Developing a work well-being questionnaire for social- and health-care managers.

OBJECTIVES: There is a need for up-to-date research on health-care and social managers' work well-being. The purpose was to develop a questionnaire for measuring health-care and social managers' subjective work well-being and to determine whether their background factors are connected to their work well-being. MATERIAL AND METHODS: The authors developed a questionnaire based on their previous health-care and social managers' work well-being framework. It covers 5 separate categories: 1) individual factors, 2) social factors, 3) professional support from one's own manager, 4) organizational factors, and 5) work-related factors. Using statistical methods, the authors examined the questionnaire's internal validity, its fit with the framework, and the connections between several background factors and work well-being. The survey data (N = 281) were collected from South Osthrobothnia and Central Osthrobothnia in Finland. RESULTS: The questionnaire's internal validity was good, and it fit rather well with the authors' previous framework. Managers' work well-being was highest for the category of "professional support from one's own manager" and lowest for "organizational factors." The authors found connections between different categories of work well-being and a) years of managerial experience, b) level of management, and c) occupational group. CONCLUSIONS: The questionnaire gives a holistic view of managers' work well-being and is suit- able for measuring work well-being in the social- and health-care context. An examination showed that there is a need to improve the individual situations of the social- and health-care managers. The questionnaire can be used to assess managers' work well-being and to build a knowledge base for developing organizational policies. Int J Occup Med Environ Health. 2022;35(6):665-78.

Personnel management in Finnish social and health care.

PURPOSE: The purpose of this study is to examine components of good personnel management and how they come true in accounts of social and health care managers. DESIGN/METHODOLOGY/APPROACH: The data were obtained by means of a postal survey sent to middle-line managers in positions above the first-line management level in the responsibility area of Tampere University Hospital. The questionnaire was sent to 703 managers; 433 sent in responses indicating a response rate of 62 percent. FINDINGS: Middle-line managers considered themselves as interactive, responsibility-sharing and understanding leaders, but found shortcomings in the leadership style of their superiors. Only 18 percent of the middle-line managers received feedback and only 42 percent received support from their superiors when needed. There were significant differences between genders, activity sectors and professional backgrounds in the responders' accounts concerning personnel management practices. RESEARCH IMPLICATIONS/LIMITATIONS: The results of this study reliably describe how middle-line managers consider things to be, not necessarily how things are in reality. PRACTICAL IMPLICATIONS: The findings confirm the assumption that the importance of personnel management is still not perfectly understood in the upper management levels of the social and health care sector. At the same time the self-evaluations of middle-line managers implied an ambition towards better personnel management. ORIGINALITY/VALUE: This study identifies components of good personnel management from literature and uses them as the basis for analysing the data.