Independent and mediating organizational commitment effects of trust in leadership on employees' job satisfaction and : a study within social and health care sector

The purpose of this study was to examine whether trust in supervisor and trust in senior management enhance employees' job satisfaction and organizational commitment, and whether trust mediates the relationship between perceived justice and these outcomes. Trust in supervisor was expected to mediate the effects of distributive justice and interactional justice, and trust in senior management was expected to mediate the effects of procedural justice. Theoretical background of the study is based on the framework for trust in leadership developed by Dirks and Ferrin (2002). According to the framework, perceived fairness of leaders' actions helps employees to draw inferences about the basis of the relationship and about leaders' characters. This allows trust formation. Reciprocation of care and concern in the relationship and confidence in leaders' characters are likely to enhance employees' job satisfaction and organizational commitment. This study was conducted with cross-sectional data (A/ = 960) of employees from social and health care sector. Hypotheses were studied using correlation analysis and several hierarchical regression analyses. Significances of the mediations were assessed using the Sobel test. Results partially supported the hypotheses. Trust in leadership was positively related to job satisfaction and organizational commitment. Trust in senior management mediated the relationship between procedural justice and the outcomes. Some support was also found for the mediating effect of trust in supervisor in the relationship between distributive justice and organizational commitment. Due to high correlation between trust in supervisor anil interactional justice, it wasn't possible to study the mediating e fleet of trust in supervisor in the relationship between interactional justice and the outcomes. Against expectations, results indicated that trust in senior management had a mediating effect in the relationship between distributive justice and organizational commitment, and in the relationship between interactional justice and organizational commitment. Results also indicated that trust in supervisor had a mediating effect in the relationship between procedural justice and organizational commitment.

Emerging bioenergy business at Finnish independent industrial sawmills

Finnish forest industry is in the middle of a radical change. Deepening recession and the falling demand of woodworking industry´s traditional products have forced also sawmilling industry to find new and more fertile solutions to improve their operational preconditions. In recent years, the role of bioenergy production has often been highlighted as a part of sawmills´ business repertoire. Sawmilling produces naturally a lot of by-products (e.g. bark, sawdust, chips) which could be exploited more effectively in energy production, and this would bring more incomes or maybe even create new business opportunities for sawmills. Production of bioenergy is also supported by government´s climate and energy policies favouring renewable energy sources, public financial subsidies, and soaring prices of fossil fuels. Also the decreasing production of domestic pulp and paper industry releases a fair amount of sawmills´ by-products for other uses. However, bioenergy production as a part of sawmills´ by-product utilization has been so far researched very little from a managerial point of view. The purpose of this study was to explore the relative significance of the main bioenergy-related processes, resources and factors at Finnish independent industrial sawmills including partnerships, cooperation, customers relationships and investments, and also the future perspectives of bioenergy business at these sawmills with the help of two resource-based approaches (resource-based view, natural-resource-based view). Data of the study comprised of secondary data (e.g. literature), and primary data which was attracted from interviews directed to sawmill managers (or equivalent persons in charge of decisions regarding bioenergy production at sawmill). While a literature review and the Delphi method with two questionnaires were utilized as the methods of the study. According to the results of the study, the most significant processes related to the value chain of bioenergy business are connected to raw material availability and procurement, and customer relationships management. In addition to raw material and services, the most significant resources included factory and machinery, personnel, collaboration, and geographic location. Long-term cooperation deals were clearly valued as the most significant form of collaboration, and especially in processes connected to raw material procurement. Study results also revealed that factors related to demand, subsidies and prices had highest importance in connection with sawmills´ future bioenergy business. However, majority of the respondents required that certain preconditions connected to the above-mentioned factors should be fulfilled before they will continue their bioenergy-related investments. Generally, the answers showed a wide divergence of opinions among the respondents which may refer to sawmills´ different emphases and expectations concerning bioenergy. In other words, bioenergy is still perceived as a quite novel and risky area of business at Finnish independent industrial sawmills. These results indicate that the massive expansion of bioenergy business at private sawmills in Finland is not a self-evident truth. The blocking barriers seem to be connected mainly to demand of bioenergy and money. Respondents´ answers disseminated a growing dissatisfaction towards the policies of authorities, which don´t treat equally sawmill-based bioenergy compared to other forms of bioenergy. This proposition was boiled down in a sawmill manager´s comment: “There is a lot of bioenergy available, if they just want to make use of it.” It seems that the positive effects of government´s policies favouring the renewables are not taking effect at private sawmills. However, as there anyway seems to be a lot of potential connected to emerging bioenergy business at Finnish independent industrial sawmills, there is also a clear need for more profound future studies over this topic.

Kirkkoon kuuluminen Helsingin osa-alueilla

In Helsinki's evangelical lutheran congregations, the share of the people being members of that church compared with all the people living in their specific geographical areas varies from 62,4 per cent in Paavali to 80,7 per cent in Munkkiniemi. The boundaries of the congregations are about to be redrawn to level the differences in the congregations. In this thesis, the reasons of the differences in Helsinki s districts were studied closer. The data consisted of statistical information gathered from the Population Information System of Finland. It included information by age groups about the population register keeper, marital status, native tongue, level of education and gender in the end of 2005. Additional data was gathered from Helsinki Region Statistics web service. It included information about the dwelling, level of income and main activities of the inhabitants in the districts. The main method was stepwise linear regression. Minor methods were crosstabulation and correlation matrixes. The result of the study was a statistical model that explains 72,2 per cent of the variation of the shares in the congregations. The dependent variable was the share of the people being members of evangelical lutheran church in the dirstricts. The independent variables were the share of the people having other than Finnish or Swedish as their native tongue, the share of rented apartments, the shares of apartments including four rooms and a kitchen, the share of detached houses in the districts and the shares of women and people with no income in the districts. The independent variables present in the model depict the amount of foreigners, dwellings, gender and the level of income of the population. The high share of foreigners, people with no income and rented apartments explain the low share of the people being members of evangelical lutheran church. On the contrary, the high share of the people being members of evangelical lutheran church in the district is explained by the large apartments, detached houses and amount of women living there.