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Improving the Psychosocial Work Environment at Multi-Ethnic Workplaces: A Multi-Component Intervention Strategy in the Cleaning Industry

Global labour migration has increased in recent years and immigrant workers are often recruited into low status and low paid jobs such as cleaning. Research in a Danish context shows that immigrants working in the cleaning industry often form social networks based on shared languages and backgrounds...

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Autores principales: Smith, Louise Hardman, Hviid, Kirsten, Frydendall, Karen Bo, Flyvholm, Mari-Ann
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2013
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3823315/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24129115
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph10104996
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author Smith, Louise Hardman
Hviid, Kirsten
Frydendall, Karen Bo
Flyvholm, Mari-Ann
author_facet Smith, Louise Hardman
Hviid, Kirsten
Frydendall, Karen Bo
Flyvholm, Mari-Ann
author_sort Smith, Louise Hardman
collection PubMed
description Global labour migration has increased in recent years and immigrant workers are often recruited into low status and low paid jobs such as cleaning. Research in a Danish context shows that immigrants working in the cleaning industry often form social networks based on shared languages and backgrounds, and that conflict between different ethnic groups may occur. This paper evaluates the impact of a multi-component intervention on the psychosocial work environment at a multi-ethnic Danish workplace in the cleaning sector. The intervention included Danish lessons, vocational training courses, and activities to improve collaboration across different groups of cleaners. Interviews about the outcome of the intervention were conducted with the cleaners and their supervisor. The Copenhagen Psychosocial Questionnaire was used as a supplement to the interviews. The results suggest that the psychosocial work environment had improved after the intervention. According to the interviews with the cleaners, the intervention had led to improved communication, trust, and collaboration. These findings are supported by the questionnaire where social support from supervisor and colleagues, social community, trust, and teamwork seem to have improved together with meaning of work, rewards, and emotional demands. The design of the intervention may provide inspiration for future psychosocial work environment interventions at multi-ethnic work places.
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spelling pubmed-38233152013-11-11 Improving the Psychosocial Work Environment at Multi-Ethnic Workplaces: A Multi-Component Intervention Strategy in the Cleaning Industry Smith, Louise Hardman Hviid, Kirsten Frydendall, Karen Bo Flyvholm, Mari-Ann Int J Environ Res Public Health Article Global labour migration has increased in recent years and immigrant workers are often recruited into low status and low paid jobs such as cleaning. Research in a Danish context shows that immigrants working in the cleaning industry often form social networks based on shared languages and backgrounds, and that conflict between different ethnic groups may occur. This paper evaluates the impact of a multi-component intervention on the psychosocial work environment at a multi-ethnic Danish workplace in the cleaning sector. The intervention included Danish lessons, vocational training courses, and activities to improve collaboration across different groups of cleaners. Interviews about the outcome of the intervention were conducted with the cleaners and their supervisor. The Copenhagen Psychosocial Questionnaire was used as a supplement to the interviews. The results suggest that the psychosocial work environment had improved after the intervention. According to the interviews with the cleaners, the intervention had led to improved communication, trust, and collaboration. These findings are supported by the questionnaire where social support from supervisor and colleagues, social community, trust, and teamwork seem to have improved together with meaning of work, rewards, and emotional demands. The design of the intervention may provide inspiration for future psychosocial work environment interventions at multi-ethnic work places. MDPI 2013-10-14 2013-10 /pmc/articles/PMC3823315/ /pubmed/24129115 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph10104996 Text en © 2013 by the authors; licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/ This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/).
spellingShingle Article
Smith, Louise Hardman
Hviid, Kirsten
Frydendall, Karen Bo
Flyvholm, Mari-Ann
Improving the Psychosocial Work Environment at Multi-Ethnic Workplaces: A Multi-Component Intervention Strategy in the Cleaning Industry
title Improving the Psychosocial Work Environment at Multi-Ethnic Workplaces: A Multi-Component Intervention Strategy in the Cleaning Industry
title_full Improving the Psychosocial Work Environment at Multi-Ethnic Workplaces: A Multi-Component Intervention Strategy in the Cleaning Industry
title_fullStr Improving the Psychosocial Work Environment at Multi-Ethnic Workplaces: A Multi-Component Intervention Strategy in the Cleaning Industry
title_full_unstemmed Improving the Psychosocial Work Environment at Multi-Ethnic Workplaces: A Multi-Component Intervention Strategy in the Cleaning Industry
title_short Improving the Psychosocial Work Environment at Multi-Ethnic Workplaces: A Multi-Component Intervention Strategy in the Cleaning Industry
title_sort improving the psychosocial work environment at multi-ethnic workplaces: a multi-component intervention strategy in the cleaning industry
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3823315/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24129115
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph10104996
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