Workplace structure and work-related ill-health: female dominance, organizational factors, initiatives and political decisions in municipal administration

External project members
Karin Hederos (forskare i nationalekonomni, Institutet för Social Forskning (SOFI), Stockholms universitet; Sven Siverbo (professor i företagsekonomi, Handelshögskolan, Karlstad universitet); Ole Henning Sørensen (forskare vid the National Research Center for the Working Environment, Danmark).

About the program

Among female dominated workplaces, municipal administration stands out due to major problems with work-related ill-health which is rooted in problematic working conditions. The purpose of this program is to address sickness absence in the female dominated municipal sector by mapping the ill-health in occupations and at workplaces and by exploring organizational efforts intending to address the root causes of this work-related ill-health.

The program’s unique contribution is that the research question is tackled across several structural levels – from the labor market and societal perspective to the decision-making and organizational perspective using an interdisciplinary approach including the disciplines of sociology, psychology, economics, business administration and work life studies.

The program consists of five projects.

The first project uses longitudinal annual register data to examine the association between female-dominated occupations, female-dominated workplaces, and sickness absence in the municipality sector and how different factors mediate these associations.

The second project deals with governance linked to employees and first-line managers in the municipality and the consequences of increased autonomy in connection with trust-based governance. This part will be based on two questionnaire surveys that are designed based on qualitative interviews.

The third is a collaborative project with municipalities where organizational measures to achieve a better balance between work requirements and resources are created and evaluated using a multi-method approach.

In the fourth project, an experiment examines politicians’ decisions that affect resource allocation in the municipality.

Finally, an exploratory project is carried out based on new questions that arise by combining results from the various projects. Through the project’s cross-disciplinary approach, the goal is groundbreaking new knowledge with a major impact on both policy and practice.

The program is a collaboration with several Swedish municipalities and a number of municipal workplaces.

Program aims

This research program aims at addressing sickness absence in the female dominated municipal sector by mapping the ill-health in occupations and at workplaces and by exploring organizational efforts intended to address the root causes of work-related ill-health.