Health care is increasingly complex, which increases the demand for knowledge and expertise. Despite this, the share of specialized nurses, including anaesthesia nurses, has decreased from 65% to 48% from year 1995 to year 2008, according to statistics from the National Board of Health and Welfare (Socialstyrelsen) in 2010. Studies indicate that there may be various factors in the work environment that anaesthesia nurses, choose to leave the anaesthesia profession. The purpose of this study was to examine how anaesthesia nurses experienced the physical and psychosocial work. The study was conducted as a descriptive study with qualitative approach. The question guide consisted of semistructured questions relevant to the purpose of the study. The interviews were transcribed and analyzed using manifest content analysis. A total of 20 anaesthesia nurses from five Central Swedish hospitals of varying size were interviewed. Anaesthesia nurses' physical and psychosocial work environment includes many stressors such as physical hard work in confined spaces, production and fulfillment, requirements and lack of control, varying relations to managers, hierarchies, team work, a lot of responsibilities, including supervision of students. The deep interest in the work, and the experience of doing an important work, offsetting to a minor part the anaesthesia nurses' work environment's negative expressions, and was a driving force to continue to work on. The results of this study should be supported by further research and investigate both the psychosocial and physical work environment for anaesthesia nurses and the impact on their psychosocial health. / Sjukvården blir alltmer komplex, vilket ökar kraven på kunskap och specialistkompetens. Trots detta har andelen specialistutbildade sjuksköterskor, däribland anestesisjuksköterskor enligt statistik från Socialstyrelsen 2010, minskat från 65% till 48% åren 1995-2008. Studier indikerar att det kan finnas faktorer i arbetsmiljön som gör att anestesisjuksköterskor av olika orsaker väljer att lämna anestesiyrket. Syftet med denna studie var att undersöka hur anestesisjuksköterskor upplevde sin fysiska och psykosociala arbetsmiljö. Studien genomfördes som en deskriptiv studie med kvalitativ ansats. Frågeguiden bestod av semistrukturerade frågor relevanta för studiens syfte. Intervjuerna transkriberades och analyserades med manifest innehållsanalys. Totalt intervjuades 20 anestesisjuksköterskor från fem mellansvenska sjukhus av varierande storlek. Anestesisjuksköterskors vardag som innebar hårt fysiskt arbete i begränsade utrymmen, höga produktionskrav, bristande kontroll, varierande förhållande till chefer, hierarkier, teamarbete, handledning av studenter och mycket ansvar för patienten var en bra grogrund för stress. Det djupa intresset för arbetet, och upplevelsen av att vara betydelsefull, uppvägde till viss del anestesisjuksköterskornas arbetsmiljös negativa yttringar, och var en drivkraft att arbeta vidare.     Resultatet av denna studie bör styrkas med ytterligare forskning med syfte att undersöka både den fysiska och psykosociala arbetsmiljön för anestesisjuksköterskor, då resultat visar att fysiska faktorer även ger utslag på den psykosociala hälsan.

Abstract The main subject of this essay is conflicts at work and the effect it has on the employee´s health.  I can through various reports read that bad health at workplaces is too high and that conflicts are a reason. What can be done to the work environment so it will be better from a psychosocial perspective? Sweden has a regulation that makes the employer responsible to work for an improvement in the work environment; can these regulations be used in purpose to reduce conflicts? My first question concerns the possibility to establish preventive procedures in the workplace systematic work regarding to improve the work environment. My second question is about the obligations of the employer to attempt to reduce conflicts at the workplace and the third question regards the documenting and monitoring of conflicts and the preventing work to reduce them. The purpose of this essay is to clarify how conflict preventive work can be included in the Systematic work environment management. To find answers to my questions I will interpret and analyze the current Swedish law but also international law. Current law and regulations will be supplemented with interviews to obtain information about the employer´s approach to preventive work regarding conflicts. After analyzing the material I come to my conclusion that it´s possible to use current regulations as a tool to reduce conflicts at workplaces and through that also reduce sick leave due to psychological disorders. But there is a need to set up more concrete routines that makes the employer´s obliged to take all measures deemed necessary.

Recent and current socio-cultural trends are significant factors impacting on how business is conduced and correspondingly, on how work environments are designed. New communication technology is helping to break physical boundaries and change the way and speed of conducting business. One of the main characteristics of these new workplaces is non-permanency wherein the individual employee has no dedicated personally assigned office, work station, or desk. In this non-territorial, nomadic situation, employees undertake their work tasks in a wide variety of work settings inside and outside the office building. Such environments are understood to be must suitable where there is the need for high interaction with others as well as a high level of concentrated, independent work. This thesis reports on a project designed to develop a deeper understanding of the relationships between people (P) and their built environment (E) in the context of everyday work practice in a nomadic and non-territorial work environment. To achieve this, the study focuses on the experiences of employees as they understand them in relation to their work and the designed/ physical work environment. In this sense, the study is qualitative and grounded in nature. It does not assume any previously established theory nor test any presenting hypothesis. Instead it interviews the participants about their situations at work in their workplace, interprets natural interaction and creates a foundation for the development of theory informing workplace design, particularly theory that recognises the human nature of work and the need, as highlighted by several seminal researchers, for a greater understanding of how people manage and adapt in dynamic work environments.

Thesis (M.S.)--Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, 1990. / Vita. Abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 84-89). Also available via the Internet.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, 1990. / Vita. Abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 112-125). Also available via the Internet.

Thesis (M.Phil. (Labour relations))-University of Pretoria, 2005. / Summary in English. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 115-118). Available on the Internet via the World Wide Web.

The purpose of this study was to investigate how construction work environment coordination for executions is organized, can be improved, and what in form of conditions are desired for the individuals who perform this work in the energy industry. The study was performed with a qualitative method, questionnaires were addressed to four different occupational groups at seven different companies. Construction work environment coordinator for planning at a developer, work environment manager, construction work environment coordinator for execution and electricians, all the latter three at an electricity network contractor. The result of the study shows that especially time and knowledge are two important conditions that today need to be improved for the construction work environment coordinator for execution. Recourses and authority are also two conditions that can be improved for a safer workplace. The lack of knowledge is not only seen with the electricity network contractors. The developers can, according to the respondents, also improve in the way they plan the work and be more precise in how much time is needed for the construction work environment coordinator for execution. To reduce stress and the risk of workplace accidents developers should calculate more time for each project. The conclusion of this study is that improvement of knowledge from all parts of the energy industry is needed, and that more time in both projects and construction work environment coordination must be increased.

Syftet med den här studien var att skapa en djupare förståelse kring hur ledarskapet och ledarens kön påverkar individens psykosociala arbetsmiljö. Frågeställningarna som skulle förklaras var: hur ser det önskade resultatet av ledarskapets inverkan på den psykosociala arbetsmiljön ut? Hur ser det upplevda/faktiska ledarskapets inverkan på den psykosociala arbetsmiljön ut? Hur upplevs ledarens kön inverka på den psykosociala arbetsmiljön? Den tidigare forskningen visar på att det finns ett visst samband mellan vad som kännetecknar manligt och kvinnligt ledarskap i form av transformativt och transaktionellt ledarskap. Detta är även något som kan påverka den psykosociala arbetsmiljön, då det transformativa ledarskapet ses som det mjuka och förknippas med ett kvinnligt ledarskap, medan det transaktionella ses som ett mer auktoritärt ledarskap och därmed som ett mer manligt ledarskap. Det som dock framkom i intervjuerna i den här studien är att respondenterna inte ser ledarskapet som manligt eller kvinnligt, utan mer att det beror på vilken typ av ledarstil som ledaren utövar. Det betyder att respondenterna upplevde att såväl manliga som kvinnliga ledare kunde använda sig av såväl transformativt som transaktionellt ledarskap och därmed påverkades den psykosociala arbetsmiljön utifrån ledarstil och inte utifrån könet på ledaren. Studien genomfördes genom att åtta respondenter intervjuades, av dessa var fem medarbetare och tre var chefer. En orsak till att studiens resultat skiljer sig från den tidigare forskningen kan vara valet av metod och för få respondenter. / The purpose of this study was to create a deeper understanding of how leadership and the gender of the leader affects the individual's psychosocial work environment. The questions to be explained were: What does the desired outcome of leadership's impact on the psychosocial work environment look like? What is the impact of perceived/actual leadership on the psychosocial work environment? How is the gender of the leader perceived to affect the psychosocial work environment? The previous research shows that there is a certain connection between what characterizes male and female leadership in the form of transformative and transactional leadership. This is also something that can affect the psychosocial work environment, as transformative leadership is seen as the soft and associated with a female leadership, while the transactional is seen as a more authoritarian leadership and thus as a more male leadership. However, what emerged in the interviews in this study is that the respondents do not see leadership as male or female, but more that it depends on the type of leadership style that the leader exercises. This means that the respondents felt that both male and female leaders could use both transformative and transactional leadership and thus the psychosocial work environment was affected based on leadership style and not on the gender of the leader. The study was conducted by interviewing eight respondents, of whom five were employees and three were managers. One reason why the study's results differ from the previous research may be the choice of method and too few respondents.

Syftet med denna studie är att ta reda på hur chefer med personalansvar arbetar med arbetsmiljöfrågor för att förebygga och hantera stress på arbetsplatsen. Studien använder en kvalitativ metod med semi-strukturerade intervjuer. Totalt genomfördes 7 intervjuer med 7 olika chefer med personalansvar. Samtliga intervjuer spelades in. Materialet bearbetades och undersöktes för att sedan mynna ut i studiens resultat- och analysavsnitt. För att ytterligare tyda och tolka materialet så analyserades detta med hjälp av krav och kontroll modellen i kombination med socialt support modellen som myntades av Karasek & Theorell (1990) respektive Johnson & Hall (1988). Resultatet visar på att chefer med personalansvar arbetar aktivt med arbetsmiljöfrågor och mer specifikt att förebygga stress på arbetsplatsen. Enligt cheferna själva betonades öppen kommunikation mellan chefen själv och de anställda vara det viktigaste verktyget för att förebygga och hantera stress på arbetsplatsen. Detta reflekteras i studiens resultat. Resultatet visade, först och främst, att kommunikation i kombination med att stötta sina medarbetare är essentiellt för att förebygga stress på arbetsplatsen. Kommunikationen fokuserade främst på anställdas arbetssituation och välmående, men även att som chef konstant vara lyhörd och lyssna på sina anställda. Vidare visade resultatet att cheferna arbetar med att förebygga stress med hjälp av digitala verktyg, dessutom sker även medarbetarsamtal och medarbetarundersökningar ofta. Chefer med personalansvar uppgavs även ha handlingsplaner för om en anställd skulle drabbas av stress som sedan resulterar i psykisk ohälsa. Handlingsplanen innefattar rehabilitering, arbetsträning men även möjlighet till  psykolog- och arbetsterapeuthjälp. Studien hoppas kunna vara ett bidrag till att förstå den nuvarande trenden där psykisk ohälsa och sjukskrivningar på grund av arbetet ökar i Sverige. / The aim of this study is to find out how managers with employee responsibility work with work environmental questions to prevent and manage stress in the workplace. The study uses  a qualitative method with semi-structured interviews. In total 7 interviews were carried out with 7 different managers who all had employee responsibility. All interviews were recorded. The material was then processed and researched which then culminated in a detailed results and analysis section off the study. In order to further decipher and interpret the material, it was analyzed using the demands and control model in combination with the social support model coined by Karasek & Theorell (1990) and Johnson & Hall (1988). The result shows that managers with responsibility over employees work actively with work environmental questions and more specifically to prevent stress in the workplace. According to the managers themselves, open communication between the manager themselves and the employees was emphasized as the most important tool for preventing and managing stress in the workplace. This is reflected in the study's results. The results showed, first of all, that communication in combination with supporting one's employees is essential for preventing stress in the workplace. The communication mainly focused on the employees' work situation and well-being, but also that, as a manager, constantly being responsive and listening to your employees. Furthermore, the results showed that managers work to prevent stress with the help of digital tools, in addition to this, employee interviews and employee surveys is also frequently taking place. Managers with  responsibility over employees were also stated to have action plans for if an employee were to suffer from stress which then results in mental illness. The action plan often includes rehabilitation, job training but also the possibility of psychological and occupational therapist help. The study hopes to be a contribution to understanding the current trend where mental illness and sick leave due to work are increasing in Sweden.

Late 19th century and until 1978, it was only the physical work environment that has been regulated in the legal text. It was only when the Work Environment Act came into force in 1978 that the psychosocial issues came to be included in the legal text. Today, most of the sick leave is due to the psychosocial work environment in the workplace. The work environment is regulated in the Work Environment Act and through the Swedish Work Environment Authority's statutes. Sweden's membership of the EU must take into account Council Directive 89/391/EEC of 12 June 1989 on the introduction of measures to encourage improvements in the safety and health of workers at work. It is the employer who is responsible for the work environment and the law's starting point is that the employer must ensure that the work environment is a safe place without ill health and accidents. This through systematic work environment work can prevent ill health and accidents even before they occur and also know what measures need to be taken. Work Environment Act places very extensive demands on the employer regarding measures to be taken to prevent ill health and accidents at the workplace, while the law does not state how it is to be conducted. Therefore, the Swedish Work Environment Authority has issued a large number of statutes that will give the law a more concrete nature