Ulrica von Thiele Schwarz

Ulrica von Thiele Schwarz

Principal Researcher
Visiting address: Widerströmska huset, Tomtebodavägen 18A, 17165 Solna
Postal address: C7 Lärande, Informatik, Management och Etik, C7 MMC Öfverström, 171 77 Stockholm
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About me

  • I am a professor in psychology commited to improving the usefulness of
    research evidence
    I am a senior researcher at Procome and a Professor in Psychology at
    Mälardalen University, School of Health, Care and Social welfare. My
    professional background is in occupational health, where I have worked as a
    psychologist. My research focus is on the design, implementation and
    evaluation of changes in organizations in general, with a specific interest
    in how we can make evidence more useful in practice.
    Vinnvård fellow i Improvement Science 2013-2016
    2008 Doctor of Philosophy in Psychology, Department of Psychology,
    Stockholm University.
    2001 Licensed Psychologist
    2000 Master of Science in Psychology (300Hp), Department of Psychology,
    Stockholm University

Research

  • My research is concerned with understanding how we can achieve sustainable
    improvements in organizations. It builds on work and organizational
    psychology and organizational behavior – the understanding of individuals
    in organizations and the interaction between those individuals and
    organizational process and structures.
    The improvements and intervention that we study range from the micro-system
    (e.g. thought-process among nurses in an ED) and the system level (e.g. how
    local authorities handle intended change, as well as linking of the different
    perspectives (e.g. the effect of reimbursement systems on employee job
    motivation). The content of the improvements and interventions has differed,
    as has their aim. The focus, instead, is on the process of managing and being
    effective in achieving the intended change, as well as the evaluation of such
    change.
    Although the improvements and interventions I have been involved in at a
    first glance may seem very different, they do have some common
    characteristics. First, they represent an approach where the goal is to make
    a difference in the organization where the study is set at the same time as
    scientific, rigorous methods are applied in order to contribute to the
    accumulation of systematic knowledge. Second, the studies are concerned with
    how improvements can be made at workplaces with a dual focus on effect
    evaluations and process questions (implementation studies). In this, I
    combine motivation theories, occupational health theories, leadership
    theories, organizational theories and operant psychology applied to
    organizations and systems (organizational behavior management).
    Third, I strive toward integrating measures from different types of outcomes,
    including performance outcomes (quality of care, costs, safety etc.) and
    staff outcomes (health, wellbeing and work conditions). Thus, a common theme
    is to increase the awareness of the multiple effects of improvements and
    interventions on a whole range of outcomes, and the necessity of considering
    them simultaneously. For example, we have shown how an occupational
    intervention can have a positive effect on organizational performance (number
    of patients treated, quality of care and cost of sickness absence). Another
    example is showing how teamwork in emergency care, implemented with improved
    efficiency in mind, also has a substantial positive impact on patients’
    perceptions of quality of care.

Articles

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Grants

  • Swedish Research Council for Health Working Life and Welfare
    1 October 2023 - 30 September 2029
    Research problem and specific questions: This program sheds light on the implementation challenges involved in changing health determinants to achieve improvements in public health. The aim of the program is to explore implementation challenges related to decision-making and practical implementation of structural interventions as well as preventive programs and their implication for health equity. The program combines expertise in public health and implementation science with the goal of identifying ways to close the gaps in health among societal groups. Data and method: The program builds on complexity theory to reflect that implementation of public health initiative involves multiple, often interdependent, stakeholders, decisions and activities. The program has three phases. The first is an exploratory qualitative phase including interviews with local politicians and administrators (in municipalities and regions) to understand how they make decisions about public health, including how the needs of different societal groups and conflicting societal goals are prioritized. The second phase involves several naturalistic experiments of local implementation and de-implementation cases investigating barriers and facilitators to these processes, strategies to overcome barriers, management of fidelity and adaptations and implementation outcomes. This entails a participatory approach in which the local actors implement initiatives and participate in collecting data. Analysis includes qualitative and quantitative cross-case comparisons. In the third phase, implementation capacity-building interventions aimed at decision-makers and implementers of public health initiatives are designed and evaluated. Relevance and utilisation: Although Sweden has one of the most developed welfare systems and ambitious public health policy goals, health inequalities are growing and systematic inequalities in health remain in almost all health outcomes and determinants. Implementation of structural interventions and preventive programs are needed, yet implementation research shows that these too often fail to reach, retain and deliver value to those most in need. If implementation between groups diverge, implementation of public health initiatives may increase rather than decrease health inequalities. This program addresses this contradiction by developing new knowledge on how public health initiatives can be implemented for disadvantaged populations. Plan for program realisation: This multidisciplinary program takes a participatory approach involving three research environments at two universities. A total of 63% of the costs cover salaries for the 12 participating junior and senior researchers. Operating costs (15%) include reference group reimbursement, communication activities and data collection.
  • Swedish Research Council for Health Working Life and Welfare
    1 October 2023 - 30 September 2029
    Research problem and specific questionsAdults spend a considerable part of their waking hours in the workplace, which means that it is often singled out as an important arena for public health interventions. Nevertheless, the workplace has even greater potential to influence public health: the organization and design of the work itself can contribute to health  – or ill-health. Female dominated municipal administration stands out due to major problems with work-related ill-health which is rooted in problematic working conditions. The purpose of this program is to address ill-health in the female dominated municipal sector by mapping ill-health in occupations and at workplaces and by exploring organizational efforts intending to address its root causes. Data and method and plan for program realisationThe program consists of five projects. The first project uses longitudinal annual register data and quantitative methods to examine the association between female-dominated occupations, female-dominated workplaces, and sickness absence in the municipality sector and how different factors mediate these associations. The second project deals with governance linked to employees and first-line managers in the municipality and the consequences of increased autonomy in connection with trust-based governance. This part will be based on two questionnaire surveys that are designed based on qualitative interviews. The survey data will be analysed using quantitative methods. The third is a collaborative project with municipalities where organizational measures to achieve good health through a better balance between work requirements and resources are created and evaluated using a multi-method approach including both qualitative and quantitative methods. In the fourth project, an experiment examines politicians’ decisions that affect resource allocation in the municipality. This project too has a mixed methods-approach incompassing both qualitative and quantitative methods. Finally, an exploratory project is carried out based on new questions that arise by combining results from the various projects. Relevance and utilisationThe program is closely linked to the national overarching goal for public health, i.e. to create societal conditions for good and equal health in the entire population. The program´s research questions are clearly linked to four of the eight intermediate sub-goals for public health.The unique contribution of the program is that the research question is tackled across several system levels – from the labour market and societal perspective to the decision-making and organizational perspective using an interdisciplinary approach including the disciplines of public health, work life studies, business administration, psychology, sociology and economics. Through the project’s cross-disciplinary approach, the goal is ground-breaking new knowledge with a major impact on both policy and practice.
  • Swedish Research Council for Health Working Life and Welfare
    1 July 2023 - 30 June 2026
    Those who takes care of our youngest and oldest for a living tend to have poorer working condition than many others, causing ill health and sickness absence. Previous research has identified several organizational root-causes of work-related ill health, such as understaffing and low decision latitude, calling for solutions on the structural level, that is, in how work is organized, designed and managed. Yet, such organizational occupational health interventions (OOHI) are complex with many factors interacting, making them challenging to evaluate and often yielding inconclusive results. Research-practice collaboration and more sophisticated evaluation methods are needed. This project, co-designed between researchers at Mälardalen university and the municipality of Eskilstuna, aims to explore how a municipality can address root causes of work-related ill-health in female-dominated workplaces. This will be done through a co-creation process to design, implement and evaluate OOHIs in a collaborative, mixed-method, natural longitudinal experiment (around 50 intervention units
    3000 employees). Data collections, including questionnaires and workshops, are integrated in existing organizational processes to both yield new knowledge and support the local change process. Data will be analyzed using an innovative statistical method – coincidence analysis – making it possible to mirror the complex reality where factors may be necessary but not sufficient for reducing sickness absence, or sufficient, but not necessary. In addition, since senior managers are the gatekeepers of OOHIs, we will investigate their beliefs about causes of work-related ill health and if co-creation change those beliefs. This project creates an empirical foundation for a highly needed theory development that can help explain under which conditions implementation of OOHIs succeed or fail as well as provide actionable information for practitioners struggling with implementation.
  • Swedish Research Council for Health Working Life and Welfare
    1 July 2023 - 30 June 2029
    Among female dominated workplaces, municipal administration stands out due to major problems with work-related ill-health which is rooted in problematic working conditions. The purpose of this program is to address sickness absence in the female dominated municipal sector by mapping the ill-health in occupations and at workplaces and by exploring organizational efforts intending to address the root causes of this work-related ill-health. The program’s unique contribution is that the research question is tackled across several structural levels – from the labor market and societal perspective to the decision-making and organizational perspective using an interdisciplinary approach including the disciplines of sociology, psychology, economics, business administration and work life studies. The program consists of five projects. The first project uses longitudinal annual register data to examine the association between female-dominated occupations, female-dominated workplaces, and sickness absence in the municipality sector and how different factors mediate these associations. The second project deals with governance linked to employees and first-line managers in the municipality and the consequences of increased autonomy in connection with trust-based governance. This part will be based on two questionnaire surveys that are designed based on qualitative interviews. The third is a collaborative project with municipalities where organizational measures to achieve a better balance between work requirements and resources are created and evaluated using a multi-method approach. In the fourth project, an experiment examines politicians’ decisions that affect resource allocation in the municipality. Finally, an exploratory project is carried out based on new questions that arise by combining results from the various projects. Through the project’s cross-disciplinary approach, the goal is groundbreaking new knowledge with a major impact on both policy and practice.
  • Swedish Research Council for Health Working Life and Welfare
    1 January 2021 - 31 December 2022
  • Swedish Research Council for Health Working Life and Welfare
    1 July 2020 - 30 June 2024
  • Swedish Research Council for Health Working Life and Welfare
    1 July 2020 - 30 June 2024
  • Swedish Research Council for Health Working Life and Welfare
    1 January 2019 - 30 November 2021
  • Swedish Research Council for Health Working Life and Welfare
    1 December 2018 - 30 November 2021
  • Swedish Research Council for Health Working Life and Welfare
    1 December 2018 - 30 November 2021
  • Swedish Research Council for Health Working Life and Welfare
    1 December 2018 - 30 November 2024
  • Swedish Research Council for Health Working Life and Welfare
    1 January 2018 - 31 December 2020
  • Swedish Research Council for Health Working Life and Welfare
    1 January 2018 - 31 December 2021
  • Swedish Research Council
    1 January 2017 - 31 December 2020
  • New developments in organizational interventions, new evaluation models – a Nordic, multi-disciplinary co-creation approach
    Swedish Research Council
    1 January 2017 - 31 December 2018
  • Swedish Research Council for Health Working Life and Welfare
    1 November 2016 - 31 October 2020
  • Konferens: Improvements in Organizations - A cross-discipline perspective. Stockholm 4-5 March 2015.
    Swedish Research Council for Health Working Life and Welfare
    1 March 2015 - 31 March 2015
  • Swedish Research Council for Health Working Life and Welfare
    1 January 2015 - 31 December 2017
  • Swedish Research Council for Health Working Life and Welfare
    1 September 2013 - 31 August 2016
  • Resebidrag: 10th International Congress of Behavioral Medicine, Tokyo; Japan, 27-30 Augusti 2008.
    Swedish Research Council for Health Working Life and Welfare
    1 July 2008 - 30 September 2008

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