Sector In Sweden Research Articles

Is smoking and alcohol consumption associated with long-term sick leave due to unspecific back or neck pain among employees in the public sector? Results of a three-year follow-up cohort study

To investigate the associations between smoking and alcohol consumption, and long-term sick leave due to unspecific back or neck pain among employees in the public sector. A 3-year prospective cohort study. Approximately 9000 persons in the public sector in Sweden were invited to participate. Of these, 7533 answered a questionnaire and 6532 were included in the study, classified as having "good health for working". New periods of sick leave >or= 28 days were consecutively reported from the employers or the occupational health service during a period of 3 years. Rate ratios were estimated by means of Cox proportional hazard regression model. Smoking was associated with an increased risk of long-term sick leave due to unspecific back or neck pain. Compared with people who have never smoked, "ever smokers" had a higher risk (rate ratio = 1.8, 95% confidence interval: 1.3-2.4). Alcohol consumption tended to be associated with a decreased risk, but the results were not statistically significant. Our results suggest that smoking is a risk factor for long-term sick leave due to unspecific back or neck pain. Moderate alcohol consumption tends to have a protective effect, at least among women in the public sector.

Positive and negative consequences of sick leave for the individual, with special focus on part-time sick leave

To describe the consequences of long-term sick leave (>28 days) on working situation, health and lifestyle among employees from the public sector in Sweden. Employees in four county councils and two municipalities on long term sick leave on 1 November 2005 (n = 1,128) answered a questionnaire in February 2006. The response rate was 71.7%. Eighty seven per cent were still on sick leave when the questionnaire was answered: 54% part time and 33% full time. Reporting positive consequences was rare but reporting negative consequences, such as effects on the development of salary, the possibilities of pursuing a career or to change to another job were common. Sick leave seemed to lead to a considerable loss of zest for work, even if the respondents were back in work full time. Regardless of the negative consequences at work, 92% of those on part-time sick leave believed that the part-time sick leave was good for them even if many thought it had negative consequences for employer and colleagues. Long-term sick leave has negative consequences for the individual in work situations, even for those back at work full time. The development of salary and career seem to be most affected. The attitude towards part-time sick leave was positive and this result indicates that there is a potential for an increased degree of partial return to work in the group of people on long-term sick leave.

Working in Human Services: How Do Experiences and Working Conditions in Child Welfare Social Work Compare?

Child welfare agencies in many rich countries are having difficulty recruiting and retaining social workers. However, these problems are not unique to child welfare: retention problems have also been widely reported in both mental and general health facilities. In this paper, we compare the perceptions of work and working conditions held by child welfare social workers with the perceptions held by other professional human service workers in the public sector in Sweden. Do the social workers' experiences of their tasks or organizational conditions differ from the other groups, and, if so, how? Are workforce problems particularly acute in child welfare, or do social workers in this field share more or less common problems with other human service professionals? We found that although social workers in general, and child welfare social workers in particular, made positive assessments of some dimensions of their working lives, social work was unusually demanding among human service professions on several measures of workload, complexity of tasks and quality of management. The strains of the job that social workers expressed call upon employers to promote working conditions that offer more support, and to recognize and value social workers for their work.

The development of a modern financial sector in Sweden

Macro economic development must be supported by a stable and efficient financial system. Excessive and inappropriate regulation of the financial system will restrain its functions and may lead to less than optimal resource allocation. But the transition from a highly regulated system must be carefully planned and orchestrated and several mistakes in this regard were made in the Swedish case, eventually leading to a systemic banking crisis. After the crisis, modern forms of regulation and supervision have been introduced leading to a successful and stable financial sector. Experiences from the Swedish case can be applied to many other financial systems, developed as well as emerging.

How to transform local energy systems towards bioenergy? Three strategy models for transformation

During the last decades, the actors within the energy sector in Sweden—as well as in many other countries—have faced increasing demands to transform the energy system towards ecological sustainability. In Sweden these demands have led to numerous policies and economic incentives promoting the use of renewables (which in the Swedish discourse often also includes a connotation of “indigenous energy sources”), and especially the promotion of bioenergy. To be successful, however, these policies and economic incentives need to be interpreted and adapted to different local contexts and translated into actual transformation processes. In Sweden the municipal authorities have played an important role as interpreters of such institutional frameworks and implementers of local transformation processes. In this article, we re-construct three transformation processes implemented by local municipal authorities, chiselling out the different strategy models developed through them. We argue that such re-constructions help to make visible the different and complex interactions between national institutional frameworks and local contexts as well as interactions within such local contexts. We hope that the strategy models presented can contribute to the understanding of the different kinds of local actions that can foster a further implementation of bioenergy into the energy system.

What difference do different settings in residential care make for young people? A comparison of family‐style homes and institutions in Sweden

Residential care in Sweden has undergone great change in recent decades. With new small family‐style institutions, the boundaries between residential care and foster care have been blurred. Almost all residential care used to be run by the public sector. Today about 80 per cent is privately run. This study compares three different settings in residential care: institutions run by the public sector, privately run institutions and family‐style homes. Among other things, it is found that the institutions run by the public sector have better educated staff and a higher staff–resident ratio than privately run institutions. Despite this, they are more restrictive in their intake and they have youths with fewer problems, especially delinquency and other antisocial behaviour. The results are discussed in relation to developments in the residential care sector in Sweden and in relation to the balance between care and treatment.

Active change strategies for trade unions

Structural change often means major changes in organisation and job losses. The normal reaction from employees is to oppose restructuring and to want to keep things as they are. Rather than just trying to oppose the proposition from management, the union may formulate their own alternative. With two propositions on the table, the negotiations may open up to more alternatives and compromises, as well as more partners and alliances. Consumer groups, the general public and governments are more likely to be supporters if the union has its own proposition. If the unions are not in a position to present alternative solutions, they may at least be able to formulate principles for alternative solutions. Examples of this type of strategy can be found at GM Europe where the unions managed to reduce lay-offs through an alternative strategy. Similar union policies can be found in the public sector in Sweden where unions got support from customers and the general public in resisting cutbacks.

Farm‐related injury event, social consequences and injury reporting in the Land Lantbruk newspaper in Sweden: A retrospective study of farm‐related injury reporting during 2000–2005

The aim of the present study was to detect how a leading news paper, the Land Lantbruk in Stockholm, Sweden, informs the public and specifically the rural sector in Sweden and the Scandinavian countries concerning injury events (farm-related injury event) and the use of injury prevention and control. Injury reporting in the Land Lantbruk has been studied from the point of injury prevention and control. A study of injury prevention and rural health and safety in Australia shows that the newspaper The Land that serves Australia's rural community should 'be an under-utilised vehicle for news and commentary on rural health and safety issues'. The study period was from January 2000 to February 2005. A total of 178 articles were reviewed and analysed. The articles were available on a newspaper database in the Land Lantbruk newspaper. Articles that addressed farm-related injury event and rural health and safety were chosen and organised into subgroups. Tractor and motor vehicle safety (35%) was most common among the injury reporting. Although the newspaper Land Lantbruk provided excellent coverage of the causes of these events, the reports tended to focus on circumstances and did not provide information on injury prevention or the advantages of also coverage of the social and psychosocial long-term consequences of accidents. In the prevention work of reducing farm-related injuries in the rural sector in the Scandinavian countries and decreasing the human suffering represented by this health problem, rural politicians, insurance companies, rural authorities and also handicap organisations should listen more to the injured individuals and their own experiences relative to the difficulty of life after an accident. The reaction of family and relatives, and experiences of the long-term social consequences, have not been included in the media coverage. Journalists at the Land Lantbruk could also share experiences of the Swedish coverage of rural health and safety from Australian journalists from The Land.

The Glass Ceiling – Where is it? Women's and Men's Career Prospects in the Private vs. the Public Sector in Sweden 1979–2000

Previous research suggests that women have more limited career opportunities than men. Using Swedish longitudinal data, covering the period between 1979 and 2000, more light is shed on the association between hierarchical levels and differences between men's and women's career opportunities in terms of occupational transitions. The analyses indicate that women face the greatest hinderance to advancement at lower hierarchical levels and that these disadvantages attenuate with higher hierarchical levels. These results contradict the common idea of a glass ceiling, ie that problems for women accrue with increasing hierarchical levels. The findings point to the need for focusing more on gender inequalities at low hierarchical positions although the glass ceiling hypothesis cannot be dismissed altogether. Moreover, the results do not support the view that the gender penalty in careers is larger in the private sector as compared to the public sector.

Promoting excellent work ability and preventing poor work ability: the same determinants? Results from the Swedish HAKuL study

Aim: Health has been described as a continuum between the two poles of excellent health and ill health. Research has so far focused on the negative pole, leaving knowledge about...

Long-term sick-listing among women in the public sector and its associations with age, social situation, lifestyle, and work factors: A three-year follow-up study

Since 1997 the number of long-term sick-listed people in Sweden has increased dramatically, especially among women employed in the public sector. The aim of this study was to investigate associations between age, social situation, lifestyle, work factors, and long-term sick-listing (> or =28 days), regardless of diagnosis, during a period of three years among women employed in the public sector. Exposure information at baseline was recorded by a questionnaire. All new spells of sick listing (> or =28 days were consecutively reported from the employer for three years from baseline. In total 6,246 women from the public sector in Sweden answered the questionnaire (85% response rate); 5,224 were classified as having good or rather good health for working and were included. Of these, 918 persons had spells of sick-listing (> or =28 days during follow-up. Univariate and multivariate analyses for calculating relative risks (RR) were carried out. In the Cox regression model age (RR 1.4), strained financial situation (RR 1.3), obesity (RR 1.3), bullying (RR 1.5), physical demands at work higher than own capacity (RR 1.5), and mental demands at work higher than own capacity (1.2) remained risk indicators for long-term sick-listing. This study suggests prevention of some work and lifestyle factors as general measures to reduce long-term sick-listing among women in the public sector.

Evaluation of empowerment processes in a workplace health promotion intervention based on learning in Sweden

The aim of this study was to evaluate a theory-based method for workplace health promotion (WHP) with regard to possible facilitation of empowerment processes. The intervention tool was the pedagogic method known as problem-based learning (PBL). The aim of the intervention was to promote empowerment and health among the employees. The intervention was implemented in three organizations within the public sector in Sweden, in a bottom-up approach. All employees, including management, in each organization, were offered the opportunity to participate (n = 113) and 87% (n = 97) participated. The intervention was implemented in 13 groups of six to eight participants who met once a week over a period of 4 months. The predetermined overall goal of the intervention was to promote employee health within the organizational setting. A facilitator in each group and a group-specific mutual agreement guided the intervention, as did the problem solving process. The participants set goals and developed strategies to reach their goals between the meetings. Thirty informants were interviewed in seven focus groups after the intervention about the intervention method and the process, following a semi-structured theme guide. The phenomenographic analysis resulted in six descriptive categories: reflection, awareness and insight, self-direction and self-management, group coherence, social support and actions. The results correspond to established theories of components of empowerment processes. The method initiated processes of change at organizational, workplace and individual levels as the participants examined their work situation, determined problems and initiated solutions. Social support and group coherence were expressed as essential in order to transform challenging strategies into action and goal realization. The findings indicate that systematic improvements of social support and group coherence among employees ought to be facilitated by the organization as a health-promoting arena. PBL appears to be a profitable and powerful instrument with the potential to enable empowerment.

New transnational curricula for BSc/MSc programs in production engineering

The paper describes the curricula of two new international programs in production engineering—one a tri-national master of science in “industrial design and manufacturing” (IDM) program and the other an international bachelor of science program. The IDM master's program has been developed at the University of Dortmund in cooperation with the University of Twente in the Netherlands. Since 2004, the third partner in the IDM program is the University of Strathclyde in the UK. The IDM program provides an integrated, holistic, and internationally oriented graduate education in mechanical engineering that keeps the balance between theory and practice. For the development of the bachelor's program, the pilot project EPRODE (European Production Engineer) was initiated in 2003. It has been granted by the European Union (EU) program Leonardo da Vinci and aims at specifying a standardized European curriculum. Partners of EPRODE are institutes from universities and the industry sector in Sweden, Germany. Poland, and Spain.

The commitment of public sector Sweden to codes of ethics

This article examines the results of a study conducted of the top 100 public sector units in Sweden. These units are comprised of entities of government, municipalities, and county councils. The aim of the study was to examine and describe the commitment to codes of ethics in these Swedish public sector units. This article reports on the responses of those public sector units that possessed a code of ethics. The construct of commitment was measured by a consideration of the inputs, objectives and outputs of the code across six areas. The commitment to codes of ethics has an interest for those involved in the public sector in Sweden and society in general. Most public sector units are in the early stages of development and assimilation into overall ethics policies in code artefacts. On a specific level there are customized codes of ethics that are not always documented in a generic artefact. Theoretical and managerial implications are provided. Furthermore, suggestions for further research are proposed.

Evaluation of Interventions in the Government Sector in Sweden: A need for change

AbstractEvaluation of the outcome of different kinds of intervention (eg legislation, information, inspections) in the government sector in Sweden can be analysed in terms of its ambition to implement a new philosophy on directing the role of its agencies. The government and Riksdag (parliament) want to steer away from the situation in which they direct agencies in every respect, to one in which the agencies are guided by government-set objectives, leaving the means to meet these objectives to the agencies’ discretion. The downside of this freedom, however, is increasing demands on agencies to report how their objectives have been met. Evaluation thus becomes a tool for the delivery of this demand.Evaluating different types of governmental intervention is not only costly in terms of labour and other resources but is also, perhaps — given the high scientific standards enjoined — a difficult undertaking. In the case of the work environment, the paper suggests that literature and international experience ind...

Optimal forest transportation with respect to road investments

Abstract This paper concerns roundwood transport on gravel roads. The forest sector in Sweden has identified the road quality as a major problem, in particular in the spring, when the ground is thawing. The model simultaneously optimizes roundwood transport and road investments on gravel roads. The model is a mixed-integer programming model, since the road accessibility variables need to be binary. Investments in surface roads, maintenance and construction of new roads are not included in the model. We test the model with a sample problem using a small area. With a simple heuristic method ‘near to optimal’ solutions are obtained in reasonable time. In the last section we make some concluding remarks and discuss future use of the model. Heuristics and aggregation are two different ways to solve the problem in reasonable time.

Optimal forest transportation with respect to road investments

This paper concerns roundwood transport on gravel roads. The forest sector in Sweden has identified the road quality as a major problem, in particular in the spring, when the ground is thawing. The model simultaneously optimizes roundwood transport and road investments on gravel roads. The model is a mixed-integer programming model, since the road accessibility variables need to be binary. Investments in surface roads, maintenance and construction of new roads are not included in the model. We test the model with a sample problem using a small area. With a simple heuristic method ‘near to optimal’ solutions are obtained in reasonable time. In the last section we make some concluding remarks and discuss future use of the model. Heuristics and aggregation are two different ways to solve the problem in reasonable time.

The maintenance of linoleum and PVC floor coverings in sweden the significance of the usage phase in an LCA

Goal, Scope and Background An extensive life cycle inventory of the maintenance of floor coverings has been carried out for the professional cleaning sector in Sweden. Different maintenance methods for linoleum and PVC were inventoried. The objective has been to develop a model for estimating the resource use in the Swedish professional floor cleaning and maintenance sector. Several important actors involved in the Swedish professional cleaning sector participated in the inventory. An agreement could be reached for a limited number of methods and products. The result can be regarded as representative for the maintenance of linoleum and PVC in respect to professional maintenance in Sweden.

The Transformation of Ownership Policy and Structure in Sweden: Convergence towards the Anglo-Saxon Model?

We investigate the dramatic transformation of ownership policies and ownership structure in Sweden during the postwar period. After WWII, Swedish ownership policies were guided by a socialist vision where the ultimate goal was abolition of private ownership. These policies came to an end in the early 1980s. Since then a large number of Swedish firms have been acquired by foreign owners or merged with foreign firms and the foreign ownership share on the Swedish Stock Exchange has increased rapidly. A central question is whether this fast transformation is merely a logical consequence of current globalization, or whether this tendency has been reinforced by economic policies vis-a-vis the business sector in Sweden. We show that until the late 1980s, Swedish economic policy – aimed at discouraging wealth accumulation among households and favoring institutional ownership and debt financing – effectively precipitated the rapid takeover of the Swedish business sector by foreign owners that gained momentum in the 1990s. Policy measures intended to create a system of “capitalism without capitalists” can be said to have “packaged” large Swedish corporations in terms of ownership and financing structure, so that foreign takeover was facilitated. The article ends with a discussion as to whether the dramatic change in ownership structure in the Swedish business sector may result in the demise of the old corporatist model of industrial relations, giving way to a new trend towards a liberal market economy of the current Anglo-Saxon variety. JEL Classification: M13, N24, O38, P16.

Unemployment and mental health among white‐collar workers – a question of work involvement and financial situation?

We examine whether it is a psychosocial or an economic need for employment that affects mental health among the unemployed. The relevance of both aspects are examined, concentrating on two measures of each dimension. Two perspectives of work involvement – the degree of connection to working life and the perceived employment commitment – and two perspectives on financial situation – economic security and perceived economic concern – have been analysed, using empirical data collected by means of a cross‐sectional survey of 1297 unemployed white‐collar workers from the public sector in Sweden. The degree of connection to working life was not significantly linked to the mental health of the unemployed, although there was a strong link between the perceived employment commitment and mental health among this group. The stronger the perceived employment commitment, the poorer the state of the person's mental health. Perceived economic concern was also tightly linked to mental health: the greater the economic concern, the poorer the mental health. Economic security also played – at least, partly – a moderate but significant role. The results provide strong support for the existence of both a psychosocial need and an economic need for employment. The analysis demonstrates that it is the perceived assessed measures of work involvement and financial situation that are linked to mental health.