This study examines the organisational culture of the Scottish Fire Service, and the political pressures for change emanating from the modernisation agenda of both the United Kingdom and Scottish Governments. Having completed a preliminary analysis of the Fire Service‟s culture, by examining the cultural history of the Scottish Fire Service and the process through which individuals are socialised into the Service, the study analyses the contemporary culture of the Service through research in three Scottish Fire Brigades. This research concludes that there is a clearly defined Fire Service culture, which is predicated on the operational task of fighting fire, based on strong teams and infused with masculinity at all levels. In these circumstances, the Service‟s cultural realities attempt to exclude women and are derisive in their regard for other more marginalised males. Following an analysis of Government driven imperatives for change, being applied to the Fire Service, it is further concluded that the resistance to change, evident within the cultural realities of the Service, can be defined as an attempt to defend one of the last bastions of male identification in the workplace.

The objective of the study was to explore social integration of people with intellectual disabilities (ID) in the workplace and to identify the characteristics of positive workplace culture for them. An in-depth qualitative case study was conducted at two worksites to explore the process of social integration. Sources of information included company documents, on site observations, and interviews that were conducted for the following purposes: 1. to describe employees with IDs’ perceptions and needs of social integration and their experiences of social relationships in work settings; 2. to explore co-workers’ perceptions of and relationships with employees with ID; and 3. to identify what characteristics of workplace culture contributed to or detracted from social integration for people with ID. One workplace was an educational organization where four workers with ID were employed, the other a restaurant franchise where one worker with ID was employed. The participants with ID from both worksites believed people with and without disabilities should work together and felt they were included in their workplaces. The co-workers interviewed had positive opinions of fellow employees with ID. Several characteristics of workplace culture had an impact on social integration for employees with ID, including a job structure that promotes social interactions, work pace within the work setting, group or individual employment, culture of acceptance within the work setting, and a supportive managerial approach. The results of the current study have provided strategies to enhance social integration for employees with ID, and highlighted a number of potentially beneficial workplace conditions that merit additional study. Service providers can act as advocates to help create a work environment that emphasizes acceptance and respect for workers in this population. / Thesis (Master, Rehabilitation Science) -- Queen's University, 2008-02-01 15:55:38.935 / South Eastern Ontario Community-University Research Alliance in Intellectual Disabilities

Background Pain during birth process is acknowledged for good progress of labour but severe, unbearable pain cause reduced effectiveness of contractions and lead to maternal exhaustion and fetal distress. Non pharmacological and pharmacological pain relief methods can be implemented to assist the women to cope with pain during labour. Non-pharmacological and pharmacological pain relief is available in the hospital, but it is not understood when and how labour pain is assessed and pain relief implemented. Research questions What is the current workplace culture relating to pain management during the first stage of labour? What alternative strategies can be implemented to address the current workplace culture relating to pain management during the first stage of labour? Research design and methods A qualitative design was followed. Convenience sampling was used and 18 observations on pain management during labour were done. Midwives taking care of women during labour took part in the research and their informed consent was obtained beforehand. Data was collected during unstructured observations of pain management during labour. Data was analysed by means of the creative hermeneutic data analysis method. Main findings Four themes were derived from the data: pain assessment, isolation, therapeutic environment and documentation. Based on these themes, strategies for improving pain management during labour were identified collaboratively. / Dissertation (MCur)--University of Pretoria, 2017. / Nursing Science / PhD / Unrestricted

Denna studie har med ett sociologiskt perspektiv ämnat undersöka hur upplevelsen av jämställdhet ser ut bland produktionsanställda inom den starkt mansdominerade stålindustrin. Det studerade företaget är SSAB som är ett svensk-finskt stålföretag vilka är specialiserade på utveckling och tillverkning av höghållfasta stål. Årligen har företaget en produktionskapacitet om cirka 8,8 miljoner ton på sina produktionsanläggningar i Sverige, Finland och USA. År 2018 omsatte företaget 75 miljarder kronor. Av SSAB:s cirka 14 300 anställda runt om i världen så är 81 procent män, vilket inte gör företaget unikt sett till könsfördelningen inom stålindustrin. SSAB arbetar aktivt med att försöka förändra dessa siffror genom att rekrytera fler kvinnor. Detta som ett led i företagets långsiktiga jämställdhetsmål med tron på att kunna skapa en bättre prestationskultur och bättre kunna tillgodose kundernas behov genom en jämnare könsfördelning. Syftet med studien var att undersöka hur produktionsanställda upplever jämställdhet på arbetsplatsen. Detta gjordes genom kvalitativa semistrukturerade intervjuer med produktionsanställda på SSAB:s koksverk i Luleå. Resultatet tyder på att den upplevda jämställdheten bland de anställda främst handlar om att företaget rekryterar fler kvinnor och att det synliga därför blir hur fler kvinnor tillträder arbetsplatsen. Detta uppfattades av en del vara ett uttryck för att SSAB kvoterar kvinnor till företaget. Därför upplevdes detta jämställdhets initiativ vara negativt eftersom kompetens och kvalifikationer åsidosatts enligt anställda. Det efterfrågades även initiativ rörande förändringar av attityder, normer och värderingar, vilka ansågs ha inverkan på rådande arbetsplatskultur som under lång tid formats av män. Arbetsplatskulturen och jargongen uppfattades av många som hård, men samtidigt rolig och grunden för trivsel bland de anställda. Däremot uppfattades den även som gränslös och att en minskad chefsnärvaro på grund av en tidigare omorganisation kunde vara grunden till den upplevelsen vilket även synliggjorde en önskan om förändring på arbetsplatsen. De anställda menar att en förändring skulle kunna innebära ökad acceptans mellan kollegor och bättre jargong på arbetsplatsen. / This study aims to investigate, from a sociological perspective, how the perception of gender equality appears among production employees in the highly male-dominated steel industry. The company studied is SSAB, which is a Swedish-Finnish steel company, specialized in development and manufacturing of high strength steels. Each year, the company has a production capacity of approximately 8.8 million tonnes at its production facilities in Sweden, Finland and the USA. In 2018, the company had sales of SEK 75 billion.   Of SSAB's approximately 14 300 employees around the world, 81 percent are men, which does not make the company unique in terms of gender distribution in the steel industry. SSAB is working actively to try to change these figures by recruiting more women. This as part of the company's long-term gender equality goal, with the belief that it can create a better performance culture and better meet the needs of customers through a more even gender distribution.   The purpose of the study was to investigate how production employees experience gender equality in the workplace. This was done by performing qualitative semi-structured interviews with production employees at SSAB's cookery plant in Luleå. The result indicates that the perceived gender equality among the employees is mainly about recruiting more women and that the visible is thus becoming more women taking up the workplace. This was perceived as an expression of SSAB quoting women to the company. Therefore, this initiative of gender equality was perceived to be negative, as the skills and qualifications were neglected according to employees.   Initiatives were also requested concerning changes in attitudes, norms and values, which were considered to have an impact on the prevailing workplace culture that has long been shaped by men. The workplace culture and jargon were perceived by many as hard, but at the same time fun and the basis for well-being among the employees. However, it was also perceived as limitless and that a reduced managerial presence due to a previous reorganization could be the basis for that experience, which also made a wish for change in the workplace. The employees believe that this could mean increased acceptance between colleagues and better jargon in the workplace.

Background: The culture of a company has a significant influence on its creativity andinnovativeness. For this reason, it is important to build a corporate culture that promotes creativity and innovation. But the conditions for doing this have changed dramatically in recent years. Also due to the Covid-19 pandemic, many employees work from home offices and form virtual teams. This leads to massive changes in the way people work together and thus in the culture of the company. Purpose: The research purpose of this study is to create a framework that incorporates the elements of a digital workplace culture and provides leaders with a tool to create a culture that promotes creativity and innovation in the context of the digital workplace. Method: The method used to conduct the study was the multiple case-study according to Eisenhardt (1989). The approach was qualitative and inductive. Within 13 cases, acomprehensive picture of creative and innovative companies and their corporate culture was derived. Conclusion: The result of this study is a framework that describes the elements of a digital workplace culture that promotes creativity and innovation. These elements are classified into four different levels. The organizational level includes all the elements that are relevant at the company level. The team level contains the elements that determine the culture in the team. The individual level includes the elements that individuals need or contribute to a digital workplace culture that promotes creativity and innovation. In addition, managerial practices were identified. These explicitly help managers to build a DWC that promotes creativity and innovation.

<p>  </p> <p>Education reforms aimed at improving student outcomes often fail because they are top-down and do not successfully scale to wider use. Over the past two decades, improvement science, which uses disciplined inquiry to solve district problems at scale, has emerged as a solution. This multi-case study investigated the question: What are the profiles and lived experiences of superintendents who use improvement science? Data for this study were collected through semi-structured interviews with three superintendents who were part of a superintendent network that focused on improvement science. The superintendents were from diverse districts: A regional Education Services District, an urban school district, and a suburban school district. Data were analyzed through themes that emerged in the literature and data. Four key findings were gleaned: Superintendents need to 1) prioritize a positive workplace culture, 2) shift ownership to staff, 3) support staff in sharing and risk taking, and 4) shift to the use of measurements at the team-level. Three recommendations stemmed from the findings and literature: Superintendents should 1) foster a workplace culture emphasizing ownership and vulnerability, 2) ensure implementation is user-centered, and 3) focus on solving the most pressing problems connected to student outcomes. Action steps for each recommendation are provided. Superintendent profiles showed them to be leaders who improve the workplace culture, are equity-driven, are vulnerable and reflective, are instructional leaders and system thinkers, and are collaborative. Yet they are still working toward staff taking ownership of improvement efforts. In essence, staff implementation has not caught up to superintendent vision. This study suggests if superintendents build capacity around a positive workplace culture and a user-centered, problem-specific approach, districts will be able to solve the most pressing student equity gap problems at scale.</p>

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Journalism as a profession in Sweden is strongly guided by collective norms, ideals and ethical guidelines. Being subjected to crimes such as threats or harassment due to the nature of the work is common amongst the force. To combat this the Swedish journalist union has guidelines as well as the Swedish police having a task force specifically for what is often referred to as crimes against the democracy, that being the act of attempting to silence people with influence over the public opinion. Nevertheless no guidelines, and furthermore scarce research, can be found regarding the impact of the journalistic identity on the decision making in the journalist’s private life. This study aims to research how Swedish journalists view their journalistic identity and whether they perceive this identity to affect journalists' propensity to report crimes they are victims of that aren’t in relation to their work. Through a quantitative survey distributed to Swedish journalists as well as semi-structured interviews with nine journalists, the study found that the journalistic identity still is concordant with the ideals and norms defined by the theory of journalism as a profession. Some, although not a majority, of the 41 participants of the survey viewed the journalistic identity as a contributing factor for whether or not they would decide on reporting a crime. Furthermore the interview study suggested that younger and/or female journalists were the ones who were mainly affected. Some stated that the ideals and ethics of the work made them more prone to reporting the crime they’d been, or hypothetically would be, a victim of. Whilst others stated that working in media made it harder to report crimes due to unwanted public attention, as well as fears of their   work, or treatment at the workplace, being affected. Due to the scale of the study the results cannot be generalised but can however be indicative of workplace cultures or phenomena that opens up for further research into the journalistic identity’s effects on an individual's private life and decision making.

Denna studie har syftat att bidra med en förståelse av arbetsplatskonflikters socialiserande funktioner samt belysa konflikter som en vardaglig handlingsrepertoar inom organisationer. Jag ämnade att undersöka hur anställda socialiserades in i de konflikter som uppstod på arbetsplatsen och vad dessa konfliktförlopp hade för betydelse för delaktiga individer. Studiens empiriska material har bestått av semistrukturerade intervjuer, i vilket målgruppen har varit kvinnor tillhörande kvinnodominerade serviceyrken i Sverige. De kvinnor som intervjuats har berättat om egenupplevda konflikter på deras arbetsplatser. Analysen har bearbetats med utgångspunkt i Wengers (1998) teori om praktikgemenskaper samt Hochschilds (2012) studie om känsloarbete. Resultaten visade av de normer och värden som fanns inom arbetsgruppen var avgörande för kvinnornas sätt att agera i konflikter. I de arbetsgrupper där arbetsrelationer hölls på en formell nivå och emotionella band inte var framträdande förekom få meningsskiljaktigheter samt neutrala konfliktageranden när diskussioner uppstod. I de arbetsgrupper där emotionella band mellan kollegor var starka utagerades konflikter mer irrationellt och det fanns en rädsla för att ifrågasätta sociala strukturer inom gemenskapen. Detta resulterade i att konflikter ofta undveks och att individer istället använde ett selektivt utagerande av emotioner, förmedlade till specifika kollegor. Resultaten visade att den strategiska kommunikationen som förekom på samtliga arbetsplatser både hade en sammanhållande funktion samt skapade grupperingar och osäkerheter inom arbetsgruppen. Slutligen visade resultaten på att en specifik hantering av emotioner påverkade ageranden i konflikter negativt samt att det fanns starka behov av att ventilera emotioner i samband med konflikter. I de arbetsgrupper där emotioner visade sig framträdande flydde man från konflikter med orsak av att nära relationer gjorde konflikter med kollegor mer komplexa. När konflikterna sedan iscensattes blev emotionella uttryck dominerande i konflikterna. / The aim of this study was to contribute to an understanding of the socializing functions of workplace conflicts and illustrate these conflicts as everyday repertoires within organizations. I intended to research how employees could be socialized into conflicts in the workplace and what these conflicts meant for the individuals involved. The study's empirical material consisted of semi-structured interviews, in which the target group has been women belonging to women-dominated service professions in Sweden. The interviews focused on their personal experiences of conflicts in their workplaces. The analysis has been based on Wenger's (1998) theory communities of practice and Hochschild's (2012) study on emotional work. The results demonstrated by the norms and values ​​that existed within the working group were crucial to individual’s way of acting in conflicts. In the working groups where relationships were held on a formal level and the relationships between colleagues were not personal, the conflicts were few and small conflicts did not grow into major conflicts. In the working groups where emotional ties between colleagues were strong, conflicts became more irrational and there was a fear of questioning social structures within the community. As a result, conflicts were often avoided and individuals instead used a selective expression of emotions, conveyed to specific colleagues. The results showed that the strategic communication that went on in all the workplaces had a cohesive function but also created groupings and uncertainties within the workgroups. Finally, the results showed that a specific way of handling emotions affected conflict behavior negatively and that there was a strong need to ventilate emotions related to conflicts. In those working groups where emotional relationships between colleagues dominated, they often escaped from conflicts because close relationships made conflicts more complex. When conflicts took place, emotional expressions became dominant in the conflicts.

The Work-Family Enrichment theory highlights the interrelatedness of professional and personal life and notes that positive work and family experiences can have additive effects on individuals and their families (Greenhaus & Powell, 2006). Through this lens, work satisfaction has implications for family and individual wellbeing. When workplace organizations implement practices that encourage employee retention, they systematically create an environment that fosters employee satisfaction (Griffin et al., 2010; Wells, 2015). Retention, and the relationships between work, family, and individual wellbeing, are particularly salient for certain types of work that are connected to human development and family science because many of these careers are high-demand/lower-pay “labors of love” (e.g., child care providers, social work, child-life specialists). Equipping current and future helping/human service professionals with an understanding of effective retention practices will help them identify satisfying work opportunities for themselves and enhance their ability to advocate for and implement retention practices across the field.