Autonomy and Control in Everyday Life in Care of Older People in Nursing Homes

Self-control and autonomy are not guaranteed when people age and are in need of help from others, especially in institution-based housing. This occurs despite the fact that it is a generally accepted belief that care should be delivered with the greatest possible degree of independence and autonomy. This article discusses older people's experiences with and the opportunities for autonomy in institution-based housing. Through focus group interviews and observations, the daily lives of residents at two nursing homes in Sweden were studied through a comparative approach using the theoretical framework of organizational culture. Three themes emerged showing how autonomy was not a reality for the residents. The first theme revealed an ambivalent mission, indicating ambiguity as to whether the nursing home was a place to live in or a place in which to be cared for. The second theme was symbolic power, which encompassed the staff's power embedded in the organization. The third theme was the ageist approach to care, which was noted in the way staff considered the residents to be old people who were unable and unwilling to strive for autonomy. The three themes were embedded in the organizational culture and were created and recreated in the interaction between residents and staff. A key question for further research is how to change the culture to strengthen the residents’ autonomy.     

Teacher stress during an autumn term in Finland: Four types of stress processes

This Finnish study examines teachers' stress in order to clarify how stress manifests itself and to describe any observed differences in the teachers' background, personality and coping variables. The research design was longitudinal. One hundred and fifty-three teachers made repeated assessments (six in all) of the indicators of stress (subjective mood ratings) by means of questionnaires during the autumn term of 1983. The background variables were based on questionnaire responses gathered in the autumn of 1983. Four different teacher groups emerged according to the type of stress reported: (1) teachers who were exhausted throughout the term; (2) those who recovered from stress on the first weekends of the term but not later on; (3) those not at all stressed, and (4) teachers feeling tired and anxious at the beginning and at the end of the term. The four teacher groups differed with regard to their personality characteristics and coping strategies.     

The longitudinal development of employee well-being: a systematic review

This article reports a systematic review of findings on the long-term development of employee well-being, taking into account the effects of time lag, age, and job change. High-quality quantitative empirical studies focusing on employee affective well-being based on the circumplex model and utilizing measurements at more than two points in time were searched from eight databases. The systematic analysis of the 40 studies revealed that the level of employee well-being was generally high but not fixed – instead changes in mean levels over time were typical. In addition, the stability of well-being was found to be relatively low, as the explained variances were below 50%. Age and change of job were the major factors influencing stability: younger employees and job changers tended to display larger across time changes in well-being than older employees and job stayers, both at the mean level and in terms of their position relative to others. The findings of this review suggest that the indicators of employee affective well-being studied here (i.e. burnout, engagement, and job satisfaction) can meaningfully be applied in future research in measuring changes in employees’ well-being. In conclusion, based on the designs, methodologies, and main findings of the reviewed studies, seven avenues for future longitudinal research on employee well-being are proposed.     

Maintaining professional integrity: experiences of case workers performing the assessments that determine children’s access to personal assistance

This qualitative study explores Swedish case workers experiences of decision making regarding disabled children's right to obtain assistance in their everyday life whereby they can live independently in the community. Data collection included seven focus-group interviews and 11 complementary individual interviews with case workers from different agencies responsible for decisions regardig access to personal assistance. Grounded theory methodology was used. Compromised professional integrity under shifting conditions emerged as a main concern and maintaing professional integrity was used as an approach to resolve it. The case workers are maintaining professional integrity by applying different strategies; struggling with division of responsibility, bureaucratizig, and justifying and protecting. The results indicate that present application of assessment criteria in combination with the utilization of precedent rulings has made it difficult for the case workers to make decisions that provide children access to assistance. Current practice raises questions about the case workers perspectives of professionalism.     

Rumination for innovation? Analysing the longitudinal effects of work-related rumination on creativity at work and off-job recovery

Work-related rumination is not a single construct, but consists of a dimension associated with negative emotions or affect (affective rumination), and a dimension associated with reflective thinking and applying strategies to solve problems (problem-solving pondering). In this three-wave longitudinal study across two years (N?=?630) we investigated whether the relationships between work-related rumination, off-job recovery, and creativity at work varied along the two dimensions of work-related rumination. In addition, we tested whether the relationships followed normal, reversed, or reciprocal causation. The results showed, first, that in a one-year perspective affective rumination, but not problem-solving pondering, was negatively related to off-job recovery and that problem-solving pondering, but not affective rumination, was positively related to creativity at work. Second, in a two-year perspective, reversed effects were detected as creativity at work was negatively related to affective rumination and positively to off-job recovery. Our results suggest that the quality of work-related thoughts determines whether the outcome is beneficial or detrimental. Occupational health interventions that only advise employees to stop thinking about work during off-job time, may therefore be too simplistic.     

Can Changes to Gender Equality Be Sustained?

The aim of this paper is to discuss how changes to gender equality in organizing can be made sustainable. Numerous studies have reported on projects which have not succeeded in their efforts to implement gender equality. In this paper, we analyse the results from two programmes which aimed to increase equal opportunities among private and public sector organizations. Theoretically, the study is based on the framework of doing gender, which is combined with insights from studies using the translation model of organizational change. The translation model of organizational change enables investigation of formal and informal processes within an institutionalized setting. By studying those aspects that were stabilized into an institution within these two programmes, as well as those which were not, the approaches that had become sustainable for the programmes in the long term could be discerned. When comparing the two programmes, it became apparent that complications arose at the point at which the theoretical aims of gender equality were translated into actions. The analysis of the outcomes of these programmes indicates, however, that, even though the formal goals were not reached, equal opportunities within the participating organizations did benefit from these programmes.     

Population growth overshooting and trade in developing countries

This paper examines a developing economy using a family-optimization model in which the number of children is a normal good. Trade liberalization generates two effects: the income effect that increases population growth and the gender wage effect that, in the short run, increases, but, in the long run, decreases population growth. With higher income, families invest more in capital if the status of the capital is significant. Because female labor is complementary to capital, higher investment increases the relative wages of women and attracts them from child rearing into production. Ultimately, the population growth falls below the original level.