مدیران میانی شهرداری: محیط کار روانی اجتماعی در یک تقسیم کار جنسیتی

The purpose of the reported study was to explore how 245 municipal middle managers perceived their psychosocial and physical work environments, and to examine psychosomatic reactions and job satisfaction in departments engaged in different types of activity, also to compare male and female managers in these respects. The way in which psychosomatic reactions and job satisfaction were related to the psychosocial and physical work environments was also investigated. The results indicated a difference between departments depending on the type of activity. Departments concerned with care and education, i.e. care of the elderly, child care and schools showed a tendency to lower values for psychosocial work environment factors and more psychosomatic reactions than the departments geared more towards maintenance and production, i.e. street maintenance, the power plant department and the recreation office. In the departments concerned with children female managers were in a majority. In the street maintenance department, the recreation office and the power plant department, male managers predominated. Compared to the men, the women had a higher level of education, lower salaries, more reactions of a psychosomatic nature, lower job satisfaction and a less satisfying psychosocial work environment. The only department with an equal number of male and female managers was the schools department. Here there were no differences between men and women in the factors studied. Two partial correlations were computed in order to separate the importance of type of activity and sex to the work environment factors and outcome variables. This indicated that the type of activity was more important than biological sex. The gendering of work activities is therefore also discussed and further investigations are suggested.

In a time of organizational change and reduced budgets in the Swedish public sector, it is relevant to ask what the psychosocial work environment is like in municipal organizations. In spite of ideas about the “flat” organization, the municipal organization is generally characterized by several decision levels with varying authority and powers. An important function is performed by the middle managers. They are the people who pass on information, both upwards and downwards, and who supposedly promote changes and development. However, organizational changes and the general reconstruction of work roles have also affected the function of the middle managers, and certain tasks have been removed from the middle managers to the workers and/or to specialists. These changes have several causes, such as the improvement of more democratic organizations and on increase in the independence and co-determination of the workers. But there were economic reasons as well, such as slimming the organizations in order to cut down expenses and, it is hoped, to become more effective. Nonetheless the middle managers still hold an important position in the municipal service organization as managers, communication mediators and change agents.