<p>This study intends to examine the impact of a well known debate page in one of Sweden’s biggest newspapers, Dagens Nyheter. We have done this by analysing Ekot, Aktuellt, Göteborgs Posten and Västerbottens-Kuriren to see to what extent they “take” news from the debate page.</p><p>The method used was content analysis and to describe some of our thoughts about how we placed the hits in different categories we chose eight of our hits to exemplify.</p><p>The material from the newspapers, radio and television was examined to discover the potential impact from the debate page.</p><p>To carry out this study we have mainly used theories about how media get influenced by each other’s news and how they do follow-ups and refer to the original media. Other theories of importance for our study are for example those about what kinds of events that become news and how media influences people’s thoughts about what’s important.</p><p>One of the most important conclusions we were able to draw after carrying out our study was that the debate page in Dagens Nyheter has quite a small impact on what our chosen media reported on. The biggest impact was found in the newspapers, whereas radio and television very seldom referred to the debate page.</p><p>To sum up, one can absolutely say that the debate page in Dagens Nyheter is powerful and do have impact on other media, but an article published on the page is not automatically discussed and debated in other media during the day.</p>

The main aim of this thesis is to examine the agenda setting effects of Twitter users by exploring the use of hashtag #UgandaDecides and the retweet (RT) activity during the 2016 presidential election. I do this by applying the first level agenda setting theory which holds that the news media sets the public agenda. I apply a qualitative analysis using #UgandaDecides as a unit of analysis to collect tweets that received the most retweets to establish the actors tweeting during the study period. I conduct content analysis to establish the key issues/topics that received the most attention as per their level of frequency and prominence received through their retweet activity. Results in this thesis show that different actors were involved in determining the topics/issues on the twitter public agenda during the 2016 Uganda presidential election. For the pre-election period, the news media set the agenda by influencing the topics/issues for discussion as seen by the number of the retweets from their tweets. However, on Election Day, the public mainly ordinary citizens were more active in determining what topics/issues were discussed on Twitter, manifesting signs of reverse agenda setting. In this thesis, I thus conclude that Twitter can be empowering as it provides a space for ordinary citizens to participate in political discourse and that in a restrictive media environment, both media and public can use twitter as a participatory platform. The aspects of reversed agenda setting shown in this study are indicative of the changing media environment and how new power relations between different actors calls for the revision of the traditional agenda setting theory that the news media sets the public agenda.

Call number: LD2668 .T4 1963 W33

Companies worldwide are facing a severe competition from an increasing number of domestic and foreign competitors, who put extra pressure on the achievement of market efficiency and performance. In this context, research and transference of managerial tools aimed at increasing performance has become decisive for organizations. One particular tool, the coaching of the sales force, has been largely praised by practitioners and scholars alike as a central managerial activity increasing employee's performance. As salespeople's performance is a key antecedent of organizational performance, research on sales coaching as a tool for increasing performance is critical. Despite its importance, research on coaching has been scarce and inconsistent, and published work has been predominantly practice-driven and guru-led, lacking solid theoretical basis. Additionally, the relationship between coaching and performance has not received conclusive support, and the mediating variables linking coaching with performance have not been studied; these restrictions limited the explanations and predictive capacity of present models. This research tries to close the gap between what is presently known about coaching and what should be known in the opinion of both practitioners and scholars, by answering two general research questions: 1) does coaching by the sales manager have an impact on salesperson's performance?; and 2) what are the mediating mechanisms that turn coaching by the sales manager into salesperson's performance? This dissertation presents a model based on two institutionalized' theories, Leader-member Exchange (LMX) Theory and Goal-setting Theory; LMX is a dyadic, relational theory, useful to explain the high quality relationship developed between coach and coaché during the coaching intervention, and some of the proximal outcomes of this relationship; goal-setting theory is particularly useful in sales contexts, where salespeople have clearly defined goals, to understand how the coaching intervention can mobilize salesperson's cognition and motivation in order to achieve the goals. The model explores the motivational and cognitive process enacted by the coaching intervention that have an impact on salesperson's performance, and proposes different ways through which coaching could be translated into increased performance; according to the model, the coaching intervention helps the salesperson to develop new task-specific strategies , which increases his capacity of adapting to different selling situations; additionally, the characteristics of the coaching intervention increases his goal commitment and his self-efficacy ; in consequence, the salesperson will spend more effort , with greater persistence , and will choose better strategies; as a consequence of increased sales adaptability, new strategies, goal commitment, self-efficacy and effort, salesperson's performance will also increase. The model was tested using data collected early in 2011; a local Latin-American branch of a global industrial company and a Canadian bank accepted to participate in the study, and invitations to take a web-based survey were sent to their sales forces. I received 186 complete, usable responses, for a total response ratio of 40.43%, which were used to test the model using Structural Equation Modeling. Results supported the main hypotheses; the conclusion of the dissertation is that the coaching intervention actually enacts motivational and cognitive mechanisms in the salesperson that allows him to increase his performance. These mechanisms are increased effort, adaptive selling, sales planning, new strategies, goal commitment and self-efficacy. The dissertation contributes to the solution of the research problem in several ways. First, it proposes a model of coaching mediators, an issue that has not been addressed by previous research. The model represents an original perspective that advances the field of coaching research by enlarging our understanding of the processes addressed by the coaching intervention. Second, the model proposes two complementary ways for achieving performance; one that considers the motivational aspects of the coaching intervention, where an increased performance is achieved through increased goal commitment and effort; the other one considers the cognitive aspects of the coaching intervention, where an increased performance is achieved through increased adaptive selling and sales planning behavior, and the development and implementation of new task-related strategies. These two ways are consistent with present research on adaptive selling and sales performance. Third, the model is based on two institutionalized theories: LMX and Goal-setting Theory. The use of these theories is an original approach, useful to understand how coaching work in sales contexts. As the proposed model is not based on any particular practitioner's model or set of experiences, it can potentially be generalized through a large series of organizational settings. Finally, the results of this research contributes: 1) to the advancement of scientific knowledge through the development of an original, theory-based model of coaching mediators, as well as 2) to the solution of a managerial problem by providing practical insights to practitioners willing to implement successful coaching processes in their organizations.

With regards to the potential severity of increased antibiotic resistance around the world it is puzzling that the global response to this issue has not been more comprehensive. In this thesis I will examine the political frames on ABR formulated by the global network ReAct in an attempt to understand why this is the case. The frames of an issue, that is how it is described politically in different ways, are crucial for agenda-setting. Moreover, framing is an important part of the work of transnational advocacy networks. Since the acknowledgement of an issue in terms of agenda-setting is an important part of a global response, the frames of transnational advocacy networks make up the focus of this thesis. My findings suggests that the existence of multiple frames on ABR to some extent helps us understand the lacking response to ABR. The construction of the frames in terms of causality, and inparticular a general vagueness in terms of responsibility, is however the main finding.

published_or_final_version / abstract / English / Master / Master of Philosophy

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Titel: Transfer of training – en studie av överföringsprocessen av säljträning med avseende på motivation och målsättning. Författare: Therése Eriksson &amp; Lovisa Söderlund Uppsatsnivå: Examensarbete i Företagsekonomi för kandidatexamen, 180 hp VT-14 Handledare: Lars-Johan Åge, Jonas Molin &amp; Jens Eklinder Frick Datum: 2014-05 Syfte: Vi vill undersöka om och hur säljares målsättningar påverkar säljare att ta till sig säljträning och omsätta den i praktiken. Metod: Med syftet som utgångspunkt har en kvalitativ metod använts i undersökningen där empirisk data erhölls genom att utföra 12 semi-strukturerade intervjuer med respondenter från fem telefoni- och elektronikföretag i Gävle. En strukturerad, abduktiv analysmetod som gör det möjligt att analysera kvalitativ data användes för att analysera och identifiera mönster i materialet.  Resultat: Studien visar att motivation är av stor betydelse när det kommer till säljträning och huruvida säljare väljer att använda sig av träningen. Det som motiverar säljare att använda sig av säljträning är huruvida det kommer leda till ett ökat försäljningsresultat. Vi ser också att motivationen till överföringen är beroende av säljarnas personliga mål eftersom målen har med deras egna värderingar att göra och det är dessa mål som främst driver säljarna. Studien har visat att för att säljare ska känna motivation till att överföra träningen måste de uppfatta att träningen är relevant till deras personliga mål. När säljarna har satt upp sina personliga mål och uppfattar att träningen kommer öka deras chans att uppfylla dessa, blir de motiverade att utföra träningen, ta till sig den och sedan överföra materialet till praktiken. Förslag till vidare forskning: För vidare forskning rekommenderar vi att motivationens roll i överföringsprocessen utifrån andra faktorer än målsättning studeras, för att stärka beviskedjan och generaliserbarheten. Vi tror att det är viktigt att öka förståelse av hur överföring av säljträning kan hjälpa företag att effektivisera försäljningen. Bidrag: Denna studie belyser hur en ökad förståelse kan nås om vad som motiverar säljare att överföra träningsmaterial till praktiska situationer. Vårt bidrag blir att bygga på den forskning som handlar om just målsättningens roll i hur framförallt personliga mål påverkar motivationen och i sin tur överföringen. Flera begrepp, däribland målsättning och motivation har vi lånat från psykologiforskningen för att ge bidrag till forskningsfältet företagsekonomi. Nyckelord: Transfer of training, Motivation to transfer, Goal-setting.

Blackland Prairie contains a scholarly preface, “Cross Timbers,” that discusses the emerging role of place as a narrative agent in contemporary fiction. The preface is followed by six original short stories. “Parts” depicts the growth of a boy's power over his family. “A Movie House to Make Us All Rich” involves the sacrifice of familial values by the son of Italian immigrants in the early 20th century. “The Place on Chenango Street” is about a man who views his world in monetary terms. “The Nine Ideas For A Happier Whole” explores the self-help industry and personal guru age. “All The Stupid Things I Said” is about a long-separated couple meeting for very different reasons. “Flooded Timber” concerns a couple who discover hidden reasons for their relationship's longevity.