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Small business managers and Covid-19 – the role of a sense of coherence in coping with stressors Many businesses around the world are facing a significant impact from the Covid-19 pandemic, with the transport, tourism, and hospitality sectors being among the most affected. Compared to larger businesses, the effect on small businesses has generally been more severe due to their limited human, financial and technical resources. In addition, the degree of government financial aid, in combination with changes in the supply chain, may strongly affect the operations and survival of small businesses. The response of small business managers to an external event such as the pandemic can have a profound effect on the work environment, health, and well-being of themselves and their employees. Previous research on small business managers during the pandemic has mainly focused on traditional pathogenic effects, and there is a lack of studies looking at the issue from a salutogenic health promotion perspective. Aim of study The aim of the study was to explore whether a sense of coherence and general resistance resources were experienced by small business managers in Sweden and Norway during the Covid-19 pandemic. Methods A qualitative design was applied through exploratory interviews with 16 managers of small businesses in Sweden and Norway. The inclusion criteria were small businesses with less than 20 employees representing different types of services in the private sector. Further criteria were that the businesses were located in comparable geographic regions in Sweden and Norway. A content analysis of the interviews was conducted using the sense of coherence concept by Aaron Antonovsky, with the three main components of comprehensibility, meaningfulness, and manageability acting as a conceptual framework for the analysis process. Results Findings from the interviews demonstrated that it was important for the managers to comprehend and manage the challenges during the pandemic in a resourceful manner, and to see the meaningfulness in the situation. Within the three main sense-of-coherence categories, six general resistance resources were identified as being important for the managers to handle uncertainty during the pandemic. These were understanding rules and regulations, social support, optimism, proactivity, problem-solving and flexibility and cooperation. Conclusions The small business managers handled the pandemic in a way that worked well in their contexts, and the pandemic generally did not have a negative effect on their businesses or themselves. A salutogenic approach, through which the managers focused on identifying and using resources, was an important factor in managing stressors and adversity during the pandemic. Hence, the concept of salutogenesis may be used as an intervention to foster better health in small businesses, both at a personal and organisational level in order to handle future challenges effectively

Detaljhandlare har en viktig roll i det tillgänglighetsbegränsande arbete somär en del i den tobaksprevention som omfattar minderåriga. Tidigare forskningvisar att arbetet med tillgänglighetsbegränsning är komplex. Syftet medstudien var att få ökad kunskap om detaljhandlares syn på sin roll och sitt ansvari lokalsamhället för att begränsa ungdomars tillgång på tobak. Sju detaljhandlareintervjuades. Materialet analyserades med en manifest innehållsanalys.Resultatet visar att detaljhandlarna lyfter fram sitt ansvarstagandenär det gäller lagefterlevnad vid försäljning, medan både ansvarstagandetoch vilken roll de ska ta vid langning är mer problematisk. Detaljhandlarnaberör aspekter som ligger bortom lagefterlevnad, ett engagemang för denplats de verkar inom. Samverkan och samsyn behövs mellan olika aktörer ilokalsamhället. För att forma detta efterfrågar handlarna stöd från kommunen,och ett annat stöd än vad som nu ges.

Mental health in the workplace is a key topic in British Columbia, across Canada and internationally with a growing focus on the importance of creating and sustaining safe, healthy, productive and inclusive workplaces. This stakeholder-centred best evidence-based synthesis of systematic reviews searched Medline, Embase, Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews, Database of Abstracts of Reviews of Effectiveness, CINAHL, PsycINFO, TRIP, REHABDATA (NARIC), REHAB+ (McMaster), and Health-evidence.ca (McMaster) published between January 1, 2000 and February 2016 to identify interventions that addressed: mental health symptomatology (depression, anxiety, PTSD, etc.), job control, job demands, social support, stress management, and wellness (health promotion). Following deduplication 5,646 citations were reviewed by two or more independent reviewers. Following title and abstract review, 168 full text articles were reviewed against inclusion/exclusion criteria, resulting in 57 systematic reviews being included. Based on findings and trend analysis, the academic-stakeholder team proposed a framework for planning, implementing and evaluating interventions to mitigate psychosocial hazards in the workplace. Due to low quality evidence and experimental pre and post design of many studies recommendations should be considered with some caution noting the need for more rigorous monitoring of their implementation.

Artikelns syfte är att utifrån granskning av studentuppgifter i en internationell kurs belysa betydelsen av hälsa och arbetsvillkor i relation till jämlikhets- och rättviseaspekter. Studenterna pekar på komplexitet när det gäller arbetslivsfrågor och att det finns en potential till förstärkta hälsofrämjande insatseri arbetslivet, vilket har stor betydelse i ett folkhälsopolitiskt perspektiv. De pekar även på betydelsen av att anlägga ett intersektionellt perspektiv då ojämlikhet i arbetslivet analyseras och att prioritera hälso- och arbetsmiljö-förbättrande insatser för personer med krävande arbetsförhållanden och begynnande ohälsa. Studenternas engagemang i den web-baserade kursen, som drivits av två svenska och ett kanadensiskt universitet, tyder på att den positivt bidragit till utbyte mellan studenter från olika länder. Based on examinations of student´s assignments in an international course focusing equity in health and working conditions, the purpose of this paper is to illustrate the importance of health and working conditions in relation to equality and justice issues. The students point to the complexity of working life issues and that there is a potential for enhanced health promotion measures in working life, which is of great importance in a public health policy perspective. In addition, they point to an intersectional perspective when inequalities in working life are analyzed and to prioritize health and work environment improvement efforts for people with demanding working conditions and incipient ill health. The students’ involvement in the web-based course, run by two Swedish and one Canadian university, indicates that it has contributed positively to the exchange between students from different countries.

“Att man kan göra saker som blir skillnad och att det är viktigt att börja vågagöra saker”. Den här artikeln beskriver hur en social innovation kan användassom en fallstudie i en kurs som behandlar entreprenörskap inom hälsaoch välfärd på Mälardalens högskola. Studenterna inbjuds till att bli aktivamedskapare av en samhällsutvecklande verksamhet, Refo. När du läser artikelnkommer du få ta del av ett pedagogiskt tankesätt som handlar om attgöra studenterna aktiva deltagare i sin egen läroprocess då skapas en känslaav att våga göra saker som kan bidra till förändring. Under två lärtillfällen ikursen tas studenterna med på en resa från hur en idé som kan ha inverkanpå de sociala bestämningsfaktorerna för hälsa föds till hur idén utvecklassom en verksamhet med mål att förbättra hälsa i segregerade lokalsamhällen.Kursen ger utrymme för studenterna att vidareutveckla och komma medidéer på förbättringar för verksamheten under kursens gång. ”You can do things and make a difference”. This article will give you an insightin how a social innovation can serve as a case study in an undergraduatecourse in entrepreneurship within health and welfare at Mälardalensuniversity. Students can become active participants in their learning bypedagogical approaches that invites them to feel that they do can make achange. In this article you will learn how to combine the work of a real lifecase study and an active social entrepreneur with pedagogical methods thatseek to awake and activate students in their learning process. During twosessions the students are on a journey that illustrate the initial idea of how toimprove the social determinates from health in the local community to implementchanges that make a difference for health. The students are also askedto give feedback on improvements of the social innovation at hand.

Syfte Studien syftade till att studera om sociala kontakter med arbetsplatsens aktörer under en sjukskrivning har betydelse för förväntningar om att kunna komma tillbaka i arbete Metod Studien genomfördes som en enkätstudie till anställda som varit sjukskrivna i mellan 60 och 90 dagar, vilka identifierades via Försäkringskassans register. Totalt svarade 534 individer (48%). Enkätstudien kombinerades med en fördjupad intervjustudie med sjukskrivna, arbetsledare och arbetskollegor. Resultat Majoriteten av de sjukskrivna hade kontakter med arbetsledare och arbetskamrater. Sjukskrivna med sämre hälsotillstånd, sjukskrivna i psykiska besvär och utlandsfödda hade färre kontakter med arbetsledare och arbetskamrater. Multipel logistisk regressionsanalys visar att främst kvaliteten i kontakterna, mätt som stödjande, konstruktiva och engagerade kontakter, med både arbetsledaren och arbetskamraterna, mer än fördubblade chansen att den sjukskrivne har goda förväntningar om att kunna återgå i arbete och att kunna kvarstå i arbete. Intervjustudien understödjer resultaten från enkätstudien i betydelsen av kvaliteten på de sociala kontakterna för en framgångsrik rehabilitering tillbaka till arbete. Förutsättningarna för hur en arbetsledare förhåller sig till den sjukskrivne medarbetaren påverkas av arbetsledarens egen situation. Det är vanligt att chefer är rörliga i arbetslivet, en långvarigt sjukskriven medarbetare kan därför ställas inför situationen att det är en helt ny chef som hon eller han förväntas kommunicera med, och den nye chefen har ingen personlig relation till medarbetaren. I det föränderliga arbetslivet kan en arbetsledares arbetssituation vara tidspressad och det blir lätt att prioritera bort det egna ansvaret för att hålla kontakten, arbetsledare betonar ömsesidigheten i ansvaret. Konklusioner Kvaliteten i kontakterna mellan sjukskrivna och deras arbetsledare och arbetskamrater är viktigare än demografiska faktorer och självskattad hälsa och arbetsförmåga för den sjukskrivnes förväntan om att kunna återgå och kvarstå i arbete. Det förekommer sociodemografiska skillnader i frekvensen av kontakter med arbetsledare och arbetskamrater, sjukskrivna med sämre hälsotillstånd, med psykiska besvär eller är utlandsfödda har färre kontakter.

The overall aim of this thesis was to explore the impact of workplace social relations on the implementation of return-to-work interventions. The thesis consists of four separate papers with specific aims. In Paper I, the overall purpose of the study was to analyse how a multi-stakeholder return-to-work programme was implemented and experienced from the perspective of the stakeholders involved, i.e. supervisors, occupational health consultants and a project coordinator. The objective was to identify and analyse how these stakeholders perceived that the programme had been implemented in relation to its intentions. In Paper II, the objective was to explore how workplace actors experience social relations, and how organisational dynamics in workplace-based return-to-work start before and extend beyond the initial return of the sick-listed worker to the workplace. In Paper III, the objective was to explore the meaning of early contact in return-to-work, and how social relational actions and conditions can facilitate or impede early contact among workplace actors. In Paper IV, the objective was to explore the role of co-workers in the return-to-work process, and their contribution to the process, starting from when a colleague falls ill, continuing when he/she subsequently becomes sick-listed and finally when he/she re-enters the workgroup. The general methodological approach to the papers in this thesis has been explorative and interpretive; qualitative methods have been used, involving interviews, group interviews and collection of employer policies on return-to-work. The data material has been analysed through back-and-forth abductive (Paper I), and inductive (Papers II-IV) content analysis. The main findings from Paper I show that discrepancies in the interpretations of policy intentions between key stakeholders (project coordinator, occupational health consultants and supervisors) created barriers for implementing the employer-based return-to-work programme, due to lack of communication, support, coaching and training activities of key stakeholders dedicated to the biopsychosocial intentions of the programme. In Papers II-IV, the workplace actors (re-entering workers, co-workers, supervisors and/or human resources manager) experienced the return-to-work process as phases (time before the sick leave, when on sick leave, when re-entering the workplace, and future sustainability). The findings highlight the importance and relevance of the varied roles of the different workplace actors during the identified phases of the return-to-work process. In particular, the positive contribution of co-workers, and their experience of shifting demands and expectations during each phase, is acknowledged. During the period of time before sick leave the main findings show how workplace actors experience the meaning of early contact within a social relational context, and how early contact is more than an activity that is merely carried out (or not carried out). The findings show how workplace actors experience uncertainties about how and when contact should take place, and the need to balance possible infringement that early contact might cause for the re-entering worker between pressure to return to work and their private health management. The findings in this thesis show how the workplace is a socially complex dynamic setting, which challenges some static models of return-to-work. The biopsychosocial and ecological/case management models and policies for return-to-work have been criticised for neglecting social relations in a return-to-work process at the workplace. This thesis provides increased knowledge and explanations regarding important factors in workplace social relations that facilitate an understanding of what might “make or break” the return-to-work process.