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Gendered Norms at Work pp 121–136Cite as

Organising Auditing, Person-Centred Care and Competence in Swedish Residential Care Homes

Part of the Aligning Perspectives on Health, Safety and Well-Being book series (AHSW)

Abstract

Since the 1980s, research on care has stressed that the organisational conditions of work are crucial for workers’ and care receivers’ experiences of care quality. Working conditions in eldercare have been challenged by New Public Management (NPM) reforms, which emphasise standardised managerial control functions. Based on interviews conducted in two Swedish residential care homes we analyse how auditing, person-centred care and competence are implemented in everyday work. The dimensions studied are described with ambivalence: Both positive and negative aspects are linked to three dimensions of work. But, to foster a practice where logic of caring get more space in relation to the rationality of marketisation, there is need for organisational changes that promotes development where the aim of documentation is transparent in everyday work. Further, to achieve person-centred care, workers require conditions enabling them to respond to the person’s needs and not only what is written in care plans. The results show tensions between formal education and experience-based skills that contributed to make the relational and emotional aspects of care invisible and unrecognised. These struggles highlight tensions between two organisational logics—rationality of caring and marketisation—where one, rationality of caring, is devalued by the organisation but not in the everyday work.

Keywords

  • Care work
  • Marketisation
  • New public management
  • Organisation of work
  • Rationality of caring
  • Residential care work

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Individualized care (IC) and person-centred care (PCC) are used synonymously in the chapter (see, e.g., Brownie & Nancarrow, 2013).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Social Work, Stockholm University, Stockholm, Sweden

    Palle Storm & Anneli Stranz

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  1. Palle Storm
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  2. Anneli Stranz
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Correspondence to Anneli Stranz .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Sociology, Umeå University, Umeå, Sweden

    Dr. Britt-Inger Keisu

  2. Department of Psychology, Umeå University, Umeå, Sweden

    Dr. Susanne Tafvelin

  3. Department of Social Work, Stockholm University, Stockholm, Sweden

    Dr. Helene Brodin

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Storm, P., Stranz, A. (2021). Organising Auditing, Person-Centred Care and Competence in Swedish Residential Care Homes. In: Keisu, BI., Tafvelin, S., Brodin, H. (eds) Gendered Norms at Work. Aligning Perspectives on Health, Safety and Well-Being. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-77734-0_7

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