It is now clear that managers, and their organisations, are under increasing pressure to respond to environmental issues (IPCC, 2007; KPMG, 2005). Research has identified the important role that individuals play in affecting organisational change (Andersson & Bateman, 2000; Bansal, 2003; Starik, 1995), yet more remains to be done. Despite past success of cognitive and behavioural perspectives in explaining proenvironmental behaviours, few researchers have explored its affective dimensions (Kals & Maes, 2002; Vining & Ebreo, 2002). While organisations and the natural environment (ONE) research does mention emotive components of proenvironmental behaviours (Andersson & Bateman, 2000; Bansal & Roth, 2000; Ramus & Steger, 2000), there are very few studies that examine emotion directly. The lack of affective research on environmental issues in organisations has meant that ONE research has not kept pace with the theoretical and empirical developments in wider management literature that clearly demonstrate that emotion is an inescapable part of work-life (Ashforth & Humphrey, 1995; Fineman, 2003; Härtel, Zerbe, & Ashkanasy, 2005). As such, therefore, more research is needed to examine further the role of emotion in driving proenvironmental behaviours (Kals & Maes, 2002; Vining & Ebreo, 2002). Within this research, I aim to address this need by developing an understanding of the contribution of emotion to workplace proenvironmental behaviours. I draw on Weiss and Cropanzano’s (1996) Affective Events Theory and Pratt and Dutton’s (2000) theory of issue ownership to assimilate current understanding of the role of emotion in proenvironmental behaviour, from the fields of environmental psychology, ONE, and emotions in organisations. I also integrate Stern’s (2000) Value-Belief-Norm theory in order to account for both attitudinal and affective antecedents of proenvironmental behaviour. The relationships between environmental issues, emotions, and proenvironmental behaviour were explored in Study 1. Thematic analysis and content analysis of 31 interview transcripts revealed that managers experience positive and negative emotional responses to environmental issues. Results showed that emotions were expressed significantly more often when managers discussed environmental issues and proenvironmental behaviours at the individual level, compared to the organisational level. These findings demonstrate the importance of the organisational context in exploring the antecedents of workplace proenvironmental behaviour. In Study 2, my aim was to test a conceptual model of affective and attitudinal components of workplace proenvironmental behaviour. The sample for the study was 324 employees from five Australian organisations. I developed a web-survey to collect data from the employees and used structural equation modelling (SEM) to analyse the data. Results showed that aggregated positive emotions enhanced workplace proenvironmental behaviours. Contrary to expectations, however, I found that aggregated negative emotion impeded proenvironmental behaviour. Furthermore, results suggested that the direct relationships between emotion and behaviour were more important than the mediated effect of issue ownership. I conducted two experiments to test further the direct effects of emotion on workplace proenvironmental behaviour and issue ownership. In Study 3, I conducted a laboratory experiment. Five discrete emotions were manipulated using audio-visual stimuli developed for the purposes of the research. One hundred and ninety-four masters and final year undergraduate students participated in the study. Results demonstrated that emotions of the same valence led to different effects on workplace proenvironmental behaviour intentions and recycling behaviours. Contrary to expectations, results showed no significant effect of emotion on environmental issue ownership. Study 4 extended this work by testing the effect of the five discrete emotion manipulations in a field study. The sample for the study was 135 office-based employees. Results revealed that the emotion manipulations had a significant effect on proenvironmental behaviour, as measured by requests for information on improving environmental performance. Congruent with findings from Study 3, results of Study 4 demonstrated that emotions of the same valence led to different effects on workplace proenvironmental behaviour. Comparisons of effect sizes across Studies 3 and 4 revealed attenuation of the effect of emotion in an organisational setting. Together, these findings demonstrate the importance of emotion as an antecedent of proenvironmental behaviour. Findings demonstrated the significant role of organisational context in the relationship between emotions and workplace proenvironmental behaviour. Indeed, this research demonstrates that emotional reactions can induce proenvironmental behaviour. In a workplace context, however, results revealed that individuals also look to the organisation for cues as to the appropriateness of engaging in such behaviour. This research has implications for theory, research, and practice, and makes a contribution to the three research areas of organisations and the natural environment, environmental psychology, and emotions in organisations.

It is now clear that managers, and their organisations, are under increasing pressure to respond to environmental issues (IPCC, 2007; KPMG, 2005). Research has identified the important role that individuals play in affecting organisational change (Andersson & Bateman, 2000; Bansal, 2003; Starik, 1995), yet more remains to be done. Despite past success of cognitive and behavioural perspectives in explaining proenvironmental behaviours, few researchers have explored its affective dimensions (Kals & Maes, 2002; Vining & Ebreo, 2002). While organisations and the natural environment (ONE) research does mention emotive components of proenvironmental behaviours (Andersson & Bateman, 2000; Bansal & Roth, 2000; Ramus & Steger, 2000), there are very few studies that examine emotion directly. The lack of affective research on environmental issues in organisations has meant that ONE research has not kept pace with the theoretical and empirical developments in wider management literature that clearly demonstrate that emotion is an inescapable part of work-life (Ashforth & Humphrey, 1995; Fineman, 2003; Härtel, Zerbe, & Ashkanasy, 2005). As such, therefore, more research is needed to examine further the role of emotion in driving proenvironmental behaviours (Kals & Maes, 2002; Vining & Ebreo, 2002). Within this research, I aim to address this need by developing an understanding of the contribution of emotion to workplace proenvironmental behaviours. I draw on Weiss and Cropanzano’s (1996) Affective Events Theory and Pratt and Dutton’s (2000) theory of issue ownership to assimilate current understanding of the role of emotion in proenvironmental behaviour, from the fields of environmental psychology, ONE, and emotions in organisations. I also integrate Stern’s (2000) Value-Belief-Norm theory in order to account for both attitudinal and affective antecedents of proenvironmental behaviour. The relationships between environmental issues, emotions, and proenvironmental behaviour were explored in Study 1. Thematic analysis and content analysis of 31 interview transcripts revealed that managers experience positive and negative emotional responses to environmental issues. Results showed that emotions were expressed significantly more often when managers discussed environmental issues and proenvironmental behaviours at the individual level, compared to the organisational level. These findings demonstrate the importance of the organisational context in exploring the antecedents of workplace proenvironmental behaviour. In Study 2, my aim was to test a conceptual model of affective and attitudinal components of workplace proenvironmental behaviour. The sample for the study was 324 employees from five Australian organisations. I developed a web-survey to collect data from the employees and used structural equation modelling (SEM) to analyse the data. Results showed that aggregated positive emotions enhanced workplace proenvironmental behaviours. Contrary to expectations, however, I found that aggregated negative emotion impeded proenvironmental behaviour. Furthermore, results suggested that the direct relationships between emotion and behaviour were more important than the mediated effect of issue ownership. I conducted two experiments to test further the direct effects of emotion on workplace proenvironmental behaviour and issue ownership. In Study 3, I conducted a laboratory experiment. Five discrete emotions were manipulated using audio-visual stimuli developed for the purposes of the research. One hundred and ninety-four masters and final year undergraduate students participated in the study. Results demonstrated that emotions of the same valence led to different effects on workplace proenvironmental behaviour intentions and recycling behaviours. Contrary to expectations, results showed no significant effect of emotion on environmental issue ownership. Study 4 extended this work by testing the effect of the five discrete emotion manipulations in a field study. The sample for the study was 135 office-based employees. Results revealed that the emotion manipulations had a significant effect on proenvironmental behaviour, as measured by requests for information on improving environmental performance. Congruent with findings from Study 3, results of Study 4 demonstrated that emotions of the same valence led to different effects on workplace proenvironmental behaviour. Comparisons of effect sizes across Studies 3 and 4 revealed attenuation of the effect of emotion in an organisational setting. Together, these findings demonstrate the importance of emotion as an antecedent of proenvironmental behaviour. Findings demonstrated the significant role of organisational context in the relationship between emotions and workplace proenvironmental behaviour. Indeed, this research demonstrates that emotional reactions can induce proenvironmental behaviour. In a workplace context, however, results revealed that individuals also look to the organisation for cues as to the appropriateness of engaging in such behaviour. This research has implications for theory, research, and practice, and makes a contribution to the three research areas of organisations and the natural environment, environmental psychology, and emotions in organisations.

Master of Arts / Department of Communications Studies / Soo-Hye Han / The rise of partisan political news over the past two decades has influenced how political candidates discursively construct their image. While there is an extensive literature devote to presidential discourse, little is known about what gubernatorial discourse looks like and how they construct their image. This study examines how gubernatorial candidates discursively construct their image in a hyperpolarized electoral environment. An extensive content analysis of gubernatorial political interviews (n = 94), and specifically the utterances arising from those interviews (n = 1,524), was conducted. Findings show that gubernatorial candidates discursively construct their own image as a savior to the state, while creating their opponent’s and the DC elite’s image as a villain. Additionally, gubernatorial candidates do not adhere to the image bound by their party, and construct an image that is unique to their environment. Consequently, the environment that a gubernatorial candidate is situated influences how they communicate and construct their image and their opponent’s image. By examining gubernatorial discourse through political interviews, this study offers theoretical implications into understanding the influence of polarization, issue ownership, and tone in gubernatorial discourse. Practical implications examine the role of media outlets in gubernatorial discourse. This study contributes to scholarly understanding of gubernatorial discourse in a changing and polarizing political environment.

In this paper, I discuss the area of issue-ownership as it applies to the 2016 presidential primaries. The central discussion of the paper features a tradeoff between viability and issues in primary contests. Viability, which is presented through The Party Decides: Presidential Nominations Before and After Reform by Marty Cohen et al. as party elites deciding who should be the nominee, and issues that are salient to primary voters, and thus candidates, which I present as the more likely reason for how nominees are selected. Using a combination of national polls and analysis of candidates’ Twitter feeds, I hope to compare data on who primary and caucus voters support and which issues are important to them. The hypothesis is simple: if candidates stake claims on issues that voters care about and frequently remind voters of that via Twitter, they will receive a bump in the polls.

Foreign policy is the nexus between domestic and international political systems. Studies in Canada have so far produced mixed findings related to the role of political parties in foreign policy. Drawing from campaign promise, issue ownership and foreign policy decision-making literature, this dissertation investigates whether there is a foreign policy domain consistently dominated by a particular political party in the Canadian context. Part I uses data from the Comparative Manifesto Project (CMP) combined with manually coded foreign policy promises to determine the content and scope of foreign policy-related election promises in Canada. Part II follows the well-established pledge approach to measure promise fulfilment of foreign policy promises of Canadian governing parties following elections. This dissertation not only seeks to determine whether parties matter in the context of foreign policy, but also whether one party consistently “owns” the foreign policy domain or specific foreign policy issues. Findings from this research will fill an existing gap in the literature related to policy-specific promise fulfillment in Canada and will bridge existing theoretical assumptions related to political party behaviour and foreign policy decision-making. / Thesis / Master of Arts (MA)

The purpose of this study is to investigate the presence of first- and second-level agenda setting as well as issue ownership in the 2020 Democratic primary debates and whether there is a relationship between using strategies based on these theories and qualifying for future debates. The study seeks to answer three research questions: What is the relationship, if any, between a candidate whose statements focused primarily on the three issues considered most important by the public according to opinion polls and whether this candidate qualified for future debates? How did candidates use frames to redraw the attention of issues? What is the relationship, if any, between the extent to which a candidate’s statements discussed performance issues more than Republican-owned or Democratic-owned issues and whether this candidate qualified for future debates? The study draws mainly on the first and second level of the agenda setting theory, as well as the theory of issue ownership, and analyzes what issues candidates focus on, what attributes of these issues they emphasize, and whether they discuss performance issues like the economy or foreign policy more than issues owned by either the Republican or the Democratic Party. Through a quantitative content analysis of four candidates’ (Joe Biden, Bernie Sanders, Amy Klobuchar, & Andrew Yang) statements from three of the eleven primary debates held in the 2020 primary process, the study found no direct relationship between focusing on the public’s three most important issues and qualifying for future debates. Similarly, no such relationship was found between emphasizing certain attributes and qualifying for future debates, although the results suggest that candidates may have benefited from avoiding framing issues economically, which concurs with previous findings (Boydstun, Glazier, & Pietryka, 2013a; Boydstun, Glazier, & Phillips, 2013) and supports Vavreck’s (2009) theory that insurgent candidates should not emphasize the economy. Findings also demonstrated the contrasting ways three of the candidates framed the same issues, where Joe Biden and Amy Klobuchar tended to emphasize economic frames when discussing Medicare while Bernie Sanders emphasized effectiveness. Lastly, the findings support previous research on issue ownership since findings showed that most candidates discussed Democratic-owned issues more than other issues, while the eventual presidential nominee, Joe Biden, overall discussed performance issues more than issues owned by either party. This suggests that focusing on such issues may be beneficial for challenging candidates during an election cycle where the sitting president has been criticized for not being able to handle the job. Thus, no direct relationship could be found in the case of RQ1 or RQ2 but discussing performance issues the most overall may have benefited one candidate, suggesting there is a relationship in the case of RQ3. / Syftet med denna studie är att undersöka förekomsten av första och andra nivån av dagordningsteorin samt av issue ownership i Demokraternas primärdebatter 2020 och huruvida det finns någon relation mellan att använda strategier baserade på dessa teorier och att kvalificera sig för framtida debatter. Studien undersöker tre frågeställningar: Vad är relationen, om någon, mellan en kandidat vars uttalanden under debatterna fokuserade främst på de tre frågor som väljarna ansåg var viktigast enligt opinionsundersökningar och huruvida denna kandidat kvalificerade sig för framtida debatter? Hur använde kandidaterna ”frames” för att kontrollera diskussionen kring frågor? Vad är relationen, om någon, mellan den utsträckning en kandidats uttalanden under debatterna diskuterade så kallade ”performance issues” mer än frågor ägda av det republikanska eller demokratiska partiet och huruvida denna kandidat kvalificerade sig för framtida debatter? Studien bygger huvudsakligen på den första och andra nivån av dagordningsteorin, liksom teorin om issue ownership, och analyserar vilka frågor kandidaterna fokuserar på, vilka attribut de betonar när de talar om dessa frågor och om de diskuterar performance issues såsom ekonomi eller utrikespolitik mer än frågor som ägs av antingen republikanska eller demokratiska partiet. Genom en kvantitativ innehållsanalys av fyra kandidaters (Joe Biden, Bernie Sanders, Amy Klobuchar och Andrew Yang) uttalanden från tre av de elva primärdebatterna som hölls under primärprocessen 2020 fann studien ingen direkt relation mellan att fokusera på de tre frågor som väljarna ansåg var viktigast och att kvalificera sig för framtida debatter. Det hittades inte heller någon sådan relation mellan att betona vissa attribut och att kvalificera sig för framtida debatter, även om resultaten tyder på att kandidater kan ha haft nytta av att undvika att betona ekonomiska attribut, vilket överensstämmer med tidigare resultat (Boydstun, Glazier, & Pietryka, 2013a; Boydstun, Glazier, & Phillips, 2013) och stöttar Vavrecks (2009) teori att så kallade ”insurgent candidates” drar nytta av att inte diskutera ekonomin mer än nödvändigt. Resultaten visade också hur olika kandidaternas inramning av en specifik fråga var, då Joe Biden och Amy Klobuchar hade en tendens att betona ekonomiska attribut när de talade om frågor gällande Medicare medan Bernie Sanders fokuserade mer på effektivitetsattribut.  Slutligen stöder studien tidigare forskning om issue ownership då resultaten visade på att de flesta kandidater diskuterade frågor ägda av det demokratiska partiet mer än andra frågor, medan den kandidat som slutligen skulle få det demokratiska partiets presidentsnominering, Joe Biden, totalt sett diskuterade performance issues mer än frågor ägda av något av partierna. Detta tyder på att ett fokus på sådana frågor kan vara till nytta för att utmanande kandidater under en valcykel där den sittande presidenten har kritiserats för sin hantering av arbetet. Således kunde ingen direkt relation hittas när det gällde RQ1 eller RQ2, men resultaten tyder på att en kandidat kan ha gynnats av att diskutera performance issues mest över lag, vilket i sig tyder på att det finns en relation gällnade RQ3.

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The 2006 Congressional elections included some of the closest elections in recent history. Party control was on the line in both houses of Congress. As a result, candidate message strategies were subject to intense scruntiny by media and voters alike since each election played a significant role in determining which party would control the Senate. This thesis employs a content analysis of ten candidate-controlled blogs from five 2006 U.S. Senate elections to evaluate candidate issues, incumbent and challenger strategies, and message tactics used by the candidate to reach a wide classification of voters. The entire population of posts from the ten candidate blogs (N = 474) was included in this analysis. The thesis assesses candidate blog strategies and candidate gender difference through the theoretical perspectives of the issue ownership framework, agenda setting, and incumbent and challenger strategies. Findings show little evidence of intercandidate agenda setting through blogs, general adherence to assumptions of the issue ownership framework, and offer foundations for future communication research focused on candidate blogs. Recommendations for future research include a more expansive study of all campaign blogs as well as an intermedia agenda setting study to measure systematically the influence of blogs on other media. / Master of Arts

Back in 2012, Niklas Bolin offered an innovative perspective on the importance of agency for new party entrance. With his doctoral thesis he concluded that the ownership of at least one non-mainstream position and the possession of certain party resources were two necessary conditions for new parties to reach parliament membership. This investigation aimed to test his findings with the analysis of the only two cases of new party entrance in the Portuguese democracy since the end of the consolidation period: the Left Bloc (BE) in 1999 and PessoasAnimais-Natureza (PAN) in 2015. The thesis concludes that in one hand both parties emphasized “unique” issues in their electoral programs. On the other hand, some party resources proved to have greater importance than others for this case: both parties had low levels of membership, limited leadership and considerable financial funds when compared to similar size parties. Finally, regarding media exposure while BE managed to gain some space within the traditional channels, PAN relied solely on social media. As a result, this study corroborates both the current tendency for a decline in the number and importance of party affiliates and the equalization theory regarding the opportunities of the Internet for small parties as a more equal space for party competition.

Abstracts in English, Zulu and Afrikaans / This Grounded Theory study focused on understanding how South Africa’s two numerically-dominant political parties, the African National Congress (ANC) and Democratic Alliance (DA), used micro-blogging site, Twitter, as part of their electioneering arsenal in the 2016 municipal elections to promote party-political digital issue ownership within an urban context. Using each party’s 2016 election manifesto and corpus of tweets, this three-phased study found that while both the ANC and DA used Twitter as a digital political communication platform to communicate their election campaigns, the DA notably leveraged the social networking site for intense ‘focused’ messaging of its negative campaign against the ANC while simultaneously promoting positive electoral messages around its own ‘core’ issues and metro mayoral candidates. ‘Battleground’ metros were identified by the DA in Ekurhuleni, Johannesburg, Tshwane and Nelson Mandela Bay, leading to an emphasised urban campaign here to either activate the party’s own support base and/ or to suppress the ANC’s turnout in these highly-contested areas. Additionally, it was found that both the ANC and DA used Twitter for explicit and implicit partypolitical issue ownership claiming in the 2016 municipal elections. Lastly, this study also culminated in the proposal of three but interconnected different elements of a conceptual framework for digital political communication that political parties could use to promote digital party-political issue ownership within a pronounced urban electioneering setting. These elements – ‘coordinating and managing how an election is tweeted’, 'focus' messaging the election’ and ‘audience-segmenting as a message-tailoring strategy’ – when used in unison can help political parties communicate better and ultimately more effectively in a highly mediatised technological media landscape / Hierdie Gegronde Teorie Studie fokus op die verduideliking hoe Suid-Afrika se twee numeriese dominante politieke partye, die African National Congress (ANC) en Demokratiese Alliansie (DA), van die mikro-blog platform, Twitter, gebruik gemaak het tydens hulle verkiessingsstrategie in die 2016 munisipale verkiessings om die party politieke digitale kwessie rondom eienaarskap binne ‘n stedelike verband te bevorder. Deur elke party se 2016 verkiessings manifesto en arsenaal van twiets te gebruik, het hierdie drie-fase studie bevind dat beide die ANC en DA, Twitter gebruik het as ‘n digitale politieke kommunikasie platform. Die DA het egter die sosiale media netwerk kenmerkend gebruik vir ‘n intense gefokusde negatiewe veldtog teen die ANC terwyl hulle terselfdertyd ‘n positiewe verkiessings boodskap rondom die party se eie kernkwessies en metro burgermeesters kandidate gesentreer het. ‘Oorlogsgebied’ metros is deur die DA in Ekurhuleni, Johannesburg, Tshwane en Nelson Mandela Bay geidentifiseer wat ‘n defnitiewe stedelike veldtog tot gevolg gehad het om die party se eie ondersteuningsbasis te bevorder en/of die ANC se ondersteuning in hierdie hoogs betwiste areas te onderdruk. Daar was ook bevind dat beide die ANC en DA van Twitter gebruik gemaak het vir eksplisiete en implisiete party politieke kwessies rondom eiernaarskap tydens die 2016 munisipale verkiessings. Hierdie studie kan saamgevat word in drie onderskeie maar verwante elemente om ‘n raamwerk te vorm van die digitale politieke kommunikasie wat politieke partye kan gebruik om digitale party politieke kwessies binne ‘n stedelike verkiessings omgewing te bevorder. Wanneer hierdie elemente – ‘koordinering en bestuur van hoe twiets tydens ‘n verkiesing gebruik word’, ‘’die focus van die boodksap tydens die verkiessing’ and ‘die gehoorsegmentasie can ‘n boodskap strategie’ – in ‘n eenheid gebruik word kan dit politieke partye help om beter en meer effektief te kommunikeer binne ‘n baie kompiterende en tegnologiese medialandskap. / Inkcazo-bungcali yesisifundo ibigxile ekuqondeni ukuba uMzantsi Africa lo unamaqela amakhulu amabini ezopolitiko, ukutsho, iAfrican National Congress (ANC) kunye ne Democratic Alliance (DA), la maqela asebenzise iwebhusayithi encinane uTwitter, njengenxalenye yezixhobo zonxibelelwano kunyulo loo masipala ngo-2016. Bekwenza oku ngelikhuthaza amaqela ezopolitiko nebango lawo kwimiba yezinto abathi bazithethe kwisithuba sedijithali,kumxholo wendawo zase dolophini. Esi sifundo sisebenzisa imanifesto kunye nothotho lwe tweets zeqela ngalinye, nesenziwe ngokwezigaba ezithathu, sifumanise ukuba nangona iANC kunye ne DA zisebenzise uTwitter njenge qonga lonxibelelwano lwezopolitiko zedijithali (ngokolwimi lwasemzini) ukunxibelelana namaphulo onyulo, iDA izibonakalise amandla kwindawo yokuncokola kwiqonga uTwitter,ngokuthi imiyalezo yayo igxile kwaye itsole. Miyalezo leyo ithe yagxila ngokungafanelekanga kumkhankaso weANC. Ngaxeshanye, imiyalezo yayo yona iDA ibeyeyakhayo, kwaye incedisana nephulo layo kwimiba ephambili kunye nabagqatswa bosodolophu bo masipala abambaxa. Oomasipala abambaxa abathi babenongquzulwano bachongwe yiDA Ekurhuleni, eRhawutini, eTshwane nase Bhayi. Lonto ibangele ukuba bagxininise ekukhokeleni iphulo ledolophu ukuze bavuselele inkxaso ye DA apho okanye bacinezele ukuvela kwe-ANC kwezi ndawo kuphikiswana kakhulu ngazo. Ukongeza, kufumaniseke ukuba iANC kunye neDA zisebenzise uTwitter ngokwendlela ecacileyo nengathanga ngqo kwimeko yobunini bemicimbi yepolitiki ukuze bafumane ibango kunyulo loomasipala lwango 2016. Okokugqibela, esisifundo sigqibele kwisindululo sezinto ezintathu azahlukeneyo kodwa ezidityaniswe yinkqubosikhokelo eqingqiweyo kunxibelelwano lwezopolitiko zedijithali. Ezi zinto zizinto ezisenakho ukusetyenziswa ngamaqela ezopolitiko ukukhuthaza ubunini bemicimbi yezopolitiko ngaphakathi kulungiselelo lonyulo lwedolophu olubhengeziweyo. Ezi zinto- 'ukulungelelanisa nokulawula indlela unyulo luthunyelwe ngayo kusetyeziswa uTwitter', 'kugxilwe' kwimiyalezo yonyulo kunye nokuhlukaniswa kwabaphulaphuli okanye ababukeli njengecebo lokulungisa umyalezo '- xa zisetyenziswa ngazwinye zinokuwanceda amaqela ezopolitiko anxibelelane ngcono kwaye ekugqibeleni ngokuyimpumelelo kakhulu kuxhamlo olunamandla kakhulu kubume beendaba kumhlaba wetekhnoloji (ngokolwimi lwesiNgesi). / Communication Science / D. Litt. et Phil. (Communication)