Synthesizing theories of social identity, goal interdependence, and conflict management, this study built and tested a theoretical model in which interdepartmental goal interdependence affects conflict outcomes between different departments through constructive controversy (i.e. the open-minded discussion for mutual benefit) dynamics adopted by employees from different departments in the organization. This study also proposes that organizational identification moderates the link between interdepartmental goal interdependence and constructive controversy. An interview sample of 129 employees from various business organizations and diverse industries in mainland China described and rated a critical incident when they had a conflict with their coworker from another department in the same organization. Results of the structural equations modeling and other analyses support the hypotheses and the hypothesized model that interdepartmental goal interdependence, specially, cooperative, competitive, and independent goals, are antecedents to employees between different departments engaging in constructive controversy and that constructive controversy in turn influences conflict outcomes, specifically, task accomplishment, employee intention to quit, and their intentions for future cooperation. Results further indicate that employee identification with the organization moderates the association of competitive interdepartmental goal interdependence with constructive controversy such that employees who identify strongly with the organization will be more likely to engage in open-minded discussion of controversy dynamics than employees who identify weakly with the organization. These results underline the positive role of employee organizational identification in conflict management, especially under competitive interdepartmental goals. Findings suggest important practical implications that employees from different departments can improve their collaboration in Chinese organizations by strengthening their common organizational identification, setting cooperative interdepartmental goal interdependence, and handling conflict through constructive controversy. The study contributes to the conflict management literature as well as the social identity theory in organizational behavior literature.

Professional competencies are explicitly identified in the primary learning outcomes for science and engineering degrees at many tertiary institutions.  Fulfillment of the requirements to equip our students with these skills, while formally acknowledged as important by all stakeholders, can be hard to demonstrate in practice.  Most degree awarding institutions would have difficulties if asked to document where in degree programs such competencies are developed. The work in this thesis addresses the issue of professional competencies from several angles.  The Open-Ended Group Project (OEGP) concept is introduced and proposed as an approach to constructing learning environments in which students’ development of professional competencies can be stimulated and assessed.  Scholarly, research-based development of the IT in Society course unit (ITiS) is described and analyzed in order to present ideas for tailoring OEGP-based course units towards meeting learning objectives related to professional competence.  Work in this thesis includes an examination of both the meanings attributed to the term professional competencies, and methods which can be used to assess the competencies once they are agreed on. The empirical work on developing ITiS is based on a framework for educational research, which has been both refined and extended as an integral part of my research.  The action research methodology is presented and concrete examples of implementations of different pedagogical interventions, based on the methodology, are given.  The framework provides support for relating a theoretical foundation to studies, or development, of learning environments.  The particular theoretical foundation for the examples in this thesis includes, apart from the action research methodology, constructivism, conceptual change, threshold concepts, communities of practice, ill-structured problem solving, the reflective practicum, and problem based learning. The key finding in this thesis is that development and assessment of professional competencies is not a pipe dream.  Assessment can be accomplished, and the OEGP concept provides a flexible base for creating an appropriate learning environment for this purpose. / <p>Felaktigt tryckt som Digital Comprehensive Summaries of Uppsala Dissertations from the Faculty of Science and Technology 738</p>