This thesis explores the conditions for perception of a person-organisation (P-O) fit between Generation Z (Gen Z) and employers in a talent acquisition context. The study is based on the presumption that the perception the candidate gets of the employer is based on the employer’s brand and vice versa. To explore these two actors' brands, personal- as well as organisational attributes identified in a literature review were used and a mixed method was adopted. The employer brand of six audit and accounting services firms and what they value in a future employee was explored through semi structured interviews. Furthermore, the personal brand of Gen Z business students and graduates and what they value in a future employer was explored through a questionnaire with 157 respondents. Based on the data, a discussion on the subject of P-O fit was conducted. Overall the results of the study both support previous research and add to it. The results indicate favourable conditions for Gen Z to perceive a P-O fit towards employers regarding four of the six identified organisational attributes. Additionally, favourable conditions were indicated regarding employers to perceive a P-O fit towards Gen Z regarding four of the seven personal attributes identified.

This dissertation investigates the role of organizational purpose as a driver in attracting employees to employers. The dissertation consists of two related studies both anchored in the literature on employer attraction, defined as the favorable interaction between potential applicants and the images, values, and information about an organization (Coldwell et al., 2008), and perceived fit, defined as the employee’s suitability with the culture and values of the organization (Hinkle, R. K., & Choi, N., 2009). In the first study, semi-structured interviews were performed on 23 prospective job seekers to explore the alignment between personal and organizational purpose in making an employer more attractive. The participants identified the opportunity for professional growth and development, the people with whom one works, and alignment with organizational purpose as key drivers of employer attraction over and above the usual concerns of compensation and job requirements. Interviewees invested in organizational purpose alignment with more emotional intensity; noted that alignment with organizational purpose was sometimes more important than compensation and stability; and suggested that the “pursuit of purpose is privilege” and, as such, influenced by an individual’s economic security. Reconciling these findings with extant theory, a new concept of Purpose-fit is proposed as an additional and important driver of employer attraction. Purpose-fit is defined as the perceived alignment of individual and organizational purpose assessed by job seekers through evaluation of image and reputation, mission and values, social contribution, and meaningful work. The second study utilized a choice-based conjoint survey to investigate the importance and tradeoffs between key drivers of employer attraction, including Purpose-fit, basic salary, opportunities for professional growth and development, and opportunities to work with similar people. The conjoint survey explored the effects of an employee’s generation, individual economic security, and reaction to respondent’s employer response to the social crisis of COVID-19 and the Black Lives Matter movement on the relative importance of Purpose-fit. There were four important findings: 1) Opportunity for professional growth and development was the dominant driver of employer attraction across all demographic segments; 2) Job seekers will trade off some level of salary for Purpose-fit, even if they experience economic insecurity; 3) Contrary to the extant literature, older generations placed more relative importance on Purpose-fit than younger generations; and 4) Prospective job seekers with positive employer experience in response to COVID-19 or Black Lives Matter placed higher relative importance of Purpose-fit, were more willingness to accept less pay, and reported lower levels of active job search. In summary, Purpose-fit emerged as an important driver of employer attraction among prospective job seekers, differentiated by generation, economic security, and positive experience of employers’ response to social crisis, resulting in reported willingness to accept less pay. / Business Administration/Strategic Management

Upon Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the outbreak of war in early 2022, brands around the world took a stand to mark their position against Russia and in support of Ukraine. Even brands that did not have any direct ties to Russia or any involvement in the conflict distanced themselves from being associated with Russia by ceasing operations, stopping sales, or changing brand names. Brands engaging in sociopolitical issues, i.e., brand activism, has become more prevalent in recent years and thus become a topic of research. Previous research on brand activism focuses heavily on the corporate perspective, and only recently have scholars studied the effects on consumers. Guided by the research question “How do consumers perceive brand activism and what role does brand authenticity play in their evaluation of genuine brand activism?”, this study aims to offer a deeper understanding of consumers’ views on brand activism and how they evaluate its genuineness using qualitative methods. With a starting point in a recent event that brands have engaged in, namely the war in Ukraine, the study reveals that consumers' views on brand activism vary greatly, and for the majority, brand activism is not a decisive factor in their choice of brand. However, consumers still have a positive attitude towards brands engaging in brand activism and some find it somewhat important that brands do it. Despite this, consumers do not find it necessary for brands to engage in sociopolitical issues. Further, the study found that, in evaluating the genuineness of brand activism, consumers tend to refer to the existing associations with a brand, how authentic they perceive the brand prior to the brand taking a stand, and how well the brand associations align with the sociopolitical issue the at hand.

No description available.

No description available.

Pressure-performance relationship in sport situations was investigated within a self-regulatory focus framework (regulatory focus theory; Higgins, 1997). To that end, the role of regulatory fit in different ecologically valid handball penalty situations taken in the 2021 World Cup was examined. Competition data available from 102 games was collected; from 743 penalties taken in total, 716 penalties were finally included for analysis (those within the original game time of 60 minutes; handball match consists in two parts of 30 minutes each). A series of univariate and multivariate logistic regressions were performed; no significant effects were found on performance (goal or save/miss; in points) for neither situational focus (critical and non-critical moment), reward structure (losses [team taking the penalty is behind] and gains [team taking the penalty is ahead or score is tied]), or when the goalkeeper was substituted or not by the defending team. Furthermore, penalty shot placements were gathered to examine ‘safe’ versus ‘risky’ shooting options taken by players when under different situations (critical vs noncritical); it was found that players in general choose ‘safe’ penalty shot options under both situations. Findings are discussed considering pressure performance and regulatory fit frameworks. / Relationen mellan press och prestation i sportsituationer undersöktes inom ett självregulatoriskt fokusramverk; regulatoriskt fokus teorin (Higgins, 1997). Därav studerades rollen av regulatoriskt fit i olika ekologiskt valida handbollsstraffs situationer tagna under världsmästerskapet 2021. Tävlingsdata från 102 matcher samlades in, totalt sköts 743 straffar och 716 straffar var inkluderade för vidare analys: straffarna var tvungna att vara tagna inom ordinarie matchtid (60 minuter, två halvlekar om 30 minuter). Ett flertal univariate och multivariate logistiska regressioner genomfördes och ingen signifikant effekt av situationsfokus (kritiskt och icke kritisk situation), belöningsstruktur (losses [laget ligger under] och gains [laget leder eller lika]) och målvaktsbyte (byte innan straff sköts eller inget byte) på prestation (mål eller miss) hittades. Vidare undersöktes om skottplacering indikerade på om straffskyttarna valde att placera straffarna på ’säkra’ eller ’osäkra’ ställen i olika situationer, denna undersökning visade att spelarna generellt valde att skjuta på ett ’säkert’ ställe oavsett situation.

In many hypothesis testing problems such as one-sample and two-sample test problems, the test statistics are degenerate U-statistics. One of the challenges in practice is the computation of U-statistics for a large sample size. Besides, for degenerate U-statistics, the limiting distribution is a mixture of weighted chi-squares, involving the eigenvalues of the kernel of the U-statistics. As a result, it’s not straightforward to construct the rejection region based on this asymptotic distribution. In this research, we aim to reduce the computation complexity of degenerate U-statistics and propose an easy-to-calibrate test statistic by using the divide-and-conquer method. Specifically, we randomly partition the full n data points into kn even disjoint groups, and compute U-statistics on each group and combine them by averaging to get a statistic Tn. We proved that the statistic Tn has the standard normal distribution as the limiting distribution. In this way, the running time is reduced from O(n^m) to O( n^m/km_n), where m is the order of the one sample U-statistics. Besides, for a given significance level , it’s easy to construct the rejection region. We apply our method to the goodness of fit test and two-sample test. The simulation and real data analysis show that the proposed test can achieve high power and fast running time for both one and two-sample tests.

As more schools turn to School-Wide Positive Behavior Supports (SWPBS) for help with academic and problem behaviors in their schools, the need to adequately evaluate these programs on a socially relevant level increases. The present study employs social validation measures to evaluate Utah's Academic, Behavioral & Coaching Initiative (ABC-UBI), a Positive Behavior Support (PBS) initiative, on socially relevant issues. Participants from across the state of Utah who were active consumers of ABC-UBI's program, were polled for their opinion on the acceptability of the treatment goals, procedures and outcomes of the program. The results outlined several areas of much needed improvement including, but not limited to the amount of paperwork required for successful implementation and the usability of program procedures. Social validity continues to be an important construct to consider when evaluating programs for social relevancy.

Radior är en viktig del av mobiltelefoninätverket. De är kopplade till antenner som trådlöst skickar och tar emot radiovågor. Kraven på inkapslingen av telekommunikationsutrustning ökar kontinuerligt. Ett sätt att minska vikt, storlek, monteringstid och förbättra utseendet av radior kan vara att ersätta skruvar med andra fästprinciper. Detta är något som ska undersökas i detta examensarbete på en radio från Ericsson. I denna rapport presenteras en undersökning av existerande principer och teknologier för förband. Det existerande förbandet studeras och krafter som verkar på förbandet identifieras. Flera koncept för att sätta ihop ytterinkapslingens halvor på en radio utan att använda skruvar presenteras också. Ett av dessa koncept vidareutvecklas sedan efter en konceptutvärdering. Konceptet som vidareutvecklas använder sig av en snäppfästesprincip. Grundläggande Finita Element-analyser görs följt av tillverkning av fysiska prototyper för att testa konceptet. Förslag och idéer på omkonstruktioner förbandets intilliggande geometri undersöks och presenteras. Snäppsprintarna har potential att fungera som ett alternativ till skruvar. Den första iterationen av fysiska prototyper och tester som gjorts visar monteringskrafter och lastbärande kapaciteten av prototyperna. Förbättringar av konstruktionen och vidareutveckling av analysen behövs för att dra vidare slutsatser. Ett flertal kunskapsgap har som behöver undersökas har identifierats. / Radios are a crucial part of the mobile phone network. They are connected to the antenna which wirelessly send and receive radio waves. The requirements on telecommunication enclosures are increasing continuously. One way of improving weight, size, assembly time and appearance of radios could be to replace screws with other fastening principles. This is investigated in this thesis project on an Ericsson radio. In this report a state-of-the-art study of existing joint principles and technologies is presented. The joint between the exterior halves is studied and forces acting on the existing joint are identified. Several concepts for joining the exterior enclosure halves of a radio without using screws are also presented. One of these concepts is then further developed after an evaluation. The concept that is further developed is based on the snap-fit joint principle. Basic Finite Element analyses are made followed by manufacturing of physical prototypes to test the concept. Suggestions and ideas of redesigns of the geometry surrounding the joint are also proposed and investigated. The snap-fit sprints have the potential to work as an alternative to screws on the joint. The tests conducted show the load carrying capacity and insertion forces of the first iteration of physical prototypes. Improvements to the snap design needs to be made and further analysis and tests are needed to draw any further conclusions. Several knowledge gaps that needs to be investigated has been identified.

Sexual identity in the workplace is an exploratory topic in an age when sexuality is becoming a topic of discussion. However, protection of sexual minorities (Lesbians, Gays, and Bisexuals) is not universal despite evidence that heterosexist climates are disadvantageous for employers. In this study, I examined if sexual minorities who perceive their place of employment to be relatively free of heterosexism would be more satisfied with their jobs, perceive more organizational fit, and report less work stress. In addition, I sought to determine if selected personality variables would mediate the relations among critical study variables. The personality variables were internalized homophobia, level of “outness,” and cynicism. Two samples of university students consisting of sexual minorities (n =43) and heterosexuals (n = 67), completed questionnaires online. Results revealed a positive correlation for both groups between organizational climate (i.e., less perceived heterosexism) and job satisfaction, although the correlation for the sexual minority group did not achieve statistical significance, likely due to the small sample size. Due to statistical conditions not being satisfied, partial correlations were performed instead of mediational analyses. Internalized homophobia was found to partially account for the relations between perceived organizational climate and job satisfaction and perceived organizational climate and work stress, respectively. This study encourages further investigation into the role of sexual identity in the workplace, particularly the role of internalized homophobia as possibly influencing sexual minorities to perceive their workplace environment more pejoratively than necessary.