Digital transformation i socialt arbete : digitala arbetskrav och första linjens chefer i kommunal hemtjänst.

Sammanfattning

AbstractTitle: Digital Work Demands and Technostress Among First-Line Managers in Municipal Home Care: An Institutional and Salutogenic Perspective Background: Digitalization has become a central component of welfare organizations, including municipal home care. While often justified through arguments of efficiency and resource allocation, research indicates that digital systems frequently create increased administrative demands and new forms of workload, particularly for first-line managers in human-service organizations. Purpose: This master's thesis examines how first-line managers in Swedish municipal home care experience and manage digital work demands, and what institutional drivers underlie digitalization processes. The study introduces the concept of "knowledge maintenance" as an analytical category to capture the continuous learning and adaptation required in digitalized work environments and the work demands within them. Method: The empirical material consists of ten semi-structured interviews with unit managers from small, medium, and large municipalities. The analysis draws on institutional theory (isomorphism), the Job-Demands-Resources (JD-R) model, and salutogenesis theory. Results: Three main themes emerged: (1) Digital demands characterized by system fragmentation, technical disruptions, and competence gaps among staff; (2) Implementation driven by coercive and mimetic isomorphism rather than local needs, resulting in inadequate preparation and training; (3) Management strategies relying heavily on informal support ("borrowed competence") and personal boundary-setting. A significant finding is that managers' educational backgrounds (vocational vs. academic) shape their experiences of technostress and approaches to knowledge maintenance. The concepts of decoupling and best practice were crucial in explaining the gap between policy and practice. Conclusion: Digitalization creates an imbalance where demands exceed resources, leading to technostress. The concept of knowledge maintenance captures a dimension often overlooked in digitalization research: it is a continuous process of learning and adaptation, not a one-time investment. Without formal support for knowledge maintenance tailored to different educational backgrounds and addressing decoupling, managers risk burnout. Recommendations include increased participation in procurement, formalization of knowledge maintenance, and avoiding blind adoption of best practices. Keywords: First-line managers, home care, digitalization, technostress, institutional isomorphism, JD-R model, knowledge maintenance, decoupling, best practice, salutogenesis