Principals' goal-setting and actions while managing : An explorative study of locally-created goals and principals’ actions while managing their schools

Abstract: Large amounts of research have been performed regarding goal-setting and leadership and its effect on organizational performance. However, in school settings, the amount of performed research about leadership performance in relation to goal-setting is limited. The aim of the study was, therefore, to analyze specificity of locally-created goals and the principal’s performance-affecting behaviors during meetings, especially in relation to set goals. Based on Komaki’s research on managerial behavior structured observation was used to analyze the principal’s actions while leading meetings. Adding to the observations Locke & Latham’s Goal-Setting Theory was used to perform a content analysis investigating the specificity of written goals. In total, 56 goals from seven schools in a large county/municipality in Sweden were analyzed. In total, 1,235 minutes of a principal leading their staff during meetings were recorded and analyzed. A majority of the goals written in the schools’ work-plans lacked specificity. This study found that principals talked about their goals while leading their staff at meetings, and they changed their behavior towards a more performance-affecting management style while doing so

Ambulance clinicians’ responsibility when encountering patients in a suicidal process

Background - Even though the traditional focus in emergency care is on life-threatening medical crisis, ambulance clinicians frequently encounter patients with mental illness, including suicidal ideation. A suicide is preceded by a complex process where most of the suicidal ideation is invisible to others. However, as most patients seek healthcare in the year before suicide, ambulance clinicians could have an important part to play in preventing suicide, as they encounter patients in different phases of the suicidal process. Aim - The aim of this study was to describe ambulance clinicians’ conceptions of responsibility when encountering patients in a suicidal process. Research design - A qualitative inductive design using a phenomenographic approach was used. Participants and research context - Twenty-seven ambulance clinicians from two regions in southern Sweden were interviewed. Ethical considerations - The study was approved by the Swedish Ethical Review Authority. Findings - Three categories of descriptions captured a movement from responding to a biological being to responding to a social being. Conventional responsibility was perceived as a primary responsibility for emergency care. In conditional responsibility, the patient’s mental illness was given only limited importance and only if certain conditions were met. Ethical responsibility was perceived to have its primary focus on the encounter with the patient and listening to the patient’s life story. Conclusions - An ethical responsibility is favourable regarding suicide prevention in ambulance care, and competence development in mental illness and conversation skills could enable ambulance clinicians to have conversations with patients about suicidal ideation

Modelling leadership--Implicit leadership theories in Sweden

This paper investigates Swedish data on implicit leadership theories in comparison with data from 61 other nationalities, testing the identification of a Swedish leadership style in light of globalization and possible converging value-formation processes. Global questionnaire data from 17,310 (900 Swedish) middle-managers constitute the basis for our analyses, using both a within-country perspective and a between-country perspective. While acknowledging the presence of almost universally endorsed leadership attributes, such as being inspirational and visionary, "typical" Swedish leadership attributes are possible to identify. Thus we challenge the simplified version of global convergence regarding leadership ideals and management ideology. On a basis of this study, we conclude that the notion of a Swedish leadership style is still meaningful and valid as a device for a better understanding of leadership efforts and cross-cultural interaction.Implicit theories Leadership Culture Sweden Management ideologies Charisma Value-based team

The production of outstanding leadership -- an analysis of leadership images in the Swedish media

In this paper the constructive and ideological aspects of (business) journalism provide the starting point for an exploration of the images of (outstanding) leadership (re)produced in the Swedish printed media. Using an ethnographic semantics method, articles in five major Swedish publications during two separate weeks were scanned, selected and analysed, resulting in 853 media statements about leadership subsumed under 60 leadership categories. These statements were further categorised and analysed, resulting in 12 underlying leadership themes that together suggest a dominant implicit model of leadership. The results were found to be consistent to some extent with central aspects of a "Swedish leadership style" as reported in previous studies, but they also gave rise to some interesting paradoxes. These paradoxes were partly resolved by introducing a distinction between leadership in a political as opposed to a business context. The analysis shows that institutional contexts seem to generate different implicit models of leadership, but within the same national framework. Excellent leadership is evidently exercised and enacted as an expression of socially constructed institutions and culturally grounded values.Leadership Management Implicit theories Culture Sweden Media Business Politics

Registered nurses’ experiences of assessing patients with mental illness in emergency care: A qualitative descriptive study

Patients with mental illness are exposed and experience themselves as not being taken seriously in emergency care. Registered nurses need to assess patients with mental illness from a holistic perspective comprising both a physical and an existential dimension. The aim of the study was to describe registered nurses’ (RNs) experiences of assessing patients with mental illness in emergency care. Twenty-eight RNs in prehospital and in-hospital emergency care were individually interviewed. The interviews were analysed descriptively. The design followed the COREQ-checklist. One main theme ‘A conditional patient assessment’ and two themes; ‘A challenged professional role’ and ‘A limited openness for the patient’, comprising in turn four sub-themes emerged. Although the RNs showed willingness to understand the mental illness aspects of their patients, they were insufficient in their assessments. This implies the importance of developing emergency care RNs’ competence, knowledge and self-confidence in assessments and care of patients with mental illness

Catalytic effects in propene ammoxidation achieved through substitutions in the M2 phase of the Mo-V-Nb-Te-oxide system

M2-type phases M3TeO10 (M = Mo and V), belonging to the Mo-V-Nb-Te-oxide system, were prepared by substituting to various degrees the M-metal with W, Ti, Nb or Fe, and Te with Ce. The compositions were characterized by BET, XRD and XPS and were studied for propene ammoxidation. The variations of the unit cell parameters with substitution reveal that the orthorhombic, pseudo-hexagonal M2 structure is preserved to different degrees depending on the substituent and its amount. It is noted that partial substitution with W, Ti, Ce and Fe all increase the activity of the base composition and that Ce, and especially W, improve the selectivity to acrylonitrile at the expense of acrolein. The results of the activity measurements and the XPS investigation indicate that the site, activating propene and ammonia on the unsubstituted M2 phase is a surface ensemble of Mo and Te. W and Ce were found to be able to mimic the role of Mo and Te, respectively; W mainly via site isolation and electronic effects, Ce via redox effects. V- and Ti-sites are shown to be inactive, having merely the role of structure adjusting elements, and serving as templates to complex the excess Te on the surface

Navigating oneself through the eyes of the other - meanings of encountering ambulance clinicians while being in a suicidal process

PurposeThe suicidal process contains both observable and non-observable phases, and patients have described the process as characterized by loneliness and darkness. Ambulance clinicians encounter patients in all phases of the suicidal process but little is known on what meaning this encounter has to the patients. The aim of this study was to elucidate meanings of encountering ambulance clinicians while being in a suicidal process.MethodsData were collected through fifteen individual interviews with eight participants who had lived experiences of encountering ambulance clinicians. Inductive design using phenomenological hermeneutical approach was used.FindingsPatients are impacted by the clinicians, both in how they find their value in the situation, but also in expected trajectory. Three themes; 'Being impacted by representatives of society', 'Being unsure of one<acute accent>s own value' and 'Regaining hope in moments of togetherness' generated the main theme <acute accent>Navigating oneself through the eyes of the other<acute accent>.ConclusionThe way ambulance clinicians communicate impacts how patients navigate themselves in the ambivalence about living or dying, and the encounter either consolidate a feeling of being a burden, or instil hope of an endurable life. Through conversation, clinicians could support the patients in taking the first steps in the journey of recovery