Kulturtilpasset helseledelse i norske kommuner

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to investigate challenges that health leaders in Norwegian municipalities face in meeting employees with a different linguistic and cultural background. The thesis focuses on factors that explain large-scale labor immigration to Norway in recent years and the importance of including labor immigrants in the Norwegian working environment. I have also looked at how different forms of affiliation (permanent employees or substitutes) characterize culturally adapted management. The study addresses different types of leadership behavior that are typical of Norway and how leaders use different types of behavior in their everyday lives, both on a general basis and especially in encounters with working immigrants. The theme for the thesis is culturally adapted health management in Norwegian municipalities. The problem is what challenges health leaders in Norwegian municipalities face in their everyday lives, and how leaders who work in the municipal health sector adapt their leadership style in meeting employees with a different linguistic and cultural background. To answer the problem, I have interviewed 7 leaders at different levels in the municipal health service. Key findings in this study show that both managers, employees and residents / patients adapt to Norwegian culture. Managers adjust their behavior in line with employees' underlying cultural values and associated expectations of management. Integration in the workplace emerges which is an important point in both theory and empiricism. There is most often acceptance of different cultures and the focus should be on cultivating community, not looking for differences or why we handle things in different ways, not having a spotlight that we have a different background, but what do we have in common.