Abstract The main purpose of this research & analysis report is to suggest a working model between a world leading connector distribution firm and a world leading connector manufacturer firm that will guide them to improved sales performance, increased profitability, and higher levels of customer satisfaction. However, a lack of trust and commitment is keeping them from accomplishing these outcomes. Without trust, there is no commitment. Without commitment, there can be no meaningful change. The method of this research is to first analyze the theories developed in the past for working partnership between distribution firms and manufacturer firms and then, the empirical studies conducted for the same period of time. Among the theories and empirical studies, we focus on how to bond the relationship by using influence (or power), dependence, functional conflict, and cooperation. More specifically, these factors or variables are somewhat related to idiosyncratic investments and contractual terms which provide the two parties with the options to compare pros and cons of taking the next step for relationship bonding. Other ways that may affect their common interest are to form a strategic alliance or joint venture that will provide a competitive advantage for both companies to win the business in this highly competitive environment. At the end of this research, we use a case study to represent potential relationship issues that still go on in today¡¦s business environment which occurred decades ago. Then, we apply the theories and studies and provide suggestions to both leading connector distributor and manufacturer on how to strengthen working relationship in today¡¦s competitive business environment.

Prospect theory (Tversky & Kahneman, 1979) predicts that decision-makers work to avoid loss and maximize gains, even when outcomes are expected to be equal. Aversion to loss, and the feelings associated with loss, operates as a strong, often unconscious, bias that guides cognitive understanding of choice and consequently decisions. Prospect theory explains that faming choices around losses biases decision-makers to be more risk-seeking in order to avoid the feelings associated with loss. “The aggravation that one experiences in losing… appears to be greater than the pleasure associated with gaining the same amount” (Kahneman & Tversky, 1979, p. 279). Therefore, prospect theory explains how language framing can affect decision-making under uncertainty. Relatedly, social conflict is resolved by making choices (Diederich, 2003) and often involves a negotiation process that is affected by how negotiators perceive their situation (Schweitzer, et al., 2005). Yet prospect theory is widely underutilized in the context of social conflict (see Barberis, 2013; Butler, 2007). Therefore, this dissertation (1) tests the impact of loss and gain frames on decision-making within a social conflict involving a landlord, (2) examines the boundaries of the theory, and (3) offers insight about the implications of social conflict framing and language on decision-making. Results show that decision-making in a social conflict is significantly influenced by language framing. Loss frames and individual fault frames are two barriers to better conflict. Specifically, loss frames resulted in more negative affect for participants and less collaboration with the landlord. Gain frames resulted in more cooperation by participants. However, these effects were moderated by fault frames, indicating that, within a conflict, the feelings associated with being at fault may be more important than the feelings loss and gain frames evoke. The one exception where language framing may not be as effective is when participants had a prior experience of a similar conflict. For example, being a landlord, and being comfortable with conflict interacted with the language frames and, in some cases, prior experience was a stronger predictor of emotions and decision outcomes. Finally, emotions were found to be highly relevant to language framing and decision-making. Although all frames had some effect on emotion, negative emotion was much more affected by individual loss. Positive emotion was most strongly affected by joint and neutral fault conditions. These findings suggest that negative emotions are easily manipulated by imagining what we might lose individually, whereas positive emotions are more affected by believing we are not alone in the conflict. In support of prospect theory, framing a conflict around loss can make others feel worse about the conflict and about decisions. However, it is more difficult to make others feel positively about a conflict simply by reframing the conflict in terms of gains. Instead, in a social conflict, language frames around joint fault was the best predictor of positive affect. The implications of these findings are discussed. Keywords: Prospect theory, cognitive bias, negotiation, functional conflict / Media & Communication

Construction has major environmental, social and economic impacts. Improving sustainability both during and after the construction process is widely discussed among a slew of practitioners, governments and researchers. Construction clients, such as housing developers, are considered key actors for change and innovation because of their position to set requirements when procuring construction projects. The process of developing project requirements has therefore mainly been studied during the construction clients’ procurement process. At the same time, municipalities use their position as land owners to drive sustainable development. Land allocation agreements allow municipalities to set project-specific sustainability requirements for construction projects on municipal land. The purpose of this thesis is to explore how municipal sustainability requirements affect housing developers when planning and designing their projects. The research is based on a single empirical case study of an urban development programme comprising multiple parallel and sequential housing construction projects. In this study, the municipality’s and housing developers’ perspectives are explored. The results demonstrate that the housing developers perceive several barriers to implementing municipal sustainability requirements. The three main barriers that were identified are reduced flexibility coupled with uncertainty, conflicting interests coupled with reduced autonomy and interdependencies, and a lack of trust and transparency coupled with interdependencies. The municipal sustainability requirements are initially developed by the municipality for the land allocation agreement. They are then co-developed further by the municipality and the housing developers together through negotiations before being finalised in conjunction with the developers’ procurement process. The study is focused on the period following the housing developers’ signing of land allocation agreements with the municipality and before starting their procurement process. During this period, the housing developers attempt to negotiate municipal sustainability requirements that they anticipate will increase costs, risk and uncertainty and decrease the value of their final product. Negotiations between the housing developers and the municipality can be viewed as value co-creation processes stimulated by functional conflict. These findings build on three papers that are included in the thesis. Contributions are made to literature on the role of construction clients and their perceived barriers to implementing and developing sustainable construction solutions and practices and barriers to change in general. Theoretical contributions are also made to literature on value co-creation in construction by illustrating how clients engage in the co-creation of value with municipalities and other clients. Finally, the theoretical link between value co-creation and functional conflict is studied and developed. / Byggandethar stora miljömässiga, sociala och ekonomiska effekter. Hållbar utvecklingbåde under och efter byggprocessen diskuterasblandrepresentanter förindustrin, politikeroch forskare. Byggherrar,till exempel i rollensom bostadsutvecklare, anses vara viktiga aktörer för förändring och innovation på grund av deras positionatt ställa krav vid upphandling av byggprojekt. Processen föratt utveckla projektkrav har därför huvudsakligen studerats under byggherrensupphandlingsprocess. Samtidigt använder kommunersin position som markägare för att driva hållbar utveckling genom att utmana den privata sektorn. Markanvisningargör det möjligt för kommunerna att ställa projektspecifika hållbarhetskravför byggprojekt på kommunal mark. Syftet med denna studieär att undersöka hur kommunala hållbarhetskravpåverkar bostadsutvecklare när de planerar och utformar sina projekt.Resultatenär baseradepå en empirisk fallstudie av ett stadsutvecklingsprojekt innehållandeflera parallella och sekventiella bostadsprojekt. I denna studie undersöks undersöks bådekommunens och bostadsutvecklarnas perspektiv. Resultaten visar att bostadsutvecklarnauppfattar ett antal hinder för att genomföra kommunala hållbarhetskrav. De tre största hindrensom identifierats är minskad flexibilitet i kombination med osäkerhet, intressekonflikteri kombination med minskad autonomi och beroende av andra aktöreroch brist på förtroende och öppenhet i kombination med beroende av andra aktörer. De kommunala hållbarhetskraven utvecklasinitialtav kommunen för markanvisningsavtalen. De utvecklas sedan vidare av kommunen och bostadsutvecklarna tillsammans genom förhandlingar. Slutligen konkretiseras deisamband medbostadsutvecklarnas upphandlingsprocess. Studien fokuserar på perioden frånatt bostadsutvecklarna tecknatmarkanvisningsavtal med kommunen meninnan deras upphandlingav entreprenörer påbörjats. Under denna periodförsöker bostadsutvecklarna förhandla ner de kommunala hållbarhetskrav som de förutser kommer öka deras kostnader, risk och osäkerhetsamtminska värdet på deras slutprodukt. Förhandlingarna mellan bostadsutvecklarna och kommunen kan ses som värdesamskapande processer drivna av funktionella konflikter. Dessa resultat bygger på tre artiklar som ingår i avhandlingen.Bidrag görs till litteraturen ombyggherrensroll och dessupplevda hinder för att implementera ochutveckla hållbara lösningar och praxis och hinder för förändring. Teoretiska bidrag görs också till litteraturenom värdesamskapande inom bygggenom att illustrera hur byggherrarharvärdesamskapandeprocesser tillsammansmed kommuner och andra byggherrar. Slutligen studerasoch utvecklas den teoretiska kopplingen mellan värdesamskapande och funktionell konflikt. / <p>QC 20200507</p>

Det gemensamma intresset för konflikter grundade idén att studera väl ansedda ledares perspektiv på arbetsplatskonflikter och hur dessa ledare löser konflikter konstruktivt. I grunden finns en undran om väl ansedda ledare har förmågor som gör att de löser konflikter mer konstruktivt. Konflikter utgör en stor del av en ledares arbetstid. Konflikter kan förmodligen inte undvikas men hur konflikter hanteras är avgörande för att en organisation och dess anställda skall mogna och utvecklas. Det har utövats forskning inom konflikthantering utifrån ett ledarskapsperspektiv men de studierna har haft en kvantitativ ansats. Studiens syfte är att undersöka hur väl ansedda chefer ser på arbetsplatskonflikter och hur dessa chefer hanterar konflikter. Ett delsyfte är att erhålla kunskap om vilka metoder ansedda ledare använder i konflikthantering. För att besvara syftet har följande frågeställningar använts: Vilka typer av arbetsplatskonflikter uppstår i en organisation? Vad är avgörande om konflikter blir konstruktiva eller destruktiva? Vad har ledarskapet för inverkan på konflikthantering och hur ska ledaren ta sig an konflikter? Vilka förmågor och egenskaper har ledare som hanterar konflikter effektivt? Studien grundar sig på en kvalitativ ansats med semistrukturerade intervjuer som insamlingsmetod. Det införskaffade materialet kodades och tematiserades. Resultaten analyserades med hjälp av teoriramen. Slutligen användes Rahims (2002) teori om conflict management i diskussion då det i resultatet framkom stöd för modellen, dock med en utveckling vilket presenteras i slutsatsen. I studiens analys framkom att ledare som hanterar konflikter konstruktivt behärskar tre huvudområden. Dessa förmågor är människoorienterad, uppgiftsorienterad och lärande- och kulturorienterad. Väl ansedda ledare manövrerar emellan dessa förmågor beroende på situation. I studiens resultat framkom också att undvikande och dominant ledarskapsbeteende skapar barriärer i konflikthantering. / The authors' joint commitment conflicts produced the idea to study highly-regarded leaders' perspective on workplace conflicts and their constructive resolution. Basically there was a curiosity about how such leaders resolve conflicts so effectively. Workplace conflicts are a major part of a leader´s time at work. While probably unavoidable, how conflicts are handled is crucial for the growth and development of an organization and its employees. There has been practical conflict management research from a leadership perspective, but the studies have had a quantitative focus. This study aims to examine the various ways respected managers address and resolve workplace conflicts. The study seeks to answer the following questions: What kinds of workplace conflict exist in an organization? What are the critical factors in conflicts? How are conflicts viewed constructive/destructive? What is a leader's role when managing/resolving workplace conflict? What abilities and qualities have leaders who manage conflict effectively? The study is based on a qualitative approach using semi-structured interviews. The material was thematic and coded. Results were analysed using the theoretical framework. The empirical data was analysed using Rahims (2002) theory of conflict management. Building on the results, the model which has been developed will be presented at the study’s conclusion. The study's analysis reveals that leaders who deal with conflicts constructively mastered the three main areas of concern, depending on the situation. These are people-oriented, task-oriented, and learning- and culture-oriented. The study's results also revealed that evasive and/or dominant leadership in particular creates barrier store solving conflict.