Social software has received much attention in the academia and industry due to many success stories. However, although social software is used widely for business support, its relationship with Business Process Management has not been analysed. The results of the workshop on Business Process Management and Social Software (BPMS2'08), as part of the International Conference on Business Process Management in Milano, show the manifold possibilities of combining concepts from Business Process Management and social software. Social software provides a better integration of all stakeholders into the business process life cycle and offers new possibilities for a more effective and flexible design of business processes. The modelling of business processes may profit particularly from using social software techniques by alleviating the integration of process knowledge from all stakeholders. In addition, the implementation and deployment phase of the business process life cycle may profit from social software by collecting valuable information for continuous process improvement from a larger set of sources than before. Furthermore, social software environments may be used to provide workflow support. Moreover, the use of social software also requires new considerations about the digital identity and reputation in business processes. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Background The desire to increase the role of home care in Finland has created problems in home care work. Working conditions have deteriorated, the quality of care experienced is low, and staff members suffer from time pressure and stress, amongst other things. The aim of this article is to explore the challenges, stressors, teamwork and management factors that are associated with home care staff members’ well-being, job satisfaction and experienced care quality, and further, how staff members experience their work. Methods A survey was sent to home care workers in two case organizations that participated in the study. In addition, semi-structured theme interviews with home care workers were conducted. The data from the survey was analysed using analysis of covariance, and interview data was analysed using the Grounded Theory-based method from Gioia et al. Results Respondents of the survey and the interview participants were mainly female practical nurses. The results from the survey showed, for example, that time pressure was associated with higher stress and psychological distress, and interruptions were associated with lower job satisfaction and higher stress. In addition, variables related to teamwork, such as participative safety, were shown to explain the variation in quality of care. The analysis of the interview data further brought up dissatisfaction with management practices, which seems to have led to a decrease in job satisfaction. Exhaustion and strain were present among staff members, which originated from an insufficient number of carers. Conclusions Current working conditions and work practices in Finnish home care are experienced stressful. The results from this study indicate that having more autonomy at work was associated with job satisfaction, according to both analyses. Team climate and idea implementation were related to quality of care. Therefore, increasing self-organizing team practices might be a possible development method for improving working conditions and staff members’ well-being. Implementing self-organizing team practices could possibly also attract employees to work in home care and prevent turnover.

Health and social care for older people in Finland is increasingly provided in people's homes, leading to large caseloads of high-dependency patients for providers of home care, whose working conditions have deteriorated. Buurtzorg, a model of home care in the Netherlands that empowers caregivers to organize their own work processes, has shown promising results in terms of effectiveness and satisfaction of clients and caregivers. This article aims to provide insights about the challenges and effects of implementing self-organizing teams in three Finnish public health and social care organizations.

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