The Centre for Work Life and Evaluation Studies (CTA) is a multidisciplinary research centre with a focus on working life, leadership, organization, work environment and safety climate. The activities consist of joint research projects, open seminars and collaboration with the surrounding community.

News and events

Conference, 29 September

The 1st Malmö Work Science Meeting

News

Incivility can lead to workplace bullying

News

Workplace mistreatment cannot be solved at the individual level

Our research

CTA researchers study various aspects of work and work life. Several research projects are currently underway and the centre also conducts evaluations and mission research in collaboration with external stakeholders.

Established in 2007, CTA has since its inception focused on research on working life and evaluation. There is a strong link to society and the centre has an explicit ambition to improve conditions in people's working lives.

All researchers at Malmö University who conduct working life research with a focus on conditions and prerequisites for management and organisation, as well as social relations in working life, are welcome to be part of CTA.

Research program: Organisational and social safety climate

At CTA there is the research program Organisational and Social Safety Climate, OSSC. It is financed by Forte and started in 2017. The purpose of the program is to highlight the changes and challenges that take place within Human service organisations, such as Schools, Social and Health Care, in relation to the work environment. The program runs until June 2025.

More about the research program OSSC

The research program contributes to the field with a new concept, organisational and social safety climate. The concept is inspired from two different directions, partly psychosocial safety climate, partly the new regulations from the Swedish Work Environment Agency, organisational and social work environment. Together with the JD-R model, this forms the theoretical framework for the program.

The program is based on ongoing and planned research projects which serve as a knowledge base for the development of new projects, and contribute to creating continuity and a long-term perspective within the research area. The overall goal is to develop approaches, empirically validated and reliable tools that can be used for research, practice and interventions in order to develop a sustainable work environment in human care organisations.

This will be achieved by including the perspectives of senior management, first line managers and employees on the organizational and social safety climate within various human care organisations.

During the first three years of the program, we aim to:

  • continue to develop existing methods and instruments that can be used to assess the organizational and social safety climate within various human care organisations,
  • conduct studies of the work situation for employees and first-line managers,
  • conduct studies on bullying in working life and abusive behaviour with a focus on victims and witnesses.

The subsequent three years of the program will be devoted to intervention-oriented studies with the aim of developing work methods that promote a healthy organisational and social safety climate within human care organisations. The results can contribute to meeting future challenges such as stress, abusive discrimination, high staff turnover and recruitment problems within these organisations.

Researchers and research projects

Anyone who conducts research within work life and evaluation studies is welcome to join the cohesive and multidisciplinary research centre CTA. Our interests include management, organization, social relations in working life as well as interactions between working life and leisure.

Find out more about our ongoing projects.

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Seminar series

CTA arranges a seminar series that presents different aspects of work life and evaluation studies. Most of the seminars are held in Swedish, but occasionally they are held in English and will appear here. Researchers, students and practitioners are all welcome to attend.

More about the seminars (in Swedish)

Hanne Berthelsen.

CTA's Hanne Berthelsen, Associate Professor in Leadership and Organisation, is participating as an expert in a high-level meeting on the work environment on 15-16 May 2023. She will present the COPSOQ measurement tool and participate in a round table discussion.

Person writing in the library.

Problems related to the organisational and social work environment are the most common cause of work-related ill health. A research team headed by Hanne Berthelsen, Associate Professor in Organisation and Leadership, has been responsible for further developing and validating the COPSOQ measurement tool for the Swedish labour market.

Collaboration

CTA collaborates with a variety of stakeholders, both nationally and internationally. Collaboration can take place within: the framework of existing projects; as part of the start-up of a research project; during follow-up research; within evaluation assignments; and through contract research.

For instance, CTA is currently collaborating with researchers from Australia as part of the OSSC research programme. There are also ongoing collaborations with researchers from the Netherlands, Germany, Finland and Denmark. In Sweden, CTA interacts with other universities, colleges and research centres, such as the Stress Research Institute and the Institute for Stress Medicine.

We have previously collaborated with the City of Malmö, Finsam Mittskåne, the Swedish Teachers Union, Folktandvården, IKEA, Scania, occupational health companies and a large religious organisation. We also arrange various types of activities such as conferences and seminars for researchers, practitioners and students.

If you are interested in collaborating with CTA, please contact director Sandra Jönsson or a specific CTA researcher.

Advisory board

Chair

Maria Hultin, Quality and Development Manager, Malmö Stad

Members:

  • Gudrun Berggren, Management Strategist, HR, Region Skåne

  • Patrik Hall, Professor, Malmö University

  • Linda Lill, Associate Professor, Malmö University

  • Malin Lundberg, EY

  • Cecilia Strandberg, Interim Consultant - at Ulfsdotter Konsult AB

31 January 2022 – 31 December 2024

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