| 1. |
- Backström, Tomas, 1957-, et al.
(författare)
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Creativity at a distance
- 2022
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Ingår i: Event Proceedings. - 9789523356948
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Konferensbidrag (refereegranskat)abstract
- More and more meetings in working life are conducted remotely via digital media. How are creative meetings affected by participants being at a distance? Some experiment suggests group creativity to improve with remote work, other show challenges. How is it in real practice? Ten well performing leaders working from home have been interviewed. They reported several challenges. Some have been found in earlier research, the preparation phase is harder and the tools for remote communication aren’t yet good and simple enough for practitioners. But some might be new discoveries, the long time needed for creative meetings being too tiresome for the remote situation, and participants becoming disturbed by irrelevant activities in the home context.Most of the interviewed managers see a hybrid as the future, where some work will be performed from home and some at a shared workplace. Creative meetings are suggested to be performed with physical closeness.
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| 2. |
- Backström, Tomas, 1957-, et al.
(författare)
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Interaction training – an enabler for improvement measures within the psychosocial risk assessment process
- 2022
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Ingår i: International Journal of Workplace Health Management. - : Emerald. - 1753-8351 .- 1753-836X. ; 15:5, s. 553-571
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- PurposeThe study objectives were to (1) identify if providing solution-focused interaction training enables managers and employees to develop and implement actions to improve their psychosocial work environment and (2) test a recontextualization of the psychosocial work environment as social structures affecting members of the workplace and verify if social interactions effectively change the local psychosocial work environment.Design/methodology/approachThe intervention involved training managers, supervisors and employees in solution-focused interaction. This study used a controlled interrupted time-series design, with an intervention and control group (CG) and pre- and post-measurements.FindingsThe psychosocial work environment improved, indicating that the training led to better social interactions, contributing to changes in the social structures within the intervention group (IG). Collective reflection between participants in the take action phase was the key to success. The recontextualization uncovered these mechanisms.Research limitations/implicationsThe present study supports a recontextualization of the psychosocial work environment as primarily decided by social structures that emerge in recurrent interactions within work teams. The same social structures also seem to be important for other features of the production system, like job performance.Practical implicationsTraining designed to enable high-quality social interactions, like dialogue and collective reflection, has proven to be effective in changing social structures. Moreover, managers may need training in facilitating the collective reflection between participants. Increased focus on social interactions within work teams is suggested for future study of organizational change processes, psychosocial work environment and practical psychosocial work environment management.Originality/valueThe intervention was delivered in the preparation phase to enable an effective take action phase. Both phases are less studied in psychosocial risk assessments research. The recontextualization has never been fully used in psychosocial research.
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| 3. |
- Berglund, Rachael, et al.
(författare)
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Arbete på distans hemifrån våren 2021 : Sammanfattande resultatredovisning
- 2021
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Rapport (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Syftet med denna rapport är att beskriva erfarenheterna hos individer som behöver arbeta hemifrån till följd av covid-19. Rapporten är en del av ett större forskningsprojekt som finansieras av AFA försäkringoch pågår till och med juni 2023.En enkätstudie genomfördes genom fem olika verksamheter under våren 2021. 888 personer svarade. 161 var chefer och 34 skyddsombud. Av dem som svarade hade antalet timmar arbete utfört på distansfrån hemmet ökat. Antalet timmar ökade från 4,5 timmar i veckan innan pandemin till strax under 38 timmar i veckan vid svarstillfället.Organisatorisk och social arbetsmiljö• De som arbetar hemifrån upplever att ledningen prioriterar deras psykisk hälsa och rapporterarett gott psykosocialt säkerhetsklimat.• Krav i arbetet: Deltagarna rapporterar bättre arbetstempo och känslomässiga krav än referensvärden innan pandemin. Kvantitativa krav är likvärdiga referensvärden innan pandemin• Arbetsorganisering och innehåll: Inflytande är bättre än referensvärden innan pandemin.Utvecklingsmöjligheter och mening i arbetet är likvärdiga referensvärden innan pandemin.• Relationer och ledarskap: Ledarskapskvalitet och socialt stöd från överordnad är bättre än referensvärden innan pandemin. Rollkonflikt, socialt stöd från kollegor och social gemenskap i arbetet är likvärdiga. Rolltydlighet och erkännande är sämre än referensvärden innan pandemin.• Samspel mellan arbete och individ: Tillfredställelse med arbete och effekten av arbete på privatliv är bättre än referensvärden innan pandemin. Arbetsengagemang, oro för arbetslöshetoch oro för förändrade förhållanden och kvalitet i arbetet är likvärdiga. Konflikt mellan privatliv och arbete har inget referensvärde men resultaten visar på att privatlivet påverkar arbete mindre än hur mycket arbete påverkar privatliv.• Social kapital: Organisatorisk rättvisa och vertikal tillit är likvärdiga nivåerna innan pandemin.Psykisk hälsa• Inom psykisk hälsa finns det referensvärden för utmattning. Nivån på utmattning är lägre än referensvärden innan pandemin.• Kognitiv stress saknar referensvärden. Isolation ligger på 35 av en 0–100 skala och kognitiv stress på 25. Det är önskvärt med ett lågt resultat för båda.Fysisk hälsa• På en skala av 0 till 100 där 0 är inte alls och 100 hela tiden är snittnivån för samtliga deltagarna24 för ryggvärk, 34 för muskelvärk i axlar, nacke, händer och armbågar och 32 för huvudvärkoch ögonbesvär. Här finns det inga referensvärden.Stillasittande och självskattad hälsa.• Stillasittande: Folkhälsomyndigheten rekommenderar att man ska röra på sig några minuter varje halvtimme. Av de tillfrågade sitter 6% mindre än 1 timme i sträck under en vanligarbetsdag. Resten av respondenterna sitter längre. 22% sitter 4h eller mer i sträck. Här finns det inga referensvärden.• Självskattad hälsa: Deltagarna rapporterar en likvärdig hälsa när de ska skatta det själva än innan pandemin.Arbetsprestation (inga referensvärden)• De flesta rapporterade en liten grad av minskad arbetsprestation som kan härledas till arbetsmiljö och hälsa.• De flesta rapporterade att sin hälsa och arbetsmiljö vid distansarbete påverkade sin arbetsprestation positivt. 41% av svarande rapporterade att sin arbetsprestation hade förbättrats i mycket hög grad eller i hög grad pga. arbetsmiljön vid arbete hemifrån under pandemin.• De flesta rapporterade att sin arbetsprestation hade påverkats positivt av sin hälsa vid arbete hemifrån. 38% av svarande rapporterade att sin arbetsprestation hade förbättrats i mycket hög grad eller i hög grad pga. sin hälsa vid arbete hemifrån under pandemin.Virtuell sjuknärvaro (inga referensvärden)• 34% rapporterade att de var borta pga. sjukdom mellan 1–15 dagar och 5% rapporterade mer än15 dagars sjukfrånvaro.• Hälften av dem som arbetade när de var sjuka gjorde det trots att de med tanke hälsotillståndet egentligen borde ha låtit bli.• Den vanligaste anledningen till att arbeta trots sjukdom är att ingen annan kan göra jobbet och för att inte belasta kollegorna.
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| 4. |
- Berglund, Rachael, et al.
(författare)
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Avoiding the pitfall of work-related stress in the transition to industry 4.0
- 2021
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Ingår i: 28th EUROMA Conference (European Operations Management Association). 5 - 7 July 2021 Online..
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Konferensbidrag (refereegranskat)abstract
- It is widely accepted that the integration of new technologies, work practices and working methods lie at the core of a successful transition to Industry 4.0. However, work-relatedstress can impair this transition. This literature review aims to identify organisational and social work factors linked to work-related stress so that they may be integrated into the transition process. This literature review uses thematic analysis to identify and organise work factors into four levels: community, company, department/group and individual.Companies should integrate identifying and treating causes of work-related stress at the company and department/group-level into the transition to industry 4.0.
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| 5. |
- Berglund, Rachael, et al.
(författare)
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Critical Psychosocial Risk Treatment for Engineers and Technicians
- 2020
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Ingår i: International Journal of Economics and Management Engineering. - Amsterdam, Netherlands. - 2225-742X. ; 14:5, s. 362-375
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- This study explores how management addresses psychosocial risks in seven teams of engineers and technicians in the midst of the fourth industrial revolution. The sample is from an ongoing quasi-experiment about psychosocial risk management in a manufacturing company in Sweden. Each of the seven teams belongs to one of two clusters: a positive cluster or a negative cluster. The positive cluster reports a significantly positive change in psychosocial risk levels between two time-points and the negative cluster reports a significantly negative change. The data are collected using semi-structured interviews. The results of the computer aided thematic analysis show that there are more differences than similarities when comparing the risk treatment actions taken between the two clusters. Findings show that the managers in the positive cluster use more enabling actions that foster and support formal and informal relationship building. In contrast, managers that use less enabling actions hinder the development of positive group processes and contribute negative changes in psychosocial risk levels. This exploratory study sheds some light on how management can influence significant positive and negative changes in psychosocial risk levels during a risk management process.
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| 6. |
- Berglund, Rachael, et al.
(författare)
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Employee productivity during COVID-19 in Sweden
- 2022
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Konferensbidrag (refereegranskat)abstract
- Many knowledge workers in the manufacturing sector from IT, research and development, sales, finance, customer care and management transitioned to work from home because of COVID-19 (Eurofound, 2020). We investigated how such an abrupt transition affected productivity. Data were collected from 138 white-collar workers using a survey shared on social media. Most of the respondents stated that working from home affected their productivity positively due to fewer interruptions and more efficient meetings. Some employees reported decreased productivity due to problems with the organisational, social and physical working conditions. The work environment should be actively managed when working from home.
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| 7. |
- Berglund, Rachael, et al.
(författare)
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Managements organisational and social work environment during the pandemic in Sweden
- 2022
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Ingår i: Conference Proceedings of the 51st NES Conference. - 9789150629750 ; , s. 1-8
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Konferensbidrag (refereegranskat)abstract
- Managements working conditions during the pandemic are important since they are the ones who had to motivate, encourage, and navigate their team during this unique time in history. Managers are vital in forming the working environment conditions for others. When they feel stressed and overwhelmed, this acts as a barrier to caring for and supporting their team members. Our study aimed to investigate managers’ organisational and social work environment conditions and health when working from home during the pandemic.This study has a cross-sectional design. Survey data were collected one year into the COVID-19 pandemic from April-May 2021. We used a survey with fixed questions to collect data from four different organisations and through an open online survey. Data on the 161 managers out of a total of 888 respondents is included in the present study. We compare the manager’s data to pre-pandemic reference values.The respondents report on average a PSC-score of 14. Quantitative demands, work pace, social support from colleagues & supervisors and work life balance were better for managers during the pandemic. There was no difference in burnout scores compared to pre-pandemic reference values. Male managers reported significantly lower levels of work demands compared to female managers and better work life balance. Male managers also reported lower social support from their supervisor.Workplaces should pay attention to differences in working conditions provided for male and female managers going forward.The way the data is presented in this paper could be useful for practitioners to use when introducing PSC and COPSOQ to the workplace.
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| 8. |
- Blackbright, Helena, 1972-
(författare)
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Exploring Purposeful use of Innovation Self-assessments
- 2020
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Innovation management is a multidimensional practice characterized by the requirement of a constant renewal to maintain an organization’s relative innovativeness. A practice highly characterized by a requirement to handle uncertainty, risk, and long lead times, which requires an active management of both the prerequisites of today and a yet-undefined future. Therefore, it is of little surprise that the so-called “innovation audits,” with their purpose of direct or indirect improvement are often considered a vital part of innovation management practices. This thesis focuses on the internal self-assessment use of such audits by organizations to self-assess their current state of innovativeness against indicators of good practice or their own prior state. The purpose of such innovation audits is to reveal gaps between the current and desired state, which the organization can use to develop improvement activities.Substantial empirical and theoretical research on innovation audits exists, which focuses primarily on the development of the audit itself, but seldom on enacting audits that lead to desired improvements. Much innovation audit research discusses the areas to assess and the development of different types of indicators, statements, and framework, which represents these assessment areas. The problem is that no matter how well the indicators identify possible improvement areas or gaps between current and desired states, it still says very little about integrating retrieved information into activities that actually lead to the desired improvements.This thesis takes a process perspective on the undertaking of an innovation self-assessment audit (ISA). Rather than examining what to assess and how to use the result, it focuses on the undertaking of an ISA as an improvement process in itself. The overall objective is to contribute to the understanding of why a purposeful use of ISA emerges (or does not emerge). To this end, this thesis collects empirical data about ISA use and its context from qualitative case studies, involving 14 self-assessment groups from 9 different organizations. The findings from these studies is presented in the six appended papers that address different perspectives on ISA use and contextual prerequisites.To better understand why a purposeful use of ISA emerges (or does not), it was necessary to bring the appended papers together and undertake a more focused discussion on ISA use as a process in its entirety. Therefore, this thesis recontextualizes the six appended papers against a new theoretical framework based on theories on processes, complex adaptive systems (CAS), and competence-in-use.The theoretical discussion in this thesis offers several contributions. First, by approaching the undertaking of ISA as an improvement process, it focuses on the continuity of the process, which in turn allows a distinction between the execution of the process and the enabling of this execution. Second, the enactment of purposeful use is related to knowledge about the focus area of the assessment (e.g. innovation culture or capabilities) and the current state being assessed. Together, these create the basis for the theorization of a four-dimensional ISA competence-in-use that impacts how ISA can be purposefully enacted. Overall, the main reason why purposeful use emerges (or does not) does not seem to be so much about having a high ISA competence-in-use, as having high correspondence between expectations and competence-in-use.Together, this contributes to an increased understanding of why purposeful use emerges (or does not), making this its primary contribution within the field of innovation management. The focus on self-assessment use as an improvement process embedded in the organizational context it intends to improve, does give a more general relevance to the discussion on improvement processes, and the use of self-assessment audits outside the field of innovation management.The contribution of this thesis is closely related to the use of ISA and can be used to support the process of planning and undertaking an ISA. This thesis also contributes to knowledge on ISA competence-in-use, which can guide practical choices in undertaking an ISA for more purposeful use.
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| 9. |
- Fundin, Anders, et al.
(författare)
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Exploring the emergent quality management paradigm
- 2021
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Ingår i: Total Quality Management and Business Excellence. - United Kingdom : Informa UK Limited. - 1478-3363 .- 1478-3371. ; 32:5-6, s. 476-488
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The development of successful production systems is affected by conflicting forces, that is, initiatives seemingly conducive for one line of work can be a constraint for another. Consequently, this paper presents an alternative perspective on how these issues could be managed in organisations. There are a number of key challenges in terms of the involved dichotomies for future innovative quality improvements in operations. These dichotomies are part of four interrelated processes that are the central elements of a production system. As such, aiming for stability or change is a production process dilemma in terms of the production and distribution of offerings and solutions. Control and creativity are the main dilemmas of the innovation process, that is, the creation and implementation of new offerings and solutions, while exploitation and exploration are the dilemmas of the knowledge creation process and efficiency and effectiveness of the value creation process. As the simultaneous existence of both parts of the dichotomy seems to be a paradox, this paper suggests the emergent quality management paradigm as an alternative perspective providing the guidance, examples, and practical solutions necessary to solve these dilemmas by recognising the dichotomies as mutually dependent.
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| 10. |
- Hazy, James K., et al.
(författare)
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Value Sinks : A Process Theory of Corruption Risk during Complex Organizing
- 2023
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Ingår i: Nonlinear Dynamics, Psychology, and Life Sciences. - : NLM (Medline). - 1090-0578 .- 1573-6652. ; 27:3, s. 319-350
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Theories and studies of corruption typically focus on individual ethics and agency problems in organizations. In this paper, we use concepts from complexity science to propose a process theory that describes how corruption risk emerges from conditions of uncertainty that are intrinsic in social systems and social interactions. We posit that our theory is valid across multiple levels of scale in social systems. We theorize that corruption involves dynamics that emerge when agents in a system take actions that exploit disequilibrium conditions of uncertainty and ethical ambiguity. Further, systemic corruption emerges when agent interactions are amplified locally in ways that create a hidden value sink which we define as a structure that extracts, or 'drains,' resources from the system for the exclusive use of certain agents. For those participating in corruption, the presence of a value sink reduces local uncertainties about access to resources. This dynamic can attract others to join the value sink, allowing it to persist and grow as a dynamical system attractor, eventually challenging broader norms. We close by identifying four distinct types of corruption risk and suggest policy interventions to manage them. Finally, we discuss ways in which our theoretical approach could motivate future research.
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