No abstract

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/implications – An investigation of the effects of different leadership styles and management policy on proactivity through team-learning processes might shed light on how leadership promotes proactivity, as results support the effects of team participative decision-making – reflecting management policy – on proactivity. Practical implications – Lean production stresses continuous improvements for enhancing efficiency, and such processes rely on individuals and teams that are proactive. Participation in forming the standardization of work is linked to managerial style, which can be changed and developed also within a lean concept. Based on our experiences of implementing the results in the production plant, we discuss what it takes to create and manage participative processes and close collaboration between teams on the shop floor, and other stakeholders such as production support, based on a shared understanding of the work and work processes. Social implications – Learning at the workplace is essential for long-term employability, and for job satisfaction and health. The lean concept is widely spread to both public bodies and enterprises, and it has been shown that it can be linked to increased stress and an increase in workload. Finding the potential for learning within lean production is essential for balancing the need of efficient production and employees’ health and well-being at work. Originality/value – Very few studies have investigated the paradox between lean and teamwork, yet many lean-inspired productions systems have teamwork as a pillar for enhancing effectiveness. A clear distinction between autonomy and participation contributes to the understanding of the links between job design, learning processes and team proactivity.

Purpose New ownership types in health care of welfare states raise concerns regarding psychosocial work conditions including different control dimensions. The purpose of this paper is to investigate how job demands, control over work and control within work (CWW) were related to job satisfaction in publicly administered, private non-profit and private for-profit hospitals. Design/methodology/approach Questionnaire data came from employees at three hospitals; a publicly administered (n=774), a private non-profit (n=1,481) and a private for-profit (n=694) hospital. Mean-level analyses and hierarchical regressions with multiple group tests were conducted. Findings Demands including workload were significantly lower at the publicly administered hospital while the control dimension CWW was significantly higher. Background factors and their associations with job satisfaction differed slightly between ownership types. Attitudes to privatization were not associated with job satisfaction within any ownership type. Overall, psychosocial work characteristics, including job demands and control, were significantly associated with job satisfaction while their interactions showed no consistent associations with job satisfaction. As for the strength of the associations, no consistent differences emerged between ownership types. Research limitations/implications Using self-reports only, the associations between psychosocial work characteristics and job satisfaction seemed comparable across ownership types. Practical implications Associations between psychosocial work characteristics and job satisfaction seem comparable across ownership types. This may relate to societal demands on the structuring of costs, work and production efficiency being similar for all. Originality/value Contributions include researching different occupations and their attitudes to privatization and two control dimensions considered important for different ownership types.

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 (n = 210) 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.

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 inventory's congruent validity using Hogan's 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.