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The study aims to develop and psychometrically test an instrument to assess trust in public sector organizations. Although trust-based management is of interest in many municipalities in the Nordic countries, an instrument to assess trust adapted for this context is lacking. The present study complies with Luhmann’s system theory and commonly used instruments in this tradition. Data from 240 first-line managers (RR 75%) and 1,871 employees (RR 47%) from all departments in one Swedish municipality were analyzed with a multi-level approach. Out of 16 initial items presented to first-line managers and employees, 8 were retained after the psychometrical testing in both samples. Factor loadings at both within and between levels, and the multilevel homology when exploring convergent and criterion-related validity, showed a similar pattern of two distinct factors. Similar to other previously developed instruments, Supervisory Trust was one dimension. The second construct Organizational Trust included items on trust in politicians and administrative specialists, in addition to trust in top-level managers. The Public Sector Organizational Trust Inventory can be recommended for use in future research on trust at individual as well as group levels., This work was made possible by a grant from AFA Insurance (Dnr: 180066)

Detta kapitel tar upp olika aspekter av tillit och hur tillit kan uppstå, upprätthållas och förstöras i en rad olika relationer inom en offentlig organisation. Begreppet tillitskedjor används som ett sätt att undersöka tillit och tillitsvärdighet i flera led. Här redogörs för skillnaden mellan personlig tillit och tillit till organisationen och varför båda behövs för att organisationen ska fungera väl. I en pågående empirisk studie av en medelstor svensk kommun undersöks tillit till varandras kompetens, integritet och intentioner hela vägen från medarbetare till högsta ledning, administratörer och politiker. Likaså prövas vilken betydelse tillit mellan nivåer har för anställdas prestationer och deras vilja att stanna kvar i organisationen.

The demands on managers seem to have increased as a consequence of management reforms. This study evaluates interventions aimed at improving working conditions and performance of managers in the Swedish public sector by changing organizational conditions. Six intervention organizations were compared to 34 reference organizations. Organizational conditions relevant for managerial work were surveyed and the results presented to the management teams who decided on the action plans and implemented changes. Fidelity to the intentions and contextual circumstances were documented. A psychometrically tested questionnaire was used for pre- and post-measurements of effects among a sample of 303 managers. The results showed that the interventions were associated with changes in managers' quality of work and performance. The evaluation design made it possible to show that organizational conditions can be changed in order to improve the operations managers' situation if there is fidelity to the intentions and support from the strategic level management.

It was a step forward when quantitative research began several decades ago to stratify survey data and analyses of working conditions by sex. However, more information is needed to uncover the mechanisms behind the gender differences that are often observed in such data. According to structuration and inequality theories (Tilly, 1999; Acker, 2012), explanations for differences between groups tend to be searched for mainly in individual-related factors when distinct categories such as women and men are compared. Differences in structural conditions such as how work is organized and how resources are allocated may not be apparent and therefore risk not to be approached in preventive actions. The horizontal gender segregation of the labour market is very consistent, although gendering and gender-typing are dynamic processes. Sectors, industries, services, production technologies, workplaces, work objects and job tasks are gendered, both with regard to symbolic gender connotations and the sex composition of the workers. The responsibility for organizing work and the work environment is placed on the employers at workplaces within industries. Also, structural and technological changes at the labour market are framed by the logic of industries. In this chapter, it is suggested that knowledge of the work environment as surveyed, analysed, and reported by industry type is suitable as a basis for identification of processes that contribute to inequality. Such information can be applied in the creation of healthy workplaces and prevention of work-related ill health for both women and men in differently gendered segments of the labour market.

Den offentliga statistiken och en stor del av forskningen om genus, arbetsmiljö och hälsa har de senaste decennierna varit noga med att dela upp kvinnor och män. Detta för att komma till rätta med den könsblindhet som tidigare karaktäriserade området. I föreliggande rapport argumenterar vi för att denna uppdelning riskerar att osynliggöra att strukturella och organisatoriska förutsättningar att skapa goda jobb skiljer sig åt mellan olika delar av arbetsmarknaden. Produktion av materiella ting, kunskap respektive tjänster i direktkontakt med brukare och kunder kräver olika typer av organisering, styrning och resurser. Det är först med verksamhetsanpassad kunskap som källor till undermåliga arbetsförhållanden och arbetsrelaterad ohälsa kan synliggöras, adresseras och åtgärdas för att åstadkomma större jämställdhet i arbetslivet. Kvinnor och mäns olika arbetsvillkor har bäring på flera delmål i det jämställdhetspolitiska ramverket. Det påverkar möjligheter till makt, inflytande och ekonomisk jämställdhet, och det hänger samman med utbildningsval och hälsa. Lagstiftningen är tydlig med att alla arbetstagare har rätt till en god arbetsmiljö. Det saknas dock kunskap om hur förutsättningarna ska se ut för att arbetsplatser i alla typer av verksamheter ska kunna omsätta arbetsmiljölagstiftningen i praktiken. Vi menar att det behövs mer jämförande analyser av kontextuella förhållanden på makronivå i olika branscher; analyser av hur exempelvis styrformer, digitalisering och samhälleliga kriser ”sipprar ner” och påverkar organisering, resurstilldelning, och utformning av arbetsmiljö för chefer och medarbetare. Det behövs mer kunskap om vilka organisatoriska förhållanden som gynnar utformning av hälsobefrämjande och jämställda arbetsplatser i alla typer av verksamheter. Det behövs fler empiriska studier som länkar data på olika nivåer och som vid sidan av könsskillnader tar hänsyn till skillnader mellan

The chapter aims to contribute to the understanding of increased gender differences in sickness absence and health by applying a structural approach, and by analysing and describing the development of and differences in psychosocial working conditions in differently gendered industries. Some psychosocial work factors are expected to vary by differently gendered industries, and others are expected to vary by differently gendered industries and gender combined. Descriptive and comparative data of psychosocial working conditions for women and men in Sweden from the 1990s and onwards are presented. The results show that job demands and decision authority have developed more negatively in female-gendered industries for both genders since the early 1990s, although more negatively for women. Job demands are furthermore higher and decision authority lower in these industries among both men and women. Gender-based and sexual harassment, on the other hand, show a pattern between gendered industries and gender combined, such that more harassment occurs for men in female-gendered industries and for women in male-gendered industries. The results are discussed in relation to contextual and gender perspectives.

Background: In Sweden, the development of mental ill-health and sickness absence has been poorer in female-dominated industries compared to others. One possible explanation is the different developments of psychosocial working conditions across industries. Men and women appear to react similarly to the same psychosocial exposures at work, but differences in exposure patterns may prevail. There is to date a lack of studies on the extent to which psychosocial work exposures are associated with the gender segregation on the Swedish labour market at the industry level. This study aims to investigate how organisational and psychosocial work factors have developed over time across industries with different gender composition in Sweden from 2003 to 2013, and to what extent these factors differ between industries. Methods: The present study is based on repeated cross-sectional data from the Swedish Work Environment Survey (SWES). SWES is conducted biennially by Statistics Sweden (SCB) and includes Swedish workers aged 16-64 years. Six waves from 2003 to 2013, comprising a study sample of 45,631 subjects, were analysed, Industries were categorised according to gender composition and divided into seven categories: 1) Goods and energy production; 2) Machine handling; 3) Manual services; 4) Public administration; 5) Knowledge intensive services; 6) Education; 7) Health and social care. Proportions of men and women in each industry who were exposed to adverse or positive organisational and psychosocial work factors were calculated for each of the six waves. Logistic regression analyses, adjusted for age, educational level and year of response to SWES were performed on the full sample (all six waves), in order to estimate the odds of being exposed to organisational and psychosocial work factors in each industry using the knowledge intensive service industry as the reference category. Results: Preliminary results show that in female dominated industries (Education and Health and s

Polarisation, segregation, exclusion, inequality, and vulnerability are real threats to our societies. What kind of research can identify and explain the mechanisms involved in creating what we need to strive for integration, inclusion, equality, and social sustainability? What kind of questions shall we raise? How can we decrease the gap between research and practice? In fact, striving to keep to the standards of excellent science might result in missing important aspects and new perspectives. There is a risk that within disciplines, science is too abstract and narrow-minded. My intention here is to share some reflections on how we can learn from earlier experiences of research on inequalities and to discuss some alternative ideas on approaches that might contribute applicable knowledge.

This book discusses organizational values and their implications for perceived attractiveness and effectiveness of the workplace through cross-cultural research in India and Sweden. The authors provide information on how organizational values are conceptualized, presented and perceived by manager-level employees through cases from manufacturing, information technology (IT), healthcare, and education sectors in a developing and fast-growing economy like India versus a developed and stabilized economy like Sweden. Comparative results from these two very different countries provide knowledge that can be applied to make the workplace attractive in the context of globalized business processes. The authors present corporate social responsibility (CSR) and equal opportunities for men and women in the organization (EO) as important values in making the workplace attractive, where attractiveness is conceived in terms of organizational commitment and employees' intention to leave. The two selected values are particularly important as India is the first country in the world to come up with a mandatory CSR law, whereas Sweden has a long history of CSR and EO. The book demonstrates how work organizations in both countries are promoting these values to meet the challenges of attraction and retention of employees. The findings in this book are based on data gathered from various sources and sample groups in India and Sweden. The book generates insight and valuable information for researchers of organizational psychology, human resource management, cross-cultural management, as well as for work managers and HR professionals.

An important challenge for public organizations is to attract and retain skilled managers. The present study explores how profiles of psychosocial working conditions, assessed by the combination of managerial-specific job demands and job resources, longitudinally predict managers’ turnover intentions and actual turnover in Swedish municipalities. Considerable effects of managers’ psychosocial working conditions on turnover intentions but not on actual turnover were found. Thus, poor working conditions may result in psychologically detached managers in public organizations, which may have considerable and costly effects on both the organizations and the managers, in terms of decreased commitment, performance, and impaired health.

In contrast to much research concerned with differences in male and female managers’ leadership strategies, this study focuses on how organizational arrangements vary for managers in differently genderized contexts; it explores the opportunities for frontline managers in municipal services to fulfil their assignment. The organisational preconditions for over 400 managers of municipal health and social care, education and technical services are analysed in a cross-level and comparative research design. The results indicate that managers of feminized care services work in an environment with fewer resources, less organisational support and larger spans of control, than managers in masculinized municipal services. These results shed light on meso-level mechanisms involved in the unequal distribution of health risks among men and women in working life.