freedom, and rights. Equality can be classified as legal, political, social, economic and moral. I claim that economic equality is the principal one among others since economic inequality usually generates other inequalities. Economic equality can be satisfied through just production in which alienation and exploitation do not take place. Absence of exploitation is also required for realization of freedoms and human rights. Thus, I propose the principle of absence of exploitation as a primary justice principle, which is necessary but not sufficient to eradicate injustices in the world.

Indirect signs of species presence (e.g., tracks, scats, hairs) are frequently used to detect target species in occupancy, presence/absence, and other wildlife studies. Indirect signs are often more efficient than direct observation of elusive animals, making such signs well suited for long-term and broad-scale monitoring programs. However, error associated with misidentification of indirect signs can be high, and should be measured if meaningful inferences about population parameters are to be made. This study addressed the need for systematic approaches to estimate and minimize variation due to observer error in identifying indirect signs. I reanalyzed data from 4 replicates of a presence/absence survey of northern river otters (Lontra canadensis) that had been conducted by Texas Parks and Wildlife Department (1996-2003). Sixteen observers had recorded tracks at sample points under bridges (n = 250) distributed throughout 27 counties in the Piney-Woods ecoregion of east Texas. My objectives were to 1) determine if observers were a source of bias in the survey, 2) estimate the proportion of error associated with track identification skill, and 3) evaluate the use of an international certification procedure that measured observer tracking skill. The null hypothesis that observers had no effect on the variation in reported sign was rejected. Indeed, binary logistic regression tests indicated that observers were significantly associated with variation in reported track presence. Observers were not randomly distributed among bridge sites, and therefore were significantly correlated with 4 habitat variables that may have influenced heterogeneity in otter occupancy and probability of detection (watershed, vegetation-type, water-type, bridge-area). On average, experienced observers (n = 7) misidentified 44% of otter tracks, with a range of 0% to 100% correct detection. Also, 13% of the tracks of species determined to be 'otter-like' were misidentified as belonging to an otter. During the certification procedure, participants misidentified the tracks of 12 species as otter. Inaccurate identification of indirect signs is a likely source of error in wildlife studies. I recommend that observer skill in identification of indirect signs be measured in order to detect and control for observer bias in wildlife monitoring.

Syftet med studien var att undersöka varför korttidsfrånvaron hade ökat inom hemtjänsten i en offentlig organisation med fokus på den psykosociala arbetsmiljön. Studien bygger på nio intervjuer som analyserades genom en grundläggande kvalitativ metod. Resultatet visar att de anställda upplevde tidspressade arbetsdagar där arbetsbelastning generellt ansågs vara för hög. Det fanns inte alltid tid till att utföra arbetsuppgifterna under ordinarie arbetstid och inga marginaler fanns för de oväntade händelser som ofta uppkom i arbetet. De anställda upplevde att gemenskapen i arbetsgruppen var god men kände en ensamhet under arbetsdagen och önskade mer gemensam tid tillsammans. Det var skilda meningar om ledarskapet och stödet från chefen. Några av de anställda önskade mer stöd och uppmuntran samt att arbetet utöver vårdarbetet skulle uppskattas mer medan andra var nöjda. Slutsatsen var att korttidsfrånvaron hade ökat på grund av den höga arbetsbelastningen, en stressig arbetsmiljö samt långa arbetsperioder utan ledighet. / The purpose of the study was to examine why the short-term absence had increased within home care in a public organization with focus on the psychosocial work environment. The study is based on nine interviews and the data were analyzed using a basic qualitative research. The results shows that the employees experienced time-pressured working days where the workload generally was considered to be too high. There was not always time for them to perform their duties during normal working hours and there were no margins for the unexpected events that often arose in the work. The employees felt that the community of the workgroup was good but felt a loneliness during the working day and wanted more shared time together. The conclusion was that the short-term absence had increased due to the high workload, a stressful work environment, and long periods of work without time off.