Denna uppsats Sociala omsorgsprogrammets yrkesrelevans har syftet att undersöka hur utexaminerade studenter vid Örebro universitets Sociala omsorgsprogram med inriktning mot äldre och funktionshindrade, beskriver att utbildningen förbereder dem för yrket som enhetschef i kommunal äldreomsorg. Genomgående i studien är tre centrala begrepp; yrkesrelevans, kunskap och ledarskap. Studiens empiriska material baseras på intervjuer med enhetschefer. Det övergripande resultatet visar att frågan om yrkesrelevans är mångfacetterad. Möjligheterna till att utöva ett bra chefskap beror inte enbart på kunskaper från utbildningen, utan också på personliga erfarenheter och kunskaper, samt förutsättningar i stöd och personalantal. Sociala omsorgsprogrammet som grundutbildning kanske inte enbart bör ses som tillräcklig för ett kvalificerat ledarskap. Utbildningen bör kanske i annat fall ändras så att den motsvarar de krav arbetsgivarna ställer på nyexaminerade enhetschefer. I denna uppsats framträder dock att arbetsgivarnas krav ibland kan uppfattas som orimliga. Att utöva ett bra ledarskap beror inte enbart på utbildning, utan förutsättningarna i verksamheten är minst lika viktigt. / This thesis The vocational relevance of the programme in Social Care has the intention to study how students with an examination from the programme in Social Care oriented towards Elderly and Disabled at Örebro University, describes the education concerning its ability to prepare them for a profession as manager in government organized elderly care. Throughout the study three conceptions are essential; vocational relevance, knowledge and leadership. The study’s empirical material is based on interviews with managers in elderly care. The main result in this essay is that the question on the vocational relevance of the programme in Social Care is ambiguous. The prospects of performing a good quality in the leadership among management in elderly care also depends on individual skills, earlier work experience and the organization according to number of employees and support. The programme in Social Care is a compulsory education and may not be viewed as sufficient enough in an advanced leadership. Otherwise the education perhaps should change according to these demands of the employer. However this study shows that this demands sometimes is incongruous. To perform a good leadership does not only depend on the education, the conditions in the organization is also as essential.

The aim of this thesis was to study elderly people’s experiences of and approach to their usage of home care services with tax deduction. The aim was also to describe how elderly people reason about their underlying motives of using home care service with tax deduction. The study is based on six qualitative interviews with people between the ages of 65 and 80, living in Nacka, Sweden. This thesis is a collaboration with Stiftelsen Stockholms läns Äldrecentrum/ Stockholm Gerontology Center and part of their follow up study concerning simplified administration for elderly people applying for home care services in Nacka. The theory of rational choice was used in the analysis of the results. The primary results showed that elderly people’s usage of home care services with tax deduction was limited though regular and consist mainly of basic domestic work. The overall experiences of using home care services with tax deduction were positive and described in terms of satisfaction and as a possibility of independence and influence regarding their needs of services and how they were executed. The results indicate that the usage of home care services with tax deduction is partly based on elderly people’s lack of confidence in publicly-financed elderly care. Due to the distrust in elderly care and the self-determing factors home care services with tax deduction generated, their choice of using home care services with tax deduction seemed more appealing than publicly-financed home care services.

No description available.

Die Festlegung einer Quote für den Anteil an Plätzen in Einzel- und Doppelzimmern in stationären Altenpflegeeinrichtungen wird im Zuge des Übergangs der Heimgesetzgebung auf die Bundesländer derzeit intensiv diskutiert. In den letzten Jahren ist der Anteil an Plätzen in Einzelzimmern in allen Bundesländern bereits ohne die Festlegung einer Zielgröße kontinuierlich angestiegen. In welchem Maß die Festschreibung eines erhöhten Einzelplatzanteils auch höhere bauliche Investitionskosten und ansteigende Betriebskosten verursacht, wird in den bisher vorliegenden Studien kontrovers diskutiert. In den hier vorgenommenen Untersuchungen im Auftrag des Bayerischen Staatsministeriums für Arbeit und Sozialordnung, Familie und Frauen wird untersucht, welche flächen- und baukostenseitigen Kompensationspotenziale in den Raumprogrammen aktuell realisierter Bauvorhaben bestehen, die bei zukünftigen Neubauvorhaben zu einer Erhöhung des Einzelplatzanteils auf 85% herangezogen werden können. Dazu werden Modellrechnungen durchgeführt und anhand derer retrospektiv untersucht, ob geänderte Konzeptionen sowohl im betrieblichen Konzept als auch in der konkreten Raumprogrammierung sich flächen- und damit auch Kosten reduzierend hätten auswirken können und damit zukünftig eine Erhöhung des Einzelplatzanteils kompensiert werden könnte. Die Maßnahmen werden hinsichtlich ihrer Auswirkungen auf die Pflege und Versorgung diskutiert. Die Ergebnisse der Modellrechnungen zeigen, dass in den aktuellen baulichen Standards der Neubauten der letzten Jahre durchaus Variablen bestehen, die den unbestrittenen Zuwachs an Fläche und baulichen Investitionskosten bei der Realisierung eines erhöhten Einzelzimmeranteils von ca. 85% bei zukünftigen Neubauten kompensieren können. Entsprechende Ansatzmöglichkeiten werden im Bereich der Größe und Anzahl von Bädern in den Bewohnerzimmern sowie von Pflegebädern, in der Form der Speisenversorgung sowie der Größe von zentralen Funktionen, wie z.B. Cafeteria, Mehrzweck- und Therapiebereiche, gesehen. / As legislation on nursing home care in Germany is no longer a federal law, the former regulations are revised and newly legislated by the German federal states. In this context it is being intensely discussed if the percentage of single and shared bedrooms in nursing homes should be legally stipulated. Within the last years the percentage of single rooms increased continuously even without a compulsory quote. To what extent a higher share of single rooms causes higher costs in investment and operating is being controversially discussed in the existing studies. The following study was commissioned by the Bavarian State Ministry of Labour and Social Welfare, Family Affairs, Women and Health. Focus of this study was to identify elements within the room allocation plans of the homes which could be redesignated in futures programmes in order to achieve a percentage of 85% single rooms within the Nursing homes- without causing higher costs in investment. Model calculations showed that modifications of the conceptual designs can compensate the investment cost in new developments. Influencing factors are the size and number of resident’s bathrooms and therapeutic baths, the catering concept and the surface area of common rooms such as the cafeteria and multipurpose rooms.

Syfte: Huvudsyftet med denna undersökning var att kartlägga den psykosociala arbetsmiljön samt identifiera stressfaktorer bland undersköteskor och vårdbiträden i olika kommunala hemtjänstverksamheter. Metoder: Till denna undersökning användes en metodkombination utav kvantitativa samt kvalitativa undersökningar. En enkätsundersökning skickades till 149 medarbetare i berörd kommun och 91 medarbetare besvarade frågorna. Därefter analyserades svaren med hjälp av programmet SPSS. Slutligen genomfördes nio intervjuer med ändamålet att förstå samt försöka identifiera orsaken till stressfaktorer som visade sig i enkätsundersökningen. Resultat: En hög svarsfrekvens av stressrelaterad ohälsa bland hemtjänstpersonal påvisas utifrån mina undersökningar. Analysen har visat att den psykosociala arbetsmiljön på de olika hemtjänstverksamheterna består av höga krav och låga kontrollmöjligheter. Dock var det sociala stödet högt eftersom flertalet upplevde en god sammanhållning inom arbetsgrupperna. Resultatet i den kvantitativa undersökningen visade att det fanns stressfaktorer i dessa verksamheter. Det som var intressant och stack ut var att det allmänna hälsotillståndet upplevdes som mycket bra/ ganska bra av 70.8% av deltagarna, dessutom bedömde 80.3% arbetsförmågan kring psykiska krav som mycket god/ ganska god. 82.4% bedömde arbetsförmågan när det gäller fysiska krav som mycket god/ ganska god. Trots dessa positiva procentenheter svarade flertalet att arbetet krävde att man arbetar fort samt hårt. Dessutom svarade 83.5% att man ibland, ganska ofta, nästan jämt kände sig uppvarvad, 67,1% svarade att man ibland, ganska ofta, nästan jämnt känner sig pressade på gränsen av vad man klarar av. Ytterligare var det 71.8% som upplevde stress ibland, ganska ofta, nästan jämnt. Det vill säga att resultatet påvisade stressfaktorer dock inga bakomliggande orsaker. För att definiera bakomliggande orsaker genomfördes nio intervjuer i studie 2 med ändamålet att förstå medarbetarnas arbetssituation. Resultatet av studie 2 påvisade att orsakerna till att stress uppstod var förändrade arbetsuppgifter där administrativa uppgifter hade ökat radikalt, därtill poängterades det av alla intervjupersoner att man fått flera kundbesök med kort restid emellan vilket ledde till frustration, oro, stress samt dåligt samvete. På så sätt påverkades medarbetarnas meningsfullhet med arbetet. Därtill påvisade undersökningen att medarbetarnas arbetsplatser var så kallade ”spända arbeten” eftersom kraven var höga och beslutsutrymmen väldigt små.

Background. The research on management in Swedish home care has been conductedmainly from sociological perspectives where structural conditions have been of interest (see for example Hagerman et al., 2013; Andersson, 2014; Österlind, 2013). The conditions impacting on management are described as differing ideals where the main ideals are the care perspective and the cost perspective (see for example Andersson, 2014; Österlind, 2013). The conflict between ideals create tensions between ideology and practice and different expectations (Antonsson, 2013) and may also create problems, dilemmas and paradoxes (Österlind, 2013). The rules impacting on the home care activities are bureaucratic rules stemming from the state and municipality. However, Trydegård (2000) argues that at the same time there is room for autonomy and path-dependence in the home care units. Purpose and research approach. There seems to be a lack of studies on management control in home care, and more especially no study combining a discourse, structures and theories on management control. The purpose of this thesis is to explore management control in home care in the relation between structures and managers’ interpretative repertoires in a social-constructionist perspective. The purpose is also to create a prototype model for further research. The ontological positioning and theoretical framework are building on Giddens’ structuration theory (1979, 1984) in which structures are seen as both the medium and outcome of social interaction and rules are important. The units of analysis are the managers’ accounts on management control in semi-structured interviews. The accounts are analysed in a so called case cluster analysis (McClintock et al., 1979) in the software program NVivo. The codes are building on Ouchi’s theory of management control (1979) as ‘input control’, ‘behaviour control’, ‘output control’ and ‘clan control’, and also building on Giddens’ structuration theory (1978, 1984) defined as 8 characteristics of rules, ‘normative sanctions’, ‘signification of meaning’, ‘authoritative’ or ‘allocative resources’. Findings. The findings reveal that home care is highly bureaucratic in input and output control by the use of formal rules stemming from municipality or state. In behaviour control home care has a medium-low degree of bureaucracy if exercised through ‘signification of meaning’ and medium-high when exercised through ‘authoritative resources’. In clan control home care has a low degree of bureaucracy and can either be positive or negative depending on how informal leaders in the unit impact on cooperation between care personnel and if there is trust and a good communication between manager and care personnel. Two main patterns of structuration appear: creation of structures for an efficient process flow of home care to increase efficiency, and co-creation of new rules for behaviour to increase cooperation. Managers focus on different situations of management control depending on conditions in the home care unit and own interpretations. Two interpretative repertoires are identified; the discourse on hard matters is created in relation to matters that are more rigid in structure, such as legislation and municipal goals and that are difficult to interpret differently, whereas soft matters are created in discourse around dilemmas and human or relational aspects of control.

Bakgrund: Sverige upplever demografiska förändringar i samband med en högre invandring och en majoritet av utlandsfödda personer i Sverige arbetar inom vård och omsorg. Statistiska Centralbyrån prognostiserar för en personalbrist om 160 000 utbildade år 2035 i vård- och omsorgssektorn, vilken under de senaste åren har mottagit ett ökat antal anmälningar till DO som upprättats med etnisk tillhörighet som diskrimineringsgrund. Ökningen indikerar att chefer inom äldreomsorgen utmanas att skapa en inkluderande verksamhet, varav studien har undersökt hur chefer diskuterar kring mångfald och hur de arbetar för att inkludera detta i verksamheten. Syfte: Genom intervjuer med sex verksamhetschefer inom privat äldreomsorg ämnar studien att bidra till forskning gällande mångfaldsarbete inom äldreomsorgen. Studiens syfte är att undersöka hur verksamhetscheferna uttrycker sig kring mångfald och hur de arbetar med etnisk mångfald bland personalen. Metod: Studien har genomförts med en kvalitativ metod från ett realistiskt perspektiv. Den huvudsakliga empiriska insamlingen har skett genom intervjuer med verksamhetschefer på äldreboenden tillhörande två stora svenska vårdorganisationer inom privat äldreomsorg. Studien har följt en iterativ ansats vilket innebär att teori och empiri insamlats växelvis. Slutsats: Ur studien kan urskiljas att verksamhetscheferna anser sig sakna incitament för att arbeta med mångfald, vilket kan förklaras med att mångfald och integration enligt cheferna sker naturligt utan behov av deras inblandning. Ytterligare slutsats i studien är att stereotypiseringar av svenskfödd och utlandsfödd personal förekommer, där de sistnämnda tillskrivs särskilda egenskaper som anses lämpliga för vårdyrket. Vi konstaterar även en avsaknad av tydliga mångfaldsmål, en osäkerhet kring målsättning samt att existerande regelverk kan utesluta vissa personer i arbetsstyrkan. / Background: Sweden is experiencing demographic changes due to higher levels of immigration and a majority of foreign-borns in Sweden work within health and social care. Statistics Sweden predicts a personnel shortage of 160 000 qualified in 2035 in the health and social care sector, which during recent years has received an increased number of reports to the Swedish discrimination bureau due to ethnic discrimination. The increase indicates that unit managers within elderly care are challenged to create an inclusive business, whereas the study has investigated how managers discuss diversity and how they implement this in their operations. Purpose: By interviewing six unit managers from private retirement homes, the study intends to contribute to research regarding diversity work within elderly care. The purpose of the study is to investigate how unit managers discuss diversity and how they work with ethnic diversity among the personnel. Methodology: The study has been conducted with a qualitative method from a realistic perspective. The empirical data has primarily been collected through interviews with unit managers from two of the biggest actors in Swedish elderly care. An iterative approach has been applied where theory and empirical data were alternately collected. Conclusion: The study distinguishes that unit managers lack incentives for working actively with diversity. According to the managers this can be explained with the fact that diversity and integration is a natural process, without any need of top management. Another conclusion is that stereotyping of both Swedish and foreign-borns occurs, whereas the latter is perceived to have specific characteristics considered suitable for the care profession. We also discovered a lack of distinctive diversity goals, an uncertainty regarding goal setting and that existing regulations may act excluding for some individuals in the work force.

Background: The elderly Chinese group is growing in Sweden but no studies about their experiences of being cared for were found. In order to meet the elderly Chinese need for care, it is necessary to understand their perspectives of being cared for. Aim: To describe the meaning of the experiences of being cared for by elderly Chinese immigrants in a Swedish context. Method: For this phenomenological study, open-end interviews were carried out with 7 informants originally from Mainland China and Hong Kong. Result and Conclusion: For the elderly Chinese in Sweden, ‘being cared for’ means being involved in a caring community, to have a mutual relationship with someone who can see and understand their needs. In such a relationship, they felt that they were included and respected. They were being treated as valuable with a genuine manner. They had a feeling of satisfaction, happiness, peacefulness, closeness, togetherness, and wholeness when ‘being cared for’. For these elderly Chinese immigrants, informal care was indispensable even when they were receiving formal care. They wished that their family could show concern and formal caregivers could understand and give space to the informal caregivers on caregiving.

This study focuses on women managers in women-dominated organisations. They are leaders in organisations where the majority of the managers as well as the employees are women. In Sweden today most women and men of working age carry out paid work. Women’s salaried employment in Sweden, along with other Nordic countries, is well above the EU-average. The labour market is however divided both horizontally and vertically according to gender. Men and women tend to work in different sectors and industries, perform different tasks and hold different positions. In the public sector, 64 per cent of all managers are women. This means that quite a large proportion of women managers in Sweden work in the public sector. The empirical material consists of interviews with managers, employed in the public sector, working with care for the elderly and disabled. The results were also based on observations of the managers’ places of work as well as written material. The overall aim of the thesis is to: understand how gender power relations are produced, reproduced and changed through describing and analysing the working conditions of women managers, their room for manoeuvre, and how this (re)produces and changes in organisations dominated by women. The studied organizations are large organisations that supply a vast number of care services. The managers describe their job as compelling and stimulating and they enjoy having the power to shape the organization. Results of the analysis suggest that being in majority opens up for various ways of challenging male constructions of management. The managers do not have to relate to pre-existing notions of management. They are comfortable in the power position. They constitute the norm for management in the sense that it is what they do at work that defines management. Moreover, they do not perceive themselves as part of a gendered category as managers. The manager’s working conditions are characterized by large areas of responsibility. They are responsible for budget, staff, organizational development and day-to-day operations. Despite this, managers in woman-dominated operations are paid lower salaries than managers in both male-dominated municipality activities and in the private sector. How can it be that such highly qualified and challenging managerial practice is not rewarded high status and high salaries? In the analysis a misogyny discourse is identified which exists at the level of society and is passed on to the organisations studied. The misogyny discourse contributes to devaluing and making women’s work invisible. In parallel with misogyny, there is also a discourse glorifying men. The glorification of men gives men in minority a dominant status above the women in majority. Power relations are nevertheless not only reproduced. The results show that the women managers apply both individual and collective resistance strategies to alter subordination. The prevailing unequal conditions are thus both reproduced and challenged. / <p>QC 20131125</p>

Political decision making can be analyzed through a plethora of theories. Here Economic Psychology is used as theoretical framework to analyze decision making, both by politicians and voters. The thesis consists of an overview of current research; an econometric study of how the voters in municipal elections react to changes in fiscal policy; and two case studies where the transfer of responsibility from one political level to another are studied, namely the transfer of Elder Care from counties to municipalities, and the transfer of the school system from the national government to the municipalities. It is shown that political actors often take psychological factors into consideration when they design or react to policy proposals. It is also shown the use of a psychological approach can improve the understanding of political decision making, particularly when the processes are complex or involve negotiations. / Diss. Stockholm : Handelshögskolan, 2009 Sammanfattning jämte 4 uppsatser