DET BLIR INTE ALLTID SOM PLANERAT- - TILLGÄNGLIGHETENS INVERKAN PÅ HR-PRAKTIKERS ARBETSPRESTATION

Abstract

This study examines how HR practitioners working in municipal authorities experience availability through various means of communication such as telephone, e-mail and personal meetings and the interruptions that availability results in and how this affect their work performance. The study also examines the experience of returning to the interrupted work task. There is a lot of research on both availability, interruptions and work performance, but none concerning HR work in municipal operations. Research shows that constant availability results in interruptions that in turn affect work performance. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with eleven HR practitioners working at five different municipalities in the Gothenburg region. In order to gain a better understanding of the empirical data collected, the job demand-resources model was used as an analytical tool. The results show that all respondents experience a need to have a high availability through different means of communication during the workday and that this can create multiple interruptions. However, the HR practitioners did not initially perceive this as a problem, but began to reflect on the phenomenon at the interviews. The most common means of communication were telephone, mail, chat and personal meetings. The interruptions resulted in impaired work performance, where the return to the interrupted task took a long time. The respondents also mentioned that it took additional time before they were fully focused on the task again. Although HR practitioners stated that availability was in their job description and that availability did not significantly affect their work performance, the analysis show that availability can actually be a problem. The analysis with the job demand-resources model revealed that availability can be both a job demand and a job resource, and that this depends on how high the availability is. The study concludes that HR departments should be aware of how interruptions affect both the individual's and, by extension, the HR department's work performance.