Mångfaldsarbete
En jämförelse mellan privata och offentliga sektorn
The aim of this thesis is to study whether social welfare secretaries experience occupational pride and what affects this feeling. Previously made research indicate that occupational pride is essential for performance and work-related health. Research has also shown that social welfare secretaries often experience unhealthiness due to working conditions and a lack of professional self-esteem.This thesis is based on four qualitative interviews which have focused especially on critical incidents, according to the critical incident technique. This study has a hermeneutic, interpretative approach. As a theoretical framework, Pierre Bourdieu? s theory on social space and positions aswell as Aaron Antonovsky´s theory on Sence of coherence have been used. The result shows that the interviewed social welfare secretaries do experience occupational pride. Even though they describe their work as stressful, they feel they are given necessary conditions to perform a good job. The occupational pride among social welfare secretaries is described as modest. Critical incidents which have increased the occupational pride among the interviewed is clients appreciation, positive results, the feeling of competence and a well-defined professional role. Critical incidents which decline the occupational pride is when doubting a descision, strong emotions which are hard to handle and negative criticism from the public. The result also shows that overall factors such as salary, organization, the purpose of the job, media?s desciption, stress and the lack of professional certification affect the occupational pride of social welfare secretaries.