Abstract Title: Coach, vän eller både och? – en kvalitativ studie om coachning inom arbetslivet Authors: Jonas Näslund & David Öhrling Tutors: Ulla Moberg & Larsåke Larsson Purpose The purpose of this thesis is to examine how coaching in working life serves, aiming to find what influences the interaction between coach and client. To seek to answer the purpose we raised a number of research questions which discussed, among other the coach's intentions and the parties' relationship. Theories This thesis is based on a number of different theories, where the Leader-member Exchange Theory is considered the main theory. LMX is used when studying the relationship between a manager and an employee. Other theories used in this thesis are for example the Social exchange theory and one-on-one-coaching. Method The methods used in this thesis are semi-structured interviews, observations and recordings of coaching sessions. The interviews were conducted before and after three different coaching sessions. The participants were one coach and three clients, who all work at Tele Coaching, a company which offers manager and employee coaching. The recordings were transcribed and analyzed using a content analysis. Results The result shows that there is a difficult balance between the coach’s role as an expert and as a colleague and friend. How well the coach manages to handle this balance is crucial for the outcome of the coaching session. A strong relationship between coach and client can affect the coach’s possibilities to communicate a message to the client. The coach may withhold feedback, which he or she normally wouldn’t, in fear of damaging the relationship. Another risk is that the client doesn’t see the coach as an authoritarian. To prevent these risks we suggest that an external coach should be used when possible. Keywords Coaching, Leader-member Exchange theory, Qualitative interviews, Relationship, Coach, Client, Positioning, Communication.

Ongoing globalization in business world has led to increase diversity of workforce.Organizations are relying more and more on people coming from all over the world withdifferent backgrounds, nationalities, culture, race etc. Operating in such multiculturalenvironment has forced MNCs to recognize the importance of retaining highly qualified leadersto manage multicultural employees and more specifically to pay attention on the differentchallenges that they might face. In such multicultural environment, it’s important that managershave the required competencies to manage people from culturally diverse background.The purpose of this study is to investigate in detail the most suitable leadership styles toovercome the challenges of multicultural project teams so that organizations can gaincompetitive advantage over others. To find the most suitable leadership styles, firstly weinvestigated based on literature the most important challenges and issues that both projectmanagers and multicultural teams face. Secondly, we defined the project managers who areable to identify and overcome the challenges of multicultural teams. Thirdly, we analysed theleadership style and competencies of project managers who are aware of the differentchallenges of MCT to find out the most suitable and common leadership style in the studiedindustry. The research is a qualitative single case study focusing on one construction MNCnamely ‘Skanska’ in Sweden.In this study, we found three common leadership styles presented among project managersnamely; mix of servant plus transformational leadership, mix of transformational andtransactional leadership, and lastly transformational leadership style. Findings from the studyshow that mix of servant and transactional leadership is the most suitable leadership style formanaging multicultural project teams in construction industry, while it seems also thattransformational leadership style is being the most common style as every project leaderpossess some traits of it.

The main topic of this master thesis is modern opinion leaders and their influence on consumption behavior of teenagers. The aim of the thesis is to characterize the opinion leaders of the modern age, to analyze their area of influence and to derive their influence on the consumer behavior of adolescents. The partial aim of the master thesis is the comparison of boys and girls. In the theoretical part, opinion leaders are defined, as well as their social networking and their influence in the marketing purposes. The consumer behavior of teenagers and the types of opinion leaders who influence them are described in detail. The practical part deals with social media influencers and determines the degree of their influence on teenagers' purchases. The actual research was carried out through questionnaire surveys and group discussions.

Les dirigeants vivent dans un monde où l’information est diffusée massivement. Or,l’information est utile pour le dirigeant. Plutôt que destinée à un usage immédiat, elle lui sert plutôt à des changements diffus d’optique. Mais pour l’utiliser, le dirigeant doit d’abord s’approprier cette information. Or, cette question de l’appropriation de l’information par les dirigeants reste non résolue par la pratique managériale et par la recherche.Pour tenter de répondre à cette question, nous nous sommes inscrit dans une démarche hypothético-déductive. Nous nous sommes appuyés sur les travaux de Vaujany (2005a,2005b, 2006) sur l’appropriation des objets de gestion. En nous attachant à déterminer comment est appropriée l’information dans un acte social, à l’intérieur de l’entreprise, et dans un acte individuel, dans une perspective psycho-cognitive, nous tenterons de construire un modèle d’appropriation de l’information que nous nommerons le bain d’information.Nous postulons que les dirigeants acquièrent une masse d’information considérable et créent un bain d’information. A l’intérieur de ce bain, chocs et résonnances permettent une appropriation efficace, et améliorent le système de croyance. Le système d’appropriation s’améliore et affine le processus d’intuition permettant d’améliorer le système d’appropriation et créer une information anticipative.Nous avons validé et fait évoluer ce modèle à l’aide d’une recherche exploratoire menée auprès de 13 DRH, membres de comités exécutifs de grands groupes internationaux puis d’une recherche centrale menée auprès de 21 Présidents, PDG, Directeurs généraux et membres de comités exécutifs de grands groupes français, européens et américains. / The leaders live in a world where the information is massively broadcasted. Now, the information is useful for the leader. Rather than intended for an immediate custom, it is rather of use to him in diffuse changes of optics. But to use it, the leader has to, at first, appropriate this information. But, this question of the appropriation of the information by the leaders remains not resolved both by the manager practice and by the academic research.To try to answer this question, we joined in a hypothético-deductive approach. We leaned onthe works of Vaujany (2005a, 2005b, 2006) on the appropriation of the objects ofmanagement. By attaching us to determine how is suited the information in a social act, inside the company, and in an individual act, in a cognitive psychology perspective, we shall try to build a model of appropriation of the information which we shall name the bath ofinformation.We postulate that the leaders acquire a mass of considerable information and create a bath of information. Inside this bath, shocks and resonnances allow an effective appropriation, and improve the system of faith. The system of appropriation improves and refines the process ofintuition allowing to improve the system of appropriation and to create an anticipative information.We validated and developed this model by means of an exploratory research led with 13human resources managers, members of executive committees of big international groupsthen a central research led with 21 Presidents, Chief Executive Officers and members ofexecutive committees of French, European and American groups.

LEADER method is European Policy of Economic and Social Cohesion's tool that focuses on a rural development. LEADER program is a part of Program for Rural Development which Ministry of Agriculture has responsibility of in the Czech Republic. Method LEADER is used by Local Action Group which is a community that associates delegates of public and private sector. One of Local Action Group's goals is distribution of subsidies received from the EU funds and national programs. The main goal of this thesis is construction of a simulation model that demonstrates whole process of subsidies distribution. Analysis of received applications for subsidies and usage of grant from applied allocation should be created by the simulation. Based on obtained results changes are implemented in the model that can improve process of subsidies distribution.

This longitudinal study evaluates the role of a follower's self-concept and implicit leadership theories on the interpretation of transformational leadership behaviors and the development of leader-member exchange. Leadership behaviors were hypothesized as antecedents to leader-member exchange. The hypotheses draw upon the social cognition theory of self-verification. Implicit leadership theories were evaluated as absolute differences between actual and recognized leadership behaviors. Both implicit leadership theories and self-concepts were tested for moderation of the leadership behaviors and leader-member exchange. Additional dependent variables included turnover intentions, organizational identification, and perceived organizational support. A key contribution of this research is the application of these variables to new organizational entrants. Two-hundred and ten new followers at a single organization completed three surveys upon organizational entry, 30 days post hire, and approximately 90 days post hire. Structural equation modeling was utilized to conduct confirmatory factor analyses and the development of the measurement and structural models. Leadership behaviors were significantly related to the development of leader-member exchange. Leader-member exchange also fully mediated the leadership behaviors. The collective and relational self-concept levels were correlated with leader-member exchange but failed to reach significance in the full structural model. Implicit leadership theories and absolute difference scores were significantly related to leader-member exchange development. Neither the self-concept nor implicit leadership theories moderated the relationship between leadership behaviors and leader-member exchange. Leader-member exchange had significant effects on all of the outcome variables.

Tripanossomatídeos particularmente os do gênero Phytomonas, podem infectar, frutos, látex, seiva, floema e flores de muitas famílias de vegetais, e foram detectados em insetos fitófagos de seus possíveis vetores em várias regiões do Velho e Novo Continente. Em contraste com a enorme variedade da flora e da fauna entomológica da Amazônia Brasileira, poucas espécies têm sido descritas albergando tripanossomatídeos. Os tripanossomatídeos pertencentes a estes gêneros podem apresentar formas evolutivas típicas que permitem a sua identificação morfológica. No entanto as formas promastigota, existentes tanto no ciclo evolutivo dos gêneros Herpetomonas, Leptomonas e Phytomonas, não permitem a identificação morfológica, sendo necessário parâmetros adicionais para a diferenciação entre os gêneros. A dificuldade do cultivo “in vitro”, impede a correta avaliação da presença destes parasitas em insetos e plantas, impossibilitando uma avaliação do universo dos tripanossomatídeos. No presente trabalho foram realizadas 37 coletas de hemípteros adultos, no estado de Rondônia, nas duas estações climáticas regional durante o período de 1998 a 1999. Foram coletados 244 hemípteros pertencentes a 17 espécies diferentes as quais 13 se revelaram portadoras de tripanossomatídeos. Das amostras positivas foram feitos esfregaços em lâminas e corados com Giemsa para posterior análise morfológica e morfométrica. Numa segunda etapa fizemos aplicação do PCR (reação em cadeia da Polimerase) em DNA recuperado de esfregaços em lâminas para pesquisa de tripanossomatídeos de insetos e plantas seguido de hibridação com sonda SL3’ específica para pesquisa do gênero Phytomonas, com vistas a um estudo preliminar da presença de tripanossomatídeos e Phytomonas em Hemípteros Fitófagos no estado de Rondônia sem necessidade de isolamento e cultura axênica dos parasitas. / Tripanossomatids, particularly Phytomonas, may infect the fruit, latex, sap, phloem and flowers of many plant families. These parasites have also been detected in phytofagous insects which are potential vectors in many areas of the Old and New World. In spite of the enormous variety of flora and entomological fauna of the Brazilian Amazon only a few species have been described harbouring tripanossomatids. Some genera of tripanossomatids present typical morphological forms which they can be identified. However, the promastigote form occurs in the genera Herpetomonas, Leptomonas and Phytomonas, so other parameters are needed to separate them. The difficulties of in vitro cultivation also hinders determining the presence of these parasites in both insects and plants, thus making it impossible to estabilish realistic incidence rates of these ubiquitous parasites. In the present study 37collections of adult hemipterans were made in Rondônia State during the different regional seasons of 1998 to 1999. A total of 244 bugs belonging to 17 species were collected of which 13 had trypanosomatid infections. Methanol fixed smears of all the infections were made on glass slides and stained with Giemsa for the morphological studies and morphometric analyses. In a second phase, we used the PCR (Polimerase Chain Reaction) to recover DNA from the methanol fixed smears. The PCR products were hybridized with the SL3’ probe which is specific for Phytomonas. The aim of this preliminary study was to locate trypanosomatids infections in phytophagous Hemiptera captured in Rondônia State and then determine which of these belonged to the genus Phytomonas without the necessity of isolation in culture.

Globalization and technological developments have made it possible to engage in virtual work modes. Globalization also enabled an enormous spread of the ongoing pandemic of covid-19. A situation that forced previously co-located teams to become virtual teams. This required an adaption for leaders to lead in an environment that differs vastly from traditional ones.We conducted a multiple case study with an abductive approach and qualitative method in which 10 semi-structured interviews were held with practitioners across 3 business cases that were experiencing a transition into a virtual work mode.The findings suggest that the work relations between leaders and followers change in several ways when previously co-located teams become virtual teams. This entails new challenges and a shift in the use of leadership styles as well as follower behavior.

The purpose of this study was to examine principal behaviors, identified by teachers and principals, which foster collective efficacy among teachers. As instructional leaders of a school, principals are expected to lead their schools. Behaviors exhibited by the principal can either help or hinder the success of the school and teachers and students in that school. This study will assist principals, aspiring principals, and instructors of principal preparation programs in knowing what behaviors are necessary to foster collective efficacy in their schools, leading to greater success for that school. Collective efficacy is a shared belief that by working together, “we can make a difference.” This belief is of great importance in education because through collaboration, educators can influence the lives of children, while positively impacting the success of their school. In a world where testing accountability determines individual and school success, it is imperative to know how to meet those demands. Schools were chosen to participate in this study based on self-reported Collective Efficacy survey results. Principals of grades 9-12 in high-performing rural high schools in Kentucky were surveyed. Following the survey, three schools were chosen as focus sites for this study. The three schools chosen demonstrated high performance on state accountability assessments and had the highest self-efficacy scores on the self-reported survey. Principals and teachers from those schools were interviewed and/or participated in focus groups. This study identifies behaviors of the school principal in building collective efficacy among the teachers in his or her school. These behaviors can lead to a positive school environment and even greater success for students and teachers.

Principals need to possess leadership skills and behaviors that help set expectations for collaborative work. The problem in this case study was that little was known about the collaboration-building behaviors principals use that promote effective collaboration between members of the school community. The purpose of this qualitative study was to explore and describe the behaviors principals exhibit when building collaboration through the implementation of Professional Learning Communities (PLCs). The conceptual framework was based on 3 elements: leadership styles and approaches, collaboration, and the implementation of effective PLCs. The primary research question explored how principal behaviors contribute to collaborative professional learning communities. Purposeful sampling was used to recruit 6 elementary principals from a Mid-Atlantic State. Data were collected through semistructured interviews and document review of PLC structures. Data were coded using a Microsoft Word Doc Data Extract tool and analyzed for themes using an inductive process. Emergent themes for building collaboration were identified as leadership traits, vision, time, collaborative structures, culture, and the need for professional learning. Results suggest that shared leadership, vision, collective learning, and supportive conditions influence the effective development of PLCs. As a result, professional learning opportunities are recommended for school leaders on strategies that successfully develop supportive and collaborative structures in schools. Implications for social change are that PLCs may strengthen professional practice in classrooms, schools, districts, and communities.