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1 – 10 of over 24000Charles E. Hacker, Deborah Debono, Joanne Travaglia and David J. Carter
This paper explores the role of hospital cleaners and their contribution to healthcare safety. Few studies have examined the activities and input of hospital cleaners, rendering…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper explores the role of hospital cleaners and their contribution to healthcare safety. Few studies have examined the activities and input of hospital cleaners, rendering them largely invisible in healthcare research. Yet, as coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has demonstrated, this sizeable workforce carries out tasks critical to healthcare facilities and wider health system functioning.
Design/methodology/approach
Drawing on the work of Habermas, the authors examine the literature surrounding cleaners and quality and safety in healthcare. The authors theorise cleaners' work as both instrumental and communicative and examine the perceptions of healthcare professionals and managers, as well as cleaners themselves, of healthcare professionals and managers' role and contribution to quality and safety.
Findings
Cleaners are generally perceived by the literature as performing repetitive – albeit important – tasks in isolation from patients. Cleaners are not considered part of the “healthcare team” and are excluded from decision-making and interprofessional communication. Yet, cleaners can contribute to patient care; ubiquity and proximity of cleaners to patients offer insights and untapped potential for involvement in hospital safety.
Originality/value
This paper brings an overdue focus to this labour force by examining the nature and potential of their work. This paper offers a new application of Habermas' work to this domain, rendering visible how the framing of cleaners' role works to exclude this important workforce from participation in the patient safety agenda.
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This study aims to explore what it is like to be a cleaner in the Netherlands. Drawing on the dirty work theory, it answers the question of how cleaners in the Netherlands cope…
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to explore what it is like to be a cleaner in the Netherlands. Drawing on the dirty work theory, it answers the question of how cleaners in the Netherlands cope with the dirty work stigma.
Design/methodology/approach
This study used a qualitative approach: 24 cleaners were interviewed and the researcher participated in a three-month cleaning course. By doing so, an insiders’ perspective was taken. Drawing upon the dirty work theory, a thematic analysis was made.
Findings
Cleaners take great pride in their work, but because of their social invisibility, they are not recognized by the people they work for, and they fail in being proud of themselves. This has moral consequences since cleaners start doubting whether they are seen as equal. Eventually, cleaners have an ambivalent relationship with their job.
Practical implications
Given the moral consequences, FM practitioners and researchers should take these findings into account. As FM value is dependent on the quality of the relations between FM and its stakeholders (e.g. cleaners), FM is challenged to think about its responsibilities toward cleaners and other dirty workers in its context.
Originality/value
There is not much research done in cleaning. The research that is done focuses on efficiency and organization of cleaning. Only little research focuses on the cleaner, an insiders’ perspective is scarce.
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Satu Kalliola and Jukka Niemelä
Outsourcing has gained favor since the 1980s, and Finnish paper companies used it as late as 2006, when a group of female cleaners were outsourced from the case plant of this…
Abstract
Outsourcing has gained favor since the 1980s, and Finnish paper companies used it as late as 2006, when a group of female cleaners were outsourced from the case plant of this study. This article focuses on the context of outsourcing, characterized by the bargaining power and choices made by the bargaining parties, the responses of the cleaners over time and the potential theoretical explanations of the outcome. The responses, such as disappointment and anger, mental and physical tiredness, sickness absenteeism, and starting to get adjusted, were interpreted in the frameworks of occupational culture, the job characteristics model, old and new craftsmanship, and relational and transactional psychological contracts. The method was a combination of naturalistic inquiry and abduction. The study points out that more than one theoretical framework was needed to gain an understanding of the situation.
J. van Gerven, L. van Horssen and N. van Veen
The threat posed to the environment by CFC cleaning processes for printed circuit boards has led to an investigation of possible alternatives. In a preselection procedure…
Abstract
The threat posed to the environment by CFC cleaning processes for printed circuit boards has led to an investigation of possible alternatives. In a preselection procedure, surprising results were obtained using propylene glycol ethers (PGE), solvents for the paint industry. In this study these ethers are compared with five other groups of cleaners, which can be divided into four water‐based classes: weak acid, neutral, weak and strong alkaline, and water miscible organic solvent cleaners which are non halogen‐containing and biodegradable. The cleaning power of PGE and other cleaners is tested on fluxes for wave and reflow soldering. Comparative results for the different groups are given, combined with surface insulation resistance measurements. Good results can be obtained using alkaline or solvent cleaners. However, it appears that the cleaning results depend heavily on the type of flux used and the choice of a matching cleaning process.
Seyhan Özdemir, Betül Sarı, Ebru Demirel and Melih Sever
This photovoice study aims to explore how cleaners experience dirty and invisible work in the workplace.
Abstract
Purpose
This photovoice study aims to explore how cleaners experience dirty and invisible work in the workplace.
Design/methodology/approach
This research is twofold. The authors first used the photovoice technique, which is one of the visual data collection techniques, to elaborate on the phenomena. The data were obtained with the participation of seven people (four women and three men) from building cleaners working at two public universities in Turkey. Three photographs were requested from each participant and selected nine photographs were described and analyzed among the collected 21 photographs. In addition to photovoice research, five interviews gave insight into the cleaners’ experiences in the second stage of the study.
Findings
This research revealed that participating cleaners experienced invisible dirty work and they felt undervalued, despised, treated as “second class/low-level people” and stigmatized.
Practical implications
This study recommends that university administrations defend the rights and dignity of cleaners at work, provide services to support their inclusion and increase staff awareness.
Originality/value
This study sheds light into an understudied area which is the building cleaners’ invisible and dirty work experiences and how that impacts their lives via a photovoice research.
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Thanaphum Laithaisong, Wichai Aekplakorn, Paibul Suriyawongpaisal, Chanunporn Tupthai and Chathaya Wongrathanandha
This research aimed to explore the prevalence of musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs) and related factors among subcontracted cleaners in a teaching hospital in Thailand.
Abstract
Purpose
This research aimed to explore the prevalence of musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs) and related factors among subcontracted cleaners in a teaching hospital in Thailand.
Design/methodology/approach
A cross-sectional study was conducted of 393 subcontracted cleaners in a teaching hospital, from May to June 2020. Face-to-face interviews were carried out using a standard questionnaire, consisting of four parts: (1) participant characteristics, (2) stress test, (3) work characteristics and (4) standardized Nordic questionnaire, Thai version, for MSDs outcome. Multiple logistic regression analyses were performed to determine the association between MSDs and related factors.
Findings
The prevalence of MSDs was 81.9%, involving mostly the lower back (57.7%), followed by the shoulder (52.6%). Factors significantly associated with MSDs were as follows: male gender (OR = 3.06, 95% CI [1.19, 7.87]), severe stress (OR = 2.72, 95% CI [1.13, 6.54]), history of injuries (OR = 4.37, 95% CI [1.27, 15.11]), mopping posture (OR = 2.81, 95% CI [1.43, 5.50]) and task duration (OR = 1.90, 95% CI [1.01, 3.57] for 2–4 h and OR = 3.39, 95% CI [1.17, 9.86] for more than 4 h). Sick leave due to MSDs was associated with history of injuries, Thai nationality and having another part-time job.
Originality/value
The study findings about MSDs in terms of prevalence and related factors contributed to limited pool of the knowledge among subcontracted hospital cleaners in Thailand and middle-income country settings. With growing popularity in outsourcing cleaning services among hospitals in these countries, the study findings could raise a concern and inform policymakers and hospital administrators the importance of the magnitude and risk factors for MSDs necessitating design of preventive strategies.
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In a paper presented to the Society of Automobile Engineers at Seattle in August, H. M. Turner, of the Donaldson Company, Inc. gave a paper on air cleaners, and discussed the…
Abstract
In a paper presented to the Society of Automobile Engineers at Seattle in August, H. M. Turner, of the Donaldson Company, Inc. gave a paper on air cleaners, and discussed the choice of wet or dry cleaners, and put the case for a composite type of dry air cleaner. Fig. 1 shows the importance of air filters in the case of rock crushers and earth moving equipment of all types. The rock crusher air cleaner has to handle 1,300 times the dust that the automobile air cleaner does, more than 100 times that of the farm tractor and about 6 times that of the crawler tractor.
Nora Johanne Klungseth and Siri Hunnes Blakstad
This paper aims to describe and discuss in-house cleaning services in local authorities to gain a better understanding of current practices. These descriptions are intended to…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to describe and discuss in-house cleaning services in local authorities to gain a better understanding of current practices. These descriptions are intended to increase researchers’, practitioners’ and educators’ understanding of the studied issue, as there at present does not exist a solid understanding of in-house cleaning services in local authorities. Previous studies provide little detailed information regarding the internal environment of facility management (FM) organisations, in particular with regard to FM organisations’ individual services.
Design/methodology/approach
This research is based on two descriptive case studies, one from Norway and one from the UK. The case studies are based on semi-structured, face-to-face in-depth interviews and document reviews.
Findings
The cases demonstrate that in-house cleaning services can be structured and managed in different ways, particularly with respect to the split in services, the management of staff and customer contracts, the span of control, the chain of command, self-managed leadership, cleaners’ hours of duty and the use of outsourcing.
Research limitations/implications
Although the previous research on particular FM services is limited, this paper’s detailed descriptions may stimulate further development and research within the field. The knowledge brought forward is part of bridging a knowledge gap on cleaning in FM research. This knowledge can contribute to advancements in the way this service is discussed and measured across contexts by encouraging more rigour and specific studies on cleaning.
Originality/value
This paper constitutes one of the first detailed descriptions of in-house cleaning organisation in local authorities. This is a type of service supply that is common in certain contexts and identified as beneficial to cost-saving in other contexts.
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The article seeks to analyse and explore the contradictions and variations in the concepts “team” and “teamwork” and their use in the NSW, Australia, commercial cleaning industry.
Abstract
Purpose
The article seeks to analyse and explore the contradictions and variations in the concepts “team” and “teamwork” and their use in the NSW, Australia, commercial cleaning industry.
Design/methodology/approach
The article utilises an ethnographic study of a large Australian cleaning firm. Data were collected using participant observation, field notes, and interviews with managers.
Findings
The study provides evidence for the limited uptake of the idealised form of teamwork in commercial cleaning and suggests that teamworking is another means of coordinating groups of workers. Furthermore, the findings support previous research into the paradox of teams without teamwork.
Originality/value
The research provides an insight into the largely neglected area of the reorganisation of work in commercial cleaning. It also provides a critique of the concept of teams and teamworking.
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Martijn C. Vos, Jessica Sauren, Olaf Knoop, Mirjam Galetzka, Mark P. Mobach and Ad T.H. Pruyn
The purpose of this paper is to determine how the presence of cleaning staff affects perceptions and satisfaction of train passengers. Day-time cleaning is becoming increasingly…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to determine how the presence of cleaning staff affects perceptions and satisfaction of train passengers. Day-time cleaning is becoming increasingly popular in (public) service environments. It is however unknown how the presence of cleaning staff in the service environment affects perceptions and satisfaction of end-users.
Design/methodology/approach
Two experimental field studies were performed. Data for the first study were collected on the trajectory between the train station of Assen and the station of Groningen (N = 506) in the northern part of the Netherlands. Data for the second study were collected on the trajectory between train station “Amsterdam Amstel” and train station “Utrecht Centraal” (N = 1,113) in the central part of the Netherlands. In the experimental condition, two cleaners collected waste and performed minor cleaning activities (i.e. empty trash bins, cleaning doors and tables) during the journey. After the first study, cleaners received hospitality training and corporate uniforms.
Findings
The presence of cleaning staff positively influenced train passengers’ perceptions and satisfaction. Effects were stronger in the second study, after the second consecutive intervention (i.e. hospitality training, corporate uniforms). In both studies, the presence of cleaners positively influenced passengers’ perceptions of staff, cleanliness and comfort. The perception of atmosphere was only significant after the intervention.
Practical implications
The findings of this study allow in-house and corporate facility managers to better understand the possible effects of the presence of their cleaning staff on end-user perceptions and satisfaction.
Originality/value
The study’s value lies in its human centred approach by demonstrating the importance of day-time cleaning. This area of research has been largely neglected in the field of facilities and (public) services management research.
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