This article analyzes the associations between leadership, the implementation of information and communication technology ( ICT ) innovations, and performance. After reviewing theories and empirical evidence from the literature on leading change, ICT innovations, and performance, the authors elaborate hypotheses and test them in an analysis of the implementation of an ICT innovation in a Danish multisite hospital. In a quasiexperimental research design using panel data, survey responses from more than 2,000 employees before and after the implementation were generated, in addition to qualitative interviews with change agents. Findings indicate how differences in leadership during the ICT implementation process have an important impact on performance after the implementation. Mobilization of initial support, directive leadership through information and technical assistance, participative leadership through employee involvement, and locally adapted implementation processes are important leadership factors associated with performance. The article concludes by discussing broader perspectives of the study and implications for practice, theory, and future research.
Practitioner Points• Mobilizing initial support for a new information and communication technology (ICT) system among employees tends to enhance perceived performance even in the case of severe technical problems; however, managers should strike a careful balance between mobilizing support for the ICT innovation and preparing employees for difficulties in the implementation process. • Participative leadership that involves employees in decisions concerning the practical implementation and adaptation of the ICT system enhances the perceived performance of the ICT innovation. • Directive leadership, providing adequate information and timely technical support during the implementation of the ICT system, increases the likelihood of higher perceived performance. • Adapting the implementation process to the circumstances of specific departments enhances the likelihood of higher perceived performance.
Since the 1990s, most European countries have implemented activation policies targeting the unemployed. During the past decade, the target group for activation policies expanded and currently also includes persons with limitations in their ability to work due to long-term or chronic illness and disabilities. The argument underlying these policies is that labour-market exclusion is the main cause for social marginalization because participation in paid work provides important social and psychological functions that cannot be found elsewhere. Based on an extensive set of quantitative data that combines register data and survey data, and using structural equation modelling, this paper analyses the relationship between chronic illness and social marginalization, and in particular which role labour-market exclusion plays in this relationship. Is labour-market exclusion a crucial factor in explaining why individuals with chronic illnesses face a higher risk of social marginalization if factors such as income and education are also taken into account? From the statistical results, the paper states that individuals with chronic illnesses face a far higher risk of social marginalization, but that this risk is caused by their health limitations and not by their lack of labour-market participation. Contrary to the policies’ logic and the theoretical argument of psycho-social theories originating from the deprivation perspective, no direct, indirect or mediating effects of labour-market exclusion on social marginalization were identified.
The Scandinavian countries have a long history of active labour market policy, using activation to promote work among those with no problems besides unemployment. However, activation policy is now permeating social policies providing economic protection for young adults who cannot work for health reasons, which has been legitimised through a strong emphasis on paid work as the main source of social participation. In this article, we discuss the consequences of this activation policy in Denmark and Sweden, and argue that the strong emphasis on work has counterproductive consequences when directed towards individuals with health problems.
Based on strong discourses of individualization, active welfare reforms in Denmark have changed the financial security of vulnerable families and increased numbers of children are growing up in poverty. This study investigates how poverty is reflected in frontline workers' categorizations of children considered vulnerable. Empirically, the study draws on qualitative group interviews with 56 informants and descriptive results from two surveys with almost 2000 respondents each. Findings are analysed using Foucault's theory of disciplinary power. The findings give an important insight as to how policy discourse influences and steers the moral and professional judgement in the frontline and why social work with vulnerable clients takes on particular forms. The results show that frontline workers implement and reproduce an individualised discourse found in recent social policy reforms while overlooking societal structures defining the individual's possibilities. In particular, poverty is left unrecognised, as categorizations of ‘normal’ versus ‘vulnerable’ revolve around family relations and perception of personal shortcomings of the parents.
Det var mere end kosmetik, da arbejdsmarkedspolitikken i 2001 tog navneforandring til 'beskæftigelsespolitik'. Man kan tale om, at politikområdet på såvel indholds- som organiseringssiden er blevet reformeret. Reformeringen har, ifølge medarbejderne, medført fundamentale skift i arbejdets indhold og organisering. Det indbefatter bla. et skift fra klientorienteret arbejde til administrativt arbejde, et skift i sammensætningen af medarbejdere samt i oplevelsen af autonomien i arbejdet og endelig et skift i udførelsen af arbejdet, der for visse medarbejdere har betydet dilemmaer af etisk og faglig karakter. Der er således tale om forandringer, der har haft stor betydning for den faglige praksis og kvalificeringsproblematikken i jobcentrene.
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