The Value Match, a qualitative study of two Swedish organisations’ cultural strength

This study focuses on organisations’ cultural strengths. It aims to provide insight into factors that matter for an organisation’s cultural strength, which is investigated by looking at two Swedish organisations. In addition, forces and events behind a certain cultural state are identified. The study is qualitative and interviews have served as main source for the empirical chapter. The organisations are in different sectors and we will refer to them as Pluto and Jupiter, respectively. The strengths of the cultures are estimated by the use of Philipson’s (2004) framework that is based on the match between employee values and corporate values. The respective strengths are also analysed through the use of characteristics connected to factors such as values, leadership, history, goals and cooperation. The results show that Pluto can be seen as culturally stronger than Jupiter. At Pluto, employee values and corporate values match well. Pluto has managed to keep their values consistent for a long period of time and employee values are in line with the corporate values. Employees are fostered into the culture of the organisation from the moment they start working at Pluto. All this together indicates a strong organisational culture at Pluto. At Jupiter, corporate values are partly contradictory and not as clear, which makes employees interpret the values different from each other and is an indication of a weaker culture. The employee values are somewhat scattered and the energy within the organisation is not used optimally, as employees have different driving forces and ways of acting. Examples of factors where the organisations differ from each other, are the presence of the values in everyday work, consistency in values, reinforcement of values and validation of values. Historical explanations are identified for the cultural state that the organisations are in. Jupiter’s culture is marked by the significant market advantage they have had from the start. It evolved from this position to become very complex and diverse. Meanwhile, Pluto’s culture is shaped by a CEO they had in the 70’s that laid the foundation for what Pluto is today

FLEXIBILITETENS INVERKAN PÅ ARBETSMOTIVATION OCH ARBETSTILLFREDSSTÄLLELSE - en undersökning på hotellpersonal

Syftet med denna studie var att undersöka om det flexibla arbetet hade inverkan på personalens arbetsmotivation och arbetstillfredsställelse. Frågan som studien sökte svar på var hur personalen upplever att deras arbetsmotivation och arbetstillfredsställelse påverkades av att arbeta över avdelningsgränser och utföra arbetsuppgifter som inte alltid ingick i deras formella arbetsbeskrivning. Teori: Studien ämnade svara på syftet utifrån motivationsteorierna “tvåfaktorteorin” och “självbestämmandeteorin”. Dessutom användes Atkinsons “kärna och periferi” för att skapa förståelse för det flexibla arbetet. Metod: Studien använde en kvalitativ ansats och uppsatsens empiriska data samlades in genom 14 semi-strukturerade intervjuer av hotellpersonal som arbetade på olika avdelningar på ett hotell. Gemensamt för informanterna var att samtliga arbetade över avdelningsgränser och utföra arbetsuppgifter som inte ingick i deras arbetsbeskrivning. Bearbetning av empirisk data skedde genom tematisering vilket ledde till att det slutligen definierades tre teman. Resultat: Studiens resultat visade att det flexibla arbetet oftast upplevdes som positivt. De sociala relationer som flexibiliteten medförde var den mest framträdande aspekten som inverkade på motivationen. Det fanns både en drivkraft att vara social med kollegor på andra avdelningar och en stark lojalitet till sin egen avdelning. Lojaliteten ledde till att gruppen prioriterades framför det flexibla arbetet. Det flexibla arbetet ansågs även vara kompetensutvecklande, vilket påverkade informanternas arbetsmotivation på ett positivt sätt. Resultatet visade även på att bristen på kompetens var den faktor med störst negativ inverkan på informanternas arbetsmotivation och arbetstillfredsställelse och kunde i vissa fall leda till amotivation. Flexibla arbetsuppgifter som var för enkelt utformade kunde även de inverka negativt på arbetstillfredsställelsen och leda till amotivation. De positiva aspekterna av det flexibla arbetet, som uppgavs av informanterna, skiljde sig överlag inte mellan tillsvidare- och behovsanställda. Dock kunde de behovsanställdas sätt att arbeta flexibelt, med långa pass och intensiva växlingar mellan olika avdelningar, ha negati

Eric Stephanson Oral History

Eric Stephanson was interviewed by Brian Sisk on December 13, 2019 for approximately one hour and 5 minutes for the Pediatric Palliative Care Oral History Project.https://digitalcommons.wustl.edu/oralhistories/1046/thumbnail.jp

The Nature and Function of Point of View in Defoe

This study provides a technical examination of the mechanics of point of view in four of Defoe's works of prose fiction. It is probably one of the first studies that has reviewed Defoe's artistic abilities from a purely technical aspect. By examining the technical skill that the works exhibit, the thesis attempts to provide new information and ideas about the individual works, as well as to suggest that Defoe is a capable and careful writer.Master of Arts (MA

En sorts bildningsroman

[A Bildungsroman of sorts]This article by Anders Stephanson, which reflects on the development of his own research, was originally published in English as “A Bildungsroman of sorts” in the academic network H-Diplo’s essay series “Learning the Scholar’s Craft: Reflections of Historians and International Relations Scholars”, essay no. 264, 4 August 2020 (https://issforum.org/essays/PDF/E264.pdf). To this Swedish translation we have also added Stephansson’s concluding (unpublished) comment on the debate he had with Johan Lagerkvist in the Swedish daily Dagens Nyheter in April 2021.Citation: Stephanson, Anders (2021) “En sorts bildningsroman”, in Arkiv. Tidskrift för samhällsanalys, issue 13, pp. 113–132. DOI: https://doi.org/10.13068/2000-6217.13.K1Den här artikeln av Anders Stephanson som reflekterar över utvecklingen av den egna forskningen publicerades ursprungligen på engelska som ”A Bildungsroman of sorts” i det akademiska nätverket H-Diplos essäserie ”Learning the Scholar’s Craft: Reflections of Historians and International Relations Scholars”, essä nr 264, 4 augusti 2020 (https://issforum.org/essays/PDF/E264.pdf). Till denna svenska översättning har vi också fogat Stephansons avslutande (opublicerade) kommentar till den debatt han fört med Johan Lagerkvist i Dagens Nyheter i april 2021.Förslag på källangivelse: Stephanson, Anders (2021) ”En sorts bildningsroman”, i Arkiv. Tidskrift för samhällsanalys, nr 13, s. 113–132. DOI: https://doi.org/10.13068/2000-6217.13.K

Aircraft Skin Handling Device for Magellan Aerospace

Magellan Aerospace required a material handling device for composite aircraft skins to reduce the amount of damage that occurred during manual handling and operation by the operators. The damage that occurs on the composite skin delays the production of the horizontal tail assembly and creates large overhead cost for the company. The material handling device, as required by the clients and operators, had to transport the composite skin in the near vertical position and allow for rotation to the horizontal position for various work processes. The device also needed to support a change in the skin as the skin becomes trimmed in one of the work processes. In addition, the skin needs to be height adjustable for ergonomic purposes. Further requirements from the client were safety, economical to manufacture, sturdy, rugged and easy to maintain. The objective of this report was to design the most efficient material handling device that will meet all of the clients’ requirements. This objective was achieved by establishing customer needs, developing various design concepts and optimizing the highest scored concept. The device consists of a base frame that sits on four caster wheels. The frame has two vertical members. Attached to the members is a vertical adjustment mechanism and a rotational adjustment mechanism. An upper frame is connected to the rotational mechanism and has welded clamps. The clamps are used to mount the aircraft skin to the device. The base frame is made from aluminum 6061-T6 tubing with an overall dimension of 60x108x50 inches. A truss design minimized the effect of bending in the members. Under maximum loading, the frame has a minimum yield stress factor of safety of 2. The height adjustment mechanism consists of a square tubing sleeve that sits outside of the vertical member of the frame, free to slide up and down. Pin holes are placed through the frame to lock the sleeve at a height range of 34 inches to 39 inches from the ground using a ½ inch pin. An extension spring is connected to the sleeve and the frame to support the skin during vertical adjustments. The rotational...Magellan Aerospac

Language, Rhetoric, and Reality in Elizabethan Prose Friction

Pages 19 to 23 have been omitted because of RevisionElizabethan prose fiction has been virtually ignored for a long time. The question of rhetoric in this fiction is an extremely complex issue, and studies which have examined this aspect are usually stylistic analyses that fragment the works by dissecting isolated passages for stylistic data concerning an author's manipulation of particular schemes and tropes. This approach has often tended to ignore the possibility that larger ideals and attitudes may underlie the use of rhetorical figures (i.e. elocutio) in particular passages. While this dissertation does not attempt to resolve the problems of the relationship between rhetorical training in the grammar schools and Elizabethan fiction, or between the English vernacular rhetorics and Elizabethan fiction, it offers some idea about what these writers thought about rhetoric beyond its status as ornamentation. This thesis tries to discover what these writers thought about the possibilities of rhetorical training --that is, about its moral status as an art of persuasion. In my view, the major writers of Elizabethan prose fiction dramatize the abuses of verbal skills; they explore some of the techniques of deception, distortion and manipulation that are afforded by rhetorical training. The subject-matter of this fiction is largely concerned with verbal methods of persuasion that manipulate and distort, that rely on false logic and dishonesty; these writers are concerned with rhetorical attempts to change the face of the "real" world in order to justify a particular idea, action, or belief. My thesis explicates the prose fictional works of Gascoigne, Lyly, Sidney, Nashe and Deloney with this theory in mind. As well as suggesting the ways in which rhetoric is handled as a subject in a variety of fictional contexts, my thesis also explicates the rhetorical strategies which these authors themselves use to involve their reader in evaluating rhetoric.ThesisDoctor of Philosophy (PhD