This paper aims to identify the dominant types of team organization in cross-professional Swedish human service organizations and the relationship between team type and perceived efficiency as well as team climate as an aspect of work satisfaction. A questionnaire was responded to by 337 individual professionals from 59 teams, mainly from psychiatric care (50.7%) but also from social, neuropaediatric and vocational (re)habilitation, school health care and the occupational health service. The interprofessional model of team organization was the most frequent (62%), followed by the transprofessional (33%), and the multiprofessional team, (5%). A moderate positive correlation was found between team type and perceived efficiency as well as team climate. The greater the interdependence and the closer the co-operation, the higher the efficiency and the better the climate. No differences were found between professions or organizational domiciles with respect to team type. This paper suggests (1) a more consistent vocabulary with 'cross-professional' as the generic term covering different team types and (2) that a contingency approach to teamwork is tested in future research.

The article describes the role of ward managers at middle-sized hospitals and analyzes that role with respect to motivation, role content, and skills and competencies, as well as challenges and problems. The most striking result of this study was the unwillingness of Swedish executive nurses to return to nursing. Among the findings that explain this "career with no return" are an increased taste for challenges; an irrevocable, new professional identity; and a loss of nursing skills and the ability to subordinate. The article discusses the implications for recruitment and education.

This study explored status differences in interprofessional teams and their link with efficiency. In total, 62 teams (423 individuals) from occupational health-care, psychiatry, rehabilitation and school health-care responded to a questionnaire. Fifty-four of those teams (360 individuals) also participated in an observation session simulating problem-solving team meetings. Data were reduced to a number of indexes: self-assessed/perceived equality, functional influence and efficiency; and observed verbal dominance/activity and problem-solving capacity. Perceived status differences within the teams appeared moderate, irrespective of professional belonging. With respect to verbal dominance during meetings, however, the findings revealed a hierarchy with psychologists, physicians and social workers at the top together with special education teachers. No relationship was found between self-assessed efficiency and actual problem-solving nor between observed verbal activity and problem-solving. The findings suggest that different problems may demand different prerequisites to be solved effectively: successful solving of simple convergent problems correlated negatively with equality, whereas functional influence was a predictor of success with respect to divergent, complex problem-solving. The findings raise questions about leadership and procedures during team meetings.

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The purpose of this study was to create guidelines for stress management intervention by investigating the relationship of 12 factors with stress reactions (emotional exhaustion and irritation) and feelings of mastery among Swedish comprehensive school teachers. Data were collected via a questionnaire distributed to 928 teachers in 27 schools. The response rate was 89%. Multiple regressions were conducted on colleague support, cooperation, coordination problems, goal clarity, learning orientation, manager support, negative feedback, positive feedback, pupil misbehaviour, teacher age, work control and perceived work demands, all as independent variables. Perceived work demands was treated as a dependent variable in an additional regression analysis. Teacher stress reactions were best predicted by perceived work demands, pupil misbehaviour and negative feedback. Feelings of mastery were best predicted by learning orientation, positive feedback and goal clarity. In the additional analysis perceived work demands was best predicted by pupil misbehaviour, coordination problems and (low) work control. Practical implications are discussed.