As the world continues to diversify and we begin to move towards a majority-minority America, it becomes ever critical for organizations to utilize diversity training effectively to create a more equitable work environment. This is especially true when considering the growth of Latino immigrants in the work force and how majority group members may view this as a threat to their group dominance, resulting in experiences of discrimination and prejudice towards minorities. However, research regarding the best methods to utilize to reduce prejudice against specific targeted groups has been inconclusive, and little work has been done to investigate personality characteristics as potential boundary conditions of diversity training effectiveness. Thus, the goal of this study is to investigate the effectiveness of two diversity training methods, perspective taking and imagined contact, specifically for trainees low in Openness to Experience who may be especially resistant to training. To test this over two time points (two weeks apart), we recruited White participants ( N= 471) via Amazon’s Mechanical Turk, highlighted the demographic changes occurring in the modern workforce, randomly assigned them to either the perspective taking, imagined contact, or control condition, and then measured their Openness to Experience, intergroup anxiety, prejudiced attitudes and behavioral intentions towards Latino immigrants. Results revealed no significant interactions with Openness to Experience, thus resulting in its omission from the final model. Results also did not provide evidence for the training methods having a significant direct effect on the reduction of prejudice and the increase in behavioral intentions towards Latino immigrants. However, there was support found for intergroup anxiety such that it mediated the relationship between the diversity training methods and prejudiced attitudes and behavioral intentions. Exploratory analyses also revealed imagined contact to be more effective at reducing prejudice and increasing positive behavioral intentions via a reduction in intergroup anxiety compared to the perspective taking condition. Implications, future research, and limitations are discussed.

Made available in DSpace on 2016-04-27T19:31:11Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Joao Batista Teofilo Silva.pdf: 1973892 bytes, checksum: 9bd2a86ff5e34980b07518b3d30bc909 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2015-09-25 / Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico / This work tries to understand the actions of Ceará's newspapers Correio da Semana and O Povo within the fight for redemocratization conjuncture between 1974 and 1985. It also tries to understand the role played by these newspapers in the consolidation of the opening process "slow, gradual and safe". It faces the role of the press as a social practice and an ingredient for historical events, allowing us to understand the role that the press plays in the formation of memories, in building consensus and in the struggles for hegemony, establishing alliances with political forces in various situations. This is not about understanding the actions of these newspapers from mere speeches, as if these were not part of the events that sought to intervene in the social. But it is about understanding these actions as a social constitutive language that tries to defend social projects, articulate political pacts and indicate perspectives from the past, present and future. The studies on the performance of the Brazilian press during the civil-military dictatorship, centralized in newspapers from the states of Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo, often tend to simplify the historical process from the actions of few newspapers, homogenizing issues that are way more complex. The reflections of this research try to provide new contributions to the generalized views, that reduce the role of the Brazilian press to a few newspapers which, despite their importance, are far from representing a historical experience that is more complex. Reflecting about the consents, friction and ambivalences that permeate the work of these newspapers, this research seeks to show that it has not been always that the Brazilian press has nurtured supportive relationships with the dictatorship to then move to the opposition field. The supportive relationships also marked by friction, not sum up in comfortable dichotomies as in favor and against. Such relationships, more complex, lead us to thinking on the role the press played in consolidating the dictatorship and in building its political opening process as revealed within the many facets of the dictatorial project, which was not simply imposed on March 31, 1964, but built from the military alliances with civilian sectors of society, including the newspapers Correio da Semana and O Povo / Este trabalho buscar compreender a atuação dos jornais cearenses Correio da Semana e O Povo, durante a conjuntura de lutas que marcou o processo de redemocratização no Brasil entre os anos de 1974 e 1985. Busca, igualmente, compreender o papel desempenhado por esses jornais na consolidação do projeto de abertura "lenta, segura e gradual". Pensar a atuação da imprensa como prática social e ingrediente dos acontecimentos históricos, permite compreender o papel que desempenha na constituição de memórias, na construção do consenso e nas lutas por hegemonia, estabelecendo alianças com forças políticas em diversas conjunturas. Não se trata de compreender a atuação desses jornais a partir de meros discursos, como se esses estivessem deslocados das lutas que buscam intervir no social. Mas compreendê-los como linguagem constitutiva do social que defende projetos, articula pactos políticos e indica perspectivas de passado, presente e futuro. Os estudos sobre a atuação da imprensa brasileira durante a ditadura civil-militar, centralizados em jornais pertencentes aos estados do Rio de Janeiro e São Paulo, muitas vezes tendem a simplificar o processo histórico a partir da atuação de poucos jornais, homogeneizando questões que são muito mais complexas. As reflexões desta pesquisa buscam oferecer novas contribuições às visões de algum modo generalizadas, que reduzem o papel da imprensa brasileira à atuação de alguns poucos jornais que, apesar de suas importâncias, estão longe de representar uma experiência histórica que é mais complexa. Pensando os consentimentos, os atritos e as ambivalências que permeiam a atuação desses jornais, este trabalho busca mostrar que nem sempre a imprensa brasileira esteve nutrindo relações de apoio à ditadura, para, depois, passar para o campo das oposições. As relações de apoio, marcada também por atritos, não se resumem a confortáveis dicotomias de a favor e contra. Tais relações, mais complexas, permitem pensar no papel que a imprensa desempenhou na consolidação da ditadura e na construção do seu projeto de abertura política, como relevam facetas de um projeto de poder ditatorial que não foi simplesmente imposto em 31 de março de 1964, mas que foi construído a partir de alianças dos militares com setores civis da sociedade, entre os quais os jornais Correio da Semana e O Povo

Genom förändringar av organisationsstrukturen, då medarbetare idag arbetar i mer självständiga grupper och en chef inte är ständigt närvarande är, fungerande medarbetarskap önskvärt. Medarbetarskap är ett koncept som består av olika delar såsom samarbete, ansvarstagande, öppenhet och engagemang. Dessa delar behöver fungera för att ett medarbetarskap ska existera. Arbetsplatsträffar är en mötesform i organisationer som ska ge medarbetare möjlighet att påverka sin arbetssituation. Frågor som diskuteras mellan medarbetarna i deras informella arbetsmiljö riskerar att inte behandlas på arbetsplatsträffar.Studien handlar om hur medarbetarna utövar medarbetarskap under arbetsplatsträffar. Vi har genomfört en kvalitativ studie genom att observera fyra arbetsplatsträffar inom äldre- och handikappomsorgen, i en mindre kommun i södra Sverige. Därutöver har vi intervjuat nio av de medarbetare som deltog under träffarna. Det insamlade materialet har vi sedan analyserat och tolkat utifrån de fyra olika medarbetarskapsbegreppen. Materialet gällande medarbetarskap har vi främst hittat i litteratur från Sverige och Danmark eftersom forskning främst kommer därifrån. Det har inte gjorts mycket forskning internationellt inom ämnet och få vetenskapliga artiklar är publicerade.Resultatet av vår studie visar att medarbetarskap inte är särskilt utvecklat på arbetsplatsträffar. Medarbetarna är inte speciellt engagerade, öppna eller ansvarstagande och samarbetet är lågt. Det vi framförallt uppmärksammat är att om ansvarstagande ska möjliggöras behöver de tre andra delarna av medarbetarskap fungera. Vidare menar vi att medarbetarskap på arbetsplatsträffar innebär att uttrycka sina åsikter och utbyta information, känna samhörighet och interagera med gruppen samt att ges möjlighet till att delta i beslutsfattande. För att frambringa dessa saker behöver medarbetarna vara förberedda på vad som kommer att tas upp på mötet och reflektera över det så att de kan delta i diskussionerna. Först därefter får medarbetarna en vilja att ta ansvar och vara med och påverka sin arbetssituation.

A tese versa sobre o problema da verdade em Merleau-Ponty e sua oposição à verdade como adequação, portanto, à ontologia clássica dualista e, nesta via, sobre a arte como acesso à verdade, no percurso desencadeado pelo filósofo, e o que daí decorre em relação à instituição de uma ontologia. A arte, pois, como expressão da trama do ser por dentro - não imitação, re-apresentação ou fuga e, neste sentido, testemunho e rebento de uma reversibilidade irredutível (do expresso e da expressão, do signo e do sentido, do corpo e do espírito, de mim e de outrem, da palavra e do silêncio) no que toca à experiência do ser. Traços estes que circunscrevem a verdade no crivo da abertura e da coexistência e, com isto, do inacabamento da linguagem, da ação e do pensamento, compreendida, em última instância, como coesão sem conceito e, deste modo, não adequação. Com este foco, voltamo-nos inicialmente para a reformulação do problema da verdade nos termos de uma efetiva conduta interrogativa cujo solo é a existência enquanto jogo de imanência e transcendência; em seguida, para a ontologia da obra de arte e a intersecção com a filosofia e, deste modo, para a expressão inacabada da verdade; e, por fim, para o mundo sensível e, neste sentido, para a verdade na instância pré-reflexiva. / This thesis deals with the problem of truth in Merleau-Ponty and his opposition to truth as adequacy, therefore, to the classical dualist ontology and, in this way, to art as access to the path opened up by the philosopher and what comes out from this in relation to the institution of an ontology. Hence, art as expression of the being´s weave inside itself not imitation or reapresentation or flight and, in that sense, a proof and a bud of an irreducible reversibility (of what is expressed and the expression, the sign and the meaning, the body and the spirit, the self and the other, the word and the silence) as far as the experience of the being is concerned. These traces circumscribe truth in the riddle of openness and coexistence and so the unfinishiment of language, of action and thought understood, in the last instance, as cohesion without concept and, in that way, no adequacy. On this view, we turn away initially towards the reformulation of the problem of truth in terms of an effective interrogative conduct whose ground is existence while a game of immanence and transcendancy; besides, of the ontology of the work of art and the intersection with philosophy and therefore the unfinished expression of truth; and, at last, to the sensitive world and, in that sense, to truth in the pre-reflective instance.

O progressivo desenvolvimento das relações internacionais, acompanhado dos múltiplos reflexos da globalização, em especial do aparecimento de novos sujeitos que atuam, concomitantemente, nos âmbitos interno e externo, resultou na intensificação dos pontos de contatos entre Direito Constitucional e Direito Internacional. Esse cenário faz que, cada vez mais, as fronteiras entre o nacional e o exterior tornem-se rarefeitas, impondo significativas transformações em conceitos tradicionais consagrados pelo tempo. Assim, as Constituições nacionais abrem-se para o Direito das Gentes e as normas internacionais antes encarregadas de apenas possibilitar a coexistência entre soberanias ampliam seu campo de incidência na medida em que passam a disciplinar temas que eram objeto de estudo somente do constitucionalismo. É exatamente esse acentuado entrelaçamento entre as ordens jurídicas que inspirou a elaboração desta tese, cujo escopo principal é o de contribuir para que se conheça, ainda que de modo incompleto, os reflexos sentidos no Direito Constitucional brasileiro em decorrência do processo de internacionalização das Constituições. Apesar da ambivalência inerente à problemática tratada, na compreensão desse complexo quadro, primou-se por um enfoque centrado na perspectiva do Direito Constitucional. Essa opção demandou, pois, análises que evidenciassem como o constitucionalismo pátrio sem perder sua identidade e preservando suas conquistas tem enfrentado o desafio de assegurar a execução interna de uma infinidade de mandamentos provenientes do exterior. As conclusões obtidas apontam para a importância de cultivar um permanente diálogo entre Constituição e Direito Internacional como instrumento para que essa crescente interconexão resulte em aperfeiçoamento de ambas as ordens jurídicas. Do ponto de vista do Direito Constitucional, cabe antecipar que a aproximação sistêmica em questão já permite vislumbrar a revitalização do funcionamento do mecanismo de freios e contrapesos derivado do princípio da separação de poderes, a valorização dos mandamentos exteriores por parte das autoridades nacionais responsáveis por aplicá-los e, ainda, o fortalecimento da autonomia federativa em matéria de interações com o mundo externo. Embora os resultados finais desse processo sejam incertos, acredita-se que ele não acabará com o papel das Constituições para os Estados nacionais porque, se isso acontece, toda a dinâmica dos relacionamentos estudados restará severamente comprometida. / The progressive development of international relations, followed by the multiple reflexes of globalization especially the emergence of new subjects that act simultaneously in the internal and external spheres has resulted in the intensification of the intersections between Constitutional law and International law. Such a scenario makes the boundaries between national and international increasingly rarefied, imposing significant changes in traditional concepts consecrated by time. Therefore, national Constitutions open up to the Ius Gentium and the international rules originally in charge of merely enabling the coexistence of sovereignties expanding their scope as they shall regulate topics that were formerly approached only by constitutionalism. It is precisely this strong entwinement of legal systems that has inspired the development of this thesis, whose main aim is to contribute for the knowing, albeit incomplete, of the reflexes felt in the Brazilian Constitutional law as a result of the internationalization process of Constitutions. Despite the ambivalence inherent to the problem approached, we have chosen to focus on the Constitutional law perspective in the understanding of this complex scenario. Such an option has demanded, thus, analyses that would evidence how national constitutionalism without losing its identity and by preserving its achievements has faced the challenge of ensuring the internal implementation of a plethora of external commands. The conclusions drawn highlight the importance of cultivating a constant dialogue between Constitution and International law as a means for this increasing interconnection to result in improvement for both legal systems. From the point of view of Constitutional law, we should anticipate that the systemic approximation at issue provides insight into the revitalization of the functioning of the checks and balances mechanism deriving from the principle of separation of powers, the valuing of external commands by the national authorities in charge of their enforcement, and also the strengthening of federal autonomy in terms of interaction with the external world. Even though the final results of this process are still uncertain, we believe that it will not end the role of the Constitutions for the national States, because, if that happens, the whole dynamics of the relationships studied will ultimately be severely compromised.

The focus of this dissertation is exploring personality factors that impact performance within a small insurance agency. The primary research question is, what is (or are) the best personality factor(s), sub-facets, or constructs, that contribute to increased performance within an insurance agency. Three of the Five-Factor Model dimensions, extroversion, conscientiousness, and openness to experience along with grit and hardiness were examined, as well as their sub-facets. Grit and hardiness were not found to add additional explanation of the variance while five of the sub-facets were found to better explain the variance over the composite dimensions.

For decades, there has been substantial research showing that ability tests effectively predict what people can do, but it is only in the last fifteen years that it has come to be generally accepted that personality is a useful predictor of what they will do. Much of this change in appreciation of the role of personality in predicting performance has been attributed to the application of the Five-Factor Model (FFM) of personality to personality-performance research. The FFM was developed on the basis of the lexical hypothesis, which states that it is advantageous for people to be able to accurately describe the behaviour of others, and therefore the most important dimensions of personality will be encoded in natural languages. An associated premise is that natural language descriptors refer to an individual's surface appearance or reputation (i.e., their observable behaviours), rather than the underlying processes or genotype of personality (i.e., people's cognitive and affective processing). This reasoning was used as the basis for most of the factor-analytical studies of personality descriptors within the English language, and one of the most robust factor solutions was the FFM. The FFM contains the personality dimensions Extraversion, Agreeableness, Conscientiousness, Openness to Experience and Emotional Stability. Although the FFM continues to evolve, particularly in response to cross-cultural research, the five basic dimensions appear to be remarkably consistent, and at least the core of each of these has been identified in the first six or seven factors found in every language considered to date. Of the five factors, Conscientiousness has been the one most reliably associated with workplace performance. Workplace performance itself has undergone a major reconsideration over the last fifteen to twenty years. Prior to that time, formal job roles and responsibilities were typically considered the start and finish of performance, but formal job requirements are now recognised as only one aspect of performance, which is increasingly referred to as Task Performance. Task Performance tends to change substantially from job to job, but there are other aspects of job performance, most notably Citizenship Performance, which appear to be consistent in most jobs. Citizenship Performance includes activities undertaken by an employee which facilitate Task Performance, such as making greater effort, complying with rules and procedures, and assisting others. Whereas Task Performance appears to be closely related to an individual's abilities, Citizenship Performance was originally proposed as an aspect of performance which is influenced by attitudinal and personality variables. Thus it has been proposed that Citizenship Performance largely mediates the relationship between personality variables, such as Conscientiousness, and Task Performance. However, this predictors of performance model has previously only been investigated in workplace settings. Yet performance is a relevant construct not only within workplace settings, but also within academic settings. In addition, the FFM dimension of Conscientiousness has been observed to be a reliable predictor of academic performance, just as it is a reliable predictor of workplace performance. Within educational settings, performance is typically tied to assessment measures, such as marks and GPA, which appear to measure academic Task Performance. However, no previous research appears to have considered whether Citizenship Performance mediates the relationship between Conscientiousness and Task Performance within an academic setting. Study One of this dissertation was designed to test this proposition. Participants in this study were 175 students enrolled within an introductory management subject. Participants provided assessments of their own personality using the Mini-Markers (Saucier, 1994), while Citizenship Performance ratings were provided by students' peers, at the end of a three-week group project. The hand-scored version of the Computerised Adaptive Rating Scales (CARS: Borman, 1999; Coleman & Borman, 2000) was used to assess Citizenship, but unfortunately the three scales of the CARS did not demonstrate good internal reliability. Consequently, a factor analysis was conducted to establish a new scale using the CARS items. This new scale, which was labelled Active Support, used six of the twelve CARS items and had satisfactory internal reliability. It was observed that the resulting scores on this Citizenship Performance scale were positively correlated with both Conscientiousness and academic Task Performance (as measured by grades). As predicted, Citizenship Performance entirely mediated the relationship between Conscientiousness and academic Task Performance. Therefore, the results of Study One were consistent with the predictors of performance model. It was concluded that Citizenship Performance is an important component of performance within academic settings, just as it is within workplace settings. Despite the fact that the relationship between both workplace and academic performance, and Conscientiousness, is reliable and well-established, correlations between Conscientiousness and performance tend to be moderate at best. Previous research has observed that other-rated measures of Conscientiousness have higher correlations with academic performance than do self-rated measures. Consequently, Study Two explored whether other-rated Conscientiousness improved the prediction of academic Citizenship and Task Performance, using a similar design to that utilised in Study One. One hundred and twenty-two students participated in Study Two while undertaking the same course as the students who had participated in Study One. Most of the results of Study Two were consistent with expectations, but there were some unexpected outcomes. Other-rated Conscientiousness was found to be a significantly better predictor of both academic Task and Citizenship Performance than was self-rated Conscientiousness. However, contrary to previous ideas, the relationship between other-rated Conscientiousness and Task Performance was not mediated by Citizenship Performance. In contrast, it was observed that the correlation between other-rated Conscientiousness and other-rated Citizenship Performance was .61 if both ratings were obtained from the same raters, and .44 if the two ratings were obtained from independent raters. When corrected for measurement unreliability, these estimates approached unity, which is consistent with the idea that, for the other-raters, Conscientiousness and Citizenship Performance were measuring the same construct. However, this study had several limitations, including its small sample size, the use of an unusual measure for Citizenship Performance, and the fact that it had been conducted in an academic setting. Therefore, there was a need to replicate Study Two before accepting that Conscientiousness and Citizenship Performance are actually much more strongly associated than previous research has indicated. In order to replicate Study Two, while addressing some of its limitations, a third study was conducted within a workplace setting. In Study Three, general staff supervisors within a public university were asked to rate their staff on measures of both personality and Citizenship Performance. In addition to Active Support, the measure used in Studies One and Two, two additional measures were included, which assessed the aspects of Citizenship Performance referred to as Individual Initiative and Helping Behaviour. The FFM dimension of Agreeableness was also added, because previous research indicates that, while Conscientiousness may be a better predictor of Individual Initiative, Helping Behaviour should be more closely associated with the FFM dimension of Agreeableness. However, using multiple ratings derived from the same raters can create common method bias in correlations, and so, in line with previous recommendations (Podsakoff, MacKenzie, Lee, & Podsakoff, 2003), Structural Equation Modelling (SEM) was used to control for this. The resulting correlations confirmed that there were strong relationships between the measures of Citizenship Performance and personality. Helping Behaviour had a strong relationship with supervisor-rated Agreeableness (.81), while Individual Initiative was significantly correlated with supervisor-rated Agreeableness (.44) and supervisor-rated Conscientiousness (.32). Active Support had strong correlations with these measures of personality (.57 and .55 respectively). The results of Study Three indicate that, for the participating supervisors, the Helping Behaviour dimension of Citizenship Performance is largely the same as the Agreeableness dimension of personality. Unlike Study Two, Active Support appeared to be not so closely associated with Conscientiousness, but instead seemed to occupy a position halfway between other-rated Conscientiousness and other-rated Agreeableness. Individual Initiative occupies a similar position, but is not so closely linked to these other-rated personality variables. Although these results suggest that, when compared with the students in Study Two, the supervisors in Study Three had a slightly different view of Active Support, it remains clear that much or most of the variance in each of these measures of Citizenship Performance is accounted for by these other-rated measures of personality. In order to understand why the strength of the relationship between the other-rated personality dimensions of Conscientiousness and Agreeableness, and the performance construct of Citizenship Performance, has been overlooked by previous researchers, it was necessary to reconsider the basic reasons for disagreement in ratings. Agreement between raters tends to vary considerably, depending on who is rating whom. Self-other agreement on ratings is typically modest, other-other agreement tends to be higher, but alternate-form and test-retest agreement are typically higher still. The reasons for this appear to be related to the extent to which ratings are produced using similar observations, and integrating these in similar ways, as well as the extent to which ratings are affected by specific aspects of individual rater-ratee relationships. Previous research has provided estimates for these effects which can be used to correct correlations for resulting biases. When these are applied to correlations between ratings of measures, such as performance or personality, which are provided by different other-raters, these correlations approximate unity. This includes the correlations, reported in this dissertation, between other-rated personality and other-rated Citizenship Performance. In conclusion, the results of the research reported in this dissertation are consistent with the idea that measures of Citizenship Performance are largely accounted for by other-rated measures of Conscientiousness and Agreeableness. It is argued that this conclusion is consistent with the lexical hypothesis which underlay the development of the FFM, as well as with the theoretical basis for the construct of performance. The dissertation concludes with a discussion of the implications of this conclusion, for a range of fields, including understanding the relationship between personality and performance, methodological consequences for future research, and practical implications for staff selection and performance appraisal systems.

<p><p>Syftet med uppsatsen var att utifrån en fallstudie av ett mellanstort svenskt industriellt företag, som tillverkar kundspecifika produkter, studera etablerade kundrelationer beträffande varför de är viktiga att behålla och utveckla. En fallstudie med kvalitativa intervjuer genomfördes på Sjölanders Mekaniska samt med två av deras etablerade kunder. Frågor såsom "Vad får kunderna att bli långvariga hos Sjölanders Mekaniska?", "Hur arbetar företagen för att föra relationen framåt?" och "Vad ser företagen som viktiga faktorer i en affärsrelation?" besvarades och resultatet visade på att industriella relationer stärks och utvecklas genom att parterna för en öppen dialog och är tydliga med att framföra sina behov. Dessutom anses kvaliteten på produkterna öka då medarbetarna har lång erfarenhet av tillverkningen, vilket medför att kompetensen som finns i en etablerad relation svår och kostsam att ersätta. Vidare är det viktigt med en hållbar planeringsfunktion som aktivt håller koll på leveranssäkerheten. Slutligen kan den tillit som skapas mellan individerna i en affärsrelation ses som relationens viktigaste byggsten.</p></p> / <p>The purpose of the thesis was to perform a case study of a medium sized industrial company that produce customer specific products, and to study established customer relationships in regard of why they are important to keep and develop. The case study of Sjölanders Mekaniska and two of their established customers has been done through qualitative interviews. Questions such as "Why do the customers continue to choose Sjölanders Mekaniska?",<strong> </strong>"How do the companies work to bring their relationships forward?", and "What do the companies see as important factors in a business relationship?" were answered and the result showed that industrial relationships strengthens and develops thorough an open dialogue between the parties where clear objectives are presented. Further the quality of the products is said to increase with the employees' long experience of the production. Therefore, one can see the competence that exists within an established relationship, as difficult and expensive to replace.  Moreover, it is seen as important to maintain a sustainable planning function which actively keeps control over the reliability of delivery. Finally, the trust that is created between the individuals in a business relationship, is seen as a the most important building block of the relationship as a whole.</p>

<p><strong>This paper explains the position of the principle of transparency in the EU up to the year 2010. (Including the changes made by the Lisbon treaty.)</strong></p><p>The question to answer is: how could transparency develop into a general principle without being mentioned explicitly in the legislation? It was also out to try to see what the future of transparency might look like.</p><p>In the conclusion it was found that openness and transparency was not something fixed, but an evolving concept. If it was encoded into a single written principle, it could hamper the institutions‟ adaptation to the developing case-law. In the end I concluded that with will and trust, transparency could continue to grow in the future.</p>

<p>This essay concerns PR-consultants and their view on their work. The purpose was to find out which type of communication they use in contact with the target. By target, we mean the group of people the employer wants to reach with help of the PR-consultant. For example: Jägarförbundet wants to get help from a PR-consultant to influence someone in the government so that Swedish hunters can shoot more wolves, than the target group is the one in the government. We also wanted to find out if the PR-consultants are aware of the image the public have of them and if they are trying to change it into a more positive one, by using more ethics, openness and to have more focus on the relations aspect.  PR in the future with new social media (like Internet) was also a subject, where we wanted to know how much they involve social media in their work. </p><p> </p><p>Our main questions were:</p><ul><li>How do PR-consultants relate to openness in communication, ethics and social media?</li><li>Which one of Grunig’s PR-models is most occuring in the PR-consultants work?</li></ul><p> </p><p>We made a qualitative study where we carried out interviews with six PR-consultants. They had different alignments and titles but they had PR-work in common.</p><p>The results showed that the PR-consultants are aware of their image in public and they are active in trying to make a better image of them. They do appreciate openness, truth and ethics and they are willing to inform people about their work and their methods. The study also showed that they use social media as much as the other, more traditional media, but  the choice of medium depends on the target. The general understanding by the PR-consultants is that the social media makes it easier having a dialogue with the target.</p><p>Regarding Grunig and his PR-models, the result showed that there are several models that occur. These are the public information, the two-way asymmetrical and the mixed-motive-model. Together they fulfil the demands on truth, dialogue and the possibility in compromising. Althogh they all have elements of persuasion and influences.</p> / <p>Denna uppsats handlar om PR-konsulters syn på sin verksamhet där syftet var att undersöka vilken slags kommunikation de anser att de för med sin målgrupp. Med begreppet målgrupp menar vi den grupp som PR-konsultens uppdragsgivare vill nå med hjälp av denne. Exempel:  Jägarförbundet tar kontakt med en PR-byrå i syfte att påverka någon i riksdagen så att svenska jägare får skjuta fler vargar, då är den i riksdagen målgrupp. Vi ville även undersöka om PR-konsulterna anser att de aktivt försöker ändra på den bild som allmänheten har av deras bransch med hjälp av till exempel etik, öppenhet och fokus på relationer. Däri lades också vikt på framtidens PR-arbete där vi ville veta i hur hög grad sociala medier involveras i verksamheten. </p><p> </p><p>Våra frågeställningar var:</p><ul><li>Hur förhåller sig PR-konsulterna till de förändrade villkor som råder inom branschen? Med förändrade villkor menar vi nya krav på öppenhet i kommunikationen, etik och användandet av sociala medier. </li><li>Vilken av Grunigs PR-modeller förekommer mest i PR-konsulternas arbete?</li></ul><p> </p><p>För att få svar på våra frågor genomförde vi en kvalitativ undersökning där vi intervjuade sex PR-konsulter, alla med olika inriktningar och till viss del olika titlar. Det de hade gemensamt var PR-arbete i olika hög grad.</p><p>Slutresultatet visade att PR-konsulterna är medvetna om den bild allmänheten har av dem och de försöker aktivt bidra till att ändra på den. De värdesätter öppenhet, sanning och etik och uttrycker en vilja att förklara vad det är de arbetar med och vilka deras arbetsmetoder är. Det framkom även att sociala medier används i lika stor utsträckning som de mer traditionella kanalerna, men mediekanal styrs av målgruppen. Uppfattningen hos PR-konsulterna är att de sociala medierna inbjuder till mer dialog med målgruppen.</p><p>Vad gäller Grunigs PR-modeller visade resultatet att det var flera modeller som förekom. Dessa är informationsmodellen, asymmetriska tvåvägsmodellen samt mixed-motive-modellen. De uppfyller tillsammans kraven på sanning, dialog och att kunna kompromissa men har samtidigt inslag av övertalning och påverkan. <strong></strong></p>