Culture change in academia: Making sharing the new norm

Presentation at Open Repositories 2014, Helsinki, Finland, June 9-13, 2014

Gamification as a means for employee motivation, personal engagement and behavioral outcomes: a gamification system developers’ perspective

A major challenge faced by companies today is the engagement gap at the workplace and how to motivate employees to engage in less intrinsically motivating work activities that are valuable for the organization. The objective of this study is to investigate gamification as a means for employee motivation and personal engagement that result in behavioral outcomes from the gamification developers’ perspective. Theories of work motivation and engagement are viewed in relation to gamification. The empirical part conducts a qualitative multiple-case study. The data is analyzed with the CAQDAS NVivo. The empirical findings suggest that gamification can enhance employee motivation, but careful consideration of extrinsic motivators is necessary to avoid their detrimental effect on intrinsic motivation. Employee self-determination is built through internalization of gamified system’s goals reaching autonomous motivation to engage in the target behavior. Employee engagement is built by fulfilling the psychological conditions of meaningfulness, safety and availability. The results suggest that gamification can build employee motivation and engagement leading to behavior change if designed with the business objectives in mind. Moreover, the gamified system needs to be renewed to address the changes in the business environment and reflect them in the employee behavior.

Kallet til livets embete : mødre i helse og lidelse

Mothers represent the natural caring. Natural caring is the object of caring science and of research interest because it establishes the central core of professional caring. In this study, we encounter patients who are mothers in need of care in a psychiatric context. Motherhood involves taking responsibility that extends beyond one's own life, because the child represents possibilities in a yet unknown future. Understanding and knowledge about the mothers' struggle in health and suffering are of crucial importance to enable clinical practice to make provisions for and adapt to the individual patient. The overall purpose of this dissertation is to illuminate how the innermost essence of caring emerges in health and suffering in patients who are mothers in psychiatric care. The purpose of the study in a clinical sense is to seek to understand and illuminate the patient's inner world in health and suffering in terms of contextual, existential, ontological and ethical dimensions. The dissertation is exploratory and descriptive in nature and encompasses induction, deduction and abduction as logics tools of reasoning. A theoretical model of natural caring and a universal theoretical model of the innermost essence of caring is developed as seen from the patient's world in a psychiatric context. The dissertation is anchored in human science's view of the human being and the world and in caring science's perspective. Caring science's view of the human being as a unity comprising body, soul and spirit is central in the study's concept of the patient. This multi-dimensional conception of the human being encompasses the dissertation's basic values and is decisive for choice of methodology. Hermeneutic epistemology guided the interpretation of the empirical data, the paradigmatic theses and assumptions. The dialectical movement in interpretation moves back and forth between empirical data, caring science theory and philosophical theory and reveals deeper insight into meaningful content in the clinical context. The interpretation process comprises four levels of abstraction: rational, contextual, existential and ontological. Hermeneutic philosophy guides the inductive and deductive approach to interpretation, as well as the movement between the clinical context and the caring science paradigm. In this encounter between the visible and invisible reality, the image of natural caring – motherliness emerged. The dissertation consists of four studies. The first study is a systematic review of nineteen research articles. The three other studies are hermeneutical interpretations based on text materials from open interviews. Fifteen participants were interviewed, all of whom are mothers of children between 0 and 18 years of age. All were outpatients in the psychiatric specialist health service. In the interpretation process, the mothers' struggle in health and suffering emerges as a struggle between the inner and outer world. Being a mother and patient in health and suffering in a psychiatric context means to struggle to be oneself, to create oneself, to live and realize one's good deeds as a mother and human being. To be oneself, to possess oneself as a mother is not only a question of tending, playing and learning in order to master a practical situation or to survive. It involves constituting a deep, inner desire to courageously create oneself so that the child is able to realize his or her potential in health and suffering. Motherliness manifests itself in caring as a call to ministering humanity and life. The voice of motherliness is understood as the voice of life—the eternal, inner call of love and freedom. The inner call craves fulfilment. Motherliness in natural caring does not retreat. Motherliness defines the Other as freedom and proceeds without regard for all other exterior requirements to realizing wellbeing. The inner essence of caring is attentive, aware and heeds the call of the heart. The innermost essence of caring is to be and to make oneself responsible for the Other. Responsibility cannot be relinquished; free choice consists in whether or not to follow the call. To renounce the inner call to responsibility is to deny oneself and one's dignity as a human being. The theoretical models provide clinical and systematic caring science with knowledge and understanding based on the natural caring spirit inherent in the human being. The study elucidates and strengthens the ontological basic assumptions about the human being as a unity of body, soul and spirit, the sanctity of the human being and the core of caring, ethos. The results of the dissertation will provide clinical practice with knowledge about the inner movements of the mothers' souls in relation to their responsibility as mothers and human beings. Being able to understand the basic conditions for responsibility is crucial for developing care that encompasses mother and child and the mutual relationship between them. This is basic knowledge for developing attitudes and actions that meet and provide for the needs of the patient as mother and as a whole, suffering human being.

Porous Bodies, Porous Minds. Emotions and the Supernatural in the Íslendingasögur (ca. 1200–1400)

In my PhD Thesis, I study the conceptions and representation of emotions in medieval 13th and 14th-century Iceland. I have used Icelandic saga literature as my source material and Icelandic Family sagas (Íslendingasögur) as my main sources. Firstly, I wished to explore in my study the medieval Icelandic folk theory of emotions: what emotions were thought to be, from what they originated and how they operated? Secondly, in earlier research it has been shown that emotions were seldom described in Íslendingasögur. They were mostly represented in dialogue, poetry or in somatic changes (e.g. turning pale). Consequently, I examined whether medieval Icelanders had alternative emotion discourses in literature, in addition to the usual manner of representation. My study consists of qualitative case studies, and I have analysed the sources intertextually. I suggest that medieval Icelanders regarded emotions as movements of the mind. The mind existed in the heart. As a consequence, emotions were considered physical in nature. The human body and therefore also the human mind was considered porous: if the mind of the person was not strong enough, supernatural agents and forces could penetrate theboundaries of his/her body as winds or sharp projectiles. Correspondingly, minds of strong-willed people could penetrate the minds of others. As a result, illness and emotions could upspring. People did not always distinguish between emotions and physical illnesses. Excessive emotions could cause illness, even death. Especially fear, grief and emotions of moral responsibility (e.g. guilt) made people vulnerable to the supernatural influence. Guilt was considered part of the emotional experience of misfortune (ógæfa), and in literature guilt could also be represented as eye pain that was inflicted upon the sufferer by a supernatural agent in a dream. Consequently, supernatural forces and beings were part of the upspring of emotions, but also part of the representation of emotions in literature: They caused the emotion but their presence also represented the emotional turmoil in the lives of the people that the supernatural agents harassed; emotions that had followed from norm transgressions, betrayal and other forms of social disequilibrium. Medieval readers and listeners of the Íslendingasögur were used to interpreting such different layers of meaning in texts.

Psykoosipotilaille tarkoitetun sähköisen potilasopetusmentelmän levitys ja mielenterveystyön ammattilaisten kokemuksia käytöstä

Tämän laadullisen tutkimuksen tarkoituksena oli kuvata psykoosipotilaille tarkoitetun sähköisen potilasopetusmentelmän (MieliNet) levitystä sekä sosiaali- ja terveydenhuollon psykiatristen toimintayksiköiden mielenterveystyön ammattilaisten kokemuksia sähköisen potilasopetusmenetelmän käytöstä. Tutkimuksen tavoitteena on saatavan tiedon avulla kehittää edelleen MieliNet-ohjelman hyödynnettävyyttä psykiatrisessa hoitotyössä. Tutkimusaineisto kerättiin kolmessa vaiheessa. Ensimmäisessä vaiheessa selvitettiin sosiaali- ja terveydenhuollon psykiatristen toimintayksiköiden (n = 125) kiinnostusta tutustua sähköiseen potilasopetukseen. Potilasopetuksesta kiinnostuneiden organisaatioiden (n = 16) taustatiedot kuvattiin sekä selvitettiin mielenterveystyön ammattilaisten (n = 41) halukkutta tutustua MieliNet-sivustoon ja osallistua sähköisen potilasopetuksen verkkokurssille. Toisessa ja kolmannessa vaiheessa aineisto kerättiin sähköiselle moodle-alustalle sähköisen potilasopetusmenetelmän koekäyttäjiltä (n=7). Aineisto analysoitiin induktiivista ja deduktiivista sisällön analyysiä käyttäen. Tutkimustulosten mukaan sähköisestä potilasopetusmenetelmästä kiinnostuneiden organisaatioiden osuus oli 4% niistä organisaatioista, joille tiedon levitys tapahtui. Sähköisen potilasopetusmenetelmän koekäyttäjistä valtaosa työskenteli erikoissairaanhoidossa toimivissa aikuispsykiatrian avohoidon yksiköissä. Sähköisen potilasopetusmenetelmän käytön vahvuuksina koettiin potilasopetuksen tehostuminen, omahoitajasuhteen kehittyminen ja potilaiden lisääntynyt hoitoon sitoutuminen. Heikkouksina koettiin ongelmat sähköisen potilasopetusohjelman käytössä ja ennakkoluulot sähköisen potilasopetusohjelman käytöstä sekä potilaiden psyykkisen voinnin heikentyminen. Mahdollisuuksina koettiin potilasopetuksen tehostuminen ja potilasopetusohjelman uudet käyttömahdollisuudet. Uhkina koettiin sähköisen potilasopetusmenetelmän riittämätön arvostus sekä ongelmat ja ennakkoluulot potilasopetusohjelman käytössä. Potilaiden yksilöllisyys huomioitiin hyvin potilasopetustilanteissa. Sähköinen potilasopetusmenetelmä synnytti keskustelua potilaille tärkeistä asioista. Potilasopetustilanteiden sujuminen, potilaiden asenne ja oma osaaminen aiheuttivat huolta. Potilasopetustilanteisiin valmistautumiseen halutaan jatkossa kiinnittää enemmän huomiota.

The way to organizational longevity - Balancing stability and change in Shinise firms

THE WAY TO ORGANIZATIONAL LONGEVITY – Balancing stability and change in Shinise firms The overall purpose of this dissertation is to investigate the secret of longevity in Shinise firms. On the basic assumption that organizational longevity is about balancing stability and change, the theoretical perspectives incorporate routine practice, organizational culture, and organizational identity. These theories explain stability and change in an organization separately and in combination. Qualitative inductive theory building was used in the study. Overall, the empirical data comprised 75 in-depth and semi-structured interviews, 137 archival materials, and observations made over 17 weeks. According to the empirical findings, longevity in Shinise firms is attributable to the internal mechanisms (Shinise tenacity, stability in motion, and emergent change) to secure a balance between stability and change, the continuing stability of the socio-cultural environment in the local community, and active interaction between organizational and local cultures. The contribution of the study to the literature on organizational longevity and the alternative theoretical approaches is first, in theorizing the mechanisms of Shinise tenacity and cross-level cultural dynamism, and second, in pointing out the critical role of: the way firms set their ultimate goal, the dynamism in culture, and the effect of history of the firm to the current business in securing longevity. KEY WORDS Change; Culture; Organizational identity; Organizational longevity; Routines; Shinise firms; Stability; Qualitative research