Forty-nine engineer officers in the Swedish merchant marine were asked to keep a sleep/wake diary during one tour of duty (1-3 months) on ocean-going container ships. Every 2-4 nights the officers had watch duty during which they were allowed to sleep but were awakened by an automatic alarm system in the case of machinery malfunction. The diaries showed that 40% of all nights at sea were spent on such watch duty. Fifteen per cent of all nights were disturbed by alarms (and 13% for other reasons). Having watch duty, particularly with alarms, reduced ratings of sleep length (-1.5 h), sleep quality and recuperation. The latter was also negatively affected by the frequency of watch duty. Of particular interest was the fact that nights on watch were also perceived as disturbed when no alarms occurred. Such nights were also characterized by a higher level of uneasiness. It was conciuded that the watch duty system significantly affected sleep and well-being, and that these effects appeared irrespective of whether any alarms occurred. The latter was interpreted as an effect of apprehension stress.
A study aiming at presenting the effects of increases in work strain during war and crisis on the home help service organization within the social service sector in Stockholm was carried out in 1991. This has given rise to a discussion about achieving the goals for the organization in war and crisis. Organizations are supposed to encompass qualities that allow them to achieve operative goals even if operative conditions are changed. The principle underlying preparedness planning is the maintenance of peace‐time functions in organizations during war and crisis, although such functions may be restricted. Changes influencing preparedness planning within the social service organization include ongoing organizational restructuring in terms of decentralization and increases in private enterprising within the municipal social service sector. Two factors of decisive importance to organizational appropriateness are information generation and information processing. The results from the study show deficiencies within the organization's ability to generate and process information between different organizational levels about demands put on the organization in situations of war and crisis.
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