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- Ferm, Lisa, 1984-
(författare)
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Vocational Students’ Agency in Identity Formation as Industrial Workers
- 2021
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- The overall aim of this thesis is to contribute knowledge about vocational identity formation among students within the industrial programme in Swedish upper secondary education, with a particular focus on their workplace-based learning. To break down the aim, three research questions have been formulated and each is addressed in one or two specific articles. These questions are: (1) What learning strategies do vocational students use to become part of a work community, and how do these strategies relate to the formation of a vocational identity at the workplace? (2) How do vocational students experience their identity formation in relation to a vocation within the industrial sector? (3) How do vocational students handle the division between theoretical and practical knowledge as they learn to become skilled industrial workers? The thesis builds on 53 semi-structured qualitative interviews with Swedish upper secondary vocational students enrolled on the industrial programme. The interviews revolve around the students’ vocational identity formation, with a focus on their workplace-based learning. The students are between 18 and 20 years old and the majority are boys. The findings are analysed through the theoretical lens of situated learning, where identity formation is viewed as a social learning process that takes place through participation in communities of practice. In addition, the concepts of habitus, gender and social categorisation are used as analytical tools to provide a deeper understanding of issues concerning status, power and exclusion in relation to vocational identity formation. The findings reveal that the students’ vocational identity formation is closely connected to the social aspects of participating in workplace communities. Knowledge about the jargon and social norms of the workplace seem to be of more importance for vocational identity formation than knowledge about the concrete working tasks. The study follows the students’ vocational identity formation throughout their vocational learning trajectories, which reveal that vocational identities are formed in heterogenic ways. The students may adopt a committed, flexible or ambivalent approach towards industrial work. Aspects concerning agency and status seem to be crucial for the vocational identification process. The forming of a vocational identity also implies positioning oneself in the hierarchy and division between theoretical and practical knowledge, as well as between masculinity and femininity. The students appear as knowledgeable actors who are aware of the generally low status of industrial work, while simultaneously expressing a great deal of pride in relation to their intended vocations. In the discussion, a model of the students’ vocational identity formation is proposed to capture the interplay between collective and structural dimensions (e.g. social background, class and status hierarchies at school) and students’ agency and strategies in becoming industrial workers. From the findings of this thesis, three main conclusions are drawn: (1) The students form vocational identities through using vocational agency in actively developing strategies for becoming accepted in the workplace community; (2) Workplace-based learning is central for the students’ vocational identity formation, in spite of the relatively short time that the students spend there, compared to the time spent at school; (3) The students’ vocational image awareness, expressed through awareness of, and reactions to, other people’s images of their vocation, constitutes an important part of their vocational identity formation.
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| 2. |
- Halvarsson Lundkvist, Agneta, 1961-
(författare)
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Learning Dynamics of Workplace Development Programmes : Studies in Swedish national programmes
- 2019
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- The thesis focuses on workplace development programmes (WPDPs) that operationalize national policies on workplace development. WPDPs are time-limited and they provide support to organizations that aim to improve their operational performance or employees’ work conditions. The support that such programmes provide to organizations consists of competence-development activities provided through networks, courses or hands-on coaching. The supported organizations aimed at changing work practices to increase their operational performance.Departing from a workplace-learning perspective, the overall aim of the thesis was to contribute to knowledge about learning in workplace development programmes and the supported organizations when realizing policies on workplace development. A qualitative multiple-case study design was used and a total of 115 interviews and notes from meetings are included in the data material. Four substudies made up the empirical base.The findings revealed that realizing policies on workplace development required continuous learning among stakeholders at different levels of the WPDPs. Thus, conditions that enabled learning were important throughout the whole WPDP, which was seen as a large, complex social learning system. Learning between different levels of the WPDP was especially important, which required stakeholder representatives with the appropriate qualifications or characteristics that enabled them to take on roles as brokers between the stakeholders involved in realizing the policy. The overall conclusion pointed towards the dynamics of realizing policies of workplace learning, which cannot be achieved by a one-size-fitsall model for learning.The findings imply that funders and other authorities that make policies on workplace development through WPDPs should scrutinize how learning among stakeholders that enter into partnership to operate WPDPs is to be facilitated. Linear plans that are not complemented with careful explanations of how such learning is to be facilitated may constitute warning signs. Furthermore, the findings imply that organizations looking for external support to develop the innovative capabilities of employees must be careful in choosing their support. A WPDP may consume the resources of an organization without providing any benefit, if it does not provide the appropriate support. On the other hand, a WPDP may be a great source for learning, particularly if it includes support in designing the change effort, and help in developing an internal support infrastructure that will continue supporting workplace development after the programme ends.
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| 3. |
- Lidman, Linda, 1978-
(författare)
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Employee-driven innovation in the public sector : At the intersection of innovation support and workplace conditions
- 2023
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- The overall aim of this thesis is to contribute knowledge about employee-driven innovation (EDI), with a particular focus on conditions in the workplace when innovation support is introduced in municipal contexts. The thesis is based on 23 qualitative interviews with managers, employees, and innovation coaches from three municipal sites in Sweden where innovation support has been implemented. The four included studies examine how innovation support is set up, what role first-line managers play, what drives employees to engage in EDI, and the outcomes of innovation work in the studied cases.The thesis’ results show how innovation support was set up as parallel structures operating independently from regular municipal operations, which made it difficult for employees and managers to connect and integrate innovation work with everyday work. Furthermore, the results show how the studied municipalities did not define clear objectives for working with innovation, which in turn resulted in a multitude of inextricably linked negative effects for the innovation support operations, the managers, the employees, and the outcome of the innovation work. In addition, the study results demonstrate the importance of providing rich environments for learning and innovation in the workplace, to consider and support employee engagement in public sector innovation and to support the entire innovation process, including the implementation phase. The first conclusion drawn is that employee-driven innovation work happens at the intersection of innovation support and current workplace conditions. This implies that support measures need to be integrated into employees’ everyday work to create favourable conditions for EDI. The second conclusion is that it is imperative for municipal organisations intending to support EDI to define objectives for working with innovation and to anchor and communicate these objectives throughout the organisation.
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| 4. |
- Wastesson, Karin, 1986-
(författare)
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Learning Managerial Work : First-line Managers’ Learning in Everyday Work within Swedish Elderly Care
- 2024
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- This study’s overall aim is to contribute knowledge about first-line managers’ learning in everyday work within the context of elderly care. The study used a qualitative research approach and was carried out within four Swedish elderly care organisations. A total of 40 first-line managers were interviewed, 10 of whom kept time-use diaries. The theoretical framework is based on a workplace learning perspective originating from theory of situated learning. Situated learning theory includes the concepts of community of practice, legitimate peripheral participation, and membership, which serve as analytical tools to illuminate characteristics of learning from various angles. In addition, the concept of gender has been used to gain a deeper understanding for managers’ workplace learning in the female-dominated elderly care context.The findings showed that managers’ learning happened in a stream of varied tasks and interactions shaped by conditions in the workplace. The managers’ work was characterised by unpredictability and changing circumstances, which meant they continuously had to learn how to handle new situations and expand their repertoire of managerial practices. One common perception among themanagers was the importance of being able to make quick decisions with limited information, and assess the results afterwards. The managers learned how to deal with work situations by either maintaining and modifying current practices or inventing new ones. In addition to these three practices, their learning was affected by different conditions, particularly professional experience, work relationships and organisational conditions. The findings further showed that the managers had to learn to deal with expectations of how they should act in the managerial role based on their gender, and learn to navigate between gender ideals that permeated the female-dominated elderly care environment.Three conclusions were drawn from this study. The first was that managers took great responsibility for their own learning, including what they needed to know and how they would learn it. Despite the fact that they all had access to resources provided by the employer, managers often chose alternative ways to learn, usually by relying on informal networks and close personal relationships. As a result of this self-directed learning, they were able to make decisions that suited their learning needs, and effectively proceed in practice without having to confirm their chosen methods.The second conclusion was that work relationships played a central part in managers’ learning, within both the care work community and the first-line manager community. Work relationships with other first-line managers provided support for learning through, for example, knowledge exchange and joint discussions, as well as emotional support. Work relationships with subordinates were significant for learning, and could result in solutions to complex issues, which could have a direct effect on the daily operation of care work services. Due to the diverse mix of professions, varying interests, and formal positions of authority in the care work community, managers were required to devote considerable time and effort to facilitate collaboration and a shared repertoire. As a result, learning was seen as a stimulating and enjoyable experience, but was also demanding and sometimes boring.The third conclusion was that in the context of the female-dominated elderly care gender operated differently in two communities of practices. Male privilege was still prominent in the care work community, as men were accepted and perceived as legitimate leaders among their subordinates. Female managers instead had to navigate and balance the expectations associated with femininity and the managerial role in this community. However, the female-dominated elderly care context provided female managers with more opportunities to connect with equal peers and establish influential positions, whereas male managers could encounter challenges in gaining access to learning and participating in the first-line manager community.
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