Browsing by Author "Kanerva, Katja"
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Kanerva, Katja (2014)The aim of my research is to understand work engagement and it's construction in the hospitality field. A central target of my interest is to observe how well employees in hotel and restaurant business feel and which factors generate work engagement and which factors prevent it's development among the employees in the field. Work engagement is a dimension of work well-being. It increases the well-being of employees and their coping at work. The meaning of work well-being emphasizes before anything in the work of front line employees, where the working conditions are challenging and working hours are varying. Work engagement's study is about what makes one enjoy his/her work and feel well. It can be seen as the antipode of burnout. The research data is formed of 24 scientific studies of work engagement and/or burnout in the context of hotel and restaurant field. As my research method I have used the systematic literature review. My research findings pointed out that previous research has been more concentrated in the antecedents and the consequences of work engagement rather than analyzing how engaged to work employees are. Main resources that influence on the construction of work engagement were personal traits and characteristics of work or workplace all together. These resources reduce the load of work related requirements and generate work engagement. Organizations need to invest into the work well-being of their employees by adding the supply and availability of resources. Although superiors can influence more on the characteristics of work and workplace they should not forget the personal traits of employees. It is important that superiors are aware of the factors relating to work engagement to be able to support these factors if possible.
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Kanerva, Katja (2005)In this Master's Thesis I study guidance practises, which facilitate first year students' integration into the university. Besides formal guidance, for example tutoring and peer tutoring, general student advising and introduction courses, I address my research to informal everyday guidance practices. I aim to highlight existing supportive practices, which are meaningful from the university students' perspective. My aim is to study what kind of guidance practises exists in university and how these practises support first year student. The aim of the guidance practises is to facilitate new university student to integrate into the academic community. I study the implementation of this aim as a development of an academic identity, which requires that students have an opportunity for guided participation in academic practises. The research is based on phenomenological-hermeneutic research tradition, and my aim is to produce information of students' everyday experiences and meanings. My informants were students of agriculture and forestry at University of Helsinki. I gathered research material utilizing the critical incident technique in 11 theme interviews, which I carried out with individuals, pairs or small groups. During interviews I asked the students to describe and evaluate their first year guidance experiences, especially those that were extreme positive or negative. Based on my research I specified four meaningful guidance practices: care of students, transparency of the practises of the learning community, presence of guidance in everyday activities of a student and communal reflection to studies. I represent the character and components of the guidance practises, and I also describe the meaning of those practises to university students.
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