Organized insecurity in elderly care: On quality, resistance strategies, and staff retention

Research problem and specific questions: The aim is to study how elderly care is affected by organized insecurity, through an exploratory approach and intersectional perspective. Sub question: 1.

How does organized insecurity affect various employee categories´ experience of work in relation to age, gender, and ethnicity? 2. What individual and collective resistance strategies are used in elderly care to manage organized insecurity? 3.

How does organized insecurity affect the way care is provided and how does this impact on the quality of elderly care? 4.

How does organized insecurity affect employees´ intentions to stay in their employment?The development of elderly care towards changed forms of employment has created uncertain terms of working conditions, particularly for care and nurse assistants (care workers), and affected the quality of work.

Our studies show that the conditions for non-fixed term employment are experienced as more precarious as staff are used as "informal short-term temps" to solve understaffing.

The concept of organized insecurity was used in the studies because employee insecurity was manifested in not knowing 1) where to carry out their duties, and 2) the duration of duties. The latter involved financial insecurity. Previously, it has been shown that organized insecurity is a central aspect of how care work is experienced.

In this project, the concept is widened as different forms of employment are studied – from being called into work with short notice on hourly employment to permanent employment with set schedule.

Organized insecurity is understood as a process of more or less predictability, from organized security to organized insecurity with a range of conceivable consequences in between.Data and methods: Mixed-methods design; individual interviews; shadowing and focus group interviews.

Data collection in two municipal home care services: a major city and a rural community.Plan for project realisation: Collaboration in all stages of the research process to make the most of specific and overlapping expertise in this three-year project, which is planned to result in five scholarly articles, among other things.Relevance: In temporary forms of employment – primarily in health and care professions – women are overrepresented.

The changing organization of work in publicly funded and women dominated workplaces constitutes a central area in which more research is needed.