To obtain valid and reliable research findings it is important to follow the process to validate measuring instruments. This entails determining the psychometric properties of a measure to eliminate or decrease the presence of measurement errors. Measurement errors have a negative impact on the validity of research findings. The aim of this study was to perform a confirmatory factor analytic study on the Aspects of Identity Questionnaire (AIQ-IV) to assess the model fit of the data. Confirmatory factor analysis was employed as part of the process to assess construct validity of a questionnaire to discover the misrepresenting influences of these measurement errors and to provide a foundation for further research. The AIQ-IV was administered to a sample of 157 participants in the South African context including different race, gender, age and occupation groups, drawn by means of convenient sampling. The research results and fit indices indicated that the data reflected a reasonable model fit. Copyright 2010, University of Pretoria. All rights reserved. The copyright in this work vests in the University of Pretoria. No part of this work may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, without the prior written permission of the University of Pretoria. Please cite as follows: Els, L 2010, A confirmatory factor analytic study of the aspects of identity questionnaire (AIQ-IV), MCom dissertation, University of Pretoria, Pretoria, viewed yymmdd < http://upetd.up.ac.za/thesis/available/etd-02092012-122330 / > C12/4/67/gm / Dissertation (MCom)--University of Pretoria, 2010. / Human Resource Management / unrestricted

Bakgrund: Samhällen förändras över tid. Kraven på företags ageranden i samhället har ökat, delvis på grund av en tilltagen globalisering och rörlighet, men även till följd av en ökad medvetenhet om företags påverkan på samhället. Utifrån dessa förändringar har begreppet Corporate Social Responsibility växt fram och tagit allt mer utrymme i diskussionen om företags sociala ansvar. Archie Carroll ämnade i sin CSR-pyramid att definiera gränserna för företags sociala ansvar och delades således in ansvarsområdena i fyra delar. Två utav dessa ansvarstaganden är etiskt och filantropiskt ansvar som denna studie riktar fokus på. Det etiska ansvaret omfattar aktiviteter och praxis som förväntas av samhället att företag ska utföra, men som inte har fastställts i lagar och förordningar. Det filantropiska ansvaret handlar om att företag kan vara goda samhällsmedborgare genom att bidra med sina resurser till samhället. Varken det etiska eller filantropiska ansvaret är lagstadgade, företag kan således själva välja om de vill delta i sådana aktiviteter. Det är inte enbart samhället som ställer krav på företags ageranden, utan även dess medarbetare. Det finns en avsaknad av studier som belyser medarbetarens perspektiv i frågan vilket gav inspiration till denna studie. Syfte: Syftet med denna studie är att undersöka huruvida medarbetare tycker att det är viktigt att företag tar ett etiskt och filantropiskt ansvar. Studien syftar även till att undersöka om etiska och filantropiska ansvarstaganden påverkar medarbetares benägenhet att identifiera sig med ett företag. Metod: Studien utgår ifrån en deduktiv ansats där hypoteser testas och analyseras. En kvantitativ metod valdes och en enkätundersökning genomfördes för insamling av datamaterialet. Medarbetarna som besvarade enkäten arbetar på köpcentret Asecs i Jönköpings kommun. Slutsats: Sammanställningen av enkäten visar att medarbetare tycker att det är viktigt att företaget tar ett etiskt ansvar. Det filantropiska ansvarstagandet ansågs inte som lika viktigt. Sammanställningen visar även att etiskt och filantropiskt ansvarstagande gör medarbetare mer benägna att identifiera sig med företaget. / Background: Communities change over time. Demands for corporate actions in society have increased, partly because of increased globalization and mobility, but also as a result of increased awareness of companies' impact on society. Based on these changes, the concept of Corporate Social Responsibility has grown and taken up space in the discussion about corporate responsibility. In his CSR pyramid, Archie Carroll intended to define the boundaries of Corporate Social Responsibility and divided the responsibility into four parts. Two of these responsibilities that this study focuses on are ethical and philanthropic responsibility. Ethical responsibility is activities and practices that society expects companies to carry out, but which have not been established in laws and regulations. The philanthropic responsibility is that companies can be good citizens by contributing their resources to society. Neither ethical nor philanthropic responsibility is statutory, so companies can choose whether or not to participate in such activities. It is not only society that sets demands on corporate actions, but also its employees. There is a lack of studies that shed light on the employee's perspective on the issue, which inspired this study. Purpose: The purpose of this study is to investigate whether employees think it is important that companies take ethical and philanthropic responsibility. The purpose is also to investigate whether ethical and philanthropic responsibility affects employees' tendency to identify with a company. Method: The study is based on a deductive approach where hypotheses are tested and analyzed. A quantitative method was chosen and a survey was conducted to collect the data material. The employees who answered the questionnaire work at Asecs shopping center in Jönköping. Conclusion: The compilation of the survey shows that employees think it is important that the company takes ethical responsibility. Philanthropic responsibility was not considered as important. The compilation also shows that ethical and philanthropic responsibility makes employees more inclined to identify with the company.

The literature on rebel cohesion/fragmentation currently presents valid macro-level explanations for rebel group cohesion/fragmentation, yet no model currently exists exploring non-utility-based motivations regulating pro-group behaviour. This thesis tests the assumptions of a novel social psychological framework – Identity Fusion Theory – on rebel cohesion. Using a primarily quantitative approach applying a logistic regression model to primary data gathered on the Syrian Civil War, and a smaller qualitative element comparing groups with “fused” and “non-fused” memberships during the war, the thesis tests the hypothesis that “groups with highly fused memberships will be less likely to fragment during the course of a civil war than groups with non-fused memberships”. The results of the analysis show a strong, positive relationship between fused memberships and rebel cohesion. The results of the thesis are to some extent limited by potential omitted variable bias (suggested by high R2 values) and the use of Syria as the only population from which to sample. Nevertheless, the relatively large number of observations in the dataset (63) as well as heterogenous nature of groups involved suggest the findings are generalisable. In conclusion, we did find a positive relationship between fusion and rebel group cohesion. The main implications of this thesis being that future academic research may benefit from focusing on social psychological factors when examining rebel dynamics while policymakers potentially shape better responses to insurgencies and rebellions.

Motivation of volunteers presents one of the specific areas of volunteerism research. The paper brings main theories and thoughts about motivation of volunteers and evaluation their relevancy for Czech settings. Futher the paper presents analyse of already realized partial researchs (above all in students' papers) and proposal of framing theoretical conception for research of motivation in Czech Republic.

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Organizations are today working actively with diversity management in alignment with the regulations from Riksdagen to reduce discrimination against employees based on their "Gender, transgender identity or expression, ethnicity, disability, sexual orientation and age". Previously most focus has been put on the surface-level attributes of diversity such as age, gender and ethnicity but more emphasis and concern should be put on the deeper-level diversities such as personality. Scholars have stressed the importance of conducting qualitative studies that examine the deeper-level diversities in relation to diversity management. Moreover, there is an explicit need for investigating the effect that such a linkage between personality and diversity management can have on employee engagement levels. The purpose of this study is to investigate whether diversity management can be developed by looking at people’s personalities. This is achieved by answering the research question: How could an understanding of diverse personalities improve employee engagement? By examining this question, this study will give insight to whether personality is an aspect companies should consider in their diversity management when trying to understand and enhance employee engagement. By analyzing seven individuals at two international companies, located in Sweden, we were able to investigate a single case deeply and collect their subjective realities. Further, the study has taken a qualitative research approach in which seven semi-structured interviews were held and the empirical data was later derived through the use of a thematic analysis. It has been found with the application of the Five Factor Model (FFM) that the employees' personalities have a connection to their engagement levels. The analysis implied that the employees' personalities rather than surface-level diversities had an impact on their engagement. This makes it in turn reasonable to suggest that companies' diversity management practices can be further developed if looking at their employees' personalities. Ultimately this thesis has derived salient conclusions about the fact that FFM could be used to develop the understanding of diversity and diversity management. In turn this contributes with insight on how workplaces and the well-being of employees can be enhanced.

The rise of social media has emerged the social phenomena called cancel culture, where individuals hold influencers and endorsed brands accountable for perceived immoral actions. Cancel culture originates from a desire for social justice, where the consequences of those cancelled could be temporary and long-lasting reputational damage. The behavior to cancel is individually complex and has many different drivers influencing the performance of behavior.  Despite its significant impact, cancel culture within research is just in its early stage and has received limited research from a qualitative perspective. Previous studies have researched cancel culture through the perspective of consumer power, celebrity transgressions, psychological drivers, and social identity. Moreover, previous research has studied the intended behavior to cancel, not the actual performance to cancel. There still remains a research gap in understanding the personal and social drivers that influence the process to cancel an influencer and endorsed brand. By this, it led us to our research question: “What are the personal and social drivers that could influence the behavior to engage in cancel culture?”. With an aim to provide a deeper understanding of the complex phenomena of cancel culture between consumers, influencers and the endorsed brands. By examining drivers such as norms, beliefs, values and traits our study seeks to shed light on the drivers and how they influence the behavior of cancel culture.  The findings revealed an interesting insight from the consumer perspective. An actual cancellation has a higher chance of occurring if the influencer's action is perceived to cross an moral barrier of a follower. However, our study found that subjectivity increases complexity of the behavior as every individual has their own moral barrier. For example, if the action is perceived to clash with the followers’ personal beliefs and values, cancellation might occur, however another individual might not perceive the action to cross their moral barrier. Moreover, our study found that the desire of social belongingness and social acceptance has a significant role when making a decision to cancel. From our study we have revealed that cancel culture is both an individual and social phenomenon, where the influence of one's own personal drivers is just as influential as the social influence. More specifically, followers' idea of their self- concept is just as influential as the pressure from their social environment. In conclusion, personal and social drivers influence the decision to cancel an influencer and endorsed brands. However, as subjectivity matters, these personal and social drivers influence the process differently for each individual. From a managerial perspective, our findings could contribute to influencer marketing strategies trying to improve their selection process or response strategy if an cancellation would occur.

This study investigates the correlation between Millennial workers' sense of belonging and a company’s Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) initiatives. Bearing in mind the gap in academic research on the introspective impact CSR has on a company’s employees, this study aims to explore how the Millennial workers at one of the biggest banking and insurance companies operating in Bulgaria understand and relate to companies’ philanthropic endeavours. To do so, this paper has used a theoretical framework, which combines four pillars that interact with and amplify one another. Two of them are empirical and present CSR and the Millennials as a generation. The other two are theoretical with social identity theory (SIT), which explains the sense of belonging innate to the Millennials, and corporate citizenship and shareholder value theory, which represent the polar opposites of what CSR should be about. As such, the thesis probes the hypotheses that, on one hand, if a company engages in genuine CSR initiatives, this will lead to an increased sense of belonging from the Millennial employees. However, on the other hand, if the company engages in greenwashing instead, this will lead to a diminished sense of belonging in the target group.  The findings infer that the Millennial workers at the banking and insurance company have strong opinions favouring their company utilizing genuine CSR practices. In addition, the majority of them have shared that if the company started utilizing CSR as means of greenwashing, this would lead to their overall disappointment and a diminished sense of association with the employer. However, the data has also shown that there might be different reasons for why people are joining CSR initiatives. These findings were produced with the help of mixed-method research combining quantitative survey plus qualitative semi-structured individual and focus group interviews.

This study presents general themes concerning identity preservation and identity formation among Afghan male refugees living in Sweden and who obtained Swedish citizenship. This study is based on an ethnographic survey of habits and practices of Afghan refugees living in Sweden who in a process of transition must adjust their previous values and expectations as they confront often hostile surroundings. While seeking to preserve their identity, their identity formations take place in the contextual realities and cultural influences existing in their host country Sweden. This study analyzes the narratives of Afghan refugees in Sweden to examine their sense of self. For the purpose of this research the definition of ‘identity’ is derived from the field of social psychology; specifically, the social identity theory. The social identity theory states that an individual’s self-concept is partially defined by the membership in a social group. The main finding of this research is that none of the men solely identify as Afghan. This is mainly because they left Afghanistan at a young age, encounter stereotypes and because Afghanistan is a fragmented and unsafe country. The hierarchy of salience theory and theories on multiple and hybrid identities are employed to demonstrate how they embrace different aspects of their identity at different times and in different situations. More specifically, the findings show that they embrace four strategies to do this: pragmatic, hybrid, religious and globalist. These four strategies show the hierarchy of salience.

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