Team diversity refers to the differences between team members on any attribute that may lead each single member of the group to perceive any other member of the group as being different from the self of this particular member. These attributes and perceptions refer to all dimensions people can differ on, such as age, gender, ethnicity, religious and functional background, personality, skills, abilities, beliefs, and attitudes.

Identity includes an individual´s self-image and the consciousness about their self. It is about being the same person despite changes in their life situation. The identity often get´s fragile because of the disease. Beacuse of the individual´s feeling of lost identity there may arise a conflict between the person and people in his or her surroundings. They may no longer see the sick person in the same way as they used to. The purpose of this study was to highlight how disease in everyday life and admission to a hospital affects the identity. The study was carried out as a litterature based study. There were especially two categories that were important, the social dimension of identity and the personal dimension of identity. The personal identity is mostly related to the fact that the person is admitted to hospital and the concept of autonomy, integrity, dignity and empowerment. The social identity is more about the relationship to family, friends and colleagues, but it is also related to the nurse-¬¬¬¬¬patient relationship. The different parts of identity in relation to itself and to others do have a common influence. A large part of the personal freedom is deprived during a stay in the hospital. It is important that the nurse pays attention to the patient´s individual personality and habits. This will make that person feel well respected and it will also make it easier for the individual to maintain his or her identity. It is important to highlight how disease affects the identity, both in the nurseprofession and in the education to become a nurse. More research in the areas identity and caring is needed.

The aim of the present study is to examine the interactional functions of code-switching in plurilingual conversation, with a particular focus on those related to the elaboration of the social identities of the interlocutors, i. e. their identity work. The adopted analytical model was initiated by Auer, and further developed by Gafaranga, who combined it with the Membership Categorization Analysis elaborated by Sacks. The study is based on a corpus consisting of the audio recorded dinner talk of an Italian-Swedish family whose members use Swedish, Italian and a Ligurian dialect, and focuses on the sequential progression of the talk in interaction, thus based on an approach proper of conversation analysis. The participants create and display their different roles (identities), which are related to both group membership and individuality, a subsequent distinction made by Fant. Code-switching is used as a communicative strategy among the speakers and is used to make relevant identities, as well as a tool for the management of the interaction. The analysis is divided in two distinctive parts: one related to the code-switching connected to the organisational management of the conversation, the other connected to the identity work of the interlocutors. The linguistic codes used within the group are either inclusive (Swedish, Italian) or selective (Ligurian) and the analysis indicates a general inclusion rather than exclusion of interlocutors, as the speakers accommodating to the linguistic preferences and competences of the interlocutor. The speakers, when selecting a code, thus make use of recipient design, a concept worked out by Sacks, Schegloff & Jefferson. They choose code in order to include a particular interlocutor, adjusting to the language preferences of the other. There are some instances of asymmetrical plurilingual conversation, in which the interlocutors maintain different codes, but since the code choice appears to be anticipated by the addressee the interaction runs smoothly between them. As for the direction of the code switch, two different tendencies emerge: one in the switches connected to the identity work of the participants in which the direction of the switches seems to be highly significant. The other in the switches connected to the management of the conversation in which the direction proves to be reversible.

Despite ample research showing the importance of corporate reputation in recruiting, knowledge about how companies work with employer branding is still limited. This first academic study in this topic is based on a comprehensive empirical data set systematized to a description of employer branding using a grounded theory approach. The description illustrates a process with three phases: brand input, brand support, and brand evaluation. Each phase is related to the messages enclosed in the brand. A comparative analysis of the empirical description and marketing literature shows that the underlying reasoning in branding at the labor market is quite similar to branding at the customer market. However, several important differences were also highlighted, indicating that employer branding is a multi-disciplinary phenomenon. The most surprising difference is a widespread homogeneity in the companies’ employer branding. This contrasts the emphasis on uniqueness in the marketing literature. A further analysis of this finding generated four homogenizing dimensions: time, industry, geography and corporate demographics. Each contains a number of corporate populations with companies similar in the dimension’s point of reference. Since the dimensions are not specific for the labor market a further analysis of the theoretical arguments for heterogeneity and homogeneity was motivated. This shows that there are economic as well as social arguments for both homo- and heterogeneity. From an economic perspective a heterogeneous employer branding creates a cost advantage, because with an attractive unique reputation a company can pay lower salaries than competitors for a given position. On the other hand a homogeneous branding generates cost advantages when the company benchmarks competitors or respects the institutional norms. From a social perspective a heterogeneous branding contributes to a distinct corporate identity, while a homogenous branding avoids social isolation. Consequently, homogeneity provides advantages that heterogeneity does not and vice versa. Companies therefore level the arguments. The balance is more likely to lean towards homogeneity when 1) the companies belongs to the same corporate population in one or many of the homogenizing dimensions and 2) a branding component relatively easily can be benchmarked or is connected with explicit and strong institutional norms. The balancing act signifies that a homogeneous branding is not a product of institutional determinism, but that the corporate populations give rise to different social identities and that the companies according to a logic of appropriateness act in a way that is rational given their specific situation and context. Thus, this logic creates coherent cohorts.

The current economic crisis that affects Europe, much deeper in the South has behind it bigger problems than purely economic. In this thesis, we advocate the existence of a crisis of leadership within the economic one, that somehow prevents nations from continue and escape from the crisis, since the solutions given are purely economic and not fix the hidden problems.We advocate for change in the form of lead as a strong support to find a solution. A better leadership from our governments is a support to overcome the crisis.In order to achieve this, in the first part of the thesis will explore the Crisis of leadership, its causes and implications, seeing his negative side. In the second we will focus on exploring the current leadership failures and how an improvement of this can be crucial to overcome the crisis. Readers will see the positive side of the crisis as an opportunity for change in leadership. In this way, we end up venturing into the new generation of leaders, the impact of the crisis in youth and why we do believe that they can get the good side of this situation.

This thesis is concerned with the work of business leaders. The interest lies in the holders of positions as Chairpersons, Boardmembers and Managing Directors. This study, however, goes beyond the position holder to consider the actions of actors, as they operate within networks with concurrent multiple business activities. The purpose is to generate knowledge and understanding of the activities and relations of multibusiness leaders involved in managing small and medium-sized companies. Major schools of thought on the manager's job are described. The review relates the scientific debate about different schools and emphasises the need for more inductive research. The call for processual and contextual analysis leads to an epistemological position grounded in understanding through interpretation. The method used in this study adopts such an approach, and thus aims to discover qualities of the studied phenomenon based on social constructivism. Empirical reality is approached by means of intensive studies of a few cases. Case descriptions of the work of multibusiness leaders in the National, Regional, Intermediary, Independent, and Developing Networks are undertaken, where the inter­action processes of the different actors are described according to the working life his­tory of the actor, and to the networking and work activities carried out. The analysis is based upon four themes (the actor's 'task legitimacy', 'economic legi­timacy', 'idea development' and 'network'). The first two themes have been given the generic term 'legitimacy concept', not only to reflect the interactive and changeable aspects of work, but also to illustrate how work in itself is intimately interwoven in an institutional context. The creation of 'task legitimacy' and 'economic legitimacy' of the leaders is analysed. The analysis of the actors' idea development results in a description of differing visions in the individual networks. This description takes up visions covering long-term industrial leadership, regional co-operative leadership, restructuring leadership, flexible market-adaptive leadership and network-based leadership. In a survey of the existing literature, the role of a leader is seen as one of many managerial roles, a view that is based upon the work of Mintzberg (1973). This study contrasts with the above picture, by discussing a reciprocal dependency between the leader's leadership role and his/her other roles. This reciprocity and concurrency is dealt with by introducing the concept of identity as a theoretical aid, thus reflecting in a more appropriate way the complex and interactive actor. The social identity concept (Tajfel, 1982) is used, in order to answer more profoundly the research questions. As leaders are reciprocally dependent on a network for their own existence, we must both look inward in order to be able to understand at a deeper level the actors' motives, and look outward to be able to look at identity creation in a wider industry context. What I have termed näringslivsledaridentitet (the Identity of Multibusiness Leaders), is a substantial part of this study's findings. The concept is used in order to be able to describe how the actors' inner and outer motives merge in identity creating processes. The actors' different patterns of interaction are absorbed into a composite whole. / digitalisering@umu

Cet article examine la relation entre le secteur dans lequel les individus travaillent et le niveau de leur profession, d’une part, et, d’autre part, le rapport qu’ils entretiennent avec les médias, y compris Internet, selon qu’ils en disposent ou non dans leur foyer et en fonction des usages qu’ils en font. Il se penche aussi sur l’identité sociale, en mettant diverses manifestations en relation avec la manière dont les individus vivent leur rapport aux médias. Il remet en question l’hypothèse d’une forte association entre le niveau professionnel et le rapport aux médias. Il met en évidence des phénomènes complexes d’homogénéisation et de différenciation sociales. Les données proviennent d’un échantillon de travailleurs du nord-ouest de l’Ontario qui ont répondu à un questionnaire centré sur le rapport aux médias.

Research on international work experiences has to a great extent focused on an international assignment as a single event, and on how to optimize it from the organization’s perspective. This thesis addresses individuals’ subjective experiences of international work experiences and focuses on individuals with global careers, who see working abroad as a major element of their careers, involving several international assignments or international work experiences. With the recognition that individuals will work abroad on their own initiative a differentiation is made between repeat expatriates; expatriates with at least two international assignments for the same company, and international itinerants; working abroad for at least two different companies. The main purpose of this thesis is to contribute to the understanding of global careers through applying an identity construction perspective on narratives of global careerists’ working lives. To address this purpose the global careerists’ identity construction processes are explored, and their career orientation, their identification with the organization and career, and country and culture are considered more directly. An important sub-purpose of this thesis is to make a comparison of repeat expatriates and international itinerants, in terms of their identity construction and identifications. An individual’s identity, or sense of self, is seen as constructed in social interaction, encompassing dualities such as both differentiation from and identification with others. This thesis addresses social identities as part of an individual’s identity construction in the transition in social, cultural and organizational context that an international work experience involves. The approach taken is that the increased understanding aimed for can be reached through narratives. Interviews were made with twenty Swedish global careerists. Each interview was constructed as a narrative and structured according to elements of narratives to construct aggregate narratives of repeat expatriates and international itinerants. The narratives were analyzed and comparison of repeat expatriates and international itinerants was made. The findings in this thesis show that all the global careerists in this study have experienced shifts in their identities and identity reconstruction in the course of their careers. External circumstances such as the type of location, the time abroad, and if the work abroad is perceived as temporary, is important to the global careerists’ identity construction.The findings illustrate that there are differences in repeat expatriates’ and international itinerants’ career orientations, in their identifications with the organizations they work for, with their careers and with what they do. The two types of global careerists differ in how they identify with their home country and culture and the countries and cultures they live in. The repeat expatriates and international itinerants also show different patterns in their identity construction.

The Late Bronze Age on the island of Crete saw a period of strong administrative and religious control by the palace at Knossos, which also controlled a vast trade network with the rest of the eastern Mediterranean. After the collapse of the palace of Knossos, the Final Palatial period (1490 - 1320 BCE), was a time of sociopolitical transition and change, witnessing an explosion in number and variety of mortuary practices used, even within the same cemetery. In this thesis I analyze Final Palatial burial practices in a more systematic method than has been previously attempted, in order to gain a better understanding of how the Minoans chose to use the mortuary sphere as a platform for constructing and negotiating their social and political identities in the dynamic socio-political climate of the Final Palatial period.

This study investigates the post-performance effects of stereotype threat. Undergraduate students (N = 130) classified as either strongly- or weakly- identified with academics were told a diagnostic anagram task either typically shows poorer performance for their gender (stereotype threat) or no gender differences (no stereotype threat), and received arbitrary positive or negative feedback on an initial task. They later performed a second anagram task. Results indicate a 2-way interaction between stereotype threat and academic identification among those who received negative feedback. Negative feedback under stereotype threat did not harm performance for participants strongly-identified with academics, but did harm performance for participants weakly-identified with academics. This same 2-way interaction within the negative feedback condition also predicted post-feedback levels of identification as a college student, though it did not seem to affect post-feedback levels of academic identification. Strongly-identified participants receiving negative feedback identified less as a college student if they were under stereotype threat while weakly-academically identified participants identified more. Levels of post-feedback identification as a college student negatively predicted performance.