Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Hong Kong, 2009. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 56-63). Also available in print.

Vår uppsats strävar efter att beskriva turisters motivations- och identitetskapande med hjälp av det sociala mediet Facebook. Facebook är idag det största sociala nätverket och unga vuxna är de mest frekventa användarna. Vi kommer således i vår uppsats gå in på en djupare diskussion om deras använde av Facebook vid resande med hjälp av information insamlad genom personliga intervjuer samt litteratur. De intervjuade bestod av svenska unga vuxna i åldrarna 18-25 år. Den specifika åldersgruppen valdes eftersom de tillhör den största användargruppen på Facebook. I vår diskussion förekommer främst begrepp som hävda sig och bekräftelse, eftersom vårt resultat visade att dessa var bland de vanligaste motiven till varför Facebook används för offentlig uppdatering vid resande. / This thesis aims to describe the motivation and identity creation of tourists in their use of social media. Facebook is the biggest social media network today and young adults are the most common users. We will therefore in this report present a research about their use of Facebook during travel with the help of data collected through personal interviews and litterature. Furthermore our respondents are a sample of young Swedish adults between the ages 18­-25, since this age group are the most frequent Facebook-users. We will primarily focus on the terms assert oneself and affirmation in our discussion because our results indicated that these two motives were the most common ones for using Facebook when sharing travel related posts.

The discourse about commodification of time indicates that under the current socio-economic regime important values get systematically ignored. This paper reviews literature about the value of time in classical political economy, neoclassical economics, the household production approach, household economics, and activity models. Starting with neoclassical economics, all these approaches are largely in accordance with utilitarian methodology. Utilitarian methodology turns out to be incapable of explaining the value of time. The debate about "quality work" allows us to identify the following intrinsic values: power, playfulness, a sense of meaning, and a sense of belonging. These intrinsic values match with the "five sources of Motivation" in contemporary psychological research, which confirms the empirical relevance and irreducibility of these values for understanding behavior. We propose a definition of commodification of time and illustrate some of the potential effects of commodification of time.

Widely viewed as under-valued and under-paid, yet sentimentalized as working more for love than money, the social care workforce is a fundamental economic and social resource; the importance of which is growing in line with the rapidly aging, global and national population (Care Quality Commission, 2012; DoH 2009; International Helptheaged, 2013). Classic motivation theories, which focus on economic and individualistic work motives, fail to fully account for the high rates of satisfaction and commitment among care workers, (Skills for Care 2007, 2013; Stevens et al 2010). Yet a growing body of empirical research demonstrates that health and social care workers’ motivation is related to patient/client satisfaction and wellbeing (Maben et al., 2012). Moreover the quality of the relationship between the carer and client contributes to the motivation and the wellbeing of both (Wilson, 2009; Wilson et al., 2009). Therefore this thesis seeks to better understand the collective and relational aspects of care workers’ motivation. It does this by detailing a program of research which examines care workers motivations through a social identity lens that asks ‘what’s in it for us’ as well as ‘what’s in it for me’ (Haslam 2004). A social identity perspective on motivation focuses on how workers experience themselves and their work at a personal, relational and organizational level (Ashforth et al 2008; Ellemers et al., 2004). In doing so it offers a multi-dimensional, theoretical framework through which to understand the dynamics of care workers’ motivations. Moreover, this framework offers an empirically proven psychological framework for explaining why adopting a relationship-centered approach to care is pivotal for organizations to achieve a compassionate care culture. The first study explored care workers’ experience of work and inquired about what they did and why it mattered to them. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 19 care workers who worked in residential and domiciliary care settings. A thematic analysis of the transcripts identified four overarching themes that contributed to care workers’ motivation, those of fulfillment’, ‘belonging’, ‘valuing’ and ‘pride’. These motives were found to be actualized in their shared experience of caring, particularly with clients and also with co-workers and as an organizational member. The findings of the study shed light on the content of care workers’ personal, relational and social identities and the interactions between them. Care workers primarily emphasized the meaningfulness of their work in terms of its caring nature. They expressed this is terms of their personal attributes, their relational role with clients and their perceptions of how the organisation treated them. This led us to hypothesize that their identification with the organisation is likely to increase to the extent they feel the organisation ‘cares’. Indeed to build on and harness care workers’ identities at work, the findings suggest that organisations need to place care workers’ relationships with clients at the heart of what they do. The second study was a longitudinal quantitative analysis of care workers’ motivations which consolidated and extended the findings of the first study. It had two parts, the first part was an examination of how care workers’ motivations are shaped by their sense of identity, and the second part tested how a professionalization intervention affected their motivation. To achieve this we administered an organisational survey at two time points, one year apart (T1 n = 643, T2 n = 1274, T1 & T2 n = 204). Analaysis of the survey responses assessed what it was that incentivized care workers (love and/or money), the relationship of this to work outcomes (i.e. job satisfaction, pride, stress, turnover intentions and positivity about professionalisation) and the extent to which it was affected by patterns of identification. We also examined variation in responses over time as a function of whether or not people had undertaken professional qualifications in the intervening period (so that, in effect, undertaking a qualification constituted an experimental treatment). This meant that the study had a quasi-experimental design in which we could examine the putative impact of exposure to a professionalisation intervention on organizational identification and motivation (for a similar logic see Lim & Putnam, 2010). In line with the five main hypotheses that were generated from the findings of Study 1 and from predominant findings in organisational and social identity research; the results showed first (H1), that care workers’ collective identification with different groups at work, was positively related to their motivation (Ellemers et al., 2004). More specifically, their work motivation was predicted by their identification with (a) the people they care for (client identification), and (b) the care organization they work for (organisational identification). Furthermore, although care workers indicated strongest identification with clients, it was their identification with the organisation that was the most proximal indicator of increased motivation. Second (H2 & H3), although care workers were most incentivized by their relationships with clients and the least incentivized by the pay; the extent to which either led to improved work outcomes was mediated by client and organisational identification. Where being incentivized by relationships with clients led to improved work outcomes, client identification predicted organisational identification, whereas client identification played a lesser role in mediating the likelihood of being incentivized by pay leading to improved work outcomes. In addition (H4), care workers’ identity varied as a function of the work context. More specifically, whether they worked in residential / nursing home care or in domiciliary care affected the nature and extent of their relational identification with their clients and the congruence between client identification and organizational identification (Ashforth et al 2008, Haslam et al 2003). Finally (H5), care workers’ motivations were enhanced by the professionalization intervention of undertaking a qualification, to the extent that it built on and maintained meaningful work-related identities. In particular, the results showed that, care workers’ motivation increased as a result of undertaking a qualification to the extent that the training increased identification with the organisation and other groups at work (Pidd 2004). Study 3 further investigated the effects of identification on motivation, learning and performance by examining the likelihood of professionalisation training being transferred to the workplace. A 2 × 2 longitudinal study evaluated the effects of a new generic professionalisation (NGP) training program, that tapped into distal work identities, and a standard localized professionalisation (SLP) training program, which spoke more to localised identities, on participants’ identification and motivation at work. Overall the findings indicated that compared to the NGP, the SLP (H1) maintained and strengthened participants’ work identification. Furthermore compared to the SLP, the NGP was associated with (H2) a reduction in trainees’ perception of the relevance and usefulness of the training, (H3) a reduction in motivation to enact the training, and (H4) a reduction in trainees’ immersion in the program. Moreover the findings demonstrated that (H5) the reduction in motivation to transfer learning associated with the NGP relative to the SLP, was explained by the reduction in identification it engendered, which in turn reduced participants’ sense of relatedness within the training context. These findings imply that learning is more likely to be applied when it (a) has relevance to identities which are more meaningful to participants, in this case local identities, (b) is delivered by people with whom care workers identify, (c) is validated by others in the workplace environment with whom the participants’ identify. Taken together, this program of research demonstrates that care workers’ motivations can be understood through a social identity perspective that incorporates the collective, relational and personal dimensions of providing care. It concludes by considering how organisations can tap into, harness, strengthen and develop care workers’ identification at work as a means of enhancing their motivation and retaining professional care staff. Through bridging theoretical and applied concerns, this research has wide-reaching implications for developing and maintaining compassionate work cultures within care organisations and other helping professions.

This thesis aims to study factors that prods teachers to leave their profession or on the contrary to continue in their work. The theoretical part deals with the teachers? motivation for work, the issue of professional development and the professional identity of pedagogues. To understand the factors that influence the motivation of teachers I used two methods: a structured interview and a questionnaire. The practical part of the thesis then includes the evaluation of data obtained through the above-mentioned survey. The study was conducted in the Pilsen Region. Total of 28 teachers currently working in this profession filled out the questionnaires and were then also interviewed. 28 former teachers agreed to participate in the interviews and 26 persons also completed the questionnaire. Based on the information I gathered I can conclude that teachers are motivated for the most part by the creative work with children which allows them to fulfill their own freedom and creativity. Ample free time appears to be another important factor that encourages teachers to continue in their line of work. On the other hand, teachers most frequently leave their profession due to the low salary and considerable psychological strain.

Lenka Šimáková Způsoby a motivace užívání sociálních sítí Facebook a Nyx a identita jejich uživatelů: Kvalitativní komparativní studie Mediální studia, IKSŽ, FSV UK, 2012 Abstract The key goal of this thesis is to find correlations between motivation and usage of social network(ing) sites and how they influence self-presentation of the users as a process of defining their own identity. A qualitative method of semi-structured interviews with five active users of both researched sites was used to describe the impact of the social and technological environment on the way they present themselves towards others. I therefore focus mainly on the social identity of the users: why and how they interact, how they perceive the sites and their role within their groups and how it influences their administration of their personal profiles. I also focus on other relevant subjects of within-line social communication: I describe various aspects of computer mediated communication, user perception of public and private sphere on-line and other issues such as group dynamics or users' approach to the social network(ing) sites as tools for managing their social capital. The resulting set of hypothesis is based on my analysis of the conducted interviews. This thesis brings an insight into user reflection of researched platforms,...