Förändringsarbete och lärande. Om utveckling av förändringspraktik bland vårdbiträden i hemtjänsten

The general aim of the investigation is to contribute to the development of a theory of change and learning within the working environment. The specific change processes that were examined, emerged from an interactive initiative for change, intending to facilitate an emancipatory development: employees increasing their control of the work situation, thus improving the quality of service. The empirical investigation, involving a case study, adopted an action research strategy based on qualitative analysis, using data collected through participant observation, informal conversation and formal interviews. The case study, carried out in two municipalities, concerned home help service, a public sector organisation providing senior citizens who were unable to continue living at home with substantial service and social care. Most of the home helpers, about 70 in each case, were women. They shared a tradition of work in caring for the elderly, involving the combining of a rationale of care, emerging from women s culture, and a rationale of labour, stemming from a workers culture. There were found to be different modes of practice aimed at change among the home helpers. Some were involving a dynamic relationship between a high level of reflective communication and action: praxis. Others were involving a combination of low level of reflective communication and action: habit. During the change process, the home helpers transformed their change practice in several ways. The study shows that praxis makes it possible for the staff to develop the work organisation as to achieve better quality for themselves and the elderly. It is also shown that an interactive initiative for change, involving pedagogical practice based on dialogue and the posing of problems, promotes transformation of the home helpers change practice, from habit to praxis. This process of conscientization is explained in terms of learning and socialisation. From the perspective of societal relations, the home helpers worked in an organisation characterised by hierarchy and routine, phenomena that stems from reification. As they became aware of these relations, they could readily experience alienation, which was found to trigger learning and socialisation processes, both of them necessary for emancipation