Background: A successful organization is the one that recognizes the importance of its human element and take into account their commitment to ensure the attainment of its objectives. However, the focus into the study of commitment among workers is often directed towards for-profit organizations with NGOs receiving less attention. This HRM related issue accord several scholars, is said to be an important factor to be considered in order to ensure a successful organization be it for-profit or NGO. The issue of commitment among workers however tend to take several direction as the result of the multidimensional nature of organizations, hence the varying configurations of commitment mindset (Affective, Normative and Continuance) and the presence of various targets of commitment (e.g. organization, customers etc.) among workers. Aim: The aim of this thesis is to examine the commitment among workers in NGOs, by investigating the various targets of commitment among different categories of workers of NGOs in Sweden. The paper will further investigates whether the targets of commitment among the different categories of workers in NGOs differs and what influences these differences. Through the empirical cases, this thesis will provide appropriate guidance to ensure commitment among categories workers in NGOs and also contribute to previous research with regards to commitment among categories workers in NGOs. Methodology: The qualitative research approach was used in the conducting of this study. A dual case study was undertaken 12 semi-structured interviews with six from each case organization. Participants were drawn from the two main categories of workers in NGOs thus from volunteers and paid workers. Results: The conducted research study reveals there are differences in relations to the targets of commitment among the different categories of workers as well as thedisplay of the different types of commitment towards these targets. The guideline identified by this paper to ensure commitment among workers in NGOs should be a considerable amount of attention to workers development and recognition from the organization.

This work is an attempt to study how the ambivalent demands of normativity in the Swedish curriculum is implemented in schoolbooks used for education in the course Samhällskunskap A. For this purpose, different normative theories are applied in conjunction with a qualitative text analysis method comprising the sections which describe the European Union in three different schoolbooks. The results indicate that not one of the selected books uphold all of the demands of normativitity as described by the Swedish curriculum.

With a base in Ian Manners’ theory about Normative Power Europe – that the European Union is to be seen as a normative power instead of a civilian or military – this paper seeks to contribute to the discussion about identity by examine the normative elements of the union’s policies towards Russia between 1997 and 2013. Which norms are most important and how does the diffusion look? The findings show that democracy, rule of law and respect of human rights are among the most diffused norms, and this is more than often done by using the Russian interest in economic progress. Over time the European Union has taken on a more critical approach against Russia, while still appreciating their prosperous relation when it comes to trade and energy. The union balances between asserting its identity by the diffusion of norms on one hand, and maintaining a pragmatic relationship on the other, which leaves the identity issue as still a very complex question.

Ce mémoire se veut une synthèse critique de la littérature portant sur la logique déontique. Le premier objectif est d'y présenter un aperçu historique de son origine et de son évolution. Cet objectif sera principalement atteint par le biais du chapitre 2 portant sur les paradoxes, lequel nous permettra non seulement de voir en réaction à quoi les principales approches se sont développées, mais nous donnera aussi une vue d'ensemble quant aux différents courants que l'on retrouve en logique déontique. En second lieu, cet ouvrage vise à fournir une synthèse de la littérature portant sur l'analyse formelle du discours normatif. Les chapitres 3, 4 et 5 offrent une synthèse des principaux courants qui cherchent à répondre à cet objectif, ce que l'on peut regrouper sous trois banières, à savoir les logiques monadiques, les logiques dyadiques et les logiques temporelles. Finalement, nous proposons une lecture critique de cette littérature. Cette critique, qui repose notamment sur la prémisse à savoir que la logique déontique se doit non pas de rendre compte de l'utilisation du discours normatif mais plutôt de sa structure, vise à montrer que les systèmes actuels ne parviennent pas à rendre compte adéquatement de certaines caractéristiques fondamentales au discours juridique. / In this essay we aim to provide a critical analysis of the literature regarding deontic logic. First of all, we wish to give a historical account of deontic logic's evolution, which will be done mainly by chapter 2. This chapter concerns the paradoxes of deontic logic and gives an overview of the usual systems and their origin. Our second objective is to provide a synthesis of the literature regarding the formal analysis of the normative discourse. The chapters 3, 4 and 5 give an account of the three principal ways which deal with deontic operators, that is the monadic deontic logic, the dyadic deontic logic and the temporal deontic logic. Finally, we propose a critical analysis of that literature and we show that these systems do not represent adequately some of the normative discourse's fundamental characteristics. We will accomplish this by providing an analysis of the legal discourse and show that the concept of obligation has some properties and behaves in a way that cannot be represented by the actual systems. / Cet ouvrage a été rédigé en LaTeX, ce qui permet d'atteindre directement certaines sections, notes ou références bibliographiques par le biais des hyperliens.

The relationship between the European Union (EU) and New Zealand has expanded considerably since the protracted trade negotiations of the 1970s and now includes dialogue and cooperation on a range of policy issues. In recent years, environment has become an increasingly high priority matter and is increasingly referenced as playing an important part in EU-New Zealand relations. At the same time, the EU has been praised for its leadership role in climate change negotiations, and some scholars have described it as a “green” normative power with the ability to influence other actors internationally on environmental policy. Taking the EU-New Zealand relationship on environment as its case study, this thesis attempts to address a gap in the academic literature concerning relations between New Zealand and the EU on environmental issues. It compares and contrasts the concept of EU normative power with that of policy transfer, arguing that both address the spread of ideas, but finding that what might appear to be normative power and the diffusion of norms, can in fact be best explained as policy transfer and the diffusion of policy or knowledge.

Both philosophers and literary critics have championed artworks as necessary to moral education. As a result many of these critics believe that art that is bad or immoral can causally affect our character, resulting in moral harm. Moral harm is the idea that artworks possess a strong disposition to affect our moral beliefs such that we are less able to distinguish between what is good and what is bad. I examine this concept of moral harm and argue that immoral artworks do not have this kind of causal power over our moral beliefs. Proponents of the moral harm thesis are in error to attribute such a power to artworks. Additionally, I propose a definition of immoral artworks consistent with moral harm, as well as discuss the distinction between immoral artworks and artworks that are merely elicit disgust or offense.

Defining art has been one of philosophy of art’s biggest projects. However, no definition offered has achieved to account for all objects we consider art. In this paper, I argue that normative dualism, an unjustifiable Western prejudice for the mental, plays a big part in this failure. The division between fine art and utilitarian and “low” art has been perpetuated because the former is associated with the mental processes involved in its appreciation and, thus, considered more valuable. Theories of art also tend to exclude production (a physical process), concentrating mostly on the appreciation of art (a mental process). Ridding theory of the bias of normative dualism, by abolishing the division that sets fine art apart as more valuable and writing theory that takes art production into consideration, is the only way art theory will succeed in accurately describing art objects.

Researchers have failed to specify when crime and counter-normative actions, as opposed to other responses may occur as a consequence of relative deprivation. To clarify this issue, a mediational model was developed that specified the causal processes leading from the recognition of deprivation to crime and counter-normative actions. This model hypothesizes that the recognition of deprivation (cognitive relative deprivation) leads to feelings associated with this recognition (affective relative deprivation) which in turn leads to crime and counter-normative actions. This model applies to both personal and group deprivation. In both cases, the feelings associated with deprivation include anger, resentment, dissatisfaction, and discontent. Data from a sample of 950 males between the ages of 16 to 30 supported the mediational model. Moderator variables were hypothesized to influence the causal processes in the mediational model, and were thus employed to specify the conditions under which the recognition of deprivation became more likely to lead to intense emotional reactions, and the conditions under which these emotional reactions became more likely to lead to crime and counter-normative actions. Personal deprivation was found to lead to stronger emotional responses if persons were pessimistic about their deprivation being relieved in the future, while at the group level, higher levels of optimism were related to stronger emotional responses. Both types of deprivation also lead to stronger emotional responses when persons believe that financial success and wealth are important. The emotive responses for both personal and group deprivation, in turn, were more likely to lead to crime and counter-normative actions if deprived persons had criminal peers. It was also found that the recognition of personal deprivation was more likely to lead to depression and lower self-esteem if people blamed themselves for their deprivation than if they did not. Persons who were not optimistic that their deprivation would be relieved in the future were more depressed than persons who were optimistic. Persons whose in-group was deprived were more likely to have lower self-esteem if they blamed the in-group for its deprivation than if they did not.

This study explores the extent and depth of moral obligations in international relations, and how our collective understanding of these obligations has changed in the post-Cold War era. The genocides in Rwanda (1994) and Srebrenica (1995) raised questions about the moral legitimacy of states ravaged by human rights violations, and about the responsibility of outside states to protect innocent civilians from being massacred across political and cultural boundaries. In this context, the concept of humanitarian intervention as an expression of international moral responsibility emerged as one of the most controversial foreign policy issues of our time. The formal and unanimous adoption of the doctrine known as the Responsibility to Protect (ICISS, 2001) by the United Nations General Assembly (2005), and the subsequent ratification by the U.N. Security Council, reiterated our collective responsibility when faced with situations of grave human rights violations. Nevertheless, the international community repeatedly fails to respond adequately to atrocities. By comparing the nature of, and moral justifications for, the U.S. response to the atrocities in Rwanda (1994), Darfur (2003-2007), and Libya (2011), this study reveals that, despite inconsistencies in policy, the solidarist values reflected in Responsibility to Protect are evolving along Finnemore and Sikkink’s (1998) “norm life cycle.” Yet, it also cautions against the reliance on the “humanitarian impulses” of world leaders in internalizing this expanded notion of moral responsibility in international relations. Beyond the transitory nature of political will, this dependence fails to address the underlying assumptions generating inconsistencies in international moral decision-making. This study suggests that in order to ameliorate the problem of inconsistent responses to situations of mass atrocities, deeper issues related to realist assumptions upon which the international system is based may be involved, demanding attention and reassessment.

This thesis investigates the continued hostilities and increasing backlash against the American Muslim community in the United States from a critical perspective that centralizes the racialization of Muslims and Muslim looking-people. The increasing anti-Muslim backlash against American Muslims warrants the need for a critical examination and analysis of the roots of this backlash and why, almost 11 years after September 11th, 2001, conditions for Muslims and Muslim looking-people are worsening. The term Islamophobia has been conceptualized and defined differently by various scholars, contributing to an analytical dilemma of how Muslims rationalize and resist anti-Muslim backlash. Therefore, the concept of racialization provides a fuller perspective and understanding as to why Muslim and non-Muslim Arabs, South Asians, and African Americans have been subjected to rising suspicion, surveillance, imprisonment, and violence in a post 9/11/2001 era. This thesis posits the notion of the white Christian Normative, an inherent Christian bias embedded deep within the racialized social system of the United States. This Christian Normative has its roots in the colonial confrontation between European colonizers and Indigenous populations in what is now considered the United States and has maintained its significance in impacting the life chances of non-white non-Christian minorities ever since. This thesis argues that it is the Christian normative that drives and sustains the anti-Muslim backlash in the United States. The anti-Muslim backlash that is growing stronger in the United States is also theoretically conceptualized within this thesis. This thesis utilizes qualitative data collected from 23 in-depth interviews with Arab and South Asian American Muslim college students between the ages of 18 to 35 years from the Midwest as its empirical basis.