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- Lagrosen, Stefan, 1960-, et al.
(författare)
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Exploring service quality in the health and fitness industry
- 2007
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Ingår i: Managing Service Quality. - : Emerald Group Publishing Limited. - 0960-4529 .- 1758-8030. ; 17:1, s. 41-53
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Purpose – The purpose of the paper is to discover quality dimensions for the health‐and‐fitness industry and to examine the salient aspects of the quality‐management practices of organisations in this industry.Design/methodology/approach – The research in this paper uses a grounded‐theory approach to a multiple case study of 15 companies in the Swedish health‐and‐fitness industry. Qualitative methods in the form of in‐depth interviews and observation are utilised for data collection.Findings – The paper finds that a framework for fitness quality management is developed and presented. The quality dimensions are found to be “pleasure”, “mental change”, and “physical change”. The main enablers are defined as “relational competence” and “technical competence”. Other indirect enablers are also identified and described.Research limitations/implications – The paper shows that because the framework is based on qualitative data collection, the relationships are not quantified. This could be an objective of further research.Practical implications – The framework presented in this paper is useful for managers of fitness companies when designing and managing their activities.Originality/value – The paper presents a novel framework of the salient features of quality in fitness services – an industry that has received little scholarly attention in the past. This research also contributes to the general understanding of service quality, and demonstrates the usefulness of inductive qualitative methodology in this regard.
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| 2. |
- von Brömssen, Kerstin, 1952-, et al.
(författare)
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Space and place for health and care : Nationalist discourses in Swedish daily press during the first year of COVID-19
- 2024
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Ingår i: Heliyon. - : Elsevier. - 2405-8440. ; 10:7
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Sweden’s strategy during COVID-19 with restrictions but no firm closure of the society surprised the rest of the world and was questioned, not least by neighbouring countries. This article analyses public discourses on space and place for health and care in the Swedish daily press during the first year of the pandemic, 2020. Critical discourse analysis was conducted on daily press newspaper articles to approach issues of space, place, health and care during the COVID-10 pandemic. The findings suggest three main discourses. First, a powerful discourse on unity against the threat is articulated, urging citizens in Sweden to be loyal in the national space. Secondly, an affirming national reconstructing discourse is manifested, related to constructions of borders of national space but also in relation to places of family life and social contacts to ‘flatten the curve’ and stay healthy. Thirdly, later in the period the overarching discourse of the nation and its loyal citizens was torn apart and increasing tensions were articulated due to, as it appeared, the uncertain actions from the government. This study adds to the literature on a theoretical and practical level. Raising awareness on nationalist discourses in relation to place, space, health, and care could prove important in combating inequalities in the local society as well as when cooperating on an international level.
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| 7. |
- Lagrosen, Yvonne, 1966-, et al.
(författare)
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The relationship between quality management and employee health : exploring the underlying dimensions
- 2010
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Ingår i: International Journal of Productivity and Quality Management. - Olney, Bucks , UK : InderScience Publishers. - 1746-6474 .- 1746-6482. ; 5:2, s. 109-123
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The first purpose of this study was to verify the relationship between workplace health and quality management, particularly the values ‘leadership commitment’ and ‘participation of everybody’ whose importance previous research has pointed to. The second purpose of the study was to examine the constituents and mechanics of the relationships between health and those values. A case study was carried out in a Swedish manufacturing company using data triangulation in the form of in-depth interviews and focus-group interviews on three levels. The findings show that the perceptions of the quality management values were significantly correlated with the employees’ perception of their health. This finding substantiates earlier studies indicating a relationship between quality and health. Important dimensions of ‘leadership commitment’ and ‘participation of everybody’, regarding health, were identified and described in models. The paper provides additional understanding of the connection between quality management and health, particularly regarding the role of leadership.
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| 8. |
- Lagrosen, Yvonne, 1966-, et al.
(författare)
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Workplace health in wellness - a study of Swedish spa-hotels
- 2019
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Ingår i: International Journal of Quality and Service Sciences. - : Emerald Group Publishing Limited. - 1756-669X .- 1756-6703. ; 11:3, s. 395-408
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Purpose In previous research, quality management practices have been found to be related to better health for employees. Dimensions of health-promoting quality leadership have been defined. The purpose of this study was to identify dimensions of workplace health in the wellness industry and relate them to the dimensions of health-promoting quality leadership. Design/methodology/approach An empirical study involving seven leading spa-hotels in Sweden has been carried out. The first part of the study consisted of quality cafes carried out at each of the hotels. The quality cafe is a novel method, which has the World Cafe-method as its basis, combined with quality management techniques. Based on the findings from the quality cafes, an employee survey was developed. Findings The findings from the study include a definition of five major health dimensions for the employees, namely, happiness, kinship, respect, physical health conditions and control. The dimensions were found to be statistically consistent and correlated with the self-reported health of the respondents. Originality/value Workplace health in the wellness sector, which is growing worldwide, is very scarcely researched.
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| 9. |
- Grundén, Kerstin, 1952-, et al.
(författare)
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Social media marketing - An evaluation study in the wellness industry
- 2013
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Ingår i: Proceedings of 7th European Conference on Information Management and Evaluation (ECIME 2013). - Reading; UK : Academic Conferences Limited. - 9781909507579 - 9781909507586 - 9781629931388 - 9781909507555 ; , s. 51-57
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Konferensbidrag (refereegranskat)abstract
- An evaluation study focusing the use of social media in six Swedish wellness companies is described and analysed. The study is a part of the research project “Efficient learning for quality in the wellness industry”. Social media have become increasingly popular the last few years, and are rapidly changing the ground for marketing activities. The field is however, still immature, and there are hitherto very few studies focusing the actual use by service organizations and the efficiency and quality effects of the use of social media for marketing. The research method in this evaluation study is qualitative in-depth interviews carried out with employees responsible for the social media activities in the studied companies. The interviews are analysed according to contents analysis method. The main results are that the initiation of the use of social media in the organizations generally was started by an “enthusiast” in the organizations. The enthusiast could be very good at initiating the use, but it could be dangerous to rely on only one employee in the long run. However, most often the use is spread to more employees in the organizations after some time. The use of social media and the shift towards relationship marketing has affected the marketing profession substantially. According to the interviews the work of the respondents had been more hectic and difficult to plan due to fast technological changes and rapid feed-back from the customers. New skills and competencies are needed due to this change of the profession. There is also a need to develop clear policies regarding the use of social media by the employees. Unclear policies tend to contribute to misunderstandings and misbehaviour by some employees, such as confounding the private and professional use of social media, which could lead to negative consequences for the organization. According to the results most of the studied organizations express uncertainty concerning planning and evaluation of their use of social media for marketing. They also experience lack of time for this work. They argue that using social media for marketing is important; but the benefits are often unclear. Formulating and monitoring the goals, management could develop social media into powerful marketing tools which also contribute to the organization’s efficiency and quality. Developing skills and practices for this is a challenge as well as a potential.
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| 10. |
- Gustafsson, Kristina, Associate Professor, 1970-, et al.
(författare)
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Social workers as targets for integration
- 2023
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Ingår i: Nordic Social Work Research. - : Taylor & Francis Group. - 2156-857X .- 2156-8588. ; 13:4, s. 550-562
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The aim of this article is to write against normative discourses and interpretations of 'integration' by nominating social workers and social work as the main subject of 'integration' and find ways to overcome exclusionary and discriminating social work practices. To do that, we use material collected when observing public service interpreters giving lectures to social workers about their experiences from encounters in social work settings. In a critical analysis, we found two 'integration' problems, that is, certain problems that social workers have in making themselves accessible and where they risk reinforcing exclusion and discrimination. One problem is 'the failure of handling perceptions that social services take children'. The other is 'the failures of (re)producing bureaucratically driven social assistance'. These problems might lead to exclusionary practices towards migrant families, often with disastrous outcomes. The analysis shows that these problems appear due to social workers' lack of institutional self-awareness, language competencies, and emphatic ability. To overcome these shortcomings, the interpreters emphasized the impact of encounters that social workers were already involved in during their everyday work. The interpreters recognize that social services are unknown to most families who are newly arrived in Sweden and point out the importance of making more efforts to be clear, rephrasing questions, explaining, avoiding abbreviations, and becoming proactive in dialogue outside of the offices, i.e. recognizing that social work is language work.
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