This project utilized an interdisciplinary approach to explore what harm and harm reduction meant during intersecting public health emergencies, the opioid crisis and the coronavirus pandemic. Using thematic and historical analysis, I analyzed interviews with frontline workers, news coverage, and municipal government documents to understand how people conceptualized the opioid crisis during coronavirus (and vice versa). On the whole, I found that harm reduction was a central aspect of the efforts against the opioid crisis in Hamilton. However, there were discrepancies in how it was practiced and understood. Generally, harm reduction was presented in municipal government documents as a medical intervention that involved, for example, the provision of new needles and naloxone kits to prevent disease and death. Such a practice was indeed important to address the unique harms at the intersection of COVID and the opioid crisis. However, to frontline workers and activists, harm reduction was a much broader term: it included services that were crucial to daily life, such as food and washrooms; the right to safe housing; and broader social and structural interventions, such as the decriminalization of opioid use. The context of the coronavirus pandemic, which exposed people who use opioids to unique harms, exacerbated the disparity between these definitions: harm reduction was simultaneously presented as a narrow, medical practice and a broad, political intervention. / Thesis / Master of Arts (MA)

Les personnes en situation d’itinérance (PSI) font face à plusieurs défis pour (sur)vivre dans l’espace public dont la judiciarisation, la criminalisation (Bellot et Sylvestre, 2017), les demandes de déplacements et la saisie de matériels (Herring, 2019) qui se manifestent aussi dans les espaces de soins (Dej, 2020). D’ailleurs, les intervenant.e.s de première ligne en itinérance opèrent avec des tensions complexes dans le cadre de leur travail, iels doivent assurer le bien-être de leurs usager.ère.s et répondre à des tâches de contrôle, en négociant leur mandat avec d’autres organisations telles que la police (Stuart, 2016). Les crises ont pour effet d’exacerber la discrétion individuelle des travailleur.euse.s en première ligne, soutenant les collaborations, mais aussi les résistances dans la rue (Brodkin, 2021). Au Québec, la gestion de la COVID-19 a été qualifiée de « punitive » (Fortin et al., 2022), visant démesurément les quartiers pauvres et racisés (Luscombe et McClelland, 2020a). Bien que le profilage social est largement documenté à Montréal, jusqu’à maintenant peu de connaissances ont été produites quant aux conséquences des crises sur les organisations participant à la gouvernance de l’itinérance. Les travailleur.euse.s de première ligne ont largement été mobilisé.e.s, toutefois, peu de recherches se sont penchées sur leurs rôles (Alcadipani et al., 2020). Suite à 42 entretiens réalisés avec des intervenant.e.s de première ligne en itinérance, j’ai utilisé la méthodologie de contre-histoire pour confronter une narrative-maître de collaboration. Les entretiens suggèrent que les intervenant.e.s ont plutôt chercher à limiter les interactions avec la police alors que différentes crises convergent et vulnérabilisent leurs usager.ères. Iels ont mis en place différentes stratégies pour limiter ces interactions et assurer le bien-être des PSI. Autant lorsqu’iels limitent les interactions que lorsqu’iels en viennent à collaborer avec la police, les intervenant.e.s font face à des dilemmes plus complexes qui engendrent des conséquences amplifiées sur leurs usager.ère.s. Ces résultats permettent de discuter des conséquences de la crise sur leurs pratiques d’intervention et du contexte dans lequel opère cette gouvernance de l’itinérance. / People experiencing homelessness (PEH) face many challenges including judicialization, criminalization (Bellot & Sylvestre, 2017), banishment and seizures (Herring, 2019) while they survive in the streets. Studies show they also experience this punitive governance in spaces of care (Dej, 2020). Frontline workers (FW) have to work with complex tensions in the context of their work, they have to insure wellbeing of PEH, while also negotiating tasks of control alongside police public forces (Stuart, 2016). Scholars that study disasters and crisis help us appreciate how such exceptional times can exacerbate discretion bringing both collaboration but also resistance in the streets (Brodkin, 2021). In Quebec, the resolution of the pandemic has been qualified as ’’punitive’’ (Fortin et al., 2022) while some scholars found disproportionate patterns of control in poor and racialized neighbourhoods (Luscombe & McClelland, 2020a). The social profiling and punitive control of PEH has been widely documented and studied in Montreal, yet little is known about the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on key issues that matter to practitioners who have been widely mobilized (Alcadipani et al., 2020). Following 42 interviews realized with frontline workers in the homelessness sector, I used a counter-story methodology to challenge the master narrative of collaboration. Results suggest that FW rather limited their interactions with police officers in many amplified situations of overlapping crisis that marginalized their clients, bringing strategies to insure PEH wellbeing without relying on police interactions. Both, when they rely on or avoid police support, they faced more complex dilemmas that have amplified consequences for their clients. Finally, I discuss the impacts of the COVID-19 crisis on their practices considering the context in which takes place homelessness governance.

Whilst the topic of leadership has been widely studied it remains little understood, particularly at the first-level line of leadership, especially as it relates to developing countries such as Kuwait. This study critically analyses and presents the needs, skills and capabilities of frontline leaders working in the Kuwait’s Oil and Gas Sector companies. It also examines how such needs and competencies can be developed so as to make these leaders more effective in leading functional units (teams) and to improve organisational performance overall. The study produces a frontline leadership needs and skills development framework that contributes to a better understanding of leadership in a Middle Eastern country (Kuwait), taking into account important contextual factors that influence leadership. Influenced by a social constructivist philosophy and based on qualitative evidence gathered from 42 Team Leaders, the essential leadership needs neglected by previous literature (and possibly lacking in Kuwait) were: business knowledge, technical skills, leadership and managerial skills, communication skills, decision-making skills and change management skills. These leadership needs reflected what the third line leaders understood and personally believed to be essential leadership dimensions for them to be effective and to competently undertake their work. These leadership needs constituted the foundation for their present and future leadership development in order to enhance their leadership capabilities. However, no single methodology was identified as a ‘one size fits all’ solution to meeting the development needs of the Team Leaders. Nevertheless, on the job-training was considered to be the most effective approach to develop these skills and capabilities. It is recommended that top management, and in particular human resources departments within the Oil and Gas Sector companies should continuously identify the needs of third-line leaders and focus on developing skills and competencies considered to be lacking and the most important by these frontline leaders, rather than offering a raft of seemingly unconnected development activities.

The fierce competition on the retail market has led firms to stop focusing on firm-customer transactions and start focusing on firm-customer relations. New customer demands makes it impossible for firms to gain a sustainable advantage by focusing only on their goods assortment. This forces retailers to consider the customer experience and differentiate themselves by how they offer what they offer. This have led to that many retail companies try to shape the behaviours and emotional displays of their frontline employees in encounters with customers. Many firms define customer service concepts as an attempt to create high quality customer experiences. However, a successful realisation of these concepts can be challenging.   Service-Dominant Logic researchers argue that firms cannot single headedly create value but that it is co-created in the interaction with customers. Therefore, they can only create value propositions, which is a proposal for value co-creation based on an integration of products and services. Services marketing researchers emphasise the importance of internal marketing for enabling frontline employees to represent the firm in the interactive value-creating process with the customer. Prior research focuses on the customer-driven development of value propositions, and techniques to conduct internal marketing, but does not provide relevant theories about the realisation of value propositions or the implementation of these internal marketing techniques. This thesis conceptualise the human factor of the realisation of the value proposition with the concept of intended and enacted value propositions. The purpose was to develop a deeper understanding of how internal marketing can be used to manage the gaps between intended and enacted retail value propositions. This was addressed by investigating one of Sweden’s largest retail companies on commission. Since the company has requested to remain confidential, it will be called Anonymous Commission Company (ACC) in this thesis. The current study has answered the following research question: “How can the gaps between intended and enacted retail value propositions be managed through internal marketing?”   The research question was answered through a qualitative study and in-depth interviews with both CS concept managers and frontline employees. The intended value proposition was investigated by a combination of ACC documents related to the CS concept, and interviews with the CS concept managers. By interviewing the frontline employees, their perceptions and enactment of the value proposition was investigated, as well as how they experience the current internal operations at ACC. The findings confirmed the proposed concept of intended and enacted value propositions, and four main barriers causing the gaps between them were identified through a thematic network analysis. Internal marketing theories were used to analyse how retail companies can overcome these barriers by engaging, enabling, empowering and ensuring their frontline employees. The thesis offer implications for retail managers on how they can manage the gaps between intended and the enacted value propositions. The study contributes to prior research by combining value proposition theories and internal marketing theories, and by offering detailed recommendations for retail firms. Furthermore, the study enriches the practical implications regarding retail value propositions and retail value proposition realisation.

Changes to the global economy over the past few decades along with growing support for neo-liberal policies in Canada have led to an increase in precarious, low-wage frontline service work. These kinds of occupations often involve sustained interaction with clients and have high job demands, low job control and insufficient monetary reward. Further, many of these jobs also tend to be gendered (i.e., they involve a large degree of ‘emotional’ labour or care work that is predominantly carried out by female workers). Working conditions such as these can have a negative impact on the mental health of frontline service workers leading to psychological distress and depression. Chronic stress or cumulative stressful life events can also increase vulnerability to depression. While these stressors can be exacerbated by poor working conditions, they can also exist independently of them. Comparative research across two or more frontline service occupations, similar in broad strokes but differing in workplace characteristics, is especially needed to understand how structural and contextual factors in the workplace and over the life course interact to produce depression. This thesis presents data from my supervisor (Dr. Cecilia Benoit) and colleagues’ 4-wave longitudinal study entitled “Interactive service workers’ occupational health and safety and access to health services” (Benoit, Jansson, Leadbeater & McCarthy, 2005). This is a study of three types of frontline service jobs – two in the formal economy (hairstyling and food and beverage service) and one in the shadow/informal economy (sex industry). Results of this secondary analysis demonstrate that not only do working conditions have a significant impact on the mental health of frontline service workers but that stressful life events also have very strong explanatory power in understanding why certain workers experience depression more than others. The findings indicate that sex workers have the highest levels of depression, in comparison to stylists and servers. Yet sex workers report protective factors in their jobs, including higher comparative decision latitude, that contradict much of the current literature on sex work. The thesis concludes with policy recommendations and gives direction for further research in the area of frontline service work and depression.

Bakgrund: Det diskuteras ideligen kring de fyra storbankerna i media angående trender och framtidsutsikter. I Sverige är utbudet av banker stort, trots det skiljer de sig inte mycket åt gentemot kunder. Företag arbetar ständigt med att positionera varumärket gentemot kunder, dock skall inte den interna marknadsföringen bortses. Företagsledningen kommunicerar internt med att förmedla värderingar samt visioner vilket motiverar de anställda. Syfte: Syftet med uppsatsen är att utreda och analysera Handelsbankens interna markandsföring samt integrationen av varumärket i organisationen för att sedan analysera effekterna utav det. Resultaten ur intervjuerna kommer att analyseras med hjälp av teorier.  Metod: En kvalitativ fallstudie med abduktion som forskningsansats. De empirska data har insamlats genom sex stycken semi-strukturerade intervjuer. Samtliga respondenter var från Handelsbanken varav tre arbetar som frontpersonal samt tre chefer. Hermeneutik var en central metod för att tolka teorier samt respondenternas svar. Slutsats: I studien har vi kommit fram till att den interna marknadsföringen har en betydande roll gällande att kommunicera värderingar, visioner och organisationskultur. Detta bidrar till att frontpersonalen blir motiverade, stimulerade och engagerade i det vardagliga arbetet. Vi har identifierat ett samband med den interna marknadsföringen till att frontpersonalen är förberedda inför kundmötet. De kan uppfylla kundens förväntningar vilket leder till högre kundnöjdhet. / Background: It is continually discussed about the four major banks in media regarding trends and prospects. In Sweden there is a wide selection of banks, despite that they do not differ greatly towards customers. Banks are constantly working to positioning the brand to customers, however, they should not disregard the internal marketing. The management communicates internally to convey values and visions which motivates the employees. Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to investigate and analyze the internal marketing of Handelsbanken, and the integration of brand values in the organization to then analyze the outcoming effects. The results from the interviews will be analyzed using theories. Method: A qualitative case study with abductive research approach. The empirical data has been collected through six semi-structured interviews. All respondents were from Handelsbanken, three of them work as frontline staff and three as managers. Hermeneutics was a central method of interpreting theories as well as respondents' answers. Conclusion: The conclusions from our study are that internal marketing plays a significant role regarding communicating values, visions and organizational culture. This helps to motivate, stimulate and engage the frontline staff in their everyday work. We have identified a connection between the internal marketing and frontline staff, the management need to prepare them with values and necessary information before they face customers. They can therefor meet customer expectations which results in higher customer satisfaction.

[Truncated abstract] This thesis is an analysis of a technology that is radically changing the location, process and position of manager learning, leveraging organisational learning agendas, and creating networks re-ordering institutional frameworks. The thesis examines the discourses, performances and productions associated with the Frontline Management Initiative (FMI) and provides a model of workplace-based management development. Academically, it provides new knowledge about the discourses constituting, enacting and producing manager development. Practically, it provides an understanding of the relations between workplace learning and outcomes that can inform practice. The FMI is a critical technology in terms of leveraging enterprise growth, due to its extensive national profile within the politically dominant societal structures of organisations, the critical interpreting role of frontline managers, and the innovative workplace-based, learner-centred framework. As the solitary Karpin (1995) report beacon, the FMI is positioned in highly contested terrain. Managing practice confronts the complexity of ordering knowledge work, where meaning and knowledge are more fluid and transient. Management development practice is more workplace located where knowing is more situated, distributed and relationally negotiated, but framed by politically endorsed competency-based frameworks. This study takes the unique opportunity to examine a learning technology that is being shaped by powerful mediating discourses. It examines how these multiple discourses construct FMI practice, what meanings of managing they develop and what effect these relational experiences have on subsequent managing practice.

There has been considerable research interest in the nature of service failure and recovery over the past few decades. In this context, the role of frontline service employees has emerged as a crucial factor in successful service recovery. Interestingly, while management and organizational behaviour literatures have looked at the favorable influence positive psychological capacities (optimism, hope, self-efficacy, and resilience) have on employee performance, this literature has not yet been used to shed light on how such capacities in frontline service employees might impact service recovery. By bringing this literature into the service recovery context, this research aims to examine how, and to what extent, these internal positive psychological capacities in frontline employees affect service recovery and complaint handling. Using emotion contagion theory, the broaden-and-build theory of positive emotions, the theory of cognitive appraisal, and justice theory, the study develops a number of hypothesized relationships, centered on the proposition that employee positive psychological capacities influence service recovery and complaint handling through both an emotional and a behavioral path. Specifically, it is posited that frontline employee positive emotions influence customer perceived interactional justice through the emotional path, while the behavioral path influences frontline employee problem solving, thus influencing customer perceived distributive and procedural justice. Data to examine these questions was collected using two studies. The first, based on a survey of service providers, investigates the influence of positive psychological capacities on positive emotions and problem solving competencies of frontline employees. The second uses an experimental design with service customers as subjects, investigating the influence of employee problem solving levels and positive emotions on customer perceptions of justice. Data analysis supports both paths with a stronger influence for the behavioural paths. The study brings new insight to service managers and service recovery.

This thesis explores the process of accreditation within a government contracted social service agency in British Columbia, Canada. The agency is seeking accreditation from the Commission on Accreditation for Rehabilitation Facilities (CARF). Institutional ethnography is used to explicate the social relations of CARF - how it organizes frontline work with clients and how it re-organizes an agency’s relations to government funding and service delivery. Data include the author’s frontline work accounts, interviews with frontline workers and the Director, and textual documents used within frontline work. The research process traces specific reporting documents that connect frontline work to the agency’s funders, Community Living B.C. and the Regional Health Authority, and to CARF. This thesis makes visible how the accreditation discourse of measurement and continuous quality improvement shifts how frontline workers think about and do their work with clients in ways that align their priorities with those of government contract management.

Ce travail de recherche a pour objectif de comprendre l’impact de la mise en place d’une approche relationnelle auprès de populations vulnérables sur les pratiques de dépistage du cancer. La problématique principale est la suivante : La mise en place d’une approche relationnelle en santé, via la présence de navigateurs auprès de populations vulnérables, permetelle d’améliorer la communication en prévention et son impact sur les pratiques de dépistage ? Ce travail fait suite au développement de dispositifs de prévention en santé visant à faire davantage participer au dépistage du cancer et réduire les inégalités sociales de santé. Ils testaient jusque-là la mise en place d’une approche relationnelle, prônant l’adaptation du profil du personnel en contact à une population vulnérable, sans toutefois tester l’effet des différentes caractéristiques de ce personnel. Les promoteurs de ces dispositifs, appelés « programmes de navigation », affirment que l’adaptation du profil du navigateur (chargé de prévention) à la population cible permet d’augmenter significativement la participation au dépistage. Cette adaptation se fait par le recrutement d’un chargé de prévention partageant des caractéristiques similaires avec la population cible (âge, genre, lieu d’habitation, etc.) et n’ayant pas nécessairement d’expertise en santé. Si l’efficacité des dispositifs mis en œuvre dans de précédentes expérimentations a été prouvée, rien n’est dit sur l’impact des caractéristiques des navigateurs. Un cadre théorique mobilisant les travaux en marketing des services et en marketing relationnel est proposé pour identifier les facteurs d’efficacité des programmes de navigation et, ainsi faisant, les caractéristiques des navigateurs. Pour cela, trois études empiriques sont menées. Les deux premières études (études 1 et 2) explorent la genèse d’un de ces dispositifs « ColoNav » afin d’en comprendre les tenants et les aboutissants. L’étude 1 mesure l’impact de ce dispositif sur la participation au dépistage du cancer colorectal et met en lien ces résultats avec le profil des personnels en contact recrutés. L’étude 2 analyse les données qualitatives de ce dispositif et met en lumière les différents facteurs ayant pu avoir un impact dans son efficacité. L’étude 3 (expérimentation) mesure le réel impact de l’adaptation du profil (similarité et expertise) du personnel en contact à une population vulnérable sur l’intention de participation au dépistage du cancer colorectal et sur l’intention de le recommander. L’étude 1 montre que la présence du navigateur pour promouvoir le dépistage du cancer colorectal semble avoir un effet sur la participation à celui-ci. Cependant, les conditions de l’étude ne permettent pas de conclure de façon satisfaisante au seul effet de l’adaptation du profil du chargé de prévention (étude 1). Ces résultats nous ont amenée à nous interroger sur le réel impact de cette adaptation et sur l’existence d’autres facteurs que le profil pouvant impacter les résultats de ce genre de dispositif. L’étude 2 nous a permis de constater l’existence de trois principaux facteurs et de les analyser en profondeur (étude 2). Ainsi, au profil du personnel en contact s’ajoutent son investissement dans la relation avec les personnes de la population cible (choix en matière de communication et capacité à s’adapter à son interlocuteur) et ses relations avec son environnement de travail (acteurs et population cible) qui viennent modérer son action (la faciliter ou la compliquer). Enfin, les résultats de l’étude 3 permettent de conclure à l’impact positif significatif de la similarité et de l’expertise sur l’intention de dépistage et de recommandation. Les conclusions de cette étude complètent celles faites pour le dispositif ColoNav. ... / The purpose of this research is to understand the impact of implementing a relational approach on vulnerable populations regarding cancer screening practices. The main issue was as follows: Does the implementation of a relational approach in health, through the presence of navigators with vulnerable populations, improve prevention communication and its impact on screening practices?This research is a follow-up to health prevention devices which aim was to increase participation in cancer screening and thus reduce social inequalities in health. Until now, they tested the implementation of a relational approach advocating the adaptation of the frontline employee’s profile to a vulnerable population, without however testing the effect of the different characteristics of this employee. These devices, called "navigation programs", claim that adapting the navigator’s profile (prevention officer) to a target population significantly increases the participation in screening. This adaptation is done by recruiting a prevention officer who shares similar characteristics with the target population (age, gender, place of residence, etc.) and does not necessarily have expertise in healthcare. If the effectiveness of the devices implemented in previous experiments has been proven, nothing is said about the impact of the navigators’ characteristics. A theoretical framework mobilizing research in Services marketing and Relationship marketing is proposed to identify the efficiency factors ofnavigation programs, thus, the characteristics of navigators. For that, three empirical studies have then been conducted.The first two studies (studies 1 and 2) explore the genesis of one of these devices, "ColoNav", in order to understand the reasons and outcomes. Study 1 measures the impact of this device on participation in colorectal cancer screening and links these results to the profile of the frontline employees recruited. Study 2 analyzes the qualitative data of this device and highlights the various factors that may have had an impact on its effectiveness. Study 3 (experimentation) measures the real impact of the adapting of the frontline employee’s profile (similarity and expertise) to a vulnerable population on the intention to participate to colorectal cancer screening and on the intention to recommend it. The first study shows that the presence of the navigator promoting colorectal cancer screening appears to affect participation to it. However, the conditions of the study do not allow to conclude satisfactorily on the only effect of the adaptation of the prevention officer’s profile (study 1). These results raise questions about the real impact of the adaptation of the frontline employee’s profile (similarity and expertise) and the existence of other factors than the profile that could impact the results of this kind of device. Study 2 allows us to find three main factors and analyzed them in depth (study 2). Thereby, the frontline employee’s profile complemented by his investment in the relationship with the target population (his communication choices and his ability to adapt to his nterlocutor) as well as by his relationship with his work environment (actors and target population), which moderates its action (facilitate or complicate it). Finally, the results of the experiment (study 3) allow us to conclude that there is a significant and positive impact of similarity and expertise on screening and recommendation intentions. The conclusions of study 3 complement those of the ColoNav device. They confirm the fact that in the context of the implementation of a relational approach, such as ColoNav, other factors than the frontline employee’s profile are to be considered in the effectiveness of a health prevention program.