The main aim of this thesis has been to compare psychosocial working conditions in workplaces with different forms of ownership, i.e. public, private and cooperative. A second aim has been to study how organisational characteristics of relevance for psychosocial working conditions (in terms of management control strategies and prerequisites for management) are manifested in these ownership forms. The empirical data is based on structured interviews with managers at 60 workplaces within the service sector and on a questionnaire to all employees working in the participating workplaces, resulting in a set of 1384 individuals. An additional seven interviews with first-line managers within geriatric care were also conducted for the last study. The results show that employees in cooperatives perceived that they had better opportunities to influence decisions concerning the workplace as a whole, although there were also results showing advantages for public and private employees. Regarding opportunities for employees to influence their own work situation, there were no differences between the ownership forms. Differences were found in the prerequisites for first-line geriatric care managers. As a result of an earlier organisational change, the public managers were now further away from the strategic level and had to focus on daily, operative work tasks, while simultaneously also being responsible for keeping within the budget. The private managers, on the other hand, having group leaders to deal with the daily work concerning personnel and operations, could focus more on strategic work related to financial results in terms of planning and follow-up of the budget. One conclusion is that there are certain differences in both psychosocial working conditions and organisational characteristics between the ownership forms, but when the comparisons were restricted to only one type of service, in this case the provision of care, it is rather the similarities within the care organisations, regardless of ownership form, that are most pronounced.

Möjligheten till att uppnå balans mellan arbete och privatliv antas i framtiden bli en allt viktigare fråga och i allt högre grad påverka individen i hennes val av arbetsgivare. Studiens syfte utformade författarna tillsammans med Halmstad kommun vilka har märkt av en svårighet att rekrytera yngre kompetenta chefer och därför önskar bli mer attraktiv som arbetsgivare. Syftet med studien är att öka förståelsen för hur kvinnliga chefer mitt i livet upplever balans i livet och vad arbetsgivaren, Halmstad kommun, kan erbjuda för att de skall uppnå balans. Undersökningen är av kvalitativ karaktär och till grund för studien låg åtta djupintervjuer med kvinnliga mellanchefer. Enbart kvinnor valdes ut till studien eftersom kvinnor utöver sitt lönearbete traditionellt sett även antas utföra det mesta av hushållsarbetet. Resultatet visade att de kvinnliga cheferna ansåg sig ha balans mellan arbete och privatliv. Exempel på faktorer som kan hämma balansen är otillräckligt stöd från chef och en för hög arbetsbelastning utan möjlighet till avlastning. Arbetsgivaren kan i hög grad påverka de anställdas upplevelse och möjlighet till balans genom arbetsvillkoren. Balans i livet kan bland annat främjas av en familjevänlig personalpolitik. / The possibility to obtain a work-life balance will in the future be of greater importance in an individual’s choice of employer. The purpose of the study was drawn up in collaboration with the municipal of Halmstad who, since they have experienced some difficulties in attracting and recruiting younger qualified managers, wants to become more attractive as employer. The purpose decided upon was to enlarge the understanding of how female managers in the middle scene of life experience work-life balance and what their employer, the municipal of Halmstad, can offer their employees to facilitate a work-life balance. It is a qualitative study in which eight deep interviews with female middle managers make up the foundation. Only women were chosen to the study since women, even though they are employed outside of the home, traditionally carry out most the domestic chores. The result showed that the female middle managers felt that they today experienced a work-life balance. Some of the elements that can restrain a positive work-life balance are insufficient support from superior manager and a high degree of workload without relief. It was found that through the working conditions is the employer to a large extent able to influence the employee’s experience of work-life balance. Family-friendly organizational policies, among other factors, can foster work-life balance.

Metod: Den kvantitativa metoden bestod av en enkätundersökning med 20 standardiserade frågor som ställdes till studenterna i årskurs ett och två på Fastighetsmäklarprogrammet. Sammanlagt genererade enkäten 99 svar. Den kvalitativa delen av metoden bestod av öppna intervjufrågor som ställdes till fyra av de största mäklarkontoren.                     Resultat & slutsats: Resultatet vi kom fram till är att studenternas kunskaper kring pensionssparande, semesterersättning, sjuklön och föräldrapenning för fastighetsmäklare var dåliga. De flesta var medvetna om att den vanligaste löneformen bland fastighetsmäklare är helt provisionsbaserad lön. Många hade förhållandevis bra inblick i vad en fastighetsmäklare tjänar i månaden om man jämför med statistiken som finns tillgänglig angående detta. När det gäller förmånerna anser vi att studenterna hade realistiska förväntningar kring dem. Förslag till fortsatt forskning: Två förslag till vidare forskning skulle kunna vara: "Vad är det som gör att allt fler kvinnor väljer att utbilda sig till fastighetsmäklare?" eller "Hur balanserar kvinnliga fastighetsmäklare karriär kontra livet som småbarns-förälder?" Ett annat ämne att fördjupa sig inom är vilken betydelse anställningsvillkor har när studenterna söker jobb."Vilka förmåner och villkor är att föredra framför andra och detta har betydelse för de nyutexaminerade studenternas val av arbetsplats?" Uppsatsens bidrag: Uppsatsen kan upplysa och fungera som ett hjälpmedel till berörda grupper såsom utbildningsanordnare av fastighetsmäklarprogrammet, studenter och fastighetsmäklare som en yrkesgrupp. Under studietiden har funderingar dykt upp som kretsar kring lönevillkor, pension, föräldrapenning, sjukpenning och arbetsförmåner. Vi insåg att det är viktigt för oss att vi har bra inblick i reglerna och började fundera om de övriga studenterna på fastighets-mäklarutbildningen har bra kunskap i detta. Syftet med vår uppsats är att undersöka hur mycket mäklarstudenterna på Högskolan i Gävle vet om anställningsvillkor och förmåner inom fastighetsmäklaryrket. Om det finns tillräcklig/otillräcklig kunskap vill vi veta vad detta kan få för konsekvenser och för vilka. / Aim: During the period of studies it has emerged concerns revolving around holiday remuneration, pensions, parental leave, sick-pay and employment benefits. We realized that it was important for us that we have good knowledge of these rules and therefore we started to think about if the other students in real estate education have good insight into this. The aim of our study is to investigate how much real estate students at Högskolan in Gävle know about employment conditions and benefits. If there is insufficient / inadequate knowledge we want to know what this could have implications for and for whom. Method: The quantitative method consisted of a survey of 20 standardized questions asked of students in the grades one and two at the real estate program. In total the survey generated 99 responses. The qualitative method consisted of open interview questions posed to four of the largest real estate firms. Result & Conclusions: The results of the study showed that students' knowledge of pensions, holiday remuneration, sick pay and maternity pay to real estate was scarce. Most were aware that the most common form of wages among estate agents is entirely commission based salary. Many had relatively good insight on what a real estate agent earn in a month. With regard to benefits, we think that the students had realistic expectations about them. Suggestions for future research: Two proposals for further research could be: "What is it that makes more and more women choose to become a real estate agent?" Or "How to balance the female estate career vs. life as a parent of young children?" Another subject that would also be interesting to deepen within is the importance of employment when students apply for jobs. "What employment benefits and working conditions are preferable to others and are they important for the student’s choice of work?" Contribution of the thesis: The essay can inform and serve as an aid to interested groups such as the persons responsible of the education at the real estate program, students and estate agents as a profession.

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

Bakgrund och problematisering: Det har i dagens samhälle blivit allt vanligare att företaghyr in personal via bemanningsföretag. Detta medför positiva aspekter såsom exempelvis ökad flexibilitet men flexibilitetsstrategin kan även medföra negativa konsekvenser. Företagetkan bli svårhanterligt i och med den heterogenitet som skapas i arbetsstyrkan och det har ävenframkommit att denna heterogenitet kan påverka de sociala relationerna på arbetsplatsen. Dock är tidigare litteratur bristfällig gällande detta. Då sociala relationer är en avgörandefaktor till trivsel på arbetsplatsen och då det i sin tur gynnar företagets framgång, är dettarelevant att studera närmre. Samtidigt kan arbetsvillkoren tänkas ligga till grund för hur sociala relationer mellan inhyrda konsulter och ordinarie personal fungerar. För att få enr ättvis bild av detta bör både inhyrda och ordinaries perspektiv studeras. Eftersom ledarna kanha en inverkan på arbetsvillkoren och den sociala gemenskapen bör även deras perspektiv tas i beaktning. Syfte: Uppsatsens syfte är att undersöka vilka konsekvenser en flexibilitetsstrategi får för arbetsvillkoren och de sociala relationerna mellan inhyrda konsulter och ordinarie arbetskraft. Metod: Uppsatsen bygger på en kvalitativ fallstudie med ett hermeneutistiskt förhållningssätt. 11 intervjuer har genomförts utifrån tre olika perspektiv: ledare, inhyrda och ordinarie. Tidigare litteratur och teori: Vi har valt att presentera vad som tidigare har studerats inomområdet med avseende på relevanta aspekter som rör studiens syfte. Fokus ligger därmed påstudier som berör arbetsvillkor och sociala relationer i organisationer som genom sin flexibilitetsstrategi använder sig av inhyrd arbetskraft. Teoriavsnittet bygger istället på tredelar: flexibilitetsstrategi, sociala relationer samt vad som kan tänkas påverka de sociala relationerna. Slutsats: Genom studien kan vi konstatera att en flexibilitetsstrategi får konsekvenser förbåde arbetsvillkor och sociala relationer mellan inhyrd och ordinarie arbetskraft. Strategin har resulterat i olika arbetsvillkor för anställningsgrupperna och dessa arbetsvillkor påverkar även i sin tur de sociala relationerna mellan dessa. Exempelvis skapar fallföretagets fysiskauppdelning mellan inhyrda och ordinarie bristfälliga relationer, ett “vi och dom” tänk, vissa fördomar och “småkonflikter” dem emellan. Dock verkade inte detta påverka anställningsgruppernas trivsel märkbart vilket vi anser beror på att de sociala behoven tillfredsställs på respektive våning. För att dock försöka undvika negativa följder som enfysisk uppdelning exempelvis för med sig har vi kommit fram till vissa åtgärder ledarna på fallföretaget bör arbeta ytterligare med, såsom information, introducering och me rgemensamma aktiviteter. / Background and problem: Today, it has become more common for the companies to hire staff from employment agencies. This brings positive aspects along, such as increasedflexibility, but can also cause negative consequences. The company can through the heterogeneity in the working force get difficult to manage and it has also been found that thesocial relationships can be affected of this. However, previous literatures are deficient inrelation to this. As social relations are an essential factor to work satisfaction, and that in turn affect the future of the company. This is relevant to study more closely. At the same time, theworking conditions can be the basis for how the social relations between temporary andregular workers get along. To get an accurate picture of this, both temporary and ordinary workers perspectives has been studied. Since even the leaders can have an impact on both the working conditions and the social relations, their perspective should also be taken into consideration. Aim: The purpose of this study is to explore what consequences a flexibility strategy will have on the working conditions and the social relations between temporary and regularworkers. Method: The thesis is based on a case study of quality type with a hermeneutic view. 11interviews have been conducted from three different perspectives, with leaders, temporary and regular workers. Previous research and theory: We have chosen to present previous research within thecurrent research field, which is considered to be relevant to the purpose of this study. Thestudy´s main focus is therefore related to conditions in the workplace and social relationshipswithin organizations, which use hired employees as a part of their flexibility strategy. The theoretical framework chapter is founded on three parts: flexibility strategy, social relationships, and what factors that could affect the social relationships. Results: We can through the study conclude that a flexible approach has implications for bothworking conditions and social relations between temporary and regular workers. The strategy has resulted in various working conditions for the employment groups, and those working conditions in turn, also affect the social relations between the employees. The physicalseparation the case company use, create for example, flawed relationships, an “us and them ”thinking, as well as certain prejudices and “small disputes” between them. However, this didnot appear to affect the employment groups significantly, which we believe, is because of thesocial relations are met on each floor. However, to try to avoid the negative a physical separation brings, we have come up with some ideas, which the leaders in the case companyfurther should work with, such as information, introduction and more activities for both employment groups.

Tyrimo tikslas - identifikuoti mokslininkų bendruomenei būdingas kūrybinio darbo sąlygas bei atskleisti jų sąsajas su subjektyvia mokslininkų sveikata. Siekiant įgyvendinti tyrimo tikslą buvo remiamasi trianguliacijos principu ir renkami empiriniai duomenys tiek kiekybinio, tiek kokybinio tyrimo būdu. Pilotinio tyrimo metu buvo atlikti 6 interviu su skirtingose studijų kryptyse dirbančiais mokslininkais, kurių pagrindu buvo identifikuoti su kūrybiniu darbu susiję darbo sąlygų komponentai ir sukonstruotas kiekybinio tyrimo instrumentas. Tuo tarpu kiekybinis platesnės apimties tyrimas sudarė sąlygas atskleisti 272 Lietuvoje dirbančių mokslininkų nuomones apie jų mokslinio darbo sąlygas bei subjektyvią sveikatą. Empiriniai duomenys parodė, kad mokslininkų darbui būdingos specifinės kūrybinio darbo sąlygos, kurios leidžia kalbėti ir apie šios darbo srities sąlygojamą poveikį mokslininkų sveikatai. Tyrimo dalyvių nuomone, mokslinė veikla - tai nuolatinio kūrybinio proceso (95,6%), intensyvaus mąstymo (95,6%) ir dėmesio koncentravimo ties skirtingomis darbinėmis užduotimis (78,7%) reikalaujantis darbas. Mokslininkų darbo specifika susijusi su lanksčiomis, aiškiai neapibrėžtomis darbinėmis užduotimis, mobilia darbo aplinka, bendradarbiavimu paremtais santykiais mikro lygmenyje, konkurencingais santykiais už bendradarbių kolektyvo ribų, lanksčiu darbo laiko rėžimu bei asmeninio gyvenimo ir darbo derinimo charakteristikomis. Atsižvelgus į išskirtus darbo sąlygų indikatorius... [toliau žr. visą tekstą] / The aim of research – to identify the creative work conditions in community of Lithuanian scientist and reveal their relationship with subjective scientists health. In order to implement the objective of this study was used the triangulation principle and the empirical data were collected both by quantitative and qualitative research methods. In pilot study were carried out six interviews with informants from different study areas of science, which led to identify the creative work-related working conditions. Based on revealed components were designed quantitative research instrument. Meanwhile, the broader quantitative study made possible to reveal opinions of 272 Lithuanian scientist’s about their scientific work conditions and subjective health. Empirical data shows that researchers work in specific creative work conditions, which enable to talk about features of scientist’s subjective health in the context of creative work. On the basis of the survey participants opinion, the scientific activities are defined as work, which require constant creative process (95,6%), intensive thinking (95,6%) and the concentration of attention on different working tasks (78,7%). The specifics of scientists creative work associated with flexible, clearly uncertain working tasks, mobile work environment, collaborative relationships at micro level, competitive relationships outside close scientists group, flexible working time schedule and the characteristics of personal - professional... [to full text]

The aim of the study was, through qualitative interviews with school counsellors in Swedish primary schools, to study what the counsellors are experiencing condition their ability to work proactively according to the Swedish Education Act provisions on student health. During the study, six interviews with school counsellors who worked in the same suburbs, was conducted. The theoretical approach that was used is Michael Lipsky's theory of street-level bureaucrats and the term discretion. The overall outcome of the study was that the interviewed school counsellors felt that they did not have good opportunities to work preventively as the Education Act requires. The main reason for this was the school counsellor’s heavy workload. The results of the study were divided into three categories, which in turn were followed by several themes to highlight the conditions governing school counsellor’s opportunity to work preventatively.

Republic Act No. 9173, or the Philippine Nursing Act of 2002 enunciates a bevy of incentives under its Health Human Resource Production, Utilization and Development provisions, intended to stem the rising tide of Filipino nurses leaving the country to work overseas. Under Sections 30 to 34 of the Nursing Act, these incentives include the following: (1) upgrading the minimum base salary of nurses from salary grade 10 to 15; (2) establishing a nurse specialty program in government hospitals to upgrade the nurses’ skills whereby recipients of the program are required to work in government hospitals for two years; and (3) the provision of other benefits such as scholarship grants, free medical care, etc. These provisions are the government’s policy response to mitigate the impact of nurses’ migration and retain an adequate supply of skilled Filipino nurses in the country: This research is a qualitative study that seeks to assess the health human resource development provisions and their implementation and aims to help improve them. This study examines the responsiveness of the provisions to the needs of nurses, and identifies the deficiencies of the provisions by looking into the working conditions of nurses in two Philippine government hospitals. It also examines the processes and the factors affecting the implementation of the provisions. This study employed a combination of four data collection methods: (1) focus group interviews of nurses working in two Philippine government hospitals, (2) key informant interviews of officials of government agencies and private organizations tasked to implement the health human resource development provisions, (3) document analyses, and (4) researcher’s field notes/journal. The researcher conducted five focus group interviews with a total of 15 nurse participants and 12 key informant interviews. The nurses are working under conditions of low salaries and heavy workload, that is characterized by low nurse-to-patient ratios in the National and LGU Hospitals. The problems of inadequate nurse staffing, large number iii of patients and inadequate supplies in the two government hospitals are identified as causes for the heavy workload of nurses. The nurses want a salary increase that is commensurate to their heavy workload, their professional qualifications and long years of service. For the nurses, a salary increase signifies the government’s recognition of their dedication, hard work, and commitment to provide health care to Filipinos despite working under dire circumstances. The nurse specialty training program in areas such as oncology, nephrology, critical care, etc. has not been implemented because of the limited capacities of government hospitals to provide this kind of training and the lack of regulatory framework for the practice of nurse specialists in the Philippines. The other benefits have not been implemented as well. The provisions of the Nursing Act are deficient because they do not address the causes of the heavy workload of nurses. To improve the work conditions of nurses, the Philippine government needs to prioritize to the long neglected health sector by increasing the budgetary allocation in order to create more nurse positions in government hospitals, to provide adequate supplies and equipment for government hospitals and to improve the facilities for nurses.

Republic Act No. 9173, or the Philippine Nursing Act of 2002 enunciates a bevy of incentives under its Health Human Resource Production, Utilization and Development provisions, intended to stem the rising tide of Filipino nurses leaving the country to work overseas. Under Sections 30 to 34 of the Nursing Act, these incentives include the following: (1) upgrading the minimum base salary of nurses from salary grade 10 to 15; (2) establishing a nurse specialty program in government hospitals to upgrade the nurses’ skills whereby recipients of the program are required to work in government hospitals for two years; and (3) the provision of other benefits such as scholarship grants, free medical care, etc. These provisions are the government’s policy response to mitigate the impact of nurses’ migration and retain an adequate supply of skilled Filipino nurses in the country: This research is a qualitative study that seeks to assess the health human resource development provisions and their implementation and aims to help improve them. This study examines the responsiveness of the provisions to the needs of nurses, and identifies the deficiencies of the provisions by looking into the working conditions of nurses in two Philippine government hospitals. It also examines the processes and the factors affecting the implementation of the provisions. This study employed a combination of four data collection methods: (1) focus group interviews of nurses working in two Philippine government hospitals, (2) key informant interviews of officials of government agencies and private organizations tasked to implement the health human resource development provisions, (3) document analyses, and (4) researcher’s field notes/journal. The researcher conducted five focus group interviews with a total of 15 nurse participants and 12 key informant interviews. The nurses are working under conditions of low salaries and heavy workload, that is characterized by low nurse-to-patient ratios in the National and LGU Hospitals. The problems of inadequate nurse staffing, large number iii of patients and inadequate supplies in the two government hospitals are identified as causes for the heavy workload of nurses. The nurses want a salary increase that is commensurate to their heavy workload, their professional qualifications and long years of service. For the nurses, a salary increase signifies the government’s recognition of their dedication, hard work, and commitment to provide health care to Filipinos despite working under dire circumstances. The nurse specialty training program in areas such as oncology, nephrology, critical care, etc. has not been implemented because of the limited capacities of government hospitals to provide this kind of training and the lack of regulatory framework for the practice of nurse specialists in the Philippines. The other benefits have not been implemented as well. The provisions of the Nursing Act are deficient because they do not address the causes of the heavy workload of nurses. To improve the work conditions of nurses, the Philippine government needs to prioritize to the long neglected health sector by increasing the budgetary allocation in order to create more nurse positions in government hospitals, to provide adequate supplies and equipment for government hospitals and to improve the facilities for nurses.

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