Kierkegaard is generally regarded as a quintessential individualist who leaves no room for social or political engagement. This interpretation is the dominant lens through which many scholars view Kierkegaard, and it also shapes the way Kierkegaard’s thought has been received by his followers and critics. Many recent works have significantly challenged the traditional interpretation of Kierkegaard, but they have not examined the topic systematically. In order to remedy this deficit, this study provides a holistic account of Kierkegaard’s social thought. First, it challenges the dominant view that society as represented by the crowd is simply a foil for Kierkegaard’s individual by: (a) articulating a general approach for understanding how Kierkegaard’s negative comments about society and community do not constitute a rejection of sociality as such, and (b) demonstrating that Kierkegaard’s well-developed ideas on faith and religiosity are compatible with an account that emphasizes a broader social dimension in his thought. Second, I present a framework that outlines a positive theory of community, a ‘Dialectic of Community,’ which explains the importance of the Kierkegaardian single individual in the formation and development of community. This framework provides an interpretation of the social period of Kierkegaard’s authorship and its importance for the entirely of the authorship. Even though the interpretation is helpful for understanding Kierkegaard and his relationship to 19th and 20th century European moral, social, and political thought, Kierkegaard never explicitly describes how his conception of the self is consistent with his social thought. I address this problem by developing a narrative model of selfhood that illustrates the importance of subjectivity and the single individual for an adequate account of intersubjective selfhood. More specifically, I argue that narratives are important intersubjectively for becoming a person and a moral agent, but the concept of self is not exhausted in narrative. That is, having a self-narrative presupposes that the person is a subject who has a set of principles that organize one’s experiences and activities. This framework not only shows how Kierkegaard’s concept of subjectivity can be understood in a social context, but it also addresses a significant problem in narrative identity theory.

Studies indicate that global self-esteem, an individual's overall sense of self-worth, and academic self-esteem, self-worth related to academics, are positively related to academic achievement. This relationship holds for white adolescents. However, while still positive, this relationship is weaker for African Americans, who have high global and academic self-esteem, but very low academic achievement. Patterns for Mexican Americans are less clear, but their global and academic self-esteem appear to fall between the range for white and African American adolescents, while their academic achievement is similar to that of African Americans. To address this, I construct Combinatoric Identity Theory (CIT), a symbolic interactionist theory that incorporates the importance of racial/ethnic and student identities into our current understandings of self-esteem and achievement. I then apply CIT to data collected on Mexican American and white tenth-graders.After a discussion of the relevant literature on education, self-esteem, and identity, I discuss my data collection strategy and techniques. This is followed by empirical analysis. Results indicate that identity processes do affect self-esteem, and that they operate in similar ways for Mexican American and white adolescents. Implications of these results and directions for future research are then presented.

This investigation sought to extend research in mediated intergroup communication by examining the role of emotion in producing intergroup bias. Two studies were guided by social identity theory, appraisal-based theories of emotion, and cultivation theory. Study 1 surveyed 254 adults, recruited through student referrals. Drawing insight from previous content analytic research and cultivation theory, results indicated that the media plays an important role in cultivating emotional reactions toward racial minorities. Overall daily television consumption was associated with experiencing anxiety-related emotions and distrust-related emotions toward Blacks. Television news consumption was associated with experiencing anger towards Blacks. Overall daily television consumption was associated with experiencing anger and anxiety-related emotions toward Latinos and Asians. Television news consumption was associated with experiencing distrust-related emotions toward Asians. In Study 2 a 2 (Immigration: Threat/No-Threat) X 2 (Ingroup Emotional Norm Endorsement: Present/Absent) plus 1 (Control) experiment examined the impact of mediated intergroup threat on attitudes toward immigration, collective self-esteem, information sharing and seeking behaviors, and policy support, in the context of illegal immigration. This study also examined whether experimental condition indirectly influenced the above-specified outcomes through intergroup emotions. Previous news consumption was examined as a potential moderator of the mediational relationship between experimental condition and intergroup outcomes via intergroup emotions. Results indicate that exposure to intergroup threat via the media directly influence attitudes toward immigrants' human rights and information sharing. Exposure to intergroup threat indirectly influences immigration attitudes through feelings of anxiety. Moreover, exposure to intergroup threat via the media indirectly influences information sharing and support for English-only legislation through feelings of disgust. Conditional indirect effects were found for immigration attitudes, information sharing, and support for English-only legislation. Exposure to threatening intergroup information neither directly, nor indirectly information seeking or emailing congressperson to reduce the number of immigrants allowed in the United States. Results are discussed in light of social identity theory, intergroup threat theory, intergroup emotions theory, and BIAS map research. Taken together, results suggest that the current study's social identity appraisal-based approach provides insight into the role of media in intergroup processes.

Background: Integration of immigrants is an interactive process of learning a new culture, an obtaining of rights, access to a position and status and building of personal relations between migrants and the receiving society.  Their ability to reciprocally adjust to intercultural encounters is one of the most important factors of successful integration. Aim: The purpose of this study is to investigate Swedish young adults perception and attitudes towards immigrants and immigrants’ integration into the Swedish society. Furthermore the aim is to study their perception of social interaction of immigrants and the Swedish host society. How Swedish young adults perceive their country’s immigration policy. Method:  A qualitative research, using an online open-ended questionnaire and in-depth telephone interviews were applied to collect the data about Swedish young adults perceptions and attitudes. The transcribed data were subjected to thematic analysis. Result:  The results of the qualitative research helped to understand Swedish young adults perceptions and attitudes. The findings showed that two of the biggest reasons that Swedish young adults support immigration are: humanitarism and labor force. Swedish young adults are very aware of immigrants’ integration in Sweden. They socialize with immigrants and have contact with them in daily basis. Swedish young adults, have a negative opinion regarding Sweden’s immigration policy Conclusion: Swedish young adults define immigrants as a people born in one country but move to another (particularly in Sweden) with an intention to reside there permanently. Regarding their acculturation expectations, they support integration as the best acculturation strategy. They think that immigrants in Sweden are “half way” integrated, geographically segregated, discriminated, prejudiced in different degrees and immigrant woman are the most excluded category.

The underlying theme that draws together all the chapters presented in this thesis is that surveillance, like any feature of our social world, is not imposed in a vacuum; and that information pertaining to the origin and purpose of surveillance is vital in determining how it will be perceived and evaluated (and how it will then impact on behaviour). The key aims of this thesis are, first, to demonstrate how a social identity approach can account for varying reactions to surveillance originating from different sources; second, to investigate how various contextual features exert their impact, resulting in the disparate perceptions of surveillance that exist in our society; and finally, to demonstrate how the imposition of surveillance can itself impact on the broader social context, including the relationship that is understood to exist between those watching and those being watched. These aims are broken down into ten research questions that are addressed in seven chapters. Chapter 1 reviews the literature on perceptions of surveillance and that on social identity, and attempts to illustrate how they may be theoretically combined, resulting in the advancement of both fields. In Chapter 2, we present two studies which demonstrate a negative relationship between shared identity and the perception of surveillance as an invasion of privacy. This relationship was mediated by perceptions that the purpose of surveillance was to ensure safety. In Chapter 3, two studies demonstrate how level of surveillance moderates followers’ responses to leaders with whom they either share identity, or not. Imposing high surveillance where identity was shared with a leader undermined perceptions of the leader as a team member and affected willingness to work for the group, reducing levels to that of leaders without a shared identity. Chapter 4 presents a study that aimed to investigate the role of social identity and surveillance in affecting both discretionary behaviour and task performance. High surveillance led to higher productivity on a task, but this was associated with lower quality of work. Additionally, when identity was shared with the person in charge, helping this person was detrimentally affected by high, as opposed to low, surveillance; whereas no such differences were found where identity was not shared. Chapter 5 presents two studies which showed that framing surveillance as targeting the in-group led to outcomes such as increased privacy invasion, lower acceptability of surveillance, and reduced levels of trust in the implementers of surveillance, as compared to when surveillance was framed as targeting an out-group. However, a third study failed to replicate these results. In Chapter 6, we address how level of threat in the environment can affect evaluations of surveillance. Two studies showed that high levels of threat led to surveillance being seen as less privacy-invading, more necessary, and as having a safety purpose. Finally, in Chapter 7, we review and integrate our findings, discuss the limitations of the research, and consider the implications it has, both theoretically and practically. We conclude that, overall, the findings presented in this thesis support the notion that the source of surveillance and the perceived purpose for it are integral to the perception and interpretation of the surveillance.

This is a comparative study on postgraduate students‘ social experiences in two academic departments: the Faculty of Health Sciences and the Wits School of Business, at the University of the Witwatersrand (Wits), South Africa. This study‘s central questions are: how do postgraduate students from two departments perceive their social experiences? What shaped their perceptions? And how do they compare? This study shows a difference in students‘ perceptions and understandings of the social space in those departments. That is, social interactions at the business school (Wits School of Business) are closely linked to the academic space with the patterns linked to having friends from the same classes and study groups with very high expectations of social life on campus; while in the Faculty of Health Sciences, social interactions are limited and socially orientated with the patterns of having friends from the same department and same region with low expectations on their social life. This difference is explained by means of two main factors, the nature of the academic discipline and the students‘ individual identities that they bring to campus.

Having high employee loyalty is something which most organisation strive to obtain. Not only because of the morals of it, but also because of the fact that high levels of employee loyalty have been proven in many studies to increase operational performance. However, the literature on the concept provides many different definitions on it, and also suggest many different factors that affect how loyal an employee feels towards their organisations. The studies conducted previously on the topic has mainly been quantitative studies researching the connection between levels of loyalty and performance, and at specific companies or industries. As soon to be newly graduated students, the authors of this study also found the lack of comparison between people with different working experience interesting. Due to these reasons, the purpose of this study was to dig deeper into the concept of employee loyalty, how it is defined and which factors that affect the level of loyalty an employee feels towards an organisation. The sub-purposes of this study involve comparing one group of people with 1-3 years of working experience to another group with more than 15 years of working experience. The research question that was developed to be answered in this thesis is as follows: How does the view upon employee loyalty and the factors affecting it differ between people whom have been working for more than 15 years versus 1-3 years?  In order to answer the research questions and fulfil the purpose, a comparative qualitative study was conducted through semi-structured interviews. In line with some previous studies, the Social Identity theory and the Social Exchange theory were used in order to explain the factors affecting employee loyalty. The first focuses upon the level of identification the respondents feel towards different components of the organisation, while the other focuses on factors of exchange between the organisation and its employees. These theories, and theories connected to what employee loyalty is, was used in order to develop a conceptual model which served as a foundation for the data collection, empirical findings, and the analysis.  The empirical findings of this thesis showed that while some definitions of employee loyalty and the factors which are affecting it are similar between the groups, there were also some differences. Employee loyalty was defined by most as someone whom has a behaviour and attitude which is positive, does what is expected from them and whom represents the company in a good manner. The difference between the groups regarding employee loyalty were that the group with more experience seem to have higher demand to classify someone as a loyal employee than the group with less experience has. Moreover, the most evident difference of what affects employee loyalty was that the factor competence development was by far most important for the groups with less experience, while a responsive organisation was what the group with more experience found important in order to keep employees loyal.  Conclusions drawn from this study is that “softer” factors like the relationship’s employees have between each other, the organisational culture, and sense of opportunity for personal growth seem to be far more important for employees than physical benefits. Furthermore, there seem to be some differences regarding employee loyalty between groups with different levels of working experience which is why this thesis recommends organisations to be responsive to its employees’ needs and adapt their management to all employees.

Today, mergers and acquisitions often grab headlines due to the large sums of money involved, and the number of stakeholders affected by it. Still, the increase in merger and acquisition activities, the capital involved, and the pervasiveness of these activities stand in sharp contrast to their high rates of failures. Scholars have attributed the failure of mergers and acquisitions to management failure when it comes to dealing with human aspects during the integration phase. The purpose of this paper was to examine how individual’s identities change overtime in a merger. More specifically, it examines the process of post-merger organizational identification in merger contexts through the lens of social identity theory. From this purpose, we formulated the following research question and two sub-questions: • How can post-merger identification be managed and integrated in an organization? o How can organizational identities transit from a pre-merger state to a post-merger state successfully? o What is the outcome of the post-merger identification process? The method used in this study was qualitative with an interpretive approach, which allowed us to gain a deeper understanding regarding the purpose and to answer our research question. Primary data came from purposive sampling, where 14 semi-structured interviews with individuals with various managerial positions in post-merger integrations were conducted to gain an understanding of how they tackled the integration process. The secondary data used resulted from previous research, literature, articles and other internet sources. The interviews were qualitatively analyzed through a thematic coding procedure. The backbone of our theory consists of perspectives on mergers and acquisitions from the lens of social identity theory. Particularly, it was used to understand the post-merger organizational identification process. The theoretical components were used to understand group formations and intra- and intergroup relationships, the effects mergers have on individuals, and what the effects of the outcomes of post-merger identification have on group and organizational identity. Our findings disclose that organizational identities are exclusive by nature and that they remain in this state unless managerial actions are taken which triggers commitment from groups to change. These actions must combine communication efforts with managerial interventions which promote intergroup cooperation, prototypical norms and values. Depending on the actions and the goal of the merger, the nature of the post-merger identity is a combination of two identities which forms an overarching one, or an assimilation of one identity into another. The contributions from this study come in two forms: theoretical and managerial. The theoretical contributions come through our findings showing how organizational identity emerge, change and how they are formed. The managerial contributions provide recommendations on how practitioners should facilitate the process, the vital role the manager has in the process and approaches they could take based on our findings.

Thesis advisor: Marilyn Matelski / This thesis examines the various ways in which cultures across the world have used the game of soccer, or football, as a cultural unifier. With minimal equipment and simple rules, football is universally understood and globally popular. The uniting and inspiring power of football reaches its peak every four years during the Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) World Cup. The tournament pits 32 of the world‘s best national football teams against one another in a dramatic and wildly popular contest that declares one team the World Champion. Despite the competition on the field of play, the bidding process to win the privilege to host the FIFA World Cup is equally intense. Nations across the world vie for the chance to host one of the world‘s biggest and most prestigious sporting events, seemingly in the hopes of boosting the nation‘s economy. Scholarly research, however, claims that hosting a World Cup has a negligible, and sometimes even negative, effect on the host nation. Why, then, do nations bid so fiercely to host the World Cup? This thesis posits that the host nation is not primarily concerned with earning money, but with accruing ―social profitability‖ from hosting the tournament. The intangible benefits to hosting the World Cup include situating the nation as a world class destination for business, trade, and travel. Further, hosting the World Cup gives the host nation the chance to showcase its unique culture to the world, while fostering peace, unity, and fair play across the globe in celebration of the beautiful game, football. / Thesis (BA) — Boston College, 2011. / Submitted to: Boston College. College of Arts and Sciences. / Discipline: Communication Honors Program. / Discipline: Communication.

The international aid sector is a multi-billion dollar industry that has continued to grow in size, influence and complexity since the 1970s. The stakeholders are globalised and diverse, from elite UN politicians in New York and Geneva to malnourished infants in Somalia. This study attempts to focus on the professional development of one category of player in this multifaceted sector, that is the expatriate field leader employed international non-government organisations (INGO) and responsible for the implementation of projects in a cross-cultural environment. The study found that relationships, results, and grit were three foundational traits of exemplary expatriate filed leaders in the international aid sector. This collective case study takes a grounded theory approach to explore the professional journeys of 12 exemplary expatriate field practitioners in the international aid sector who work in Central Asia, Middle East, and North Africa with ten different INGOs and have an average of 12.5 years of field experience. The participants were nominated for the study by their supervisors or peers as being exemplary field leaders. The study purposes to gain insight into the professional journey of exemplary field leaders by examining their work-life experience from age 18 until present. Biographic narrative interviews were conducted and supplemented with professional development timelines to create the initial data set. The study provides insight into the processes of professional identity formation of expatriate aid workers and identifies seven events that shape their professional self-identity. These experiences consist of a variety of reflected appraisals and intrinsic rewards that validated or changed how the research participants saw themselves. Participants credited good relationships and seeing the results of their work as what keeps them going in spite of difficulties. On the other hand, the most difficult work experiences of the aid workers were not carjacking, riots, dust, heat, bugs, strange food, or low funding but relational conflicts and the grief associated with relational disappointments. Interpersonal relationships were core to both the best experiences and the most difficult experiences of the research participants. Gritty appears to be a better construct to describe exemplary field leaders than resilient. Grit is a trait defined as perseverance and passion for long-term goals. The research participants demonstrated grit in many situations, not least of which was in their commitment to learn the local language in-situ of crisis-affected people. The research participants believed that learning local languages was a key to establish and maintain meaningful relationships and cooperation with local people. The study also includes a discussion of an apparent incongruity in the international aid sector. On one hand the sector promotes the necessity of humanitarian professionals to establish and maintain collaborative relationships with crisis-affected people, but survey evidence suggests most workers in the humanitarian sector put a low priority on learning the languages of crisis-affected people while others do not have sufficient opportunity to learn the local languages because of the well-entrenched tradition of short-term employment contracts of 1-12 months and the practice of churning (rotating experienced staff from project to project). It appears that the current system of doing business in the humanitarian sector may actually obstruct professional competence and contribute to failed outcomes.