The purpose of this study was to examine social workers view on the implementation of routines and guidelines related to workplace violence. How it is prevented and their thoughts about how the routines and guidelines around this subject are working from paper to practice. Violence is a general problem, although it´s more pronounced in organisations with close contact with clients. Laws regarding workplace state that both employers and employees are obligated to see to that the prevention work is fulfilled. The essay aims to find out if this is working in the real life or what the problem could be if it´s not working. The research approach of this study is qualitative and four semi-structured interviews are used. The obvious results were that there are flaws in the staff's knowledge of their own guidelines and action plans. The staff perceived that the workplace offers training about workplace violence and that there are meetings revolving around this subject but nonetheless they felt insecure about what to really do if a situation of violence occurs. The social workers also admitted that none of them had read the documents for prevention work. Although the workplace has clear routines and guidelines, much more work needs to be done to engage the employees and make everyone work together.

Food waste is an arguably increasing problem in society, with consumers being responsible for as much as half of all combined food waste. The problem needs to be tackled from all angles, but there is no all encompassing solution for all situations. One context consumers find themselves in is the kitchen at their place of work, where the shared nature of the refrigerator creates situations and problems not found in the home environment. It is for these shared kitchens that this study is focused on providing a physical solution based on The Behavioural Change Wheel (BCW), book providing methods and tools for designing with the goal of behavioural change. The intention of this study was to develop, test and later evaluate a prototype on its behavioural change capacity and potential, using the tools presented in the BCW. The developed prototype took form as an RFID activated labelling system, providing users with the current date and their name on a label to be adhered on the articles they place in the shared refrigerator. After the testing period, an online questionnaire was sent out and was answered by fourteen out of seventeen participants. The two week testing period and subsequent questionnaire provided no conclusive answers regarding detected behavioural change capacity, but the potential is considered high based on participants qualitative comments and attitudes, and their quantitative usage. No measurements of change in food waste is conducted, but the target behavioural changes would provide a positive development resulting in less food waste in the workplace kitchen, if not only a more orderly refrigerator. / Matavfall är ett påtagligt ökande problem i samhället, där konsumenter ansvarar för så mycket som hälften av allt kombinerat matavfall. Problemet bör hanteras från alla möjliga håll, men det finns ingen allmän lösning för alla situationer. Ett sammanhang som konsumenterna befinner sig i är köket på deras arbetsplats, där kylskåpets gemensamma natur skapar situationer och problem som inte återfinns i hemmiljön. Det är för dessa delade kök som denna studie riktar sig på att tillhandahålla en fysisk lösning baserad på The Behavioural Change Wheel (BCW). Den innehåller metoder och verktyg för att designa med beteendeförändring som mål. Syftet med denna studie var att utveckla, testa och senare utvärdera en prototyp angående dess beteendeförändringsförmåga och potential, med hjälp av de verktyg som presenteras i BCW. Den färdigställda prototypen tog form som ett RFID-aktiverat etikettsystem, som gav användarna det aktuella datumet och deras namn på en etikett som ska sättas på artiklarna som de placerar i det delade kylskåpet. Efter testperioden skickades ett frågeformulär ut och fjorton av sjutton deltagare svarade. En testperiod på två veckor och efterföljande frågeformulär gav inga avgörande svar angående påvisad beteendeförändringsförmåga, men potentialen anses vara hög baserad på deltagarnas kvalitativa kommentarer och attityder, och deras kvantitativa användning. Inga mätningar kring mängd matavfall utfördes, men målbeteendeförändringarna skulle ge en positiv utveckling som resulterar i mindre matavfall i arbetsplatsens kök, om inte bara ett mer ordnat kylskåp. / Smart storage solutions in the fridge of the future to reduce food waste

Corporations, design firms, technology, and furniture companies are rethinking the concept of the ‘workplace’ environment and built ‘office’ in an effort to respond to changing characteristics of the workplace. The following report presents a case study, post-occupancy assessment of an architecture firm’s relocation of their corporate headquarters in Dallas, TX. This ethnographic research transpired from September 2013 to February 2014 and included participant observation, employee interviews, and an office-wide employee survey. Applying a user-centered approach, this study sought to identify and understand: 1) the most and least effective design elements, 2) unanticipated user-generated (“un-designed”) elements, 3) how the workplace operates as an environment and system of design elements, and 4) opportunities for continued improvement of their work environment. This study found that HKS ODC successfully increased access to collaborative spaces by increasing the size (i.e. number of square feet, number of rooms), variety of styles (i.e. enclosed rooms, open work surfaces), and distribution of spaces throughout the office environment. An increase in reported public transit commuting from 6.5% at their previous location to 24% at HKS ODC compares to almost five times the national public transit average (5%) and fifteen times the rate of Texas workers (1.6%) and Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington, TX Metro Area (1.5%). This supports the real estate decision and design intent of the office that relocating near public transit would increase use (nearly six times that of reported use at 1919 McKinney, 6.5%). Additional findings and discussion relate to HKS ODC’s design enabling increased access to natural light and improved air quality, increased cross-sector collaboration, increased connection to downtown Dallas and engagement with the larger Dallas architectural community, as well as the open office environment encouraging education between all employee levels. Discrepancies between designed ‘flexibility’ and work away from the desk are explored along with the role of technology to facilitate work without replacing face-to-face interaction. This work also identifies key challenges with the design and employee experience and provides recommendations for addressing areas of concern for continued improvement of the workplace design. Continued user-centered research in the field of workplace design is necessary to assess the effect of current interventions in other office environments for comparison and inform future endeavors.

O envolvimento na atividade profissional da arquitetura consultiva na área de melhoria de ambientes de trabalho em indústrias levou naturalmente à necessidade de embasar teoricamente certos conceitos empíricos encontrados no dia-a-dia da profissão. A dificuldade em se definir claramente quem é o cliente dentro de um sistema complexo como uma indústria, bem como as inúmeras variáveis envolvidas na avaliação do que seria um bom ambiente de trabalho - dadas as condições intrínsecas do trabalho fabril e sua diversidade - mostraram-se um campo com infinitas possibilidades de abordagem. Uma pesquisa sem pretensões acadêmicas sobre ambientes fabris constatou, por intermédio da escassa bibliografia especializada, a pouquíssima relevância dada à arquitetura industrial e, principalmente, ao ambiente de trabalho gerado dentro das fábricas. Assim, surgiu a oportunidade de se desenvolver uma pesquisa formal cujo objetivo é sistematizar informações que possam fundamentar uma futura estrutura de avaliação pós-ocupação (APO) em indústrias, visando avaliar junto aos usuários finais, ou seja, os trabalhadores de chão de fábrica, sua satisfação em relação ao seu ambiente de trabalho. / Working with consultive architecture focused on improving industrial working conditions has led to the need of theoretical basis for some empirical concepts found on daily professional work. The difficulty on clearly defining who is the architects client in such a complex organization as an industry, as well as the countless points involved in a working environment evaluation - due to the inherent conditions of industrial work and its diversity have shown up as an extremely rich research field, with many possibilities of approach. A simple research with no academic purposes has shown the scarce specialized bibliography, evidencing the low prominence of industrial architecture in general and, above all, of industrial work environment. So, it has raised the opportunity to develop a formal research which aims to give basis to a future post-occupation evaluation (POE) structure, in order to inquire final users - wich means the factory-floor workers - their satisfaction concerning to their own work environment.

O envolvimento na atividade profissional da arquitetura consultiva na área de melhoria de ambientes de trabalho em indústrias levou naturalmente à necessidade de embasar teoricamente certos conceitos empíricos encontrados no dia-a-dia da profissão. A dificuldade em se definir claramente quem é o cliente dentro de um sistema complexo como uma indústria, bem como as inúmeras variáveis envolvidas na avaliação do que seria um bom ambiente de trabalho - dadas as condições intrínsecas do trabalho fabril e sua diversidade - mostraram-se um campo com infinitas possibilidades de abordagem. Uma pesquisa sem pretensões acadêmicas sobre ambientes fabris constatou, por intermédio da escassa bibliografia especializada, a pouquíssima relevância dada à arquitetura industrial e, principalmente, ao ambiente de trabalho gerado dentro das fábricas. Assim, surgiu a oportunidade de se desenvolver uma pesquisa formal cujo objetivo é sistematizar informações que possam fundamentar uma futura estrutura de avaliação pós-ocupação (APO) em indústrias, visando avaliar junto aos usuários finais, ou seja, os trabalhadores de chão de fábrica, sua satisfação em relação ao seu ambiente de trabalho. / Working with consultive architecture focused on improving industrial working conditions has led to the need of theoretical basis for some empirical concepts found on daily professional work. The difficulty on clearly defining who is the architects client in such a complex organization as an industry, as well as the countless points involved in a working environment evaluation - due to the inherent conditions of industrial work and its diversity have shown up as an extremely rich research field, with many possibilities of approach. A simple research with no academic purposes has shown the scarce specialized bibliography, evidencing the low prominence of industrial architecture in general and, above all, of industrial work environment. So, it has raised the opportunity to develop a formal research which aims to give basis to a future post-occupation evaluation (POE) structure, in order to inquire final users - wich means the factory-floor workers - their satisfaction concerning to their own work environment.

The influence and impact that digitalisation have in our society has not gone unnoticed, every aspect of our daily lives have more or less been digitalized so that we can effectively communicate, share and gain information and knowledge through IT solutions. Businesses and organisations are being more effective and efficient by embedding IT solutions as a strategy into their daily work. A particular field that has been stagnant through this revolution is how businesses and organisations manage their workplace environment and the purpose of this study is therefore to shed light on, and contribute with knowledge about, the potential that IT have when it comes to managing organisational occupational health and safety. We look further into a graphical user interface such as dashboard to gain an insight on how it could be used as a tool to monitor progress within occupational health and safety. The methods used in this exploration are integrated approaches which contains both qualitative and quantitative methods, the data was collected through interviews and surveys in a public organisation. The results of the study displays three main concerns which are caused by the lack of systematic approach while working with occupational health and safety. These three concerns are identified as feedback challenges, lack of consistency and absence of appropriate actions. The study further highlights which key factors that need to be successful in order to create and maintain a healthy occupational health and safety. With the result of our study, businesses and organisations can gain an understanding and insight on what type of advantages can be gained by using IT in order to promote a systematic approach while dealing with a challenging task as the workplace environment.

Workplace toxicity may negatively influence the well-being and work performance of employees. Best practices of successful leadership approaches and behaviors have been unidentified when addressing low-toxicity work environments. The purpose of this qualitative narrative case study was to develop a deeper understanding of how leaders selected and applied specific leadership strategies and behaviors in nontoxic workplace environments. Data were collected from 10 participants in New Hampshire using a purposive sampling technique and semistructured interviews based on Alvarado's triangular model of workplace toxicity. This study was structured using a narrative approach to explore ways positive leaders practically implemented styles and behaviors to mitigate workplace toxicity. All participants met this study's qualification parameters; they had past experiences with toxic leaders that shaped their personal leadership styles. NVivo was used to compare and analyze data from all interview transcripts entered for recurring themes. These themes were coded according to how answers connected to a specific research question, and findings were collated across interviews to form results. Three major themes emerged from the data: experience with toxic leadership, leadership approaches to toxicity, and leadership behaviors toward toxicity. Insights from this study may help company leaders avoid lawsuits, low productivity levels, and high staff turnover due to toxic workplace elements left unattended or ineffectively managed. The study may contribute to positive social change by generating practical models of and suggestions for creating a less toxic work environment, thereby creating healthier and happier employees, which increases public wellbeing and company success.

Bakgrund Den pågående pandemin har orsakat stora svårigheter för den svenska hälso- och sjukvården. I Sveriges kommuner och regioner har beredskapen för en pandemi visat sig vara bristfällig och då främst inom den kommunala hälso- och sjukvården. Under den pågående Covid-19 pandemin har många studier gjorts där slutenvårdens sjuksköterskor beskrivit upplevelser av sin arbetsmiljö. Studier med kommunalt anställda sjuksköterskor har däremot varit få. Syfte Syftet med studien var att beskriva kommunalt anställda sjuksköterskor upplevelser av sin arbetsmiljö under Covid-19 pandemin. Metod Som metod användes en kvalitativ semistrukturerad intervjustudie med beskrivande design. Rekryteringen av deltagare gjordes bland sjuksköterskor verksamma i kommunala vård- och omsorgsboenden, i en kommun i södra Norrland, Sverige och slutligen intervjuades åtta informanter. Analysen av materialet utgick från en induktiv ansats och analysprocessen skedde under inspiration av den kvalitativa innehållsanalysen. Huvudresultat I analysprocessen framkom tre huvudkategorier, Upplevelser av en förändrad arbetsmiljö, Upplevelser av en bristande beredskap och Upplevelser av ett bristande stöd i arbetet och slutligen framträdde det övergripande temat, Att vara ensam och utlämnad. Resultatet i intervjustudien med sjuksköterskorna visade att deltagarna upplevde påtagliga brister i sin arbetsmiljö. Bristerna upplevdes som så stora att de ledde till konsekvenser i form av sjukskrivningar och en upplevd hotad patientsäkerhet. Slutsats Resultatet i den här intervjustudien med sjuksköterskor anställda inom kommunal hälso- och sjukvård visar att deltagarna upplevde påtagliga brister i sin arbetsmiljö under pågående Covid-19 pandemi. Sammanfattningsvis lyfte deltagarna den förändrade arbetsmiljön, den bristande beredskapen och brister i arbetsmiljöstödet som de mest centrala delarna. Resultatet i studien har bidragit med kunskaper om vilka åtgärder som inför framtida pandemier kan bidra till en bättre arbetsmiljö för sjuksköterskor inom kommunal hälso- och sjukvård. / Background The ongoing pandemic has caused major difficulties for the Swedish healthcare system due to the municipalities and regions lack preparedness for a pandemic, which has been especially apparent for municipal healthcare. During the Covid-19 pandemic many studies have been written where inpatient care nurses describe their experiences of their working environment, but few studies have been written on the working environment experiences for municipal nurses. Aim The aim of the study was to describe municipal nurses’ experiences of their working environment during the Covid-19 pandemic. Method The method used is a qualitative semi-structured interview study using descriptive research design. Participants for the study were recruited from nurses working in municipal social- and healthcare units in a municipality located in southern Norrland, Sweden. Eight informants were also interviewed. The analysis of the material was conducted using an inductive approach and the process was inspired by qualitative content analysis. Result During the analyzing process three main categories appeared, Experiences of a changed work environment, Experiences of a lack of workplace preparedness and Experiences of a lack of workplace support which eventually culminated into the overarching theme of Being alone and abandoned. Results from the interviews showed that the participants experienced significant workplace environment faults which were so dire that the consequences were employees on sick leave and a perceived threat to patient safety. Conclusion The results for this study conducted with municipal nurses show that the participants experienced significant workplace environment faults during the Covid-19 pandemic. In summary, the participants expressed and identified the change in workplace environment and procedure, the lack of preparedness and the lack of workplace support as the central parts of the problem. The results of the study have contributed to better understanding what repercussions are necessarily taken to better the workplace environment for municipal nurses during future pandemics.

This study has examined how teachers from three integrated secondary schools – one which provides education for students with special needs and two vocational schools –define violence. The definitions have been linked to whether the schools tend to display a workplace environment perspective or a crime perspective on violence, and how these perspectives are expressed. These perspectives constitute one of the theories that the study is based on, along with Nils Christie’s the Ideal Victim and Ron Akers’ Differential Reinforcement. Interviews have been held with three teachers from the vocational schools and four teachers from the school for students with special needs. The interviews were transcribed and analyzed from a perspective of qualitative content analysis. Conclusively the results show that while all teachers include physical violence in their own definitions of violence, and most of them include psychological violence, the specific actions that are included in their concepts of violence differ. However, we found that the way they “choose” which actions are to be included in their concepts consists among all teaches. They all seem to “choose” from a combination of the expectations on them set by the organization and to what extent the action can be perceived as an “ideal crime”. / Studien har undersökt hur lärare på tre lokalintegrerade skolor - en gymnasiesärskola och två yrkesgymnasieskolor - definierar våld. Definitionerna har kopplats till om skolorna tenderar uppvisa ett arbetsmiljöperspektiv eller ett brottsperspektiv, och hur perspektiven tar sig uttryck. Perspektiven är en av teorierna som ligger till grund för studien tillsammans med Nils Christies Det ideala offret och Ron Akers Differentiell förstärkning. Intervjuer har genomförts med tre lärare från yrkesgymnasierna och fyra från gymnasiesärskolan, därefter har transkriberingarna analyserats med en innehållsanalytisk ansats. Sammantaget visar resultaten att alla lärare, i sina definieringar av våld, innefattar fysiskt våld. De flesta innefattar även psykiskt våld. Vilka specifika handlingar som ingår i våldsbegreppen skiljer sig åt, däremot fann vi att hur man “väljer” vilka handlingar som ska tolkas som våld stämmer överens mellan de tre skolorna. “Valet” verkar ske utifrån en kombination av organisationens förväntningar på läraren och i vilken utsträckning handlingen kan tolkas som “det ideala brottet”.

Syfte: Syftet är att studera hur sättet att kommunicera mellan chef och medarbetare påverkats, där flertalet anställda till följd av COVID-19 fått ställa om och arbeta på distans. Metod: Studien är genomförd som en kvalitativ enfallsstudie med tvärsnittsdesign, på ett finansbolag beläget i Västra Götaland. Frågeställningen besvaras genom analyser av data som samlats in genom personliga, semistrukturerade intervjuer med chefer och medarbetare. Resultat: En mer relationsinriktad ledarskapsstil tenderar att skapa bättre förutsättningar för en bra kommunikation på distans, jämfört med den mer målinriktade ledarskapsstilen. Kommunikationsverktyg är väsentliga för distansarbete och de finns alltid tillgängliga för medarbetaren. Är de verktyg som används inte anpassade efter organisationens situation, påverkas flödet av kommunikation och således om det är envägs- eller tvåvägskommunikation. Däremot inser användaren i samband med distansarbete befintliga verktygs fulla potential. Arbete på distans ställer i grunden inte mycket högre krav på medarbetarna utöver att de ska kunna arbeta självständigt och jobba minst lika effektivt, samt att personen även ska kunna ta ett större eget ansvar. Sätten och möjligheterna att kommunicera begränsas på distans, vilket innebär att samtliga kontinuerligt arbetar gemensamt för att upprätthålla en väl fungerande kommunikation. Chefen har definitivt ett högre ansvar att leda en grupp när den är splittrad, det är inte enbart en persons ansvar att upprätthålla en väl fungerande kommunikation. Förslag till framtida studier: Rekommendationen är att studera flertalet organisationer som inte omfattas av samma lagkrav och där personalstyrkan varit densamma sedan omställningen till distansarbete. På så sätt går det jämföra skillnaden mellan organisationer där alla haft en god kommunikation redan innan omställningen. Genom en kvalitativ studie finns möjlighet att täcka in större antal medarbetare för att få annat perspektiv på hur hela organisationen betraktar kommunikation och återkoppling i ett ledarskap på distans. / Purpose: The purpose is to study how the way to communicate between manager and employee is affected, where the majority of employees due to COVID-19 have had to adjust to the situation and telework. Method: The study is performed as a qualitative, cross-sectional designed single case study, at a financial company located in western Sweden. The questions for this study were answered through data analysis collected through personal, semi-structured interviews with supervisors and employees. Result: Human-oriented leadership tends to create better conditions for a well working communication in teleworking, compared to task-oriented leadership. The tools for working and communication are essential but also always available for the employee. If the tools in use are not adopted for the needs of the organization, the flow of the communication is affected and thus also the feedback. On the other hand the user during teleworking becomes more aware of the tools’ full potential. Teleworking basically doesn’t demand more of the employees other than being able to work independently and at least as efficiently, as well as taking more self responsibility. The ways and possibilities for communicating are limited while teleworking, which means that all involved continuously need to work mutually to obtain a well working communication. The manager definitely has a higher responsibility to manage a divided team but it’s not solely one person’s onus to obtain the communication. Suggestions for further studies: The recommendation is to study multiple organizations, which are not bound to the same legal requirements and where the staff has maintained the same since the conversion to teleworking. That way differences can be compared between organizations where a well functioning communication was established even before the conversion. Through a qualitative study there is a possibility to cover a greater number of employees with the objective of receiving a different perspective on how the entire organization considers communication and feedback during a telecommuting management.