Syftet med studien var att undersöka om och hur anställda upplever att dagens gränslösa digitala arbete förskjuter balansen mellan privatliv och arbetsliv. Genom en kvalitativ metod utgick studien från åtta semistrukturerade intervjuer som genomfördes på ett företag beläget i Mellansverige. Intervjumaterialet analyserades sedan utifrån en induktiv tematisk analys där tre teman identifierades; kontroll över informationsflödet, organisationskultur med undertemat ledarskap samt slutligen temat flexibilitet. Utifrån studiens resultat framkom det att gränsen mellan privatliv och arbetsliv har förskjutits av dagens gränslösa digitala arbete då respondenterna tenderade att kontrollera det arbetsrelaterade informationsflödet i huvudsak via mail utanför arbetstid. En stark organisationskultur och ett ledarskap utan förväntningar på ständig tillgänglighet hos de anställda samt möjlighet till flexibla arbetstider underlättade för respondenterna att hantera den diffusa gränsdragning som uppstått i och med digitaliseringen och skapa en god work-life balance. / The aim of this study was to examine whether and how employees feel that today's boundless digital work shifts the balance between work and family life. Through a qualitative method, the study was based on eight semi-structured interviews which was carried out at a company located in Central Sweden. The collected material was analyzed using an inductive thematic analysis where three themes were identified; control over the stream of  information, organizational culture with subcategory leadership and the final theme flexibility. The results indicated that the boundary between work and family life has shifted by today´s limitless digital work, since the respondents controlled their work-related stream of information mainly through email outside working hours. An organizational culture and leadership without expectations of permanent availability and the possibility to use flexible working hours has made it easier for the respondents to handle the diffuse boundary that emerged with the advanced technology and to create a good work - life balance.

This mixed methods study contains two studies that are linked together sequentially to explore the work/nonwork boundary management of home-based teleworkers through the overarching research question: Do personality traits and ICT use influence how teleworkers manage their work-nonwork boundary? Mobile ICT s such as smartphones are becoming increasingly more important for work and they can have a boundary blurring effect on the work-nonwork boundary as they may be used at anytime and anywhere. However, the issue of how personality traits influence ICT use and work-nonwork boundary management has been neglected, particularly in a teleworking context. As people manage their work-nonwork boundaries differently and some people work better at home than others, it is not known to what extent personality traits play a role in boundary management and ICT use. Study One explores the relationships between the big five personality traits of conscientiousness, extraversion and neuroticism, the facet level traits of dutifulness, gregariousness, and impulsiveness and work/nonwork boundary interruptions. It also explores the relationships between these traits and frequency of technology use for work purposes and the relationship of ICT s (smartphones, tablets and laptops) to work/nonwork boundary interruptions. Data was collected via an online survey, with recruitment from social media sites and Local Authorities totalling 391 usable responses. Conscientiousness was found to be negatively related to work-nonwork and nonwork-work interruptions, dutifulness negatively related to nonwork-work interruptions, neuroticism positively related to work-nonwork interruptions and impulsiveness positively related to nonwork-work interruptions. Personality traits were found to have small correlations to boundary interruptions which was a new finding, although it was expected that the correlations might have been larger than they were found to be. Extraversion was positively related to frequency of laptop use and extraversion and gregariousness were positively related to frequency of smartphone use, neuroticism was negatively related to frequency of smartphone use which were new findings in a work context. Frequency of ICT use was positively related to work-nonwork interruptions, with smartphones showing the highest correlation, followed by tablet and then laptop displaying a stepped effect. This finding of a stepped effect was new and suggests that the portability of smartphones makes them much easier to connect to work out of hours, than laptops and tablets. The second study included interviews from 20 participants who had completed the survey, four from each of five boundary management groups (Strong Segmentors, Strong Integrators, Moderate Managers, Work Boundary Protectors and Family Boundary Protectors). The groups were derived from scores from the survey data, in order to investigate in more depth, other factors that influenced boundary management interruptions that were not picked up in Study One and specifically the idiosyncrasies of ICT use between groups. The qualitative data was analysed via Template Analysis and the final themes in the template were Boundary Management, Crafting Work, Individual Differences, Telework and Interruptions. The theme of Boundary Management was dealt with in this study. Some key findings were that Study Two built upon Study One by finding that proactivity was a key theme and that this trait may be particularly active while individuals are teleworking due to the context. ICT s were used in a way that reflected the wide ranging boundary management preferences of the individuals using them.

Hybridarbete har medfört fördelar och utmaningar som arbetsgivare behöver uppmärksamma för att främja ett hälsosamt arbete. En hybrid arbetsform kan bidra med det bästa från två världar, distans- och kontorsarbete, förutsatt att arbetsgivare och arbetstagare samverkar för att utveckla nya färdigheter för att anpassa sig till det nya arbetssättet. Denna studie syftar till att skapa en djupare förståelse för den organisatoriska och sociala arbetsmiljön vid hybridarbete. Studien är genomförd med en kvalitativ ansats och materialet har samlats in med hjälp av tio semistrukturerade intervjuer med både medarbetare och chefer inom en svensk offentlig organisation. Studiens metodval är inspirerad av empirisk fenomenologi med ett hermeneutiskt förhållningssätt som syftar till att skapa förståelse. Empirin har tematiserats och analyserats med hjälp av tematisk analys. Studiens resultat visar att den främsta fördelen med hybridarbete är flexibiliteten till att påverka balansen mellan arbete och fritid. Till följd av den hybrida arbetsformen visar resultatet utmaningar i egenskap av minskade fysiska interaktioner med kollegor, digital trötthet, uteblivna pauser samt svårigheter med gränsdragningen mellan arbete och fritid. Resultatet visar att tydliga riktlinjer för hybridarbete får betydelse för hur individen upplever den organisatoriska och sociala arbetsmiljön. Studien konstaterar att tillgång till socialt stöd, delaktighet, dialog, autonomi samt explicita riktlinjer och rutiner som kan anpassas efter individuella behov främjar en god arbetsmiljö. Avslutningsvis presenteras en modell som kan användas av praktikersamhället för att bidra med kunskap om hur känslan av sammanhang (KASAM) främjas i den hybrida arbetsmodellen. / Hybrid work has brought benefits and challenges that employers must observe to promote healthy work among employees. Hybrid working can create the best of both worlds, remote and office work, if employers and workers work together to develop new skills to adapt to the new way of working. This study aims to create a deeper understanding of the organizational and social work environment in hybrid work. The study is conducted with a qualitative approach and the material has been collected using ten semi-structured interviews with employees and managers within a Swedish public organization. The study's choice of method is inspired by empirical phenomenology with a subjective hermeneutic approach that aims to create understanding. The empiricism has been thematized and analyzed using thematic analysis.The results of the study show that the main advantage of hybrid work is increased flexibility regarding the ability to influence the balance between work and leisure. The results also show some possible disadvantages of the hybrid working form, such as reduced physical interactions with colleagues, digital fatigue, missed breaks and difficulties with drawing the line between working time and free time. The results shows that clear guidelines for hybrid work are important for how the individual experiences the organizational and social work environment. The study states that access to social support, participation, dialogue, autonomy and explicit guidelines and routines that can be adapted to individual needs promote a good work environment. Finally, a model is presented that can be used by the practitioner community to contribute knowledge about how the sense of coherence (SOC) is promoted in the hybrid work model.

As mental health care increasingly embraces recovery principles, the role of peer support workers (PSWs) has gained recognition. The work that mental health PSWs do became particularly important during the COVID-19 pandemic, when increased needs for mental health care became apparent but were often unmet. This article-based doctoral thesis adopts an interdisciplinary perspective that combines research on management and organization with research on health care and systems. The thesis examines the mental health peer support role and its integration within teams, organizations and health systems. It also considers the peer support role as it was enacted in a virtual space, which became a requirement due to pandemic work-from-home mandates. Within the context of the virtual space, PSWs confronted work-life boundaries that they had to navigate as they enacted their work roles. The virtual space also presented technological and social challenges to and opportunities for peer support, which are examined in this thesis from the points of views of PSWs and peers. Overall, this thesis attends to the PSW role more generally, and to peer support work in the specific context of a virtual environment. The thesis is composed of three studies, the second and third of which had to be adapted to the unexpected challenges and opportunities posed by the COVID-19 pandemic. Study 1 (presented in Chapter 2) is a narrative review that synthesizes the literature on factors influencing formal PSW role implementation in mental health systems. The findings are synthesized in a multilevel framework consisting of macro, meso and micro level influences. The analysis reveals that macro-level influences on PSW role implementation include socio-cultural, regulatory, political and economic factors, most of which act as obstacles. At the meso level, organizational culture, leadership, and human resource management policies play a significant role. Micro-level influences center around PSWs' relationships with team members. Interlevel interactions are also discussed. This study is co-authored with Professor Samia Chreim and was published in Administration and Policy in Mental Health and Mental Health Services in February 2022. For Studies 2 and 3, qualitative data were collected from members of a peer support organization situated in Ottawa. This organization is a publicly funded, not-for-profit organization that provides services free of charge to people experiencing mental health and addictions challenges. Due to the pandemic, all services and operations of this organization transitioned to remote services involving virtual platforms. Study 2 (presented in Chapter 3) is a qualitative case study that delves into the work-life boundary challenges and management of PSWs who were providing virtual mental health support during the pandemic. The study identifies temporal, physical, and task-related boundary challenges in work-life domains. Strategies employed by PSWs to manage these boundaries include segmenting and integrating work and personal domains. The study highlights the importance of self-care and the need for training on work-life boundary management for mental health workers. This research is co-authored with Professor Samia Chreim and is published in BMC Public Health. Study 3 (presented in Chapter 4) focuses on the transition from in-person to virtual mental health peer support services. Through semi-structured interviews with PSWs and service users (or peers), the research examines how technological factors act as bridges and boundaries to mental health peer support services, and whether and how a sense of community can be built or maintained among PSWs and peers in a virtual space when connections are mediated by technology. The findings highlight the mental health peer support needs that were (un)met through virtual services, the technology-based boundaries that were manifested and the steps taken to remove some of these boundaries, and the strategies employed by the organization and its members to establish and maintain a sense of community in a virtual environment marked by physical distancing and technology-mediated interrelations. The manuscript pertaining to this study is co-authored with Professor Samia Chreim and will be submitted soon to an academic journal. Overall, this thesis presents a unique and multi-faceted exploration of the implementation of peer support worker roles in mental health systems and their adaptation to virtual environments. It makes a number of contributions. The multilevel framework developed in Study 1 not only advances knowledge in the field but also offers a structured approach for policymakers and organizations to enhance the formal incorporation of PSW roles into mental health systems. Study 2 provides valuable insights into the nature of work-life boundaries in a virtual space, an important topic at a time when peer support workers and organizations are considering whether and how to maintain some form of virtual work post-pandemic. Study 3 adds to knowledge by highlighting the significance of virtual peer support beyond pandemic conditions. It also enhances understanding of the need for technological adaptation in mental health services and for community building regardless of the model of service. Limitations and implications for research, practice and policy are addressed.