Authors:Agnar Freyr Helgason Pages: 159 - 182 Abstract: Conventional wisdom suggests that occupational class plays a limited role in explaining vote choice in Iceland. In this paper, we argue that the death of class in Icelandic politics may be premature and that it still plays a role in structuring political preferences and party choice. While the importance of the traditional class cleavage may have declined to the point of irrelevance, we suggest that there is a new type of class voting in Iceland, containing both a vertical and a horizontal component. Furthermore, we argue that the Great Recession played a critical role in increasing the strength of class voting around this new class schema, both because of the conflict around economic issues it generated, but also because of its facilitation of the formation and success of new parties. We test our main hypotheses using multinomial logistic regression on data from the Icelandic National Election Study from 1999 to 2016 and apply a modified measure of cleavage strength, which we refer to as “Full Kappa”. Our results suggest that class voting is alive and well in Iceland and that its strength has increased following the Great Recession. PubDate: 2018-12-13 DOI: 10.13177/irpa.a.2018.14.3.1 Issue No:Vol. 14, No. 3 (2018)
Authors:Eva Harðardóttir, Berglind Rós Magnúsdóttir Pages: 183 - 204 Abstract: In spite of the fact that Iceland accepts fewer refugees then other European countries, the number of young refugees in Iceland has grown as a result of international and forced migration. While there is a growing body of Icelandic research on multicultural and inclusive education the focus has yet to concern itself with refugee youth and their educational or social challenges. Multiculturalism and matters of integration are increasingly being contested as refugee youth reception and education are perceived to be in a state of crisis. This study examined the forms of policy in place related to young refugees in Iceland and how it impacts their educational and social inclusion. Drawing on the field of critical education policy analysis, we analyzed official policy documents as well as narratives of fourteen lower and upper secondary teachers. Findings indicate that the current policies are limited in scope and emphasis equality on the basis of sameness and access to education rather than equity, social justice and quality of education. The policy, as it appears both in the form of texts and discourse, is shaped by neo-assimilative ideology that highlights individual responsibility for educational outcomes through choice policy, active participation and Icelandic language skills based on national discourse of inclusion. Teachers described themselves as “moving in the dark” without institutional policy guidance or support making it it difficult for them to make ethical and political choices that challenge the normative view of education and integration in what they describe as new and challenging situations. PubDate: 2018-12-13 DOI: 10.13177/irpa.a.2018.14.3.2 Issue No:Vol. 14, No. 3 (2018)
Authors:Þórhallur Örn Guðlaugsson, Gylfi Dalmann Aðalsteinsson, Svala Guðmundsdóttir Pages: 205 - 226 Abstract: Organizational culture has been much debated in recent years. Organizational culture can be based on various factors such as values, beliefs, attitudes of employees, their perception, symbol in the workplace, communication patterns and behaviour. This paper discusses the comparison between the organizational culture of public organizations and private companies by using Denison’s method of measuring Organizational culture. The questionnaire is based on 66 questions where 60 questions are used to assess the Organizational culture. Denison model of Organizational culture consists of four main cultural dimensions and 12 subdimension. This research is based on 44 existing surveys of corporate and public sector Organizational culture. The total number of answers is 4.071. Of these, 1,095 are from eight public sector organizations and 2,976 from 36 private companies. 13 measurements took place in 2010 or earlier, 13 in 2011 to 2014 and 18 in 2015 or later. The results of this study show that public sector organizations have what is categorized as weaker culture than private companies. The biggest difference is between the subdimensions, Goals and Objectives, Vision, Team Orientation and Creating Change, and less difference was found for Core Values. PubDate: 2018-12-13 DOI: 10.13177/irpa.a.2018.14.3.3 Issue No:Vol. 14, No. 3 (2018)
Authors:Ásta Dís Óladóttir, Fjóla Kim Björnsdóttir Pages: 227 - 250 Abstract: This article discusses the implementation of open-plan offices among public sector employees. The so called open-plan offices are debated, although it seems to be a popular way of designing office spaces. An open-plan office refers to two or more office desks for individuals which are layed out in one open space. The main objective of this article is to review how public sector employees experienced the transition to open-plan offices and how the implementation proceeded. This article will also review whether the government has a formal policy regarding the extensive change to place employees in open-plan offices. Few domestic studies have been conducted on employees’ experience of moving into open plan offices and this is the first study of public sector employees’ attitudes towards such changes. In this study two public organizations and two ministries which all had recently implemented open-plan offices were selected. A survey was sent to 182 employees at these organizations and ministries. 90 employees participated, answering questions about how the implement of change was delivered, leaving the response rate at almost 50%. Government officials were interviewed to find out whether a policy was formulated for the implementation of open-plan workspaces. The main conclusion is that half of the participants like being in an open-plan office, but the majority prefers to be in a closed office. Despite that, most participants feel there is less privacy to do their work, noise has increased, and concentration has diminished. One third of participants feels that productivity has reduced. Furthermore, no policy has been formulated by the government regarding the implement of open-plan workspaces. PubDate: 2018-12-13 DOI: 10.13177/irpa.a.2018.14.3.4 Issue No:Vol. 14, No. 3 (2018)
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