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.

Background: At the central administrative level in Sweden, care work is presented as a complex task for which personnel require special qualifications. In elderly care, questions of training and qualifications form the highly topical theme noticed by central actors. According to The National Board of Health and Welfare, the supply of manpower and the educational levels of the workers are the most important factors in ensuring high quality care for the elderly. The question of educational levels is, however, with the exception of personal assistants, not given as much attention in care for people with disabilities. Aim: The aim of this dissertation is firstly to compare elderly care and care for persons with disabilities with the focus to describe and analyse education and work environment in these sectors. Secondly, the aim is to analyse if, and if so how, questions of education interacts with personnel’s view of the social work environment. Methods: The thesis is comprised of four studies and paper 1, 2 and 3 are based on the results of a qualitative interview study, which was comprised of 48 persons who worked in elderly care and the care for persons with disabilities. Of the 48 persons who took part in the study, 11 of them worked as middle managers and 37 worked as care workers in the every day care. Paper 4 consists of a research summary on how education for care workers is being studied in a Swedish and an international context. The personnel who participated in the interview study work in different care settings; in elderly care the personnel work in both sheltered housing and public home care services. In the care for disabled persons, the personnel work in residential housing with special services, in public daily activities for people with intellectual disabilities and as personal assistants. Result: Both managers and personnel find it important for care workers to have a degree of educational background as a basis for the learning process at the work place. The results also show that educational levels and the work environment are themes that are discussed differently by different actors. In previous research on education for care workers in both elderly care and the care for People with disabilities, academic education or education at a ground level has been seen as problematic due to the distance it is said to create between the worker and the care recipient. My results show that the discussion about education for care workers has become rather biased, and that highly educated personnel tend to be more aware of the power they possesses and that the relation to the care receiver is important. In elderly care the issue of education seems to be more a question of a general educational level. In the care for people with disabilities, the question of education for personnel is on a more individual basis, where the care workers learn together with the care recipient. Educational levels, the work environment and relations with colleagues and care recipients are connected and support from the managers is important for understanding the work and the relational perspective.

This thesis takes a point of departure in the problems to recruit and retain personnel in woodworking companies. Companies, actors of society and researchers started with the ambition to create work which people, especially young ones, would like to have and where employees want to stay. The research has been carried out within the att…-project in collaboration between Dalarna University and National Institute for Working Life. The primary purpose was to create deeper understanding of characteristics of attractive work. A distinction has been made between on the one hand what makes work attractive, and on the other hand changes of the attractiveness. The empirical problem with recruitment was a starting point, followed by an interaction between theory and empiricism. The relation to practioners can be described as interactive with usefulness in focus. Questionnaires, group discussions and interviews, as well as informal conversations, have been used in five separate studies. The attractiveness of work depends on the individual’s estimation of the totality of work based upon her/his life situation. Characteristic for attractive work is that it is dynamic and comparative. Positive factors of work are related to other employments or to the idea of attractive work. A model of attractive work which represents an overall picture regarding what makes work attractive contains about 80 qualities in 22 dimensions. One finding is that changes in one dimension influences other dimensions. Another finding is that changed estimations of work depends both on changed valuation of the importance of different aspects of work, and on changed conception of the aspects. It is not enough to do a single effort aimed at retaining and recruiting personnel since the attractiveness of work is dynamic and comparisons are made with other employments. Companies must continuously do efforts for more attractive work. Existing attractive qualities that are hidden from applicants can be displayed. Other qualities can be realized and added to. Knowledge about what makes work attractive and about the dynamic of the attractiveness is valuable to create more attractive work. / QC 20100713

According to a dominant discourse in contemporary writings and research, we are living in a Knowledge Economy where knowledge is seen as the pre-eminent resource and the key to success for individuals as well as organizations and nations. Consequently, much effort in management research has been dedicated to devising new concepts and theories such as the knowledge-based theory of the firm and the intellectual capital perspective, all premised on the assumption that knowledge work is somehow different from other forms of work. But what, actually, is knowledge work? And what is it that makes it so different? This dissertation represents an attempt to make some sense of this discourse. Research themes investigate the role of tangible and intangible dimensions of knowledge work and organizations. Particular attention is paid to organizational identity and the physical work environment. The notion of identity is central to the Knowledge Economy Rhetoric, while the physical setting is a neglected, but potentially important, aspect of knowledge work and identity construction. Various theoretical and methodological perspectives were applied throughout the research process to illuminate these themes. The thesis covers two empirical case studies; one of a small high-tech firm in the telecommunications sector as it developed a knowledge based strategy. The other study explored the relationship between the design of the office and identity construction in a large IT/management consulting firm. In addition, a study of the literature on the organizational category of knowledge-intensive firms was conducted to explore the dominant constructions of knowledge work within the research community. The results from these studies are presented in five papers. While addressing different questions, the papers all deal with some aspect of sensemaking of, or in, knowledge work. The first paper describes how the management team in the case company went through a process to make sense of the intangible dimensions of their organization. The second paper is a conceptual treatise outlining an alternative conceptualization of strategy for knowledge-intensive firms that emphasizes the importance of identity. Paper three provides an analysis of how the category of knowledge-intensive firms is used in the research literature and the consequences thereof. In paper four branding is analyzed as a management practice. The last paper discusses the role of emotion, ambivalence and embodied experience of the physical environment in identity construction. The exposition reflects further on the insights from this journey and what they entail for making sense of knowledge work. It is argued that a better understanding of knowledge work has to take the knowledge worker – the individual – as the starting point for theorizing. Taking this position requires us to scrutinize the theoretical perspectives that guide our conceptualizations of the knowledge worker. Theoretical perspectives are constructions that allow us to see certain things and not others. Current conceptualizations are, by necessity, extensions of earlier dominant perspectives or worldviews. Based on the findings from the empirical studies, an alternative perspective is proposed that takes the embodied experience of the knowledge worker as a point of departure. Implications of this perspective for conceptualizing and studying knowledge work are then discussed. / QC 20100917

Denna uppsats berör området förtroendearbetstid, psykosocial arbetsmiljö och specifik arbetstillfredsställelse hos poliser på Ekobrottsmyndigheten.  Enkätstudiens fokus avsåg upplevelse av krav, kontroll, belöning, ledarskap och lön relaterat till deltagarnas positiva alternativt negativa inställning till förtroendearbetstid. I undersökningen deltog 101 av EBMs 183 poliser. Sjuttiofem procent av deltagarna ville fortsättningsvis ha förtroendearbetstid. Studien visade att kvinnliga poliser, positiva till förtroendearbetstid, till skillnad från manliga poliser positiva till förtroendearbetstid, upplevde högre kontroll av arbetstakt. Inga signifikanta skillnader förelåg mellan positiv och negativ inställning till förtroendearbetstid avseende krav, belöning, uppmuntrande ledarskap samt rättvist och stödjande ledarskap. / This bachelor thesis is about non-regulated working hours, psychosocial work environment and specific job satisfaction among police officers at the Swedish National Crime Authority. This questionnaire study was focused on experiences of demands, control, reward, leadership and payment and if there were differences in these factors depending on attitudes towards non-regulated working hours. In this survey participated 101 of total 183 police officers. Seventy five percent of the police officers had a positive attitude towards non-regulated working hours. The women with a positive attitude towards non-regulated work hours, unlike the men with a positive attitude, experienced higher control of working pace. There were no significant differences among the groups do to the factors of reward, encouraging leadership or of fair- and supportive leadership.

Syftet med denna undersökning är att få mer kunskap om gruppstorlekens betydelse för musikundervisningen i år 7-9. Jag jämför hur lärare och elever upplever arbetsmiljön under lektionstimmarna i förhållande till gruppstorleken. Anpassar lärarna sin undervisning till gruppstorleken och hur upplever de möjlighet­er­na att uppnå läroplanens mål. Metoden för undersökningen är en kvalitativ intervjustudie med fyra musiklärare vid fyra olika grundskolor, varav två undervisar i helklass och två i halvklass samt en enkätunder­sök­ning med ett urval elever på de berörda skolorna. Sammanlagt 188 elever svarade på enkäten. Resultatet av min studie visar att tillgång till och utformning av lokaler, stöd från skol­ledning samt antal elever man undervisar, i minst lika stor utsträckning som klass­torleken påverkar hur lärarna upplever sin arbetsmiljö. Eleverna är generellt mycket positiva i sina upp­levelser av arbetsmiljön på musik­lektionerna och de flesta anser att de spelar ofta. Eleverna i hel­klass är något mer positiva i sina svar, men det är också en större andel av dessa elever som deltar i någon form av musik­undervisning utanför skolan vilket sannolikt påverkar ut­fallet. Elever i helklass upplever oftare högre ljudvolym på lektionerna och lärarna för dessa klasser har också fler tydliga regler för att förebygga höga ljudnivåer. Ändrade kursmål och den ökade risken för hörselproblem hos musiklärare indikerar att mindre undervisningsgrupper i musik borde vara att föredra inte minst för att förbygga stress hos lärarna. / The purpose of this study is to gain more knowledge about the affect of group size in the teaching of music in compulsory school, grades 7-9. I want to compare how teachers and stud­ents acknowledge their work environment during the lessons in relations to group size. I also want to know if the teachers adjust their tutoring in spite of group size, and in what sense they acknowledge the possibilities to carry out the curriculum.The method for this study is a qualitative interview with four teachers in music at four separate compulsory schools, in which two tutors teach larger groups, and two teach smaller groups. There was also a questionnaire for selected students at the schools, of which 188 answered the questions. The results of my study show that the access and design of classrooms, support from the principal and the total amount of students the teacher is tutoring, are of at least the same im­portance as group size in comparison to how the teachers experience their work environment. The students are generally very positive to their work environment, and they state that they often play during lessons. The students in the larger classes are somewhat more positive, but there is also a bigger part of them that are joining music teaching in some form outside of school, which probably affects the result. Students in larger classes more often experience louder volumes during the music lessons, and the teachers of these classes also have clear rules to keep the volume at a lower level. Changes in the curriculum and the increased risk for music teachers acquiring problems with hearing, indicate that smaller classes should be preferred during music lessons, while also helping to prevent teachers to suffer from stress

Denna uppsats är skriven inom jämställdhetsprojektet NättochJämt. Uppsatsens första syfte är att med jämställdhetslagen som grund kartlägga och analysera en organisations arbetsmiljö och möjligheten till intern rörlighet genom kompetensutveckling. Det andra syftet är att tolka de anställdas förslag på jämställdhetsåtgärder ur ett genusvetenskapligt perspektiv. Hirdmans teori om genusordningen och Johanssons teori om segregering och integrering fungerar som uppsatsens teoretiska utgångspunkter. Analysen bygger på en enkät som besvarats av 101 anställda inom organisationen och hanterats i statistikprogrammet SPSS. Analysen baseras även på de skriftliga kommentarerna kring hur organisationens jämställdhetsarbete kan utvecklas. Detta relateras till de föreställningar om kön som kommit till uttryck i informella samtal med anställda. Resultatet visar att förhållandena inom organisationen både sammanfaller och avviker från tidigare forskning om arbetsmiljö och genus. Få vill prova arbetsuppgifter som annat kön än det egna utför, fler män än kvinnor kan dock tänka sig detta. Lika stor andel kvinnor som män vill kompetensutvecklas. I de anställdas förslag, som bland annat handlar om att fler kvinnor behövs på ledande positioner, förekommer ibland ett egenskapstänkande kring kön där mannen blir norm och kvinnor framstår som avvikande och annorlunda. I lika hög grad förekommer dock förslag grundade på ett maktordningstänkande vilket tolkas som en nödvändig förutsättning för att arbeta vidare med jämställdhet. / This essay is part of a project between Södertörn University College and the Equality-project NättochJämt. The first aim of the study is to examine and analyse work environment and possibilities for internal movement by competence development from the view of Swedish Equality Law. The second aim is to interpret employees own gender equality measures from a gender perspective. Hirdman’s theory about gender structures and Johansson’s thoughts about segregation and integration have been used as a theoretical framework. The analyse is built on a questionnaire which has been answered by 101 employees in the organisation and handled in the statistic program SPSS. Written replies about how the organisations equality work can be developed is also analysed. This is related to the informal conversations with the employers, in which assumptions about gender inequalities has been unveiled. The result shows a shattered pattern where the relations concerning work environment inside the organization both coincide with and diverse from earlier research in work environment and gender area. Few people wanted to try work tasks that mainly are performed by other gender than thier own, with a preponderance of men. Both men and women wanted to develop their competence. The employees own suggestions, which for example concerns more women in leading positions, reveals a conception in which the male is norm and in which women are held as divergent and different. But also, suggestions which seem to be grounded in a gender perspective do occur. This is interpreted as a necessary prerequisite for future equality work.

Utifrån ett genusvetenskapligt perspektiv undersöktes i uppsatsen vilka möjligheter och hinder som finns för jämställdhetsarbete på ett IT-företag. En enkätundersökning utifrån en bearbetning av ett enkätförslag från JämO kompletterades med kvalitativa intervjuer och relaterades till koncernens jämställdhetsplan och personalpolicy. Att organisationen bestod av tjänstemän och hade en platt organisationsstruktur var två faktorer som antogs prägla dess genuskontrakt, ett begrepp som hämtades från Hirdmans teoribildning. För att undersöka skillnaden mellan det samhälleliga jämställdhetsidealet och jämställdhet som praktik användes två teman, arbetsmiljö relaterat till genus och attityder till jämställdhet. Resultaten visade en organisation där jämställdhet var ett outtalat ideal, medan praktiskt jämställdhetsarbete saknades. Stort individuellt ansvar och hög grad av informell arbetsdelning var delar av de interna rutinerna. De främsta möjligheterna för aktivt jämställdhetsarbete var att det fanns kvinnor och män på alla nivåer och att individens kompetens värderades mycket högt. När det gällde hinder för jämställdhetsarbete var det för det första komplicerat för såväl chefer som medarbetare att över huvud taget definiera problem i termer av genus- och jämställdhetsfrågor. För det andra riskerade den som påtalade jämställdhetsproblem att mista viktiga kontakter och uppdrag. För det tredje fick medarbetarna själva på grund av den ständiga tidspressen och bristen på ledningsinitiativ i jämställdhetsfrågor hantera genusrelaterade problem individuellt, i mån av egen tid och kraft. Paradoxalt nog medförde anammandet av jämställdhetsidealet och företagets fokus på individens kompetens att genus inte tilläts bli en uttalad faktor som kunde påverka arbetsmiljön. På grund av det doldes ojämställdhet och därigenom även vikten av praktiskt jämställdhetsarbete. / In this essay, the opportunities and obstacles of gender equality work were examined from a gender theory perspective. A survey was used, based on a questionnaire from the Equal Opportunities Ombudsman (JämO), which was complemented by qualititative interviews. The data was then analyzed in relation to the equal opportunities policy and staff policy of the corporation head quarters. The organization had a non-hierarchical structure and consisted of salaried employees, which was asumed to influence its gender contract – a concept derived from the theories of Hirdman. In order to examine the difference between the ideal of gender equality in the Swedish society and the gender equality in practice, two themes were used, the work environment in relation to gender and attitudes towards gender equality. The result showed an organization where gender equality was an unspoken ideal, while active work for it was lacking. In the company, a high degree of individual responsibility and an informal distribution of work were parts of the internal routines. The foremost opportunities for actively working for gender equality were the fact that both men and women were found at all levels of the company, and that individual competence was highly valued. Three obstacles were identified. Firstly, it was complicated for both managers and staff to define problems in terms of gender and gender equality issues. Secondly, those who called attention to problems risked losing important contacts and commissions. Thirdly, due to the constant time pressure and the lack of initiative from management in gender equality issues, the employees had to handle problems arising relating to gender on their own, depending on their own time and energy. Paradoxically, the adopting of the ideal of gender equality and the focus on individual competence prevented gender being seen as a factor that could affect the work environment. By that, inequalities relating to gender were hidden and thereby also the importance of active gender equality work.

Canadian statistics on patient safety in acute care hospitals are alarming. Hospital safety concerns are not isolated to patient safety. Occupational safety is also important. With increasing shortages of nurses, stress in the work place is growing. Nurses report high levels of absenteeism of 14.5 days per year. The importance of a just and fair culture and the role of nurse leaders have been emphasized in safety literature. Although deemed important, studies of nurse leaders and patient outcomes are limited. The influence of interactional justice in the workplace on nurse and patient safety has not been studied. The purpose of this study was to test and refine a model developed from the literature which explains the impact of perceived interactional justice, relational leadership, and quality of nurse manager – clinical nurse relationships on the nursing work environment and ultimately patient and nurse safety outcomes. The model was tested on a random sample of 266 Ontario acute care registered nurses. Findings indicated the model reasonably fit the observed data, however could benefit from further refinement. The addition of 2 pathways (span of control to nurses’ intent to leave and number of medication errors to nurse emotional exhaustion) and trimming of the insignificant paths improved the overall model fit. The resulting model indicates that resonant leadership style and interactional justice improves the quality of nurse leader-nurse relationships which in turn improves quality of the nurses’ work environment and safety climate. A positive safety climate led to a decrease in the number medication errors and nurses’ intentions to leave their unit. A higher quality work environment predicted lower nurse emotional exhaustion. Additionally, higher numbers of medication errors led to an increase in nurse emotional exhaustion. This suggests that distress may be associated with making a medication error or fear of consequences. As well, larger manager spans were associated with less nurse intent to leave. As the span increased, the number of support personnel also increased. Contrary to other research findings, this result suggests that supportive personnel may mitigate the effect of large manager spans of control on nurses’ intent to leave their units.

Canadian statistics on patient safety in acute care hospitals are alarming. Hospital safety concerns are not isolated to patient safety. Occupational safety is also important. With increasing shortages of nurses, stress in the work place is growing. Nurses report high levels of absenteeism of 14.5 days per year. The importance of a just and fair culture and the role of nurse leaders have been emphasized in safety literature. Although deemed important, studies of nurse leaders and patient outcomes are limited. The influence of interactional justice in the workplace on nurse and patient safety has not been studied. The purpose of this study was to test and refine a model developed from the literature which explains the impact of perceived interactional justice, relational leadership, and quality of nurse manager – clinical nurse relationships on the nursing work environment and ultimately patient and nurse safety outcomes. The model was tested on a random sample of 266 Ontario acute care registered nurses. Findings indicated the model reasonably fit the observed data, however could benefit from further refinement. The addition of 2 pathways (span of control to nurses’ intent to leave and number of medication errors to nurse emotional exhaustion) and trimming of the insignificant paths improved the overall model fit. The resulting model indicates that resonant leadership style and interactional justice improves the quality of nurse leader-nurse relationships which in turn improves quality of the nurses’ work environment and safety climate. A positive safety climate led to a decrease in the number medication errors and nurses’ intentions to leave their unit. A higher quality work environment predicted lower nurse emotional exhaustion. Additionally, higher numbers of medication errors led to an increase in nurse emotional exhaustion. This suggests that distress may be associated with making a medication error or fear of consequences. As well, larger manager spans were associated with less nurse intent to leave. As the span increased, the number of support personnel also increased. Contrary to other research findings, this result suggests that supportive personnel may mitigate the effect of large manager spans of control on nurses’ intent to leave their units.