In this article, we put forth a comparative study of gender distinctions and relations within the processes of organizational reform in a German and a Finnish bank. We demonstrate how these processes are interwoven with assumptions about the `ideal worker' (cf. Acker 1990; 1992) that organizational members are measured against in management. We argue that the `ideal worker', even though, in general, a masculine notion, should not be perceived as a universal or as a static category. We suggest that notions of the `ideal worker' not only vary within different models of work organization, but that they vary across societal contexts. These notions are based on different gender orders (cf. Connell 1987) which penetrate organizational life and become incorporated in different, though predominantly masculine, conceptions. `Ideal worker' is also not a static category. If we consider gender distinctions and relations in organizations as produced, reproduced and redefined through continuously ongoing social interaction, there is a need to analyze how the notion of the `ideal worker' evolves in time — when organizations become subject to change efforts through reforms.

Market‐oriented restructurings of long‐term care policies contribute significantly to the aggravation of care workers’ situations. This article focuses on the effects of broader long‐term care policy developments on market‐oriented reforms. Germany, Japan and Sweden are three countries that have introduced market‐oriented reforms into home‐based care provision embedded in distinct long‐term care policy developments. Conceptually, this article draws on comparative research on care to define the institutional dimensions of long‐term care policies. Empirically, the research is based on policy analyses, as well as on national statistics and a comparative research project on home‐care workers in the aforementioned countries. The findings reveal the mediating impact of the extension and decline of long‐term public care support and the corresponding development of the care infrastructure on both the restructuring of care work and the assessments of the care workers themselves.

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European countries are facing social changes that are challenging their long-term care (LTC) systems in different ways. The ageing population and the decrease of care potential in families have led to different paths of modification to traditional care regime organization. This article compares the LTC policies of Sweden, Germany and Italy, three countries that have traditionally been regarded as representatives of distinct regime types in care regime typologies. The interrelation between policy reforms, changing state support, patterns of care arrangements and the commodification of care work is compared between the three countries. The analysis aims to reveal the basic dimensions of (changing) LTC policies and their effects in these countries; trends of convergence and divergence between the three regimes; and the main characteristics of the changed care regimes. Despite a trend to convergence characterized by a redefined involvement of and a complex mixture of state, market and family resulting in an increased precarization of care labour, the countries analysed still represent different care models. In particular, the amount of state support, the emphasis on family care versus professional services, and the role of different state levels in the governing system and reform paths are the key elements that mark the organization of national LTC.

With the introduction of long-term care insurance (LTCI) in 1995/96, Germany established a universal long-term care scheme within a cost containment framework to provide public support in defined situations of care dependency. The scheme aimed to promote ageing in place with an emphasis on public support for family care provision as a precondition. A further aim was the expansion of market-oriented professional care services to offer users a choice between family and professional care provision and care providers. The focus of this study is on the interplay of formal and informal family care provision within the institutional framework of LTCI, as well as the organisation, regulations and mix of different types of formal care services. In a first step, an examination of the interplay of formal and informal care provision shows the largely family-oriented care strategy, the burdened situation of informal carers, the mix of rationalities of service use and their interrelationship with socioeconomic inequality. In a second step, an analysis of the organisation of different types of formal services reveals paid care provision that emerges in the interplay of politicians' strategies to develop professional care services within the framework of LTCI, bottom-up strategies of users to increase the range of services outside the framework of LTCI and efforts of politicians to regulate the latter. Basic orientations of care provision underlying the development process such as user orientation, quality and comprehensiveness guided the process and are used to analyse the development. Finally, the discussion of the situation of care workers reveals a contradictory picture with increasing employment opportunities, a comparably well-qualified workforce and worsening employment conditions. Empirically, the research is based on an institutional analysis of LTCI combined with a literature review and representative statistics.