Socialt stöd på arbetsplatsen vid sjukdom

Sammanfattning: The thesis has two aims: to investigate social support - informal as well as formal and professional support - as a type of help and to find concepts to describe, analyse and understand support processes in the workplace network. The thesis is based on interviews with individuals who were sicklisted for a lenghty period and their support providers at the workplace, approximately 60 interviews related to the provision and receipt of support were carried out at the Swedish Post office and District Health Care in Gothenburg, Sweden. The focus of the thesis is on workplace support during the various phases of sicklisting. Different categories of support providers in the network are describes as well as their roles and the type of support given. Five informal roles in the network are distinguished. The supportive network´s relationship with the rest of the workplace network is discussed. The course of the support process appears to depend on the recipients ability to avail himself of support and master the problems, on the relations within the supportive network and its relationship to other groups at the workplace and on organisational conditions. The results are exploratory and further research is required.