EUPAN/TUNED Social Dialogue Working Group Stockholm Combating stress in national administrations Maria Gruvstad, Växjö University

EUPAN/TUNED Stockholm , Maria Gruvstad I will talk about….  Universities as workplaces  Changes in working life  Växjö University – where were we?  Short description of the ”HALV” project  Description of one part of the project, number 7: To manage a flexible working situation – about self-governing competence

EUPAN/TUNED Stockholm , Maria Gruvstad Universities as workplaces  High degree of professionalism  Activities ruled by ideas and values  Independence and strong motive for work  Exposure to examination, assessment, evaluation  Constant competition  High degree of freedom, flexibility - but no limits  Tradition of time-limited, collegial leadership → confidence from colleagues, constant changes of managers, constant training of new leaders, some lack of identification with the role as leader

EUPAN/TUNED Stockholm , Maria Gruvstad Not only universities…  Work more often organized as projects, constant changes in activities, complex realities  Increasing information flow, quick development  Demand-Control model, Effort-Reward Imbalance model, Vitamin model….  Lack of support  Need for ”self-governing competence”

EUPAN/TUNED Stockholm , Maria Gruvstad Where were we?  Lack of systematic work environment management  Increasing number of employees on long-term sick-leave  Increasing number of employees on all kinds of sick-leave  Stress-related illness  Conflicts and other problems due to imperfection in leadership  Unawareness in the role as leader within the academic framework  Vulnerability of doctoral students, defects in the organization of PhD education  Tensions between different occupational groups  etc….

EUPAN/TUNED Stockholm , Maria Gruvstad Forming a project…  Cooperation between the social partners at VXU, the occupational health service and others  Application to ”Satsa friskt” in June 2005  Decision in June 2005  Project-start 1 July 2005  End of project 30 September 2008  Parallel evaluation-process  Grant from Satsa friskt SEK  Funding from VXU SEK

EUPAN/TUNED Stockholm , Maria Gruvstad Goals  Decrease (halve) absence due to illness  Use the occupational health service in a more proactive way  Increase knowledge and understanding of the significance of leadership on health  Support the development of academic leadership  Initiate and provide conditions for health promotive processes in the organization and in individual employees  Strengthen co-operation between social partners in matters of work environment  Reach a situation where employees at VXU feel that the conditions for working to a reasonable extent, achieving good results, feel job satisfaction and staying healthy have improved in comparison to previous studies that have been carried out

EUPAN/TUNED Stockholm , Maria Gruvstad ”HALV” project - content 1.Health competence 2.Academic leadership 3.Doctoral students 4.Administrative support systems 5.Fields of tension between core activities and administrative support functions 6.Support and development for middle managers and safety representatives 7.To manage a flexible working situation – about self-governing competence

EUPAN/TUNED Stockholm , Maria Gruvstad Subproject 7 – ”The organizing of work for teachers” To manage a flexible working situation – about self-governing competence

EUPAN/TUNED Stockholm , Maria Gruvstad The main purpose of the project To support the teachers in a work situation characterized by great flexibility in terms of where, when and how you perform your tasks In other words… How can I as an individual feel as good as possible when the demands are high and time is limited?

EUPAN/TUNED Stockholm , Maria Gruvstad Parts in the project  Time registration (one year)  Seminars (six)  Diary writing (one week)  Stress Profile ® (in the beginning and in the end)

EUPAN/TUNED Stockholm , Maria Gruvstad Stress Profile®  224 questions related to work life  Based on recent research on stress-related diseases  Purpose: to give the individual a clear outline of how one experiences one’s work and life situation and how one manages problems, if any

EUPAN/TUNED Stockholm , Maria Gruvstad Time registration  A simple Exceltemplate where one registers working hours every day.  Purpose: to give the individual an overview: How much do I work? When and where do I work? How do I distribute my working hours on different tasks?  NB! The purpose is not control!

EUPAN/TUNED Stockholm , Maria Gruvstad

EUPAN/TUNED Stockholm , Maria Gruvstad Seminars  Content: 1. Time and priority 2. The Stress Profile + time and priority 3. Stress and tools to handle it 4. ”What are my tasks?” 5. Stress and tools… 6. The Stress Profile + summary  Purpose: to promote reflection and increase knowledge about self-governing competence

EUPAN/TUNED Stockholm , Maria Gruvstad Diary  One week of writing a diary based on thoughts and feelings about the work situation  Purpose: to give the participants an opportunity to reflect upon their work situation

EUPAN/TUNED Stockholm , Maria Gruvstad

EUPAN/TUNED Stockholm , Maria Gruvstad Evaluation of HALV 7  Statistics from time registration (on group level)  Stress Profile (group level)  Interviews with participants

EUPAN/TUNED Stockholm , Maria Gruvstad Results I (time registration)  On the average (unpaid) overtime work after one year of time registration: 89 hours = two hours per week  May not sound very much, but in ten years it would mean more than 20 unpaid weeks of work!  Perhaps the participants would have worked even more if they had not been registrating how much they actually worked?

EUPAN/TUNED Stockholm , Maria Gruvstad Results II (Stress Profile)  Slightly higher degree of job satisfaction and ability to manage stress  Experience of decreased load with regard to among other things time pressure  Decreased internal demands and higher self- esteem  Considerably decreased type A-behaviour (aggression, irritation and distrust)

EUPAN/TUNED Stockholm , Maria Gruvstad Results III (interviews)  Stress Profile: true picture, good to discover risk zones  Time registration: better overview, less bad conscience  Seminars: advice, support and new perspectives  Logbook: good help for organizing one’s thoughts, ”others feel the same as I do”

EUPAN/TUNED Stockholm , Maria Gruvstad More information? Report from this project (in Swedish): More about HALV-project + anthology ”Bredden ger spetsen” (in Swedish) can be downloaded from: Tools: da-1/ Mail to: