Ylva Fältholm

Academic Entrepreneurship – Gendered Discourses and Ghettos

In this article, we explore how the academic entrepreneurship discourse is constructed and gendered, based on texts on academic entrepreneurship and interviews with teachers and researchers at two Swedish universities. We show that the global entrepreneurship discourse is met by both counteracting and contributory discourses in academia. We also show that entrepreneurship-promoting texts in which only men are depicted address both women and men, while pictures of women are only targeted to women, often found in ‘entrepreneurial ghettos’ and conceptualized as in need of support, as less risk-willing and less willing to commercialize their research. Another problem addressed in this article is how to design gender mainstreaming interventions without reproducing such stereotypes. We believe the solution is not gender neutrality, but to move back and forth between liberal feminist and social constructionist approaches.

Patient empowerment in rehabilitation: “Somebody told me to get rehabilitated”

Within healthcare, there is a growing interest in patient influence and participation. The aim of this study is to describe patients’ experience of participation in and influence on rehabilitation with the focus on physiotherapy. Interviews with patients from three different primary healthcare centres were conducted. The result indicated low patient participation in and influence on the rehabilitation process within the hospital. The informants trusted the competence of the caregivers and tried to be as compliant as possible. Their experiences were that training must be supported and followed up. Information about rights was requested. The informants felt that they were listened to and confirmed by the physiotherapists. The positive attitude was combined with low demands and a great feeling of gratitude as a matter of course. Using information and support from the physiotherapist, together with friends and next of kin, the informants had learned to cope with the new situation. In this paper, these results are understood and described in terms of the parallel process of rehabilitation, based on traditional and individual models, and implying that the patient copes with the situation by shifting between being compliant and adopting more self-regulatory behaviour, for example. Attitudes are changing in society and this study reflects the patient of today, and is confirmed by recent studies.

Reframing practice through the use of Personas

The focus of this paper is a development process of ‘Personas’; fictitious characters are used to reflect on norms and perspectives of practice. Although reflective practice is a well‐known process to enhance and support learning, improvement, development, etc., it is not easy to implement. Drawing on theories of action, this paper describes learning gained through using the Persona method within a research project called the Future Factory. The process of developing a Persona includes a reflective examination of the case approached and an analysis and Persona creation development that go hand‐in‐hand. Lessons learned are that the process of creating Personas has contributed to a critical reflection of investigation contexts and that both the technique itself and the process of creating Personas has contributed to re‐framing practice among participants in the Future Factory project.

Patients, not doctors, get sick: A study of fifteen Swedish physicians on long-term sick leave

Based on in-depth interviews with 15 physicians on long-term sick leave in the north of Sweden, the aim of this paper is to describe and understand what happened before, during and after sick leave. A constructivist grounded theory approach was used to construct a framework inductively from the stories of the physicians. As a result of hierarchical coding procedures in terms of initial, focused and theoretical coding, the circular or helical road back to well-being was constructed. This core category, formed in response to structure and to the culture of the medical profession, is constituted of five categories, including dealing with changing working conditions, resisting sick and patient role, resisting sick leave, spending time on sick leave and, finally, returning to work. Not only were the physicians expected to work very hard, but also they were expected to take charge, and did take charge, of their own treatment and rehabilitation. They reinforced these phenomena, by employing strategies to deal with high workload and to avoid sick leave. None of them later returned to full-time work. Notwithstanding that, some aspects of the culture of the medical profession are destructive; in this case, it promoted a strong will and motivation to return to work.

Business Process Re-Engineering and Balanced Scorecard in Swedish Public Sector Organizations: Solutions for Problems or Problems for Solutions?

This article analyzes and discusses the adoption and implementation of Business Process Re‐Engineering (BPR) at a hospital and Balanced Scorecard (BSC) at a local government. At the hospital, BPR was adopted as a solution to problems, but became de-coupled from operations, and later used for legitimacy reasons. At the local government, without having identified clear problems, BSC was adopted as an attractive solution but became coupled, rather than de-coupled, to operations. Our study shows that de-coupling does not follow the path proposed by neo-institutional theory, and that legitimacy from popular management concepts can be obtained both by coupling and by de-coupling the concepts from operations.

Technologies in older people’s care Values related to a caring rationality

Background: The tension between care-based and technology-based rationalities motivates studies concerning how technology can be used in the care sector to support the relational foundation of care. Objectives: This study interprets values related to care and technologies connected to the practice of good care. Research design: This research study was part of a development project aimed at developing innovative work practices through information and communication technology. Participants and research context: All staff (n = 18) working at two wards in a care facility for older people were asked to participate in interviews, and 12 accepted. We analysed the data using latent content analysis in combination with normative analysis. Ethical considerations: The caregivers were informed that participation was voluntary and that they could drop out at any time without providing any explanation. Findings: Four values were identified: ‘presence’, ‘appreciation’, ‘competence’ and ‘trust’. Caregivers wanted to focus on care receivers as unique persons, a view that they thought was compromised by time-consuming and beeping electronic devices. Appraising from next-of-kin and been seen as someone who can contribute together with knowledge to handle different situations were other desires. The caregivers also desired positive feedback from next-of-kin, as they wanted to be seen as professionals who have the knowledge and skills to handle difficult situations. In addition, the caregivers wanted their employer to trust them, and they wanted to work in a calm environment. Discussion: Caregivers’ desire for disturbance-free interactions, being valued for their skills and working in a trustful working environment were interpreted as their base for providing good care. The caregivers’ arguments are based on caring rationality, and sometimes they felt the technological rationality interfered with their main mission, providing quality care. Conclusion: Introducing new technology in caring should support the caring relationship. Although society’s overall technology-based approach may have gained popularity as a problem solver, technology-based rationality may compromise a care-based rationality. A shift in attitudes towards care as a concept on all societal levels is needed.

Gender diversity and innovation in mining – a corpus-based discourse analysis

PurposeThe purpose of this study is to gain increased knowledge about gender diversity and innovation in mining by analyzing how women are discursively represented in relation to these two concepts ...

Going from "paper and pen" to ICT systems: Perspectives on managing the change process

ABSTRACT Background: Lack of participation from staff when developing information and communication technologies (ICT) has been shown to lead to negative consequences and might be one explanation for failure. Management during development processes has rarely been empirically studied, especially when introducing ICT systems in a municipality context. Objective: To describe and interpret experiences of the management during change processes where ICT was introduced among staff and managers in elderly care. Design: A qualitative interpretive method was chosen for this study and content analysis for analyzing the interviews. Results: “Clear focus–unclear process” demonstrated that focus on ICT solutions was clear but the process of introducing the ICT was not. “First-line managers receiving a system of support” gave a picture of the first-line manager as not playing an active part in the projects. First-line managers and staff described “Low power to influence” when realizing that for some reasons, they had not contributed in the change projects. “Low confirmation” represented the previous and present feelings of staff not being listened to. Lastly, “Reciprocal understanding” pictures how first-line managers and staff, although having some expectations on each other, understood each other’s positions. Conclusions: Empowerment could be useful in creating an organization where critical awareness and reflection over daily practice becomes a routine.