Leadership and integration of immigrant workers in elderly in Sweden: Initiating a discussion from a communication perspective
2017 (English)Conference paper, Oral presentation with published abstract (Refereed)
Abstract [en]
This article proposes to study the constructions and perceptions of leader and immigrant employees in three nursing home units in a municipality in Sweden. The results draw from the analyses of 18 interviews designed to understand from a communication perspective what are the factors facilitating or hindering the integration of non-Swedish born workforce in the elderly care. Although leadership is a well-researched subject, studies considering leadership and communication dynamics of immigrants in workplaces are fairly rare in Sweden.
Workplaces, and specially workgroups, are arenas for the negotiation and recreation/reshaping of identities (Schnurr & Zayts, 2012; Valenta, 2009), communication with and from the ’leader’ – the position known today for personifying leadership as whole (Ford, Harding, & Learmonth, 2008) – and its impact on other relationships and on individuals’ integration in the workplace. Leadership affects employees’ satisfaction and willingness to stay in a workplace. This is not different among groups with diversity. The inclusion patterns that leaders create through their relationships can be decisive for a lower staff turnover (Nishii, Mayer, David & Kozlowski, 2009). In addition, there is a strong expectation that the leader treats everyone fair in an environment with diversity. Research shows that ”justice” is a central element to fulfilled expectations and personal results in a workplace with cultural diversity for (Cross & Tuner, 2013).
The findings showed good leadership is perceived when leaders work as a bridge to facilitate rela- tionships, are supportive and emphatic them of participating. Employees feel integrated when they assume independent control of the work activities without asking for assistance from Swede employ- ees. There are several factors influencing inclusion and integration in the workplaces. These factors are: relationship with colleagues that are as important as with the leaders, a leader who promotes relationships, organizational conditions that create space and time for learning and socialization, and social conditions, for instance, possibilities of creating social networks outside the work.
Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
2017.
Keywords [en]
immigrants in workplaces, leadership, communication, integration, inclusion
National Category
Media and Communications
Identifiers
URN: urn:nbn:se:miun:diva-32399OAI: oai:DiVA.org:miun-32399DiVA, id: diva2:1164541
Conference
24th Nordic Intercultural Communication conference, 23-25 November, 2017, Jyväskylä, Finland
2017-12-112017-12-112025-02-07Bibliographically approved