Over the past two decades, health care has undergone massive change, both in scientific and technological advancements, and in the manner in which services are structured and delivered (Angus, Auer, Cloutier, & Albert, 1995). Social, political, and financial pressures have resulted in organizational restructuring, which in turn influenced the delivery of health care at all levels. The knowledge base of the occupational therapy profession has continued to expand and there is increasing evidence of the effectiveness of its services. For these many reasons professional development has become especially critical as it enhances practitioners abilities to respond appropriately to these ever-changing external forces (Nolan, Owens, & Nolan, 1995) and ensures evidence-based practice (Craik & Rappolt, 2006), thus benefitting both patients and organizations. As professionals, occupational therapists are personally accountable for the quality and outcomes of the services they provide (Friedson, 1994). This study examined the factors that induce occupational therapists - important resources for the health care system - to maintain, adapt, and enhance their competencies. I explored the potential drivers of professional development using a combination of commitment theory and organizational support theory (Eisenberger, Huntington, Hutchison, & Sowa, 1986; Meyer & Herscovitch 2001). Hierarchical regression analysis showed that, though perceived organizational support and development-oriented human resource management practices play a role in professional development, occupational therapists professional commitment is the most important influence on professional development. Moreover, in the population studied, performance appraisals did not appear to influence professional development. Participants open-ended comments suggested that occupational therapists do not perceive such appraisals as relevant to their practice or learning needs. These findings have important implications. The education of occupational therapists and the role of professional bodies become important for instilling and supporting professional commitment. For employers, the hiring process for occupational therapists and the policies and human resource management practices related to encouraging professional commitment become especially critical. / Rehabilitation Science

No description available.

The objective of this study is to describe and understand the organizational culture and context in Home Health Nursing (HHNsg) practice. Participants consisted of a Licensed Practical Nurse (LPN), three Registered Nurses (RNs) and three Registered Nurse leaders. Using the methodology of ethnography, data collection methods included participant-observation, documenting fieldnotes, writing reflective memos, conducting individual interviews and examining organizational priorities. Home Health Nurses (HHNs) were observed and subsequently interviewed to illustrate routine practices and discourses that influence everyday HHNsg practice. Nurse leaders shared their perspectives of everyday contexts underpinning HHNsg practice, particularly professional claims of culturally-competent care. Geertz’s theoretical concepts of “thick descriptions and “texts” were applied to the analysis. My concluding discussion demonstrates how participants enacted cost-effective and efficient philosophies of organizing care despite claiming the importance of culturally-competent care with South Asian clients (India, Punjab). / Graduate

This is a qualitative study that includes participants that are in connection with a non-civic organization in Sweden. The study aims to capture the participants’ subjective experiences regarding human service organizations. The starting point is to catch both their positive and negative experiences, and then try to concretize what directed their perception in both ways. Is there any specific organization that is represented in positive and the negative column? Is it possible to explain the experience by looking at the organization and the organizational goals? Is it possible to see variables that might explain the perception? The study has a narrative focus that seeks the answers in the organisational context rather than in the stories themselves. The theoretical approach is Hasenfelds (1983) classification of human service organizations, and the “legal authority” that is one component in Weber’s (1983) bureaucracy. The result shows that it was one specific organization that dominated the negative experiences. Another aspect that seems to be important is that you meet the right person within these organizations.

No description available.

The literature presents us with two distinct, and at times opposed, approaches to strategic management: the use of strategic choice and determinism. This research shows that these approaches can actually be considered as two distinct variables, which create a space or framework in which it is possible to identify, according to the available different amounts of strategic choice and determinism, the four different ontological perspectives of determinism, hard incompatibilism, libertarianism and compatibilism. According to the literature, within each ontological perspective of the strategic choice/determinism framework, companies use different levels of strategic choice and determinism to produce organizational outcomes. This research provides empirical evidence of the real life existence of these ontological perspectives, in which companies’ performance of revenues is driven by a different amount of strategic choice or determinism according to the perspectives in which companies operate. This research also shows that other important performance indicators, such as EBITDA, depend only on deterministic variables, while ROA depends neither on strategic choice nor on deterministic variables. These findings suggest that future research could increase our knowledge on the internal environment of companies, as it could do from the hard incompatibilist perspective, which was not possible to study thoroughly within this research. The research conclusions provide several contributions to both academic knowledge and practice.

The literature presents us with two distinct, and at times opposed, approaches to strategic management: the use of strategic choice and determinism. This research shows that these approaches can actually be considered as two distinct variables, which create a space or framework in which it is possible to identify, according to the available different amounts of strategic choice and determinism, the four different ontological perspectives of determinism, hard incompatibilism, libertarianism and compatibilism. According to the literature, within each ontological perspective of the strategic choice/determinism framework, companies use different levels of strategic choice and determinism to produce organizational outcomes. This research provides empirical evidence of the real life existence of these ontological perspectives, in which companies’ performance of revenues is driven by a different amount of strategic choice or determinism according to the perspectives in which companies operate. This research also shows that other important performance indicators, such as EBITDA, depend only on deterministic variables, while ROA depends neither on strategic choice nor on deterministic variables. These findings suggest that future research could increase our knowledge on the internal environment of companies, as it could do from the hard incompatibilist perspective, which was not possible to study thoroughly within this research. The research conclusions provide several contributions to both academic knowledge and practice.

No description available.

In knowledge economy, organizational knowledge is considered to be a critical strategic resource which may help the organization to achieve competitive advantage; therefore, knowledge sharing, as one of the knowledge management processes, attracts the attention of both researchers and practitioners. Knowledge sharing may bring many benefits such as personal development for the employees and knowledge accumulation for the organization. However, at the same time it is very challenging because employees may be very mobile, too occupied to engage in knowledge sharing, or just unwilling to share their valuable knowledge. Nevertheless, although many organizations have started to invest heavily in various knowledge sharing mechanisms, quite often these processes are not effective because various organizational and individual factors impede the usage of those mechanisms. This study seeks to increase the understanding of how and which of such factors affect knowledge sharing in voluntary project-based organizations. Ten in-depth interviews have been conducted with the project managers in AIESEC, the largest international student organization, in order to find out what KS mechanisms they use, and what enables or hinders KS in this organization. It was found that in this organization KS takes place at all organizational levels, and the most popular KS mechanisms are documents and social interaction. Various documents include planning and tracking tools, proposals for sponsors, budget spread-sheets, feedback forms from participants and companies, and reports about functional areas. Social interaction comprises individual and group meetings, including trainings, coaching or mentoring, conversations over the phone and software Skype, discussions in conferences and communication in social groups online. So there is a balance between the KS mechanisms used to personalize and codify knowledge. However, the individualized KS mechanisms dominate on the individualization- institutionalization dimension. Also AIESEC members share all types of knowledge: tacit and explicit, individual and collective. Factors affecting KS can be categorized in 5 groups: Organizational context, Interpersonal and Team characteristics, Cultural characteristics, Individual characteristics, and Motivational factors. As KS in AIESEC takes place quite intensively, not surprisingly more KS facilitators were identified. The most significant ones in each group are as follows: the organizational culture and structure; diversity and strong social ties; willingness to help, and structure and exactness; self-efficiency and personal characteristics such as talkativeness, open-mindedness, empathy, motivation, responsibility and ambitiousness; perceived personal benefits, interpersonal trust, and organizational commitment. The few factors identified that might impede KS in AIESEC are the lack of time, lack of KS regulation and some negative cultural attitudes.

Intraprenörskap är ett relativt okänt begrepp i jämförelse sin motsvarighet entreprenörskap. Intraprenören kan stå för förnyelse och mervärdesskapande inom en redan etablerad organisation. För att besvara problemformuleringen “Vilken inverkan samt betydelse kan individen och den organisatoriska kontexten ha för intraprenörskap?” besvarades forskningsfrågorna Finns det några gemensamma egenskaper att identifiera bland intraprenörer som kan kopplas till dess innovativa arbete? Går det att identifiera några särskilda kontextuella förutsättningar som krävs för att intraprenörskap ska uppstå? Vem, vad eller vilka kan vara skapare av den intraprenöriella organisatoriska kontexten? Studien utfördes genom en kvalitativ metod med hermeneutiskt synsätt samt tolkning. Urvalet utgjordes av sex anställda intraprenörer inom olika organisationer, vilka belönats med bemanningsföretaget Talentia ABs pris för intraprenöriellt arbete. Dessa intervjuades genom semistrukturerad intervju. Den teoretiska referensramen som upprättats applicerades sedan på empiri. Behandlingen av empiri skedde först genom tematisk analys, för att sedan använda teoritriangulering. Resultatet visade att intraprenören i undersökta fall behöver stöd från en överordnad för att lyckas, men att det ej krävdes en ursprungligen intraprenöriell organisatorisk kontext för framgången. Ingen enskild skapare av kontexten har kunnat urskiljas. Vidare uppdagades att en intraprenör kan skapa en gynnsam intraprenöriell kontext i sin omgivning, för att på så vis lyckas genomföra sin handling vilket utgjorde studiens forskningsbidrag. Detta kontextskapande kan ge upphov till att medarbetare börjar agera intraprenöriellt. Intraprenören kan således, efter att stöd givits från en överordnad, främja ytterligare intraprenörskap inom organisationen. / The word intrapreneur is not as well-known as its counterpart entrepreneur. Intrapreneurship can contribute to renewal and added value within the organization. To answer the question of this study “Which impact and meaning can the individual and the organizational context have for intrapreneurship?” three research questions where formed: Can any personal attributes between the intrapreneurs be distinguished which has affected their work? Can any contextual prerequisites be identified as necessary for intrapreneurship to develop? Can there be a creator of the intrapreneurial organizational context? The study was conducted through a qualitative approach with hermeneutic interpretation, where interviews were performed with a few respondents, in this paper referred to as cases. This sample consisted of six employed individuals within different organizations who have been awarded with award for intrapreneurship by the recruitment company Talentia AB. Interviews were conducted with the award winners, and these were conducted in a semi-structured fashion. The empirical findings were processed through a theoretical framework, and divided into three separate themes for further analysis via theory triangulation. The results showed that the intrapreneur needed a superior sponsor to succeed in all studied cases, but he does not need a foregoing intraprenerial context to be successful. No sole creator of the intraprenerial context could be identified, in the study. However the authors did discover that the intrapreneur is able to create an intraprenerial context within the work group after the intraprenerial process has started. This type of context has given rise to intrapreneurial action from other employees within the organization. Accordingly the intrapreneur can, with the support from a superior, encourage further intrapreneurial action.