With the past decades of a growing trend in the western-world where knowledge workers are replacing traditional workers the importance of finding ways to attract, retain and engage the former is becoming even more challenging as the preferences of this kind of workers is totally different than for other workers. Non-monetary rewards such as achievement, autonomy and feedback have for a long time been highlighted by researchers to be of importance, yet the human relations departments (HR) still seem not to have realized the importance of such rewards and while HR strategies often are focusing on total rewards as a summary of monetary and non-monetary rewards there is a lack of an uniform ranking of the importance in between them. The purpose of this thesis is to make a ranking of the non-monetary rewards being most valuable for a knowledge worker to retain them within a company. The job mobility for this group is high and failing to retain them would except for short-term costs and organizational knowledge loss risk to create a lack of competitive advantage in long-term. Based on an extensive review of literature and papers by both researchers and practitioners with aspect to motivation theories, knowledge workers and rewards a theoretical framework has been constructed derived to five propositions which have been tested in a single case study. The empirical data was collected from a case being described in-depth and consist of archival data from employee surveys during seven years of time which have been supported by interviews and observations to achieve a triangulation of data. During analysis the findings have been put in relation to the environmental factors present within the case to achieve a rich and trustworthy case study. The findings confirms earlier research that autonomy is one of the highest ranked reward for a knowledge worker but that affiliation is of equal or even higher importance. The result also indicates that the difference between knowledge workers and other kinds of workers with aspect to affiliation is low or even non-existent. The thesis has also shown that autonomy, praise/recognition and career/personal development is of far more importance for a knowledge worker than for other kind of workers which may act as an important input to HR professionals. Furthermore this thesis has by the construct of a theoretical framework based on content theories of motivation contributed with a theoretical ground to the system of total rewards defined by HR professionals.

Complex policy problems in today’s world require sound evidence for good decisions. Yet what constitutes sound evidence can often itself become a matter of political contention. Using original qualitative interview, focus group and document analysis, this thesis finds both that many Canadian organizations with a mandate for communicating scientific information (knowledge transfer) are working to bring together researchers and end-users into various forms of direct contact (known as interaction practices) and that different social groups have concerns with these interactions. Through using interaction practices to improve communication efforts by establishing end-user/researcher relationships, the socially constructed boundaries that exist between science and politics become blurred. When the science communicated has controversial political implications, this blurring becomes problematic, “polluting” the wider credibility of the science communicated. This thesis uses “boundary theory” to argue that organizations engaging in knowledge transfer must be aware of these risks, and in controversial political topics, work to span rather than blur these boundaries, in order to protect scientific credibility necessary to successfully communicate scientific information in politically controversial situations.

published_or_final_version / Philosophy / Master / Master of Philosophy

published_or_final_version / Business / Doctoral / Doctor of Philosophy

published_or_final_version / abstract / Business / Doctoral / Doctor of Philosophy

Theories of categorization typically assume that categories are represented by some set of features that describe the properties of category members. However this view of category representation is incomplete. This dissertation lays out a framework for category representation, following Markman and Stilwell (2001), that creates a taxonomy of categories based on different components of relational structures. Relational categories are categories of entire relational systems while, role-governed categories, are represented as the roles in these systems. Lastly, thematic-relation categories group entities together that play complementary roles within a system. Four experiments are presented in support of this framework. They contrast thematic-relation categorization with role-governed categorization. Thematic-relation categorization entails categorizing objects together that play different roles within a domain, while role-governed categorization entails categorizing two entities that play the same role across domains. When the two are put in direct conflict, people prefer to form a thematic-relation category because within-domain connections are easier to find than across-domain connections. The purpose of the four experiments is to examine ways to boost the preference for role-governed categorization, thus revealing underlying processes. Here, role-governed categorization is facilitated in two ways. Experiment 1 re-frames the question of category formation as novel word extension. Natural role-governed categories have labels while thematic-relation categories do not. This pattern is reflected in the measured behavior as novel labels are extended across members of role-governed categories more readily than across members of thematic-relation categories. By claiming relational structures are critical to category representation, the framework described in this dissertation predicts that role-governed categorization and analogical reasoning share underlying mechanisms. Experiments 2-4 examine how making an analogy between the members of role-governed categories facilitates forming such categories. When making an analogy, people align the relational representations of a pair of domains, putting entities into correspondence by role, ignoring featural dissimilarities. When analogical comparison is induced, the rate of role-governed categorization is shown to double as compared to a baseline with no such analogical processes. The thesis concludes by outlining several future lines of research generated by unifying the fields of analogy and concept learning. / text

In the field of speech-language pathology, there is an increasing need for valid and appropriate assessment measures for Spanish-speaking students that can reliably be given by examiners with a wide range of Spanish knowledge and scoring experience. In order to determine the level of detail needed to reliably score a standardized measure of Spanish narrative ability, 15 participants, ranging in Spanish proficiency and experience levels, scored six samples of the experimental version of the Test of Narrative Language-Spanish (TNL-Spanish). Consistency and accuracy of scores were compared with Spanish proficiency levels, comfort levels, and presentation method (written transcript and audio-recorded samples). Results indicated no significant effect for any factor, indicating that examiners of varying levels of Spanish proficiency and experience level can reliably and efficiently score an assessment in Spanish when provided with clear and specific scoring procedures and information regarding the kinds of errors present in language disorders in Spanish. / text

<p>The necessity of managing the tacit knowledge sharing is becoming more significant because of the upcoming demographic changes facing companies all over the industrialized part of the world. The so called baby boomers born in the middle part of the 20th century will soon reach the retirement age and this is anticipated to create an extensive loss of knowledge. In light of that, companies face a dilemma when over bridging the knowledge gap between their more experienced senior employees who have accumulated plenty of knowledge and the novel ones. It opens the discussion concerning how to “capture” that knowledge since it is the competitive advantage in the contemporary world. This is particularly sensible for knowledge-based firms which are the main focus of this study.</p><p>Scholars have developed different approaches of the knowledge sharing phenomenon, but still there is a lack of understanding regarding how this abstract process should be supported in a daily basis. This work investigates the factors that aid or hinder the knowledge process within consulting firms as a prerequisite to reach a greater awareness of the particular setting that will foster the sharing. Supported by a theoretical background, this was accomplished by following a systems approach, favoring qualitative methods. The empirical data was collected using semistructured qualitative interviews within the headquarter offices of Pricewaterhouse Coopers in Stockholm, Sweden.</p><p>The exploratory results suggest that by converging specific aspects, consulting firms can overcome the most common barriers when sharing knowledge transfer. Furthermore, it is pointed out the positive conditions a firm has to develop as well as Theoretical and Managerial implications.</p>

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