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Researchers have already studied organizational culture and expansions of organizations separately. However, the combination of these, how organizational expansion challenges may affect cultural aspects is rare and the niche of this study. This qualitative case study investigates how organizational culture can be maintained during fast workforce expansion in a product department. The first step in this study was to study what can characterize an organizational culture in a department where product development and technology are central, in a software development scaleup. The empirical results present 13 cultural areas characterizing the organizational culture in the case company, which has similarities to Clan culture that promotes collaboration and personal development. Similarities with Engineering culture and Hacker culture are present in the product department as well. Some cultural aspects may be seen as unique for the case company’s product department, which are humbleness and the focus on work-life balance. Further, some employees argue that they have never felt as proud of the product at previous workplaces, as they do at the case company. These cultural aspects have explicitly been explained as unique in the empirical results and not found in the reviewed literature. Further investigation focused on possible reactions to a workforce expansion, by the interviewed employees. This included both positive expectations and areas of concern. The challenges that may occur in a fast-growing workforce and possible solutions were investigated as well. Four areas of possible expansion challenges were detected in the empirical results, which were related to organizational structure changes, cultural distribution, inclusive organization, prioritizations, and work focus switches. Through the analysis process, cultural aspects that may be affected by these challenges were analyzed and discussed. The presented possible solutions focus on how to manage possible challenges that may occur and at the same time maintain cultural aspects of foremost trust, inclusion, transparency, diversity, culture distribution, constant change, and innovation. / Forskning om organisationskultur och tillväxt av företag har tidigare gjorts separat. Kombinationen av dessa ämnen, hur utmaningar relaterat till tillväxt av ett företag kan komma att påverka kulturella aspekter är sällsynt och denna studies nisch. Denna kvalitativa fallstudie undersöker hur organisationskultur kan bevaras under snabb tillväxt av antal anställda i en produktavdelning. Först gjordes en tolkning av vad som karakteriserar en organisationskultur i en avdelning där produktutveckling och teknik är det centrala, i en produktutveckling scaleup som jobbar med mjukvara. The empiriska resultaten presenterar 13 kulturella områden som karakteriserar organisationskulturen på fallföretaget, vilken har likheter med Klankultur som främjar samarbete och personlig utveckling. Likheter med Ingenjörskultur och Hacker-kultur är också närvarande i produktavdelningen på fallföretaget. Vissa av de kulturella aspekterna kan anses unika i fallföretagets produktavdelning, vilka är ödmjukhet och fokus på work-life balance. Fortsättningsvis argumenterar vissa anställda att de aldrig känt sig så stolta över produkten de utvecklar på tidigare arbetsplatser, till skillnad från den stolthet de känner för produkten på fallföretaget. Dessa kulturella aspekterna har ansetts unika av de anställda i de empiriska resultaten och har inte påvisats i andra studier inkluderat i litteraturstudien. Nästa fokus i studien var att undersöka vilka möjliga reaktioner de intervjuade anställda på fallföretaget hade gällande tillväxt av antal anställda. Dessa reaktioner belyste både positiva förväntningar och orosområden. De möjliga utmaningarna som kan uppkomma i en snabbväxande organisation och möjliga redskap för att lösa dessa undersöktes också. Fyra områden av möjliga tillväxtsutmaningar upptäcktes i de empiriska resultaten, vilka var relaterade till förändringar av organisationsstruktur, kulturdistribution, inkluderande organisation, prioriteringar och arbetsfokus. Under analysprocessen upptäcktes kulturella aspekter som kan komma att påverkas av dessa möjliga utmaningar, vilka var analyserade och diskuterade. De presenterade potentiella lösningarna fokuserar på hur man bemöta dessa möjliga utmaningar sammanknippade med företagstillväxt och hur man samtidigt kan bevara kulturella aspekter så som främst tillit, inkludering, transparens, mångfald, kulturdistribuering, konstant förändring och innovation.

Strategic management of knowledge is considered one of the key factors for a sustainable competitive advantage. Knowledge sharing in particular is the most essential part of the knowledge management process. Its relation with the organisational culture has been the focus of attention of several studies especially in American, Asian and European companies. Firms are organising their work around project and project teams. Moreover, multinational project teams are seen as a source for knowledge generation. They can provide information about the needs of customers geographically dispersed, from different cultural backgrounds, who speak different languages and with different set of preferences. Nevertheless, the temporary nature, uniqueness, and complexity of international projects present their own set of challenges and companies need to work different in order to achieve project success. This study aims to analyse the organisational culture features that enhances or hinder the knowledge sharing process in multinational project teams working in Latin America. Although studies regarding the topic have been made before, they not provide empirical evidence or do not consider project teams working in a multinational environment. Furthermore, previous studies do not consider Latin American & Caribbean organisations, a region where foreign investment has continuously increased in the last decades and as a whole, is considered the third-fastest growing economy in the globe. A mixed approach is used to answer the research question, a deductive rationale to create a theoretical framework and an inductive approach to provide some theoretical propositions based on the findings. Seven semi-structured interviews were done to analyse two cross-sectional case studies. Our study identified several characteristics of organisational culture that influence knowledge sharing, some of them have a direct influence whereas others have an indirect influence. Speaking a different language and cultural differences are the main challenges faced by multinational project teams in order to enable knowledge sharing. Fear was also found to act as a barrier regarding the knowledge sharing process but is not specific only for this type of organisation. In contrast, trust in colleagues, positive relationships among employees and a culture of collaboration were found to enhance the knowledge sharing process but are not specific to multinational project teams.Finally, some managerial and theoretical implications are provided as well as suggestions for future research.

The purpose of this study was to examine in what way a strong employer branding of health promotion can have an effect on the ways individuals can experience isolation and stress. In this survey we have used the theories of health promotion, organizational culture, isolation and stress in an analysis of the possible situation caused by strong employer branding of health promotion. We have used these theories in analysis with the purpose to answer the following questions: How does a strong employer branding of health promotion influence those employees who, for some reasons, don’t take advantage of organizations’ health promotion programs and activities? Could those, who don’t take advantage of health activities, become isolated in a company? The method of research that was used in this study is a qualitative analysis; we used semi structured interviews and open e-mail correspondences. The material was collected from nine different organizations as the response from ten interviews. The result of the analysis show that is possible for an individual to experience isolation and stress as a result of an organization’s employer branding on health promotion. At the same time these individuals can experience that they are indirectly obligated to consider their everyday actions from the health promotion perspective, which we have assumed to be a result of the possible punishments and rewards from their leaders. The conclusion is consequently that a strong employer branding can affect an individual’s social situation within an organization, but it is problematic to see in which scale. The result has revealed that employer branding of health promotion is a possible cause for isolation and stress.

This study investigates the personal experience of newly appointed chief executives in transitioning into the CEO role. Adopting an exploratory qualitative design, data was obtained from two semi-structured interviews with 19 newly appointed chief executives, for a total of 38 interviews. The main contribution of this thesis to the extant literature is to show the ways in which CEOs go through an identity construction process when transitioning into the role, which is characterized in two ways. First, there exists a bi-directionality of influence between the personal identity of the CEO and the organizational identity. Second, this process comprises strong identity demands (lack of specificity of the role and weak situation) and identity tensions (personal identity intrusion and identity transparency) that dispose new CEOs towards an unbalance that promotes individuality. This disequilibrium might hinder the integration of new chief executives into the organization, since the data suggests that new CEOs are responsible for fostering their own integration by connecting aspects of their personal identity with the identity and culture of the organization. The thesis offers a theoretical model of the CEO identity construction process and concludes with a series of propositions that address the ramifications of these findings to our understanding of CEO succession.

Background- South Africa, the most southern country at the African continent as the name depicts, is a country where Apartheid has prevailed the historical and contemporary landscape of the nation.  The era of Apartheid, being a system of discrimination and segregation, produced racial imbalances within the South African society and polices of affirmative action was enforced as an attempt to redress the racial inequalities. Purpose- By studying a distinctive type of affirmative action in a historically ethnically distressed context (organizations in South Africa), the purpose of this thesis was to receive insight on what impact affirmative action has on employees’ attitudes towards equality. The purpose was divided into two research questions to get an understanding of the implications that shape employees’ attitudes. The first research area aimed to identify and investigate which key factors are influencing employees’ attitudes towards affirmative action. The second research area considered the underlying cause of affirmative action and thereby investigated what impact affirmative action has on individuals’ as well as groups’ attitudes towards equality. Method- In order to fulfill the purpose of this thesis we used a qualitative method approach.  The approach adopted for the qualitative study was a constructivist grounded theory approach and the research has been performed with both an inductive and a deductive approach. The empirical material has been gathered through in-depth semi-structured interviews with eight employees at four different multinational companies operating in South Africa, by informal interviews with individuals in South Africa and through parallel observations.  Results and Conclusion- We provide five key factors that influence employees’ attitudes towards affirmative action; organizational culture, top management support, incentive for teams versus individual performance, prior experience of diversity and cultural artifacts. Furthermore, we present a three-step model on how intergroup contact can impact employees’ attitudes towards equality. We found that increased exposure towards diversity, through group interactions, can decrease employees’ negative prejudices, evaluations of other groups and thus enable an understanding that can help create a more positive attitude towards equality. Practical Implications- The key influencing factors identified in this study will help increase the knowledge of how to manage affirmative action within organizations. The findings can help managers and business leaders dealing with the implementation and management of affirmative action, both for their own understanding as well as in terms of guiding their employees on their approach toward affirmative action programs.

Community colleges are challenged to find their next set of leaders who can respond to the diverse challenges of leading the institution. This study examined the impact of institutional and personal factors on faculty aspirations to leadership roles within the community college through the utilization of the Social Cognitive Career Theory framework. A case study research design utilizing mixed-methods investigated the perceived and preferred organizational culture(s) and the manner in which institutional and personal factors influence faculty aspirations to assume leadership roles at Southcentral Kentucky Community and Technical College. The findings of the research indicate that affecting change and being asked to lead are personal factors of influence that motivate faculty to aspire to formal leadership positions within the community college. On the other hand, the challenge of formal leadership roles, family and work-life balance might dissuade faculty aspirations of faculty to formal leadership roles. The study reveals that organizational culture was a positive factor of institutional influence. This study advances the field of educational leadership in that a number of personal and institutional factors influence the aspirations of faculty as they consider movement into formal leadership position within the community college. The findings identify the need for research across multiple institutions and the need to expand Social Cognitive Career Theory to include personal-cognitive barriers of race and gender.

Sponsring är ett utbyte och en marknadsföringsmetod som används av allt fler organisationer. Med syftet att påverka personalen i en organisation är sponsring en relativt oanvänd metod för marknadsföring. Trots detta så påverkar sponsring personalen oavsett organisationens målsättning med sponsring. Syftet med studien är att utvärdera om sponsring fungerar som ett verktyg för motivation i en specifik organisation, sedan utvärderas hur sponsring bidrar till motivation. För att besvara syftet genomfördes en kvantitativ studie i form av en enkätundersökning. Denna genomfördes hos vårt studieobjekt Länsförsäkringar i Gävleborg. Analysen av den insamlade datan har genomförts med stöd av den teoretiska referensramen. Resultatet av studien visar att sponsring kan användas till att motivera personalen på Länsförsäkringar. Dock så är organisationens nuvarande sponsring något som inte tydligt motiverar personalen. Länsförsäkringar vill med sin sponsring bidra till samhället och på så sätt skapa engagemang och stolthet bland personalen. Sponsring får personalen att känna stolthet men däremot inget tydligt engagemang. Länsförsäkringar är bra på att informera personalen om sponsring, däremot så är organisationen inte lika bra på att lyssna till personalens värderingar kring sponsring. Det bristande engagemanget skulle då kunna bero på att personalen inte får tycka till om organisationens sponsring. / Sponsorship is an exchange and a marketing method that is used by more and more organizations. With the aim to influence the staff of an organization is sponsoring a relatively unused method of marketing. Despite this, sponsorship affects the staff regardless of the organization's goal of sponsoring. The purpose of this study is to evaluate if sponsorship serves as a motivational tool in a specific organization, then evaluate how the sponsorship contributes to motivation. To answer the purpose we conducted a quantitative study in the form of a questionnaire. The questionnaire was done at our research object, Länsförsäkringar Gävleborg. The analysis of the collected data was carried out with the support of the theoretical framework. The results of the study show that sponsorship can be used to motivate staff at Länsförsäkringar. However, the organization's current sponsorship is not clearly motivating their staff. Länsförsäkringar wants with its sponsorship to contribute to society and thus create commitment and pride among the staff. Sponsorship get staff to feel proud but no clear commitment. Länsförsäkringar is good at informing staff about sponsorship, however, the organization is not as good at listening to staff's values regarding sponsorship. The lack of commitment could then be due to staff being unable to speak up on the organization's sponsorship.

<p>The purpose of this study is to investigate differences of how the Swedishemployees union “Unionen” communicates with its members, on one hand thosewho are members of local union clubs and on the other non-club members. Thenumber of non-club members has increased due to labour market changes implyingthat workplaces have been fragmented and hence affect the possibility to form localunion clubs.The questions posed in the study are: How does Unionen communicate with itsmembers? How does the communication differ between club members and non-clubmembers? What are the preferences of Unionen´s members as far as communicationwith the central organization? What kind of information do the members seek andhow do they find it? What values does Unionen represent? Are there differencesbetween the messages that Unionen is sends out and how members and non-clubmembers, respectively, perceive them?A case study method has been used applying both quantitative and qualitativeanalyses. Quantitative methods have been used in illustrating the number ofdiscussion subjects at Unionen´s website, the members needs for receivingcommunication and channel usage while qualitative methodologies have been usedin interviews with Unionen´s members, club chairmen and union representatives aswell as semiotic picture analyses and analyses based on methods of Uses andgratifications theory.One conclusion of the study is that two significant differences of communicationhave been found between members and non-club members. The club chairmen saythat they have less communication with non-club members and the non-clubmembers’ claim that Unionen´s messages are more biased. A second conclusion isthat there is a difference in the preferred choice of communication channels. Themembers suggest that e-mail, the member magazine and verbal communication workbest while “Unionen” put a lot of its faith in electronic channels, such as web-sites.A third conclusion is that members request more locally relevant information andthat they see the Unionen´s communication as too general, creating muchuncertainty of the objectives of “Unionen´s” communication</p>