The capability approach is relevant to gaining a conceptual understanding of individuals’ abilities and motivation to work and to explore the potential consequences that various working conditions have for people when they reach old age. Here, the capability concept is complemented with system theory to understand the multi-component key resources for capability to work among older workers, and also the conversion factors – capability through work – at individual, micro, meso, macro and chrono-levels. The theoretical approach is exemplified by studies from the interdisciplinary field of work sciences. The chapter describes central working-life conditions, conversion factors for crafting capability to work and examples of patterns of interactions between capability to work and capability through work. To support practical applications, we suggest important conversion factors and patterns of interaction between capability to work and capability through working-life resources. In sum, having a reasonable degree of control and influence (freedom of choice) at work and opportunities to make individual deals and adjustments that match one’s values, abilities, competence and experience are important for individual preference of a long working life. This requires an organisation that focuses on the value of work and promotes a general learning climate through broad participation.

Aims

To investigate how job demands and resources interact with each other to predict intention to leave among assistant nurses and Registered Nurses.

Design

Longitudinal study.

Methods

Questionnaire data were collected yearly during three years (October 2012-December 2014) from Registered Nurses (RN) and assistant nurses (N = 840) employed in Swedish hospitals. Associations and interaction effects of demands and resources were assessed with correlation analyses and regression models.

Results

Job demands predicted assistant nurses’ intentions to leave, while resources predicted RNs’ intention to leave. For RNs, several resources were functional in moderating the associations between demands and intention to leave: social support, vertical trust, and humanity moderated work pace and workflow moderated emotional demands. For assistant nurses, organizational clarity and interprofessional collaboration moderated emotional demands. None of the resources had a moderating effect on the associations between quantitative demands or illegitimate tasks and intention to leave.

Ageing population is becoming a major concern because of its economic, political and social impact. Trusted eldercare service is an important issue for a matured nation. The paper addresses the preconditions of healthy ageing and sustainable value integrated eldercare in a developing and a developed society. In India, professional eldercare is about a decade old and is still emerging to get a foothold in the health care system. The aim is to explore understanding and values of home-based eldercare (HBEC) in India from a multiple stakeholder’s perspective and to understand the value related challenges and issues in developments with HBEC in Sweden which has a century old experience of professional and public organised eldercare. The study included 210 in-depth interviews, 105 each from India and Sweden. The in-depth interviews of various stakeholders including older individuals, their relatives, caregivers, managers and doctors. Interviews and focused group discussions were carried out across six cities in India and 10 municipalities in Sweden. The qualitative data were analysed to conceptualise the stakeholders understanding of HBEC, the values associated with care giving, perceived challenges and issues in the emerging HBEC sector in India. The findings highlight the changing values in the societies with relation to the needs and context of eldercare in both countries. These preconditions for compassion and work engagement in care giving as well as competence development in caregivers need to be strengthened in the contexts of care and in alignment with sociocultural values

(1) Background: Both employees and organizations benefit from a work environment characterized by work engagement and job satisfaction. This study examines the influence of work-group social capital on individuals’ work engagement, job satisfaction, and job crafting. In addition, the mediating effect of job crafting between social capital on the one side and job satisfaction and work engagement on the other side was analyzed. (2) Methods: This study used data from 250 health-care employees in Sweden who had completed a questionnaire at two time points (six to eight months apart). Analyses of separate cross-lagged panel designs were conducted using structural regression modeling with manifest variables. (3) Results: Social capital was predictive of both job satisfaction and work engagement over time. The results also indicated that higher degrees of social capital was predictive of more cognitive and relational, but not task-related job crafting over time. There was no clear evidence for a mediating effect of job crafting for social capital to work engagement or job satisfaction. (4) Conclusion: It would be beneficial for the health-care sector to consider setting up the organizations to promote social capital within work groups. Individual workers would gain in well-being and the organization is likely to gain in efficiency and lower turnover rates.

Låg sjukfrånvaro mäts ofta på olika sätt och framförallt när nationell statistik eller statistik från arbetsgivarens personalregister används. Därmed har resultaten varierat och få sjukdagar kan indikera både goda arbetsförhållanden och krav på sjuknärvaro. Syftet var att undersöka utvecklingen av låg sjukfrånvaron bland sjuk- och undersköterskor och utforska om enhetsvis utveckling samvarierade med stödjande arbetsförhållanden, ledarstrategier och organisering av social och organisatorisk arbetsmiljö. Mått på få sjukfrånvarodagar undersöktes med data från arbetsgivarens personalregister. Förklaringar till trender undersöktes på enhetsnivå genom chefsenkät under de två första åren. Resultaten visade att majoriteten av anställda på enheter (93 %) inte hade en sjukdag under ett år och att 2 % var sjukskrivna 1-7 dagar. Samvariationerna var svaga men visade betydelser av stödjande ledning, strukturerande ledarstrategi och god samverkan mellan chef och medarbetare för mer balanserad närvaro. Stödjande ledning, närvarande ledarstrategi och stödjande organisatoriska strukturer visade samband med enhetsvis hög förekomst av ingen sjukdag alls.

AIM:

The aim of this study was to investigate how restricted decision making autonomy and conflicting demands impact operational managers' work performance and health.

BACKGROUND:

Managers at operational level (first and second-line managers') in health care organizations are commonly exposed to strain in their work situation with high demands and a challenging work context. Although they play an important role, the knowledge about the causal associations between stressful job demands and their consequences is limited.

METHODS:

A prospective design with questionnaire data collected at two points in time, one year apart, from a sample of operational managers (N = 162) at five Swedish hospitals was used to conduct a structural equation model (SEM) analysis with cross-lagged paths.

RESULTS:

Restricted decision making autonomy was negatively associated with both the managers' health and their managerial work performance over time.

CONCLUSIONS:

Health care managers' work performance and health may be sustained by the top management allowing them a higher degree of autonomy in their decision making.

IMPLICATIONS FOR NURSING MANAGEMENT:

This study suggests that nursing leaders should create the circumstances for operational managers' to have higher levels of autonomy in their area of responsibility and the freedom to prioritize their managerial workload. 

To increase efficiency and quality, process development has been implemented in many Swedish hospitals. These hospitals are usually organized as professional bureaucracies in which health care managers have limited decision control. The new governance principles has been implemented without removing bureaucratic elements. This study analyzes how managers implement planned change in these professional bureaucracies, considering if managers coaching style, organizational preconditions, implementation strategy, appraisal of change and clinic autonomy, is associated with health care process quality (HPQ). The study is based on interviews with health care managers and longitudinal assessments of HPQ. The results revealed significant differences between coaching style, organizational preconditions, and HPQ over time. The conclusion is that leadership and preconditions is of importance for the health care manager’s ability to work with planned change, as that the health care managers understand how management methods, governance principles, and professional bureaucracies work in practice.