Akademin som arbetsplats hälsa, ohälsa och karriärmöjligheter ur ett genusperspektiv

Sammanfattning: In focus in this licentiate thesis is academia as a workplace. The aim is to explore possible relations between working conditions, career possibilities and health and ill-health, respectively. It is a case study inspired by Grounded Theory and based upon sixty in-depth interviews with doctoral students and academic staff such as lecturers, senior lecturers and professors at three universities. Both men and women participate in the study, and half of them are or have been on long-term sick leave. Two models are used in the analysis; Karasek and Theorell's (1990) model "demand-control-support" in the analysis of working conditions, health and ill-health in an academic context and Kanter's (1977) structural model, based on possibilities, power and relative numbers, in the analysis of career possibilities. The results show that both teachers and doctoral students think of it as a privilege to work within academia, since it is associated with freedom, autonomy, inspiration and good career possibilities. In contrast, they view their work load as high, work tasks as fragmented combined with constant audits, lack of time and lack of support, the study shows that these conditions might lead to stress and ill health. In spite of relatively low sick leave numbers in academia, there is reason to believe that university staff tends to work when sick and that this is a growing problem. One reason to this development is the fact that, because of the way work is organized, it is possible to work at home when sick and to compensate for loss of working hours by working during evenings and weekends. This means that signs of warnings of possible future sick leave do not fail to appear, which might be one of the reasons to increased numbers of long-term sick leave. In this context, there is reason to apply a gender perspective, as women doctoral students are overrepresented among staff on long-term sick leave. In Karasek and Theorell's model, there is no gender perspective, which is made evident when it is combined with Kanter's model. One of the conclusions of this study is that working conditions of men and women, career possibilities and health and ill-health are related. By using these two models in the analysis these connections are demonstrated. Hopefully the results of this study might serve as a basis for measures aiming at creating healthier workplaces within academia.