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In this paper, we examine patient-centered care through analyzing communicative constructions of patients, on the basis of their native language, in consultations with physicians. Whereas patient-centered care is of current interest in health care, research has not addressed its implications in this dimension. Previous studies indicate that non-native Swedish speaking patients, experience substandard interpersonal treatment far more than native Swedish speaking patients. Our findings show that the non-native Swedish speaking patients presented themselves as participating, whereas the native Swedish speaking patients presented themselves as amenable. The physicians responded in two different ways, argumentatively towards the non-native Swedish speaking patients and acknowledging vis-à-vis the native Swedish speaking patients. When decisions and conclusions were made by the patients and physicians, this resulted in preservation of the status quo in the consultations with the non-native Swedish speaking patients, while the corresponding result with the native Swedish speaking patients was monitoring of their health status. So, whereas the non-native Swedish speaking patients actually were model patient-centered care patients, physicians were more amenable towards the native Swedish speaking patients. We suggest that patient-centered care is desirable, but its practical application must be more thoroughly scrutinized from both a patient and a health care worker perspective.

No abstract.

This article deals with a sociocultural perspective on dialogue and communication in analyzing the actors’ ways of meaning making in talk as action in a management team meeting. It investigates the potential of the dialogical approach for studying talk and communication. The aim of the paper is to investigate the understanding of institutional categorising practices and rhetorical strategies used in a decision making process. Categorising practice is delimited to a “sale and lease back case,” an example of institutional reasoning, argumentation and decision-making. Data are generated from a video recorded management meeting and participant observations. Findings frequently indicate the team members’ mobilization of rhetorical strategies and of institutional categories as flexible tools in re-contextualisation and negotiation of the issue in question. In contrast with prior studies of integration processes, after mergers and acquisitions, the results illustrate the complexity of actors’ ways of meaning making of actions in a management team meeting.

Sedan 1999 anordnar Chalmers och Centrum för management i byggsektorn (CMB), en 1,5 årig masterutbildning med namnet Management i Byggsektorn (MB-utbildningen). En viktig orsak till denna utvärdering av MB-utbildningen är den revision av det europeiska högre utbildningssystemet som pågar med anledning av Bolognadeklarationen. Utvärderingen baseras dels på av enkätdata från 76 ingenjörer och teknologer och dels på 43 intervjuer av MB-civilingenjörer, byggarbetsgivare samt lärare och utbildningsansvariga på Chalmers. Den i huvudsak positiva bedömningen av utbildningen som har framkommit i såväl intervjuer som enkäter, gör att vi rekommenderar att utbildningen omvandlas till ett tvåårigt master-program. Vi presenterar i rapporten rekommendationer kring hur ett sådant program inom byggmanagement kan se ut. Vi rekommenderar att de moment som betonar ledarskap, ekonomi och juridik, liksom företagsnära inslag utökas. MB-utbildningen kan med denna inriktning utgöra ett värdefullt komplement till de övriga masterutbildningarna inom Chalmers.

Sedan 1999 anordnar Chalmers och Centrum för management i byggsektorn (CMB), en 1,5 årig masterutbildning med namnet Management i Byggsektorn (MB-utbildningen). En viktig orsak till denna utvärdering av MB-utbildningen är den revision av det europeiska högre utbildningssystemet som pågar med anledning av Bolognadeklarationen. Utvärderingen baseras dels på av enkätdata från 76 ingenjörer och teknologer och dels på 43 intervjuer av MB-civilingenjörer, byggarbetsgivare samt lärare och utbildningsansvariga på Chalmers. Den i huvudsak positiva bedömningen av utbildningen som har framkommit i såväl intervjuer som enkäter, gör att vi rekommenderar att utbildningen omvandlas till ett tvåårigt master-program. Vi presenterar i rapporten rekommendationer kring hur ett sådant program inom byggmanagement kan se ut. Vi rekommenderar att de moment som betonar ledarskap, ekonomi och juridik, liksom företagsnära inslag utökas. MB-utbildningen kan med denna inriktning utgöra ett värdefullt komplement till de övriga masterutbildningarna inom Chalmers.

In this study a new method for researching the qualitative differences in meaning making of a concept is introduced to clarify how managers in two merger cases differ in the way they make sense of the ongoing process. A discursive perspective is used to focus on the social construction of the meaning of “integration,” a concept frequently used and often taken for granted in national and international post merger and post acquisitions studies. This general problem, how we understand and interpret a word, the concept “integration,” has been studied in the context of two Scandinavian acquisitions. The claim is that several language forms can be used to express the same meaning of a concept as well as the same words can be used to express differing meanings, depending on the actors understanding of the words. The findings illuminate the qualitative differences among managers’ ways of making sense of this concept in four categories of description. It can be argued that the variation in understandings on the one hand is related to the referential aspects, the meaning aspect, and on the other hand to the structural aspects of the concept.

The merging process between a Swedish and a Norwegian manufacturing company has been studied using interviews, video recordings and comments explaining video recorded events at meetings. It is assumed that sensemaking includes a choice of con-text to apply to the “text” at hand. But sensemaking also offers opportunities to propagate a certain con-text/perspective. Here a central idea, “selvstendig bedrift” (independent and self-sufficient company), is taken as the object to unpack. We demonstrate how it has become value-laden in Norwegian managerial discourse and tied to a managerial role that differs slightly from the Swedish one. We also show an example of how principles packed into this idea become articulated in practical discourse in a management meeting and how participants interpret “what is going on”. A conclusion is that a speaker must pay attention to what context he or she wants to mobilize in the audience. We also question to what extent terms like “shared values,” or “shared information” has any useful meaning.

The merging process between a Swedish and a Norwegian manufacturing company has been studied using interviews, video recordings and comments explaining video recorded events at meetings. It is assumed that sensemaking includes a choice of con-text to apply to the “text” at hand. But sensemaking also offers opportunities to propagate a certain con-text/perspective. Here a central idea, “selvstendig bedrift” (independent and self-sufficient company), is taken as the object to unpack. We demonstrate how it has become value-laden in Norwegian managerial discourse and tied to a managerial role that differs slightly from the Swedish one. We also show an example of how principles packed into this idea become articulated in practical discourse in a management meeting and how participants interpret “what is going on”. A conclusion is that a speaker must pay attention to what context he or she wants to mobilize in the audience. We also question to what extent terms like “shared values,” or “shared information” has any useful meaning.