A number of practitioner surveys across a range of industries have cited the lack of senior female role models as a barrier to career progression. There is very little academic literature to explain this at a senior organizational level. An initial review of the extant role model literature led to the inclusion of two further related areas – organizational demographics, as a contextual factor affecting the availability of role models, and work identity development as a link between the lack of senior female role models and the lack of career progression. In seeking to answer the question of why and then how female role models are important for senior women, this study fills an identified gap in the comprehension of the concept of role models and their importance in the workplace. It addresses a need to understand both the key elements of the concept and the mechanism by which they come into play. The research uses qualitative methods, specifically in-depth semi-structured interviews. These were conducted with a senior group of 33 female directors from six global investment banks, in order to elicit their experiences of role models in demographically imbalanced work contexts. Analysis of interview data considered all three areas of role models, demographic context and work identity development. As the women forged their identities in the male-dominated context of global investment banks, what became clear was that who they are and have become was informed by the critical relationships they have had. Whilst clearly some of the women had found male role models with whom to develop these critical relationships, there were some identity issues, particular salient to women, which could not be addressed by men. Thus the findings demonstrated the utility of female role models. This thesis has a number of contributions to make on varying levels: On a conceptual level, this study adds to our understanding of the value of role models, particularly detailing the affective or symbolic value. It has added to the conceptualization of role models, detailing what were the core attributes of individuals chosen to be role models, who they were in relation to the women, how the women used them and why they were important. It has combined the three literature areas of role models, organizational demographics and work identity development in a way not previously done, and has shown empirically that they are related and explain each other. Organizational demographics affect the availability of role models. And it is suggested that the relatively new theory of relational identification is the mechanism that explicates how the presence of positive female role models is a key influence on women’s work identity development. It has clarified the value of role models in extreme gender demographic contexts, and how and why they are important to senior women’s professional development, thereby adding to the theory of role modelling. Practically, the study explains why women in surveys may have been citing the lack of female role models as such a prominent issue, and suggests what some of the issues are that organizations should pay heed to in trying to address this.

The purpose of this study is to conduct an investigation of the lived experiences of asthma and sporting embodiment in non-elite sportspeople of different ages and levels of ability, involved in a range of sports. Asthma is characterised as a breathing disorder and the aim of this research is to add to embodied literature by providing ‘fleshy’ realities of the moving, sweating, sensuous sporting body, which holds meanings, purposes and interests for people who experience sport with asthma. Breathing is not only a physiological process, but it is also cultural and people may deal with their asthma symptoms in ways that reflect cultural attitudes embedded in sport. This qualitative study addresses five exploratory questions: 1) How do sportspeople experience asthma? 2) How do sportspeople negotiate their asthma and sporting identities? 3) How do emotional dimensions play a role in sportspeople’s asthma and sporting experiences? 4) How do perceptions of environment and illness shape one another by examining the relationship between the body, the self and environment? 5) What is the role of trauma in sportspeople with asthma? 6) How do key senses (sound) play a role in sportspeople’s asthma and embodied sporting experiences? Through a symbolic-interactionsist and phenomenological-inspired approach, this research places emphasis on the mind-body-self nexus in relation to sensory experiences with a focus upon the centrality of the ‘visceral’ body in the relationship between self-consciousness and the self. A bodily disruption (e.g., asthmatic attack) is likely to heighten awareness of the body-self and contingency and may amplify how sportspeople listen to their own embodied selves when engaged in sporting action. Therefore, sportspeople may become even more acutely aware of, and attuned to, their breathing in ways that link the physiological, the psychological, the social and the environment. This may lead to a permanent re-ordering/negotiation of identities (e.g., athletic identity - asthma identity) through ‘emotion work’ and ‘somatic (auditory) work’ in which a concern with the body is central. The findings are represented as a typology consisting of Conformers, Contesters and Creators, which may be used as a framework to assist health care and sporting professionals in developing more appropriate and effective rehabilitation regimes for sportspeople, in order to improve the quality of treatment and outcomes.

L’objectif général de ce mémoire est de comprendre l‘impact du genre sur l’identité de travail des cowboys, dans leur milieu de travail et de vie dans un ranch du Canada. Cette étude vise à contribuer aux études sur le genre en utilisant des théories existantes pour les appliquer à un nouveau champ. Sur la base d’une approche théorique fondée dans le féminisme et les études sur la masculinité, en utilisant aussi l’histoire des cowboys de l’Ouest, cette étude se penche sur la question de l’importance du genre dans la division du travail dans le ranch, celle de l’identité de travail des cowboys et sur la façon dont le genre affecte cette identité. La collecte des données s’est faite par l’observation participante et des entrevues semi-structurées. En utilisant une analyse thématique des données, l’étude conclut que le genre est un principe important dans la division du travail dans le ranch et que l’identité de travail est d’une extrême importance pour les cowboys. En outre, l’étude démontre que le genre jour de différentes façons dans l’identité de travail, l’hétéronormativité et les idéaux du cowboy allant dans le même sens, alors que la féminité s’oppose à cet idéal. Les traditions sont encore importantes pour les cowboys contemporains, mais en même temps, ceux-ci mentionnent la réalité du travail éreintant et sans fin comme contrepoids à l’image romantique de la vie des cowboys. Enfin, il y a des similitudes entre les cowboys de cette étude et les adolescentes suédoises étudies par Ambjörnsonn (2004) dans la façon dont le groupe se crée une identité sur la base du genre. / English abstract: The overall aim of this thesis is to understand the implications of gender in the work identity of cowboys within the framework of working and living on a contemporary Canadian cattle ranch. The study seeks to contribute to gender studies by applying established theories to a new field. A theoretical framework drawing from, on the one hand, gender theory originating from feminism and masculinity studies, and on the other hand, the history of the cowboy of the west is applied to the study. This research investigates the importance of gender in the division of labour at the Ranch and the significance of work identity for cowboys, while looking at how gender plays a part in this work identity. To collect data, fieldwork including participant observation and semi-structured interviews has been conducted. Using a thematic analysis of the information gathered, the study found that gender was a guiding principle in the division of labour at the Ranch, and that the work identity had an enormous importance for research participants. Furthermore, it revealed that gender played an important part in their work identity in different ways because ideals revolving around a heteronormative masculinity and those related to being a cowboy went hand in hand, whereas the idea of the feminine gender was presented as being in conflict with the idea of the cowboy. Interestingly, old traditions of the cowboy trade are still important to contemporary cowboys, who seek to balance the romantic picture of the cowboy life painted in fiction with the reality of hard, never-ending work. Moreover, similarities are found between cowboys who participated in this study and Swedish teenage girls studied by Ambjörnsson (2004), in terms of how they create a group identity based on the construction of gender.

Abstarct Vi har valt att undersöka hur officerare inom försvaret ser på och upplever den organisationsförändring som verksamheten nu genomgår. I vår studie avser vi att undersöka våra berörda respondenters syn på förändringen i sig, samt hur de uppfattar eventuella förändringar, särskilt rörande deras yrkesidentitet. Vi har valt att göra undersökningen med hjälp av kvalitativa intervjuer med personer som arbetar som officerare inom Försvarsmakten, dessa som nu ställts inför kravet att skriva på kontrakt om obligatorisk utlandstjänst alternativt bli avskedade. Denna förändring, som innebär att försvaret byter huvuduppgift, medför en stor omställning för de flesta anställda. Vårt resultat visar oss att de individuella upplevelserna samt förmågan att hantera och anpassa sig till denna förändring är kopplat till flera saker, så som inställning till personens uppgift och ålder samt, beroende på hur familjesituationen ser ut, den sociala omgivningen. Detta innefattar såväl det stöd personen har i sin närhet, som stöd från samhället och myndigheter. / We have chosen to examine how officers experience the change within the department that comes with the concept. In our study we attend to look at how the officers we have met think about the change within the organization, the meaning of this and definitions like work-identity. We have chosen to do the survey by using qualitative interviews with people who work as officers, who has been put in front of an demand to go out on international service rather than service their own country which has been the primary subject until now. These officers have to sign a contract about international service or else they will get fired. This change within the organization brings quite a big changeover for the employees at the department. Our results have shown us that the individual experiences and the ability to manage the organization change have to do with the attitude towards the changes, age differences and also social environment depending on the family situation. This includes both the support from the closest surroundings, as well as the society’s authorities whose power is affecting the individuals.

L’objectif général de ce mémoire est de comprendre l‘impact du genre sur l’identité de travail des cowboys, dans leur milieu de travail et de vie dans un ranch du Canada. Cette étude vise à contribuer aux études sur le genre en utilisant des théories existantes pour les appliquer à un nouveau champ. Sur la base d’une approche théorique fondée dans le féminisme et les études sur la masculinité, en utilisant aussi l’histoire des cowboys de l’Ouest, cette étude se penche sur la question de l’importance du genre dans la division du travail dans le ranch, celle de l’identité de travail des cowboys et sur la façon dont le genre affecte cette identité. La collecte des données s’est faite par l’observation participante et des entrevues semi-structurées. En utilisant une analyse thématique des données, l’étude conclut que le genre est un principe important dans la division du travail dans le ranch et que l’identité de travail est d’une extrême importance pour les cowboys. En outre, l’étude démontre que le genre jour de différentes façons dans l’identité de travail, l’hétéronormativité et les idéaux du cowboy allant dans le même sens, alors que la féminité s’oppose à cet idéal. Les traditions sont encore importantes pour les cowboys contemporains, mais en même temps, ceux-ci mentionnent la réalité du travail éreintant et sans fin comme contrepoids à l’image romantique de la vie des cowboys. Enfin, il y a des similitudes entre les cowboys de cette étude et les adolescentes suédoises étudies par Ambjörnsonn (2004) dans la façon dont le groupe se crée une identité sur la base du genre. / English abstract: The overall aim of this thesis is to understand the implications of gender in the work identity of cowboys within the framework of working and living on a contemporary Canadian cattle ranch. The study seeks to contribute to gender studies by applying established theories to a new field. A theoretical framework drawing from, on the one hand, gender theory originating from feminism and masculinity studies, and on the other hand, the history of the cowboy of the west is applied to the study. This research investigates the importance of gender in the division of labour at the Ranch and the significance of work identity for cowboys, while looking at how gender plays a part in this work identity. To collect data, fieldwork including participant observation and semi-structured interviews has been conducted. Using a thematic analysis of the information gathered, the study found that gender was a guiding principle in the division of labour at the Ranch, and that the work identity had an enormous importance for research participants. Furthermore, it revealed that gender played an important part in their work identity in different ways because ideals revolving around a heteronormative masculinity and those related to being a cowboy went hand in hand, whereas the idea of the feminine gender was presented as being in conflict with the idea of the cowboy. Interestingly, old traditions of the cowboy trade are still important to contemporary cowboys, who seek to balance the romantic picture of the cowboy life painted in fiction with the reality of hard, never-ending work. Moreover, similarities are found between cowboys who participated in this study and Swedish teenage girls studied by Ambjörnsson (2004), in terms of how they create a group identity based on the construction of gender.

This study is set in the broad context of the changing world of work that is characterised by the dissolution of full-time stable employment and the emergence of precarious, insecure forms of work (see e.g. Gorz, 1999, Hardt and Negri, 2005, Huws, 2016, Lorey, 2015, Ross, 2003, Ross, 2009, Smith, 2001, Standing, 2011). As a response to these labour market uncertainties a growing number of individuals are managing multiple areas of the self as part of their work or occupation. This trend has been termed 'the new worker-subjectivity' or 'the entrepreneurial self' that is formed through practices of self-management (Bührmann, 2005, Lorey, 2009). Despite increasing awareness of the emergence of the entrepreneurial worker-subjectivity, research into practices of self-management has only focused on occupational groups in formal work. Knowledge about the trend in the context of virtual workers who operate outside of conventional working relations and have no publicly recognised work identity is largely missing. In order to address this gap, this study explores how entrepreneurial worker-subjectivities manifest in professional online poker players as an emerging online occupation. It investigates how these workers manage themselves in the absence of formal organisational control and socially recognised occupational norms, and asks what are the effects of this self-management on the quality of their working lives? The study is based on 39 in-depth interviews with people involved in online poker or other similar activities such as online gaming or trading. The interviews were conducted either face-to-face in Estonia, Bulgaria, Romania and UK or over Skype between December 2012 and May 2014. The study develops an analytical framework for researching entrepreneurial worker-subjectivities in the context of an emerging occupation and a three-stage-model of the trajectory that provides a basis for exploring the career paths of professional online poker players. Using these framework, the study finds that professional online poker players manage various areas of the self by following informal occupational rules and that their sense of professionalism is largely derived from various practices of self-management that help them distinguish from recreational players. The study also discovers conflicting relations of autonomy and control among the workers and a range of negative effects that self-management practices have on professional online poker players. It concludes that professional online poker is not a sustainable long-term career option. These findings contribute to a better understanding of virtual work, the emergence of online poker playing as a form of work and the development of the entrepreneurial worker-subjectivity.

Det scenkonstnärliga arbetet ger lätt intrycket av att vara nära sammankopplat med personliga intressen och hobbys och anses därmed ofta vara ett lyxigt och tacksamt yrke. Yrket består dock av både mentalt och fysiskt påfrestande situationer som innebär mycket jämförelse med konkurrenter och kräver ett starkt självförtroende av individen för att etablera sig inom branschen. Många scenkonstnärer uttrycker att de ofta förväntas arbeta gratis, oavsett hur mycket tid och arbete som ligger bakom det färdiga resultatet. Syftet med denna studie var att utforska de sociala situationer som påverkar inre respektive yttre motivation hos scenkonstnärer samt vilken påverkan dessa faktorer har på scenkonstnärens identitet. Med hänsyn till studiens karaktär undersöktes syftet med hjälp av en socialpsykologisk ansats med teoretiska utgångspunkter i social påverkan, inre och yttre motivation samt identitet. Tio kvalitativa semistrukturerade intervjuer med yrkesverksamma scenkonstnärer inom musik, dans och teater genomfördes. Resultatet visade bland annat att inre motivation främst uppstår i situationer av konstnärligt skapande och i gemenskap med kollegor. Situationerna är viktiga för att scenkonstnären ska motiveras att ta sig igenom påfrestande situationer av konkurrens och höga prestationskrav, vilket görs med hjälp av yttre motivation i syfte att upprätthålla yrkesidentiteten. / The work of performing arts easily gives the impression of being closely connected with personal interests and hobbies, and thus often is considered a luxurious and rewarding profession. However, the profession consists of both mentally and physically stressful situations that involve a lot of comparison with competitors and require strong selfconfidence of the individual to establish themselves in the industry. Many performing artists express that they often are expected to work for free, regardless of how much time and effort that is put into the finished result. The purpose of this study was to explore the social situations that affect the intrinsic and extrinsic motivation of performing artists and the impact these factors have on the performing artist's identity. Considering the nature of the study, the purpose was investigated by using a social psychological approach with theoretical starting points in social influence, intrinsic and extrinsic motivation and identity. Ten qualitative semi-structured interviews were conducted with professional performing artists within the areas of music, dance and theater. The result showed, among other things, that intrinsic motivation mainly arises in situations of artistic creation and in connection with colleagues. The situations are important for the performing artists for their motivation to get through stressful situations of competition and high-performance requirements. This is done with the help of extrinsic motivation in order to maintain the professional identity.

This dissertation examines the assessment and mitigation of airborne noise from power generation equipment. The first half of the dissertation investigates the diagnosis and treatment of combustion oscillations in boilers. Sound is produced by the flame and is reflected downstream from the combustion chamber. The reflected sound waves perturb the mixture flow or equivalence ratio increasing the heat release pulsations and the accompanying sound produced by the flame. A feedback loop model for determining the likelihood of and diagnosing combustion oscillations was reviewed, enhanced, and then validated. The current work applies the feedback loop stability model to two boilers, which exhibited combustion oscillations. Additionally, a feedback loop model was developed for equivalence ratio fluctuations and validated. For the first boiler, the combustion oscillation problem is primarily related to the geometry of the burner and the intake system. For the second boiler, the model indicated that the combustion oscillations were due to equivalence ratio fluctuations. Principles for both measuring and simulating the acoustic impedance are summarized. An approach for including the effect of structural-acoustic coupling was developed. Additionally, a method for determining the impedance above the plane wave cut-off frequency, using the acoustic FEM, of the boiler was proposed. The second half of the dissertation examines the modeling of bar silencers. Bar silencers are used to mitigate the airborne noise from large power generation equipment (especially gas turbines). Due to the large dimensions of the full cross section, a small representative cell is isolated from the entire array for analysis purposes. To predict the acoustical performance of the isolated cell for different geometric configurations, a numerical method based on the direct mixed-body boundary element method (BEM) was used. An analytical solution for a simplified circular geometry was also derived to serve as a comparison tool for the BEM. Additionally, a parametric study focusing on the effects of flow resistivity, perforate porosity, length of bars, and cross-sectional area ratio was performed. A new approach was proposed to evaluate the transmission loss based on a reciprocal work identity. Moreover, extension of the transmission loss computation above the plane wave cut-off frequency was demonstrated.

Syftet med studien var att undersöka upplevelsen av work-life balance bland ombudsmän vid ett fackförbund beläget i Mellansverige. Studien utgick från en kvalitativ metod genom semistrukturerade intervjuer med 10 respondenter. Resultatet analyserades genom en induktiv tematisk analys som genererade tre huvudteman; Personliga förutsättningar, Flexibla arbetsarrangemang och arbetsbelastning samt Rollen som ombudsman. Resultatet påvisade att majoriteten av respondenterna upplevde att de hade en god work-life balance. De menade att arbetslivet och privatlivet inte påverkar varandra i stor utsträckning, men uppgav att de vid ett antal tillfällen framförallt tvingats prioritera åtaganden i arbetslivet. Samtliga respondenter påtalade att deras upplevelse av balans periodvis kan förändras beroende på arbetsbelastning och personliga förutsättningar som familjesituation och erfarenhet av yrket. De menade även att de flexibla arbetsarrangemang och den kultur som präglar ombudsmannarollen har en inverkan på deras upplevelse av balans. / The purpose of the study was to investigate the experience of work-life balance among ombudsmen within a trade union located in the midst of Sweden. The study was based on a qualitative method conducted through semi-structured interviews with 10 respondents. The results were analyzed by an inductive thematic analysis that generated three main themes; Personal circumstances, Flexible work arrangements and work load and The profession of ombudsmen. The result demonstrated that the majority of the respondents felt that they had a good experience of work-life balance. They argued that their working life and private life do not have a major impact on each other but stated that they on numerous occasions primarily had to prioritize commitments in their working life. The respondents expressed that their experience of work-life balance may periodically change due to workload and personal circumstances such as family situation and experience of the profession. They also argued that the flexible working arrangements along with the culture that characterize their profession have an impact on the experience of work-life balance.

This diploma thesis is dealing with social work theories and their usage in practice of social workers. Theoretical part describes their historical evolution until actual crisis of social work. Afterwards it is aimed on specific model, task centred approach. This approach has in Czech environment exceptional position, because it shows parallels with Act on social services and Standards of social services quality. Conclusion of theoretical part is dedicated to relationship between how social workers use in their practice social work theories and how this state is reflected in their professionality. Practical part is processed in form of qualitative research in which ten social workers took part. Through half structured interview were mapped if and which way social workers are using in their practice social work theories, and their experiences with task centred approach. Results of research, which are more closely elaborated within final discussion showed suppressed importance of theories. Social workers usually in their practice are not using specific theory (nor task centred approach), but they more rely on "their own theories" or internal rules of organization where they work.