Syftet med studien var att tillämpa Paulsens (2017) modell av funktionell dumhet som en form av organisatorisk lydnad på socialtjänsten som arbetsplats. Paulsens tio ”anpassningslogiker” operationaliserades till 20 frågor med svarsalternativ på en Likert-skala. En enkät med dessa frågor samt ett envariabelsmått på arbetstillfredsställelse skickades sedan ut till socialarbetare i sex kommuner (N=73). Resultatet visar att en majoritet av studiedeltagarna kände igen sig i anpassningslogikerna, samt att ”förtvivlan” är vanligast som lydnadsmodus på socialtjänsten. Bivariat analys och test av intern konsistens visar på god reliabilitet hos modellen. Samtidigt visar en multipel regressionsanalys att funktionell dumhet förklarar 30 procent av socialarbetares arbetstillfredsställelse, med ”auktoritarism” och ”cynism” som signifikanta prediktorer. Studien tyder på att Paulsens modell av funktionell dumhet kan bidra till vår förståelse för hur socialarbetare hanterar det sociala arbetets problematiska sidor. / The study's aim was to apply Paulsen’s (2017) model of functional stupidity as a form of organizational compliance to a social work context. A questionnaire was developed with 20 Likert items that operationalised Paulsen's ten “stupidity rationales”, together with a measure of work satisfaction, and distributed to social workers in six municipalities (N=73). Results show that most stupidity rationale items were endorsed by a majority of participants, with the “despair” mode of compliance most strongly endorsed. Bivariate and internal consistency reliability analysis indicated that Paulsen's model was a good fit to the data, while multiple regression analysis demonstrated that the model of functional stupidity explained 30 percent variance in work satisfaction, with “authoritarian” and "cynicism" modes as significant predictors in the model. The study suggests that Paulsen's model of functional stupidity has potential value for increasing our understand of how social workers' cope with the demands of their work.

Bakgrund: Mångfald som begrepp introducerades i Sverige under 1990-talet med den amerikanska ledningsstrategin Diversity management som förebild, där man i slutet av 1980-talet började tala om anti-diskriminering i termer av organisationsnytta. Insikten om vikten av diversifierade arbetsstyrkor som kan generera effektivitet och kundanpassning beskrivs tillsammans med den demografiska utvecklingen ha gjort mångfald till en etablerad managementfråga. Begreppet konceptualiseras emellertid på en mängd olika sätt - en normativ managementlitteratur tenderar att framhäva mångfaldens fördelar, medan en omfattande kritik mot mångfald som managementstrategi vuxit fram i den akademiska sfären. Syfte: Studien syftar till att studera hur mångfaldsbegreppet konstrueras i olika svenska organisationer samt att förstå villkoren för dessa konstruktioner. Metod: Studien har genomförts med en kvalitativ metod genom semistrukturerade intervjuer med elva respondenter i tio organisationer inom offentlig och privat sektor. Slutsats: Människors olikheter utgör själva utgångspunkten för konstruktionen av mångfaldsbegreppet och ses som en förutsättning för organisationers prestationsförmåga. En funktionalistiskt orienterad forskning betraktas som sann och objektiv och olika normativa element i den institutionella omgivningen beskrivs prägla organisationernas konstruktion av begreppet. Mångfaldsfrågan förstås som frikopplad från praktiken och starka institutionella krav på ekonomisk rationalitet i den organisatoriska kontexten beskrivs vara avgörande för begreppets konstruktion. Genom att betona den särartsideologi som utgör själva förutsättningen för diskriminering beskrivs vidare konstruktionen av den lönsamma mångfalden bidra till att skapa och upprätthålla maktrelationer och social ojämlikhet. / Background: Diversity management was introduced in Sweden during the 1990s along with its desirable arguments which stresses the importance of diversified workforces in order to ensure organizational efficiency and customization. These assumptions along with demographic changes in the Swedish labour force has led to diversity being described as an established issue for management. However, the concept can be conceptualized in a variety of ways – a functionalistic orientated management literature tend to highlight the benefits of diversity in organizations, while extensive criticism of diversity as a management strategy has emerged in the academic sphere.  Purpose: The purpose is to study how the concept of diversity is constructed in Swedish organizations. Furthermore to understand the conditions of these constructions.   Method: The study was conducted with a qualitative research method,  through ten semi-structured interviews in both public and private organizations. Conclusion: Human differences constitute the very basis of the construction of diversity management and is seen as a prerequisite for organizations' performance ability. A functionalist-oriented research is regarded as true and objective and various normative elements in the institutional environment are described as important for the construction of diversity. However, the issue of diversity management is understood to be decoupled from practice and strong institutional requirements for economic rationality in the organizational context are described as crucial for the concept's construction. By emphasizing the specific ideology that constitutes the very premise of discrimination, the construction of diversity as a business case is further described to contribute to creating and maintaining power relations and social inequality.

This essay aims to study workplace obedience from the perspective of young adults in precarious work environments. The study was delimited to young adults that had experienced what they viewed as irrational management. These informants were interviewed to research the new and largely untested theory of functional stupidity. Functional stupidity means that employees at a workplace can become more functional by minimizing their critical capacities for reflections about the stupid practises that exist in that organization.  Functional stupidity is one mode of obedience that in this essay was researched in the context of cynicism, despair, seduction and authoritarianism (Paulsen, 2017). This was done in an explorative small-scale study with a convenience sample of six informants that had this experience. Their age was 21-27.  The informants were from western industrialized countries in the service sector in private companies with no work security. These informants were interviewed which were than interpreted in a thematic analysis. The major findings were that the informants deliberately move between different modes of obedience including functional stupidity in these workplaces. The context of precariousness made the management very threatening and age was one way used to reproduce stupid practises. The experience of stupid practises is a new aspect that makes the precariousness worse. Age was one factor that formed experience of the different modes of obedience. Age was one way to the set the agenda, individualising organizational problems and central to feeling of having to prove themselves. The major contribution of this study is on one hand test the theory of functional stupidity in a new context and on the other hand to introduce the perspective of stupid practises in the scholarly debate on young adults in precarious work.

Uppsatsen handlar om kritiskt tänkande hos revisorer. En revisor ska utföra sina arbetsuppgifter med professionell skepticism och enligt god revisionssed. Syftet med uppsatsen är att studera om detta kritiska tänkande är genomgående i beteendena på revisionsbyråer. Genom en fallstudie har beteenden och handlingar på en revisionsbyrå i Kristianstad studerats. De tre respondenterna som intervjuats är auktoriserade revisorer och intervjuerna utfördes på arbetsplatsen. Teorin om funktionell dumhet, vilken använts som analysverktyg, är ett relativt nytt begrepp som har utvecklats av Alvesson och Spicer (2012). Funktionellt dumt beteende innefattar ett okritiskt samt icke reflekterande tänkande i syfte att underlätta för individers tillvaro. Det finns många fördelar med funktionell dumhet eftersom det får organisationer att fungera smidigt och konfliktfritt men när det brukas i för hög grad finns konsekvenser på lång sikt. Det finns fem typer av funktionell dumhet vilka även är kategorierna som intervjufrågorna utformats från. De fem typerna är: ledarskaps-, struktur-, imitations-, varumärkes- och kulturgenererad dumhet. Vid analys av respondenternas svar framkom att vissa aspekter är mer aktuella än andra inom revisionsfirman. Hänsyn bör dock tas till denna studies omfattning samt att omständigheter är av sådan grad att inga fasta slutsatser kan dras. Det finns innebörder av substans vilka kräver vidare studier i större omfattning för att ge mer reliabilitet och validitet till påståendena. / The essay is about auditors and critical thinking. An auditor should perform his or her duties with professional skepticism and in accordance with good auditing practice. The purpose of the thesis is to study whether this critical thinking is consistent in behavior at the auditing firm. Through the case study, behaviors, and actions at an auditing firm in Kristianstad have been studied. The three respondents interviewed are chartered accountants and the interviews were conducted at their workplace. The theory of functional stupidity, which has been used as an analysis tool, is a relatively new concept that has been developed by Alvesson and Spicer (2012). Functionally stupid behavior includes uncritical and non-reflecting thinking in order to facilitate the existence of the individuals. There are many benefits to functional stupidity because it makes organizations work smoothly and conflict-free, but when used to much, there are long-term consequences. There are five types of functional stupidity which are also the categories from which the interview questions are designed. The five types are: leadership-, structure-, imitation-, brand- and culture-generated stupidity. An analysis of the respondents answers revealed that certain aspects are more relevant than others within the auditing firm. However, the scope of this study should be considered and the circumstance are of such a degree that no firm conclusions can be drawn. There are meanings of substance which require further studies to a greater extent in order give more reliability and validity to the claims.

The illicit practice of money laundering (ML) poses global challenges, causing harmful repercussions for society. Legislators worldwide have placed financial institutions at the forefront of initiatives aimed at preventing ML. Even with the adoption of Anti-Money Laundering (AML) measures, financial institutions continue to face challenges in combating illicit financial activity. Prior investigations primarily concentrated on evaluating the regulatory framework itself, leaving gaps in understanding other aspects causing ineffective AML efforts. Going further in-depth, this study aims to explore how institutional pressure leads to ineffective ML prevention within Finnish financial institutions. To address these challenges, the institutional theory and several concepts supported the exploration of the institutional environment, with due consideration given to social constructs. Furthermore, a qualitative approach is employed due to the exploratory nature of this study. It consists of the analysis of both classified and public official documents from the Finnish Financial Supervisory Authority (FIN-FSA), interviews held with representatives actively involved in financial institutions' AML efforts, and other official AML guidelines. The findings of this study acknowledge the suboptimal regulatory pressure and reveal instances of data deficiencies. However, the social context emerged as the most influential factor, highlighting the gap between AML efforts and ML activities.