Niklas Hansen

Predicting nurse burnout from demands and resources in three acute care hospitals under different forms of ownership: a cross-sectional questionnaire survey.

BACKGROUNDnHealth care organizations have changed dramatically over the last decades, with hospitals undergoing restructurings and privatizations.nnnOBJECTIVESnThe aim of this study is to enhance the understanding of the origin and prevalence of burnout in health care by investigating factors in the psychosocial work environment and comparing three Swedish emergency hospitals with different types of ownership.nnnDESIGNnA cross-sectional design was used.nnnPARTICIPANTSnWe selected a total sample of 1800 registered nurses from three acute care hospitals, one private for-profit, one private non-profit and one publicly administered. A total of 1102 questionnaires were included in the analyses.nnnSETTINGSnThe examined ownership types were a private for-profit, a private non-profit and a traditional publicly administered hospital. All were situated in the Stockholm region, Sweden.nnnMETHODSnData were collected by questionnaires using validated instruments, in accordance with the Job Demands-Resources Model and Maslachs Burnout Inventory. Descriptive statistics, correlation analyses, multivariate covariance analyses and multiple regression analyses were conducted.nnnRESULTSnThe results showed that the burnout levels were the highest at the private for-profit hospital and lowest at the publicly administered hospital. However, in contrast to expectations the demands were not higher overall at the for-profit organization or lowest at the public administration unit, and overall, resources were not better in the private for-profit or worse at the publicly administered hospital. Multiple regression analyses showed that several of the demands included were related to higher burnout levels. Job resources were linked to lower burnout levels, but not for all variables.nnnCONCLUSIONSnProfit orientation in health care seems to result in higher burnout levels for registered nurses compared to a publicly administered hospital. In general, demands were more predictive of burnout than resources, and there were only marginal differences in the pattern of predictors across hospitals.

Participative Work Design in Lean Production: A Strategy for Dissolving the Paradox between Standardized Work and Team Proactivity by Stimulating Team Learning?.

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to explore job design mechanisms that enhance team proactivity within a lean production system where autonomy is uttermost restricted. We propose and test a model where the team learning process of building shared meaning of work mediates the relationship between team participative decision-making, inter team relations and team proactive behaviour. Design/methodology/approach – The results are based on questionnaires to 417 employees within manufacturing industry (response rate 86 per cent) and managers’ ratings of team proactivity. The research model was tested by mediation analysis on aggregated data (56 teams). Findings – Team learning mediates the relationship between participative decision-making and inter team collaboration on team proactive behaviour. Input from stakeholders in the work flow and partaking in decisions about work, rather than autonomy in carrying out the work, enhance the teams’ proactivity through learning processes. Research limitations/impli...

Privatizing health care in times of new public management: Investigating the role of psychological empowerment using cluster analysis

Although privatization within health care is usually justified using arguments based on efficiency and productivity, the empirical investigations underpinning such arguments are few and ambiguous in their results. Presenting a new theoretical and analytical approach to this research field, we argue that psychological empowerment, reflecting individuals intrinsic change motivation state, is a crucial prerequisite for the transformation of a nonprofit health care organization to a for-profit one. The general aims of this study were to explore empowerment cognitions during a privatization, to relate these to a selection of key work-related outcome variables, and to identify the effects of privatization in terms of individual level changes in empowerment after privatization. A sample of health care workers (nu2009=u2009210) provided survey longitudinal data that were analyzed using cluster analysis. Eight clusters were identified at both pre- and postprivatization with each cluster mirroring specific empowerment patterns: Empowered, In Control, Quasi-Empowered, Competent/Normed, Reference, Underused, Misfit, and Powerless. The clusters discriminated on positive work attitudes, mental health complaints, and turnover intentions. The analysis also revealed the complexity of privatization in that a homogenization as well as a differentiation tendency was observed, thereby implicating both socio-structural equality and inequality effects. The results highlighted the relevance of allocating importance to health care workers psychological empowerment during the privatization process, and of viewing such organizational transformations not as simple shifts in the state of affairs, but as nonlinear processes involving dynamic changes in individual perceptions over time.

Validation of the Swedish version of the NEO-PI-R : Correlations between self-reports and college peer ratings.

The NEO-PI–R has been one of the standard tools for measuring the Five Factor Model. Validity tests of the Swedish version of the NEO-PI-R have previously been limited to factor analyses and to testing the inventorys congruent validity using Hogans Personality Inventory and the Karolinska Scales of Personality. The aim of the present study was to further investigate the validity of the NEO-PI–R. 53 pairs of volunteer college students who were peers (77 women, 29 men; M age = 27.3 yr., SD = 7) from the Department of Psychology at Stockholm University rated themselves both on the NEO-PI–R and on single statements taken from the NEO-PI–R Summary feedback sheet as well as rating their respective peers on a short version of the NEO-PI–R and on single statements taken from the NEO-PI–R Summary feedback sheet. The pattern of correlations indicated some support for the convergent and discriminant validity of the Swedish version of the NEO-PI–R.