In the Storm’s Eye: The Working Conditions of the Youth Care Staff at the Swedish National Board of Institutional Care

The project focuses on the Swedish National Board of Institutional Care (NBIC), and its front-line staff, the care workers at secure, residential homes for youth with highly complex problems, including criminal or violent behavior.

With an increased number of juveniles with high violence capital and mental health problems in secure institutional care in Sweden, it is urgent to understand the complex nature of their work and work environment.

Moreover, the NBIC has faced severe criticism from its supervisory agencies and has recently undergone a shift in organizational governance in order to improve organizational control and competence supply.

Our objective is to investigate the consequences of NBIC’s governance for operational management and frontline workers, with a special focus on care workers’ organizational conditions of work.

To what extent NBIC staff face the organizational conditions needed to perform the work according to their embraced notions of professionalism, is a key aspect of our research, along with possible tensions between managerial conceptions of professionalism and those of the occupational communities.

The project here combines theories on organizational governance with that of frontline workers and their embraced notions of professionalism.In operational terms we will: First, map and trace organizational arrangements and governance instruments at central as well as local level.

Second, study the impact of the governance system on the daily work, including routines, organization of work, work practices, staff and manager relations, etc.

Third, investigate how the organizational governance and organization of work relate to the occupational role-identities, emotions, experiences, challenges, dilemmas  and coping strategies of the frontline staff.

The data will consist of: a) in-depth qualitative interviews as well as focus group interviews with youth care workers at three local, secure, residential youth homes, and individual, in-depth interviews with management at local as well as central level;  b) policy and organizational documents, manuals, staff training material, governance technologies (e.g.

IT documentation and reporting system) and other governance tools.

By placing the interplay between organizational governance, working conditions, and the occupational identities of the youth care workers, this research will offer knowledge useful for addressing management challenges, as well as improving working conditions on the ground.