This dissertation follows in the tradition of role theory and organizational scholarship by examining how one role can be taken over by another, which can be referred to as encroachment. Previous organizational role research has not explored fully encroachment and its effects. Therefore, this study investigated factors that lead to role encroachment, especially the sharing of internal resources, and how individuals cope with the effects of encroachment. To conduct the study, focus groups of marketing and public relations departments were analyzed to explain how roles are enacted within their practical context. The goals of this dissertation were to (a) investigate how shared resources affect role boundaries and role enactment that can lead to encroachment, (b) explain the concept of encroachment and how it affects role enactment, and (c) investigate the conflict between public relations and marketing that can lead to encroachment in the age of social media. The study found themes related to: (a) definitions of encroachment, (b) factors facilitating encroachment, (c) factors affecting the intensity of encroachment, (d) shared resources and their effects on encroachment, (e) implications of encroachment to the individual, department, and organization, and (f) ways people deal with encroachment. First, encroachment was defined in three ways: the overtaking of tasks, or receiving unwanted strategic guidance, or interference of organizational processes. Second, the study found that role ambiguity and the communication of and adherence to cultural norms invite or prevent encroachment. Third, role ambiguity and organizational culture were found to be the dominant factors that affect the intensity of encroachment. Fourth, the study found that tangible macro resources, like organizational culture and structure, and practical resources, such as information and skill sets, facilitate encroachment. Fifth, findings indicated that implications of encroachment include stress, frustration, and confusion at the individual level; an us versus them mentality and role conflict at the departmental level; and broken relationships with external partners, lack of organizational nimbleness, and wasted time and money at the organizational level. Lastly, the study found that people deal with encroachment by providing and receiving emotional and informational social support, and by accumulating and spending social capital through relationship building within the organization. Theoretical implications of this research indicate that role conflict, role ambiguity, and boundary spanning role theory relate to encroachment. In addition, previous theory focused on external resource use by organizations can be expanded to evaluate the internal use of resources. Theory from interpersonal communication, such as social exchange theory, social support, and social capital, relate to how people facing encroachment cope with their roles being infringed upon. Practical implications of this dissertation include recommendations for organizations including increased communication of role boundaries and evaluations of restrictive cultural norms. The findings from this study provide an understanding of encroachment and indicate directions for further development of theory about encroachment and role enactment. / Media & Communication

Despite the growing number of women in the workforce, women still emerge as leaders in organizations less often than men. In order to understand this phenomenon, the current study explores the effects of self-monitoring, task characteristics, and priming on emergent male and female leaders. 160 high and low self-monitors performed one of two tasks (production or interpersonal task) in mixed sex groups of four, with a priming manipulation given to half of the groups. It was hypothesized and found that high self-monitors emerged more often as leaders than low self-monitors. The second hypothesis received partial support, as males emerged as leaders more often in a production task, but females did not emerge more often in an interpersonal task. Other hypotheses also received partial support, showing that high self-monitoring males emerged more often as leaders than females even during interpersonal tasks. Females did not emerge more often as leaders even if they were high self-monitors or if they were given a priming manipulation before completing a specified task. The implications of these findings and directions for future research are discussed. / Master of Science

This thesis applies role theory to understand how Uzbekistan's bilateral relationships became either conflicting or cooperative between 1991 and 2010. Roles are key elements of social interaction as they describe plausible lines of action in a particular subject-person. They are thus a helpful way of identifying actors and constructing narratives. Furthermore, if they are seen as metaphors for drama, one may argue that roles - as opposed to personal identities - encapsulate autonomous action, which, like a text, ascertains meaning beyond the author's intent. In other words, by separating action from intent, one may regard politics in a different light - as interaction emplotted by roles -, thereby revealing how actions contradict a set of roles and lead to conflict and crises in public credibility. This manner of emplotting relationships divulges an alternative story that, rather than focusing on Tashkent's strategic balancing and alignment, demonstrates how Uzbekistani leadership gradually developed an overarching self-reliant role set that shapes its actions. Moreover, Uzbekistan's cooperative and conflicting relationships are described less in light of strategic survival rationale than as the outcome of gradual role compatibilities arising through time. Therefore, unlike some other accounts, this thesis argues that, throughout Uzbekistan's first twenty years of independence, public disputes were crucial to understanding interaction and also that Tashkent was never actually aligned with Russia or the United States. To bring forth this argument, the following chapters expound the assumptions behind some scholarly research and develop the concepts of self-reliance, roles, action, public sphere, credibility and narrative. The discussion progresses toward self-reliance and how the concept captures President Karimov's roles, which are used to emplot Uzbekistan's interaction with the United States, Russia, Germany and Turkey. The first two are relevant for analyzing whether roles reveal more than the typical accounts based on security balancing. Germany is then included because its relationship with Tashkent was rarely conflicting in the public sphere, allowing it to increase bilateral trade and secure a military base in Uzbekistan after the 2005 Andijan Crisis. It was thus a relatively stable connection, unlike Tashkent's relationships with Washington and Moscow. Lastly, to control Germany's middle-power status, the case of Turkey is brought to the fore since Ankara's willingness to engage with Tashkent was not enough to foster cooperation.

From 19th century insane asylums to state sponsored eugenic programs in the 20th century, the state has been an incongruous leader and provider of mental health policy and practice. Current practices that include such treatments as confinement, restraints, forced medication and electro-convulsive therapy continue to raise issues of social justice and humane treatment. Since the 1970s a diverse group of consumers of mental health services from political and radical emancipatory movements to consumer and family initiatives have emerged to question, inform and influence federal and state policies and services. Today state administrators and consumer-advocates meet in formal settings in which they exchange ideas as they work to affect and develop mental health policy and practice. However, such exchanges have raised new questions regarding the relationship between these two groups and their ability, in light of past practices to effectively work together to develop mental health policy and practice. The purpose of this study is to compare how state administrators and consumer-advocates perceive mental illness and how these perceptions impact policy and practice. Through a qualitative research study, the researcher compared and contrasted the perceptions of five consumer-advocates and five state administrators who are involved in major mental health policy in a rural state in order to consider how their perceptions of mental health affect policy and treatment. This study shows an emerging relationship between state administrators and consumer-advocates but a relationship that lacks communication and trust as their discourse attempts to span the gap between their two symbolic universes. The focus of consumer-advocates on the importance of their role in battling pervasive stigma and the need for people with lived experience to be central in the mental health system can be seen as an effort to overcome a historical pattern of coercion and abuse of mental health patients by the state. The focus of state administrators to remain relevant in a mental health system in which consumer-advocates challenge the status quo can be seen as their effort to retain legitimacy as well as their historic control over the mental health system. State administrators and consumer-advocates know that they exist in a new, shared world of mental health care and both groups agreed that the relationship between them needs to improve.

The purpose of the present study is to examine the pathways between gender and behavioral intention to engage in sexual HISB through application of the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB). It was found that feminine and masculine gender role stress differentially influence perceived behavioral control and behavioral attitudes, and that intention to engage in HISB was higher among women than men. Attitudes and PBC significantly predicted behavioral intention in this model. Further, women in the sample were more likely to search for sexual health information, with online sources being the most frequently reported resource. Additionally, past HISB was a significant predictor of sexual health literacy, eHealth literacy, and sexual health knowledge. These findings indicate that gender role stress may play a role in the maintenance of attitudes and perceived behavioral control about sexual health information seeking behaviors, and that HISB in general is higher among women.

No description available.

In 1952 a pro-Japanese group in Hawai'i became the religious movement Tenshō-Kōtai-Jingū-kyō, after the arrival of Sayo Kitamura, a charismatic woman from Japan called Ōgamisama. Her teaching was filled with traditional elements, and Japanese imperialism acquired a new form, and became a spiritual world – a world filled with spirits in need of redemption. To dance in an ego-free state and redeem the evil spirits was a goal for her followers, who learnt how to perform the ecstasy dance and to achieve an altered state of consciousness. Some families, though, were suspected of being carriers of evil spirits called inu-gami (dog spirits). This was a relic of witchcraft, and since hatred, jealousy, envy, and other emotional antipathies produced possession spirits among those who refused to accept Japan's position at the end of the war, Ōgamisama – the mouthpiece of The Sun Goddess Amaterasu – was welcomed as a faith healer and face saver.

Bakgrund: Tidigare forskning och litteratur som behandlar controllerns professionella yrkes-roll beskriver den tekniska rollen, där controllerns administrativa och funktionalistiska roll i organisationen står i fokus. Rollen kan beskrivas vidare med hjälp av sociologisk rollteori där rollskapande och rollåterskapande är två centrala begrepp.Problem: Utifrån tidigare forskning har vi formulerat tre frågor i syfte att förstå controllerns yrkesroll utifrån ett socialt rollperspektiv: Vad betyder begreppet controller och vad säger teori och tidigare forskning att en controller bör göra? Vad är controllerns roll i praktiken och hur skapas yrkesrollen? På vilket sätt går controllerns rollskapande att förklara med hjälp av rollteori?Metod och teori: Vi tillämpade en fenomenologisk tolkande metod i denna studie, då vi valde att fokusera på controllern som individ. Utifrån sociologisk rollteori ur ett multipelt perspektiv analyserar vi rollbegreppet, i syfte att få kunskap om hur individer skapar mening i den värld de lever i. Vi använder oss av tre rollteorier av tre välkända författare inom sociologisk roll-teori för att vidare tolka controllerns roll bortom den tekniska beskrivningen. Teori nummer ett ger en ritualistisk beskrivning av en roll som gör det enklare att verbalisera performativa handlingar och genom det koppla språket till akt. Teori nummer två beskriver funktionaliteten av en roll, hur beteende påverkas av en viss funktion och hur handlingarna styrs av externa normer. Teori nummer tre ger en beskrivning av roll som påverkas av individers grupptill-hörighet. Tillhörigheten i en grupp formar rollen genom den ömsesidiga kommunikationen.Studiens resultat: Genom vår studie kan vi dra slutsatser om controllerns yrkesroll, med hjälp av sociologisk rollteori ur ett multipelt perspektiv. Den praktiska rollen, det vill säga control-lerns handlingar (backstage), skiljer sig från hur controllerns vill att andra ska uppfatta denne (frontstage). Vi kan visa att controllerns rollskapande också kan ske utifrån rutiner i organisa-tionen. Då alla organisationer och individer skapar olika rutiner för handlingar leder det till att olika yrkesroller skapas. / Program: Civilekonomprogrammet

<p>The aim of this thesis is to understand the reasons behind the decision of the United States to stand in opposition to the International Criminal Court. This policy seems to contradict the United States'leading role in international justice and commitment to universal human rights. The opposition to the ICC presents an apparent contradiction between principles and interests, and provokes the question of what role power, identity and principles play in the formation of national interest. </p><p>The author reviews the concept of national interest in International Relations theory. It is found that only a constructivist identity approach takes account of both power and identity in the formation of national interest. The constructivist identity approach presents the concept of national interest as endogenous to social interaction and linked to identity. National interest is thus not seen as an objective analytical concept from which one can derive and explain rational behavior by rational actors, but as the very phenomenon that we are trying to understand. This theoretical framework is firmly located in an understanding tradition. </p><p>In the search for an understanding of why the United States’ decision-makers considered opposition to the ICC to be in the national interest of the United States, role theory serves as a method. The empirical part of this thesis consists of analysis of speeches and statements, and of role conceptions found therein. </p><p>The results of this approach show that the apparent contradiction between principles and interests does not exist. The reason why the behavior examined appears to be contradictory is that the spectator lets his or her own expectations of behavior appropriate for a certain belief or a certain role conception stand as a guide. The only way we can understand the reasons behind a given behavior is by looking at the actors’ view of the problem and what beliefs and role conceptions come into play for the actors when they face a foreign policy issue. </p><p>The analysis makes it clear that the United States views its behavior as contradictory neither to its principles, nor to its perceived roles. Instead, it is the roles of the United States, the sources of which include both principles and capabilities, that are the reasons behind the policy.</p>

<p>Studiens syfte har varit att få kunskap om hemlösa klienters syn på sin boendesituation. Samt att få fördjupad kunskap om klienternas upplevelse av möjlighet till förändring och hur de beskriver att de bemöts och behandlas på Beroendeverksamhetens gruppboenden. En kvalitativ metod har använts för att besvara syftet. Det empiriska materialet består av intervjuer med sju personer som för närvarande bor på ett kommunalt gruppboende. Tolkningsramen har utgjorts av teorier och forskning kring förändringsprocesser och strategier för att motverka hemlöshet. Rollteori har också använts för att ge en djupare förståelse för interaktionen mellan individer och mellan individ och organisation.</p><p>Resultaten visar att det är svårt att trivas på en institution. Det har mycket att göra med den maktstruktur som präglar en sådan inrättning. I studien framkom att det skapas motståndsstrategier för att värja sig i en sådan situation. Resultatet visar också att motstånd skapas när man inte känner sig delaktig i sin egen förändringsprocess. Det är viktigt för de boende att kunna påverka sin boendesituation. Boende som tycker de får hjälp på boendet anser att de kan använda vistelsen till något positivt.</p><p>Personalens roll inskränker sig för de boendes del till att vara behjälpliga med praktiska saker, ett slags yttre förändring. Någon tycker att personalen även kan vara ett socialt stöd i en inre mening, att hjälpa de boende med strategier som gör att de kan fortsätta att leva ett drogfritt liv. Studien visar vidare att man både önskar mer av socialt stöd samtidigt som några upplever att man själv är det bästa verktyget i en förändringsprocess. Resultatet visar slutligen att institutionens strikta regler blir en viktig förändringsfaktor i klienternas liv. Kravet på drogfrihet gör att de boende får upp ögonen på ett alternativt sätt att leva. Slutsatsen är att institutionen bidrar till att förmedla känslan av att en förändring är möjlig.</p> / <p>ABSTRACT</p><p>Title: ”It’s not supposed to be a bloody hangout where you bring people and stuff” A study on how homeless clients feels about living in communal group homes provided to them by the social services.</p><p>The purpose of this paper has been to gain knowledge about homeless clients view on their housing situation. And also to learn more about how clients perceive the possibility to change and how they feel they are being treated at the social services collective housing facilities. A qualitative approach has been used in order to answer these questions. The empirical material consists of seven interviews with people currently staying at the communal homes mentioned above. The study’s frame of interpretation has consisted of theories and research about changing processes and strategies to counteract homelessness. Role theory has also been used in order to provide a deeper understanding of the interaction between individuals and between individual and organisation.</p><p>The results in general show that it is hard to feel at home in an institutional setting. This has mainly to do with the unequal power structure that exists in such places. The study shows that under such circumstances oppressed people develop resistance strategies in order to cope. Furthermore the results points to the fact that resistance is more likely to occur when you’re feeling that you have no influence on your own future life situation. It is vital for the residents’ well being to be able to have an active part in their living situation. Those who feel they get adequate help in the institution are most likely to see the stay as a positive experience.</p><p>The role of the staff is primarily limited to helping out with practical things. This can be seen as a way of helping the residents to adapt to society’s rules. Someone thinks that the staff also can function as a social support that helps them rethink their attitude towards their drug abuse. The results are somewhat ambiguous in that respect. The clients do want more of social support from the staff. At the same time they emphasises that the best agent in a successful changing process is the own self. The results finally show that the strict rules of the institution turn out to play an important role as a changing factor in the lives of the clients. The demand for total abstinence from drugs and alcohol helps in demonstrating for the clients an alternative way to live. The conclusion of this is that the institution contributes in conveying the message that change is in fact possible.</p>