Kriminalvården är en statlig myndighet som i dagsläget befinner sig i startgroparna för att ta fram en tillgänglighetspolicy. De diskuterar även eventuella åtgärder för att hantera användandet av informations- och kommunikationsteknik (IKT) kopplat till arbete. Studien syftar till att beskriva och analysera fenomenet tillgänglighet och uppkoppling utifrån chefers uppfattningar inom Kriminalvården samt hur de hanterar detta. Vidare syftar studien till att undersöka chefers uppfattade möjligheter och utmaningar kopplat till ämnet. Insamlingen av datamaterialet skedde via tio semistrukturerade intervjuer som bearbetades utifrån en fenomenografisk analysmetod. Studiens resultat pekade på såväl likheter som skillnader mellan chefernas uppfattningar. Majoriteten av cheferna uttryckte att de satte en tydlig gräns mellan arbete och fritid vilket analysen dock inte tydde på. Cheferna uppfattade i stor utsträckning att tillgänglighet och uppkoppling inte var ett problem. Några chefer hade strategier för att hantera uppkopplingen och andra inte. En skillnad var i hur cheferna hanterade mejl utanför kontorstid. Detta kunde ske genom att några chefer skickade mejl,vissa inte alls och en del chefer skickade mejl även om de var av uppfattningen att det sände dåliga signaler.

Research problem: Yadav and Khanna (2015) argue that the quality of work life defines the life at work and at home with family members. There is no existing definition of social and living conditions in the literature although it can be considered to include dimensions such as recreation, accommodation, health, education, family, religion and food (SLCB questionnaire). The social and living conditions of employees in rural towns situated close to borders is unique and, in order to offer suggestions with regard to what and how to improve the social and living conditions, their relationship with the quality of work life was investigated. Research objectives: The main objective of this study was to determine the possible relationship between the social and living conditions of employees in rural areas situated close to the South African border and the quality of work-related life. To address the research problem, research objectives and questions were formulated.Research questions: Four research questions were formulated:- What is the relationship between the overall quality of working life (WRQoL.Ovl1) and that of the social and living conditions (SLCB.Ovl1)?, -What is the relationship between the seven dimensions of social and living conditions and the seven dimensions of quality of working life? -Are there differences among the groups regarding the dimensions and overall social and living conditions? Are there differences among the groups regarding the dimensions and overall quality of working life? -Research design: This study is descriptive in nature, and used a self-administered questionnaire to collect data on work-related quality of life and social and living conditions from employees from rural towns close to the border posts. Major findings: The results showed a significant correlation between social and living conditions and the quality of working life. Furthermore, they revealed that accommodation, food and health are the three dimensions of social and living conditions that have the strongest relationship with quality of working life, with accommodation bearing the most significant relation.

En balans mellan krav, kontroll och stöd i arbetet är betydelsefullt för att inte drabbas av för hög mental belastning som i förlängningen kan leda till psykisk ohälsa. Studien undersöker hur HR-konsulter inom kommunal verksamhet som stödjer chefer i arbetslivsinriktad rehabilitering, hanterar balansen i sin yrkesroll utifrån de krav som ställs på dem samt hur de hanterar egna känslor som uppstår. Åtta HR-konsulter vid tre kommuner i Mellansverige deltog. Data samlades in genom semistrukturerade intervjuer och materialet analyserades induktivt. Resultatet visade fyra delar för hantering av balansen, (1) förhållningssätt, (2) strukturering, (3) chefscoachning och (4) medarbetarcoachning och tre för hantering av egna känslor, (1) socialt stöd, (2) handledning och (3) agerande. Slutsatsen blev att för att hålla balans i yrkesrollen behöver förhållningssätt och struktur vara tydligt samt så behöver samarbetet med chef och medarbetare fungera väl.

The purpose of this thesis is to evaluate the possibilities of applying virtue ethics in the HR-profession by presenting the foundation for virtue ethics and addressing how it could be transformed into virtue ethical principles for HR-practitioners in Swedish work-life. I address the questions how virtue ethics could support HR-practitioners in doing ”the right thing” and how a HR-practitioner should be. I argue that the fit between virtue ethics and the HR-profession rests on principles of moral consciousness and intellectual reflection and on the principles of practice and developing excellence. I also argue that moral institutionalization through measures of professional ethical codification could form an important practical feature. Mediated by the concept of phronesis, I define four core virtues for HR-practitioners: trustworthiness, cooperation, justice and integrity. I conclude that virtue ethics could be pivotal in promoting positive culture, forming the basis of increased trust, confidence and security within organizations.

In this contribution, we investigate the relationships between paid and unpaid work in the lifeworlds of employed informal carers against the background of the Austrian long-term care regime. We pursue a twofold argument: On the one hand, we emphasize that combining paid and unpaid work currently poses serious difficulties for employed family carers in their everyday lives and impacts their current and future financial and social security. On the other hand, we argue that the relationships between employment and informal care are in fact not well understood by the common concepts of "reconciliation" or "work-life balance". These concepts are not able to explain the complexities of employed carers' lived realities and fail to adequately address the fundamental contradiction in the idea of a "reconciliation" of paid and unpaid work.

Doctorat en sciences sociales, politiques et économiques / info:eu-repo/semantics/nonPublished

Orientation: Skills retention is a critical strategic priority for every organisation. Currently, with the global war on talent, organisations are faced with a mammoth challenge on how to retain critical talent. Manager support and work-life balance enhance talent retention strategies. Research purpose: The purpose of this study is to determine if manager support and work-life balance can determine the employee’s intention to stay or leave the organisation. Motivation of the study: Organisations are battling to find factors that contribute to retention of employees. Despite the fact that Human Resource (HR) practitioners are the ones taking care of retention strategies, the needs and factors that cause employees to stay or leave the organisation must be investigated. Research design and methodology: A quantitative research design with a correlation analysis was chosen for this study. Non-probability purposive sampling was used with n = 172. A structured questionnaire was then used to collect data, and an analysis was made on the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS). Main findings: The findings indicate that manager support and work-life balance are predictors of intention to quit, with a 42% variance. The lack of manager support and work-life balance has an impact on the intention to quit. The higher the manager support is perceived, the less the intention to quit – the same holds true for work-life balance. Practical/managerial implication: The research identified factors that can predict the intention to quit and highlighted insight such as manager support and work-life balance as key issues to consider in increasing retention. Manager support and work-life balance play a pivotal role in employee retention. Furthermore, the research identified HR practitioners as key contributors who take care of these factors in the organisation, yet who also need to be taken care of. The organisation should develop retention strategies, which include HR practitioners as employees who take care of other employees in the organisation. Contribution and value add: The research investigated a unique group that is known to provide retention strategies and that advises line managers on HR processes. Focusing attention on HR practitioners as a matter of study will contribute to organisational retention strategies on what causes them to stay with the organisation. / Dissertation (MCom)--University of Pretoria, 2014. / gm2014 / Human Resource Management / Unrestricted

Studiens utgångspunkt var ett intresse för work-life balance (WLB) och vilka förutsättningar behövs för att nå en balans mellan privat- och arbetsliv. Enligt forskning har antal arbetstimmar en direkt inverkan på individens WLB. Egenföretagare arbetar i genomsnitt fler timmar per vecka än anställda men studier visar att de paradoxalt har högre arbetstillfredsställelse än anställda. Denna studie utgår ifrån tidigare forskning gällande WLB hos egenföretagare. Tidigare forskning beskriver att några av de viktigaste faktorerna för att kunna uppnå WLB är att kontrollera upplägget av sin tid, att vara flexibel i sitt arbete, att själv ha kontrollen samt att nå en jämn fördelning av tiden mellan privat- och arbetsliv. Krav som studien ställde på respondenterna var att de aktivt har valt eget företag som organisationsform efter att tidigare varit heltidsanställda i minst tre år, ha detta som primära inkomstkälla samt inga anställda i företaget. Intresset för studien lades på vilka WLB-faktorer som motiverar till att starta eget samt vilka WLB-faktorer egenföretagare når. Studien utgår ifrån en kvalitativ forskningsmetod med en fallstudie med semistrukturerade intervjuer. Resultatet visar att WLB-faktorerna som motiverar individer till att starta eget företag är att få kontroll över sin framtid, beslutsfattande, sina arbetsvillkor och sin tid samt flexibilitet, personlig och karriärmässig utveckling, potential till att tjäna mer pengar och att ett tillfälle gavs. Resultatet visar vidare att den enda WLB-faktorn egenföretagare når är kontroll.

The South African construction industry plays an important role in the economy and overall development of the country, with respect to its total fiscal contribution and the total number of people who are employed. In addition, it is a major contributor to infrastructure development. However, the human resource base within this industry is confronted with a plethora of challenges that are inherent to the construction industry. These manifest themselves in stressful working conditions and long working hours, labour intensive jobs, reduced job security due to job losses and short-term projects, and the feeble health and safety (H&S) standards. Together with a variety of socio-economic and political issues, these challenges form a perceived and broad organisational culture of this industry, which impacts on the industry‟s productivity. As construction management efforts in the development of the human resources base increase, the industry recognises that work-life balance is an important and critical issue in the 21st century. Construction management is a discipline that embodies two interdependent dimensions; the management of the business of construction and the management of projects. Of the latter, the key principles thereof are, as part of a management strategy, planning, organizing, leading, controlling and coordinating projects. To achieve these strategic components, an effective human resource base is required. Work-life balance is therefore a management issue and organizational culture sets a backdrop from which it can be understood. This study focused on the status of the organisational culture of the production establishments that form part of the construction industry and the manner in which it manifests on the work-life balance of the workers. Furthermore, the correlation between work-life balance and individual work performance was examined. An exploratory research approach was adopted and the research technique followed an interview protocol. The main findings demonstrate that the South African construction industry is predominantly a clan culture with minor characteristics of the hierarchy, adhocracy and market cultures. Furthermore, work-life balance is difficult to attain and it influences individual work performance. The main conclusion is that organizational culture in construction firms is imbalanced. Thus, the main recommendation is that the industry adopts a balanced organizational culture and modern human resource practices.

Work design and content is changing. Accompanying this change has been an increasing demand by workers for policy makers to factor the issue of managing workers’ work and life. Work–life balance as a concept has attracted attention for several years as a result of individuals attempting to juggle multiple demands from both work and outside the workplace. The number of multiple demands on individuals usually vary from one person to the other and can increase or decrease at different stages of the person’s life. Essentially, this study reviewed work–life balance literature as espoused from the UK and US schools of thought. The purpose of this research is to explore the extent to which work–life balance policies and practices are a reality for employees and managers in the Nigerian banking sector; to investigate the adoption and use of policies/practices in Nigerian banks and finally to examine the barriers to and reasons for their muted adoption and utilisation of work–life balance policies and practices in Nigerian banks. This research is exploratory in nature and it adopted a mixed-method research technique which allowed for in-depth information from the respondents. The methodological approach used in this study is a qualitative dominant mixed method. A mixed-method approach was used in this study following the traditions of McCarthy, Darcy and Grady (2010); Kalliath and Brough (2008); Halford, (2006) and Beauregard and Henry (2009) to ensure the validity and reliability of the study and also to offer different insights in order to make the final result of the research more robust. A questionnaire and semi structured interview technique was utilised. The study was based on 20 of the 24 banks in the Nigerian banking sector. The total sample size was three hundred and sixty nine (369), of which two hundred and fifteen (215) questionnaires were completed and one hundred and thirty four (134) semi-structured interviews conducted for the bankers while (20) semi structured interviews were conducted for the trade union officials. In order to ensure that the cross-section of relevant respondents was as representative as possible, interviewees were divided into three categories: employees, managers and trade union officials. SPSS was used to analysis the quantitative data, while qualitative data was analysed using NVivo software through the coding of the large quantity of data collected. The themes that emerged from the analysis were used to discuss the research issues in the light of prior research findings from various empirical researches. The quantitative contribution of the study revealed that age was not significant to the bankers as regards issues relating to work life balance. The qualitative findings on the other hand revealed that there is diversity in terms of how both managerial and non-managerial employees understood and experienced WLB initiatives in the Nigerian banking sector. In addition, the study showed that cultural sensitivity affects how WLB is appreciated and utilised. The research also contributes to the spill-over theory by adding age, gender, implementation and benefits of work–life balance. This research has contributed to the body of knowledge on work–life balance issues in the Nigerian banking industry. This study also contributes to the existing literature on connotations of work–life balance by utilising a mixed method approach to explore and explain the different notions of work–life balance and usage of work–life balance initiatives.