Workplace incidents result in significant human and financial costs. Despite these costs, it is estimated that less than 1% of organisational research focuses on issues concerning occupational health and safety (Barling & Zacharatos, 2000; Reason, 1990). Safety research has begun however to focus increasing attention on understanding the role that the wider organisational context, and in particular the role that safety climate, plays in influencing safety (Barling, Kelloway, & Iverson, 2003; Clarke, 2006a; Cox & Cheyne, 2000; Parker, Axtell, & Turner, 2001; Zohar, 2000). Safety climate refers to safety related policies, procedures and practices that signal the concern for safety (Griffin & Neal, 2000). The aim of the current program of research was to further understanding of the structure, antecedents and cross-level effects of safety climate. Specifically, this research aimed to better understand how organisational factors, and more specifically culture, influence safety climate and safety incidents. This knowledge is important as it assists organisations to purposively engineer stronger climates for safety and in doing so assists them to reduce the number of workplace incidents and accidents. The current program of research consists of three field-based studies. An overview of each study is provided below: Overview Study 1 Study 1 aimed to identify the safety climate schema for a sample of individuals working within the rail industry and explore whether safety climate schemas differ across individuals with and without leadership responsibilities. A proportional number of upper managers (n = 6), supervisors (n = 7) and workers (n = 12) were purposively sampled and interviewed. Interview data was analysed using Leximancer – an advanced computer assisted data mining tool. Results identified 10 emergent themes underlying a safety climate schema – many of these themes aligned closely with common safety climate factors in the academic literature. Results also showed differences between the safety factors that were dominant in the safety climate schemas of upper managers, supervisors and workers: upper managers were more closely associated with themes relating to ‘culture,’ and ‘people’; supervisors were more closely associated with themes relating to ‘corporate values,’ ‘management practices,’ and ‘safety communication’; whereas workers were more closely associated with themes relating to ‘procedures,’ and ‘safety training’. Results are discussed in relation to safety climate theory and in relation to how managers can use this knowledge to better communicate to the specific safety needs of different sub-groups. Overview Study 2 Study 2 aimed to better understand how perceived cultural profiles are related to safety. The Competing Values Framework adopted in this study proposes that four cultural types exist in unison in any organisation. Depending on the demands that are placed on the organisation, each type will be more or less dominant and each organisation will have a specific ‘cultural profile’ reflecting the strengths of each type. A cross-section of individuals (N = 368) working in high risk industries were sampled to identify the relationship between perceived cultural profiles and (1) psychological safety climate and (2) individual safety incidents. Modal Profile Analysis (MPA) identified four commonly perceived cultural profiles across the sample. A one-way MANOVA indicated that individuals who perceived their organisation had a strong human relations profile, or a dual focused human relations-rational goal profile, reported higher safety climate perceptions and fewer safety incidents. Comparably, individuals who perceived their organisation had a strong internal process profile, or a dual focused internal process-rational goal profile, reported lower safety climate perceptions and more safety incidents. These findings are discussed in terms of their theoretical contribution to the safety climate literature, and in relation to the practical importance that culture plays in influencing safety. Overview Study 3 Study 3 aimed to better understand how the culture of an organisation influences safety, and to explore the levels of analysis that are involved in this relationship. Specifically, this study examined the role that an internal process culture played in influencing safety climate; and in turn the mediating role that two sources of safety climate – business-unit safety climate and perceived supervisory safety climate – played in explaining the relationship between culture and individual-level outcomes (incidents, satisfaction and turnover intentions). Results showed that business-unit culture was related to business-unit safety climate; and that business-unit safety climate and perceived supervisory safety climate mediated the relationship between business-unit culture and incidents, satisfaction and turnover intentions. This research adds to the safety climate literature by providing evidence for the multi-level nature of the relationship between culture, safety climate and outcomes.

<p>In today’s competitive environment, companies compete for the same customers. Therefore, it is important to be able to satisfy the ever changing needs of customers. Companies can satisfy customer demand by learning about the customer and by alternating offerings in accordance to changing needs. These are actions undertaken by market driven companies. Alternatively, market driving companies satisfy customer demand by being creative and by focusing on customers’ future needs, an action which implies educating customers. However, there are also companies which pursue both of these strategies simultaneously. The purpose of this dissertation is to examine how companies implement a dual-market strategy, and how the strategy is incorporated into the business. Based on literature on closely related research fields, a framework is developed. This framework suggests that certain components influence a dual-market strategy. A study is conducted on the luxury fashion company Burberry. Through semi-structured interviews with employees at Burberry, this study investigates how the company’s use of a dual-market strategy affects the organisational culture and vision. The results indicate that the phenomenon of duality is noticeable in the company’s culture and vision. Due to the lack of research on a dual-market strategy, this study attempts to provide a deeper understanding of the phenomenon of duality. Companies can use the conclusions drawn from this study, as guidelines for how to pursue a dual-market strategy. However, more research is necessary before any generalisations can be made.</p>

<p>When a leader changes to a new post in another kind of organisational culture, what happens then? Could a leader use the same kind of leadership when leading different kinds of groups? Different cultures have different needs and ways to handle things and in the end it all comes to situational leadership. Both leaders and theorists claim that the leader must adjust to what the organisation and its members needs. This paper contains an inquiry of how officers have handled their new assignments as leaders in the civilian world of the municipality. The research shows that a former military leader must also be able to lead another kind of group if they change to a civilian career. A heterogeneous group demands more of the leader. It is necessary that the leader has the ability to use situational leadership, as a military approach often is not welcome in other parts of the community. The leaders must therefore adjust to the organisational culture in the environment where they work. The conclusion of the inquiry is that the officers have been well educated and have an ability to use situational leadership successful also in a civilian working environment.</p> / <p>Då Försvarsmakten avvecklat många av sina förband, så har därmed de officerare som velat kvarstanna på hemorten fått söka sig till den civila arbetsmarknaden. Av de officerare som stannade på Gotland efter nedläggningen av de gotländska förbanden var det många som blev chefer i civila organisationer. Undersökningen för denna uppsats har fokuserats kring några av dessa chefer, som nu arbetar inom Gotlandskommun, och deras ledarskap. Organisationskulturen påverkar ledarskapet och en ledare som kommer till en nymiljö måste anpassa sig till den nya kulturen och till hur medlemmarna hanterar saker i denna. Uppsatsen undersöker hur före detta officerare använder sig av sitt ledarskap från den militära miljön när de blir chefer inom den offentliga sektorn och tvåfrågor ställs: Hur organisationen och dess kultur påverkar den nya ledaren och hans ledarskap respektive hur ledarna uppfattar den nya organisationens förväntningar på dem. Syftet med undersökningen är att synliggöra för- och nackdelar den militära bakgrunden har vad gäller att leda en mer heterogen grupp samt att ge en bild av hur ledarens egen uppfattning om hur detta ledarskap tas emot av den civila organisationen. Uppsatsen är en kvalitativ fallstudie som baserats på intervjuer med sex personer där analysens fokus har lagts på ledaren och organisationskultur. Analysen har gjorts genom kodning av intervjumaterialet där generella åsikter tagits fram. De teoretiska referensramarna pekar på att det är skillnader på olika organisationer och deras kulturer. Även de intervjuade cheferna anser att de märker stor skillnad mellan de olika organisationstyperna och deras kulturer. Centrala lärdomar som återkommer i uppsatsen är att ledaren måste anpassa sig till den nya kulturen samt att ledaren måste klara av att behärska ett situationsanpassat ledarskap. Resultatet är tänkt att kunna vara en vägledning för personer som exempelvis kommer att byta arbetsmiljö till nya organisationskulturer eller som är chefer och kommer att få in nya personer från annorlunda organisationskulturer till sin egen organisation.</p>

Background: Acquisitions are a well-known method for increasing company size and strength on the market. But to reach the targets set, more than just a positive economic calculation is required. An atmosphere that supports the company's integration is needed, for which it is of great importance for management to understand the underlying sets of values that exist in the organisation, and to take into consideration the way they might become an obstacle or a tool for a successful integration. Purpose: The purpose of this thesis is to explain and understand how cultural change occurs and how it affects the employee, as a smaller company is bought and integrated into a larger organisation. Procedure: The analysis is based on theories on organisational culture and organisational change. Data was collected through personal interviews with five employees at Sydkraft Service Partners (SSP), but also the authors'own observations and Sydkraft's internal press material, have contributed to the knowledge of the case company. Conclusions: The culture in SPP is structured after a model based on levels of consciousness, where the visual aspects on culture (the artefacts) are considered to reflect the underlying sets of values and fundamental notions that the culture consists of. These are partly influenced by the artefacts, but can also be of a threat to the culture change process. To accomplish a successful integration, good leadership that can communicate the new set of values is required.

In today’s competitive environment, companies compete for the same customers. Therefore, it is important to be able to satisfy the ever changing needs of customers. Companies can satisfy customer demand by learning about the customer and by alternating offerings in accordance to changing needs. These are actions undertaken by market driven companies. Alternatively, market driving companies satisfy customer demand by being creative and by focusing on customers’ future needs, an action which implies educating customers. However, there are also companies which pursue both of these strategies simultaneously. The purpose of this dissertation is to examine how companies implement a dual-market strategy, and how the strategy is incorporated into the business. Based on literature on closely related research fields, a framework is developed. This framework suggests that certain components influence a dual-market strategy. A study is conducted on the luxury fashion company Burberry. Through semi-structured interviews with employees at Burberry, this study investigates how the company’s use of a dual-market strategy affects the organisational culture and vision. The results indicate that the phenomenon of duality is noticeable in the company’s culture and vision. Due to the lack of research on a dual-market strategy, this study attempts to provide a deeper understanding of the phenomenon of duality. Companies can use the conclusions drawn from this study, as guidelines for how to pursue a dual-market strategy. However, more research is necessary before any generalisations can be made.

Outsourcing has been around for over twenty years and is still growing, while outsourcing of recruitment is a relatively new phenomenon. Organisations outsource primarily because of the cost benefit and time saving, since there are also several reasons to outsource, there are also several types of outsourcing. Business process outsourcing is when an organisation outsources a whole business process such as Human Resources, which Recruitment Process Outsourcing is a part of. Recruitment Process Outsourcing is a process used to increase organisation‟s efficiency through managerial time saving, moving the recruitment process to external recruiting agencies providing trust and the proper competitive expertise needed. The purpose of this study is to see how organisational culture is affected by Recruitment Process Outsourcing. This study examined how RPO affects organisational culture, more precisely three factors were examined, motivation, performance orientation and effective orientation. Five international banks in Sweden were investigated and the results showed that motivation was not affected at all by RPO, effective orientation was affected by the most of the companies studied and the performance orientation was affected by circum one third of the companies by RPO. Human Resource study field has a lack of research in RPO and this study is a contribution to that field, regarding the outsourcing of recruitment in the Swedish bank industry.

Increasing competitions in the markets, companies are tending to acquire different potential competitive advantages. Cost-effective ways of doing business have been deeply underpinned in every leader’s minds. However, the problem is how to obtain the most cost-effective way to operate business apart from cutting costs or other strategies which only focus on short-term measures. Nowadays, employees’ creativity are claimed to be highly valuable for the organisation to become successful and sustainable. Since, we are interested in what kind of organisational structure, culture and working environment would have positive influence on employees’ creativity at work, how those working qualities are able for employees to increase their capability on creativity; and also the constraints of those working environment on employees’ creativity will also be discussed. To have a better understanding of our research area, a single case study is introduced as a tool helping us to get to know more about the real life and in a practical perspective. Since, a Swedish company has been chosen as our case study here. In order to reach the purpose of our study, our research questions focused on what factors in the organisation and what characteristics of leadership styles can beneficial to employees’ creativity, and the constraints of the organisation for the employees’ creativity. Based on our frame of reference and our research questions, we investigated the relevant literatures for our better understanding of the research area. It is also used as a guide for us to collecting data. We used qualitative single case study as our approach to acquire data and interviews were conducted with the IKEA managers. A qualitative inquiry method is used, entailing in-depth interviews with four employees of IKEA with different types of positions and departments. The results show that their impression and experience of the company vary in some aspects, as different positions might perceive differently.

<p>Background: Acquisitions are a well-known method for increasing company size and strength on the market. But to reach the targets set, more than just a positive economic calculation is required. An atmosphere that supports the company's integration is needed, for which it is of great importance for management to understand the underlying sets of values that exist in the organisation, and to take into consideration the way they might become an obstacle or a tool for a successful integration. </p><p>Purpose: The purpose of this thesis is to explain and understand how cultural change occurs and how it affects the employee, as a smaller company is bought and integrated into a larger organisation. </p><p>Procedure: The analysis is based on theories on organisational culture and organisational change. Data was collected through personal interviews with five employees at Sydkraft Service Partners (SSP), but also the authors'own observations and Sydkraft's internal press material, have contributed to the knowledge of the case company. </p><p>Conclusions: The culture in SPP is structured after a model based on levels of consciousness, where the visual aspects on culture (the artefacts) are considered to reflect the underlying sets of values and fundamental notions that the culture consists of. These are partly influenced by the artefacts, but can also be of a threat to the culture change process. To accomplish a successful integration, good leadership that can communicate the new set of values is required.</p>

In this study, we focus primarily on the importance of organisation and UX-maturity for applying user experience (UX). What does this mean for designers when maturity is low or high? The study shows that the user is an expert based on his/her personal experience of a product, allowing the user to select and influence solutions that best meet his/her needs. UX maturity is a highlighted concept in this UX study. If UX maturity of an organisation is low then UX is likely only applied by few or no one within the design team. If the maturity on the other hand is high, the organisation and its design team work with an UX-approach. The approach therefore becomes a part of the organisational culture and through this shows how the business benefits of UX. This then creates a win-win situation for the user, designer and organisation. If however everybody practices UX, what will then happen to the UX-role? Is it however reasonable that only one person should be responsible for UX? We gathered 12 experts from companies in Gothenburg and talked about how it has been, present challenges and together we speculated about the future UX role. We also discussed the significance organisations maturity has for those who work with UX. The results show that knowledge of UX should be disseminated at all levels and that at a high maturity UX strategy becomes part of the overall plan. When the maturity is high practitioners of UX get the opportunity to narrow and broaden their skills. Is maturation however low more responsibility may be placed upon the individual designer. The designer may not have the same opportunity to become an expert in their field and are instead forced to have a wider and not as deep expertise. / Detta arbete fokuserar främst på organisationens och den upplevda UX-mognadens betydelse för den som tillämpar user experience (UX). Vad innebär det för designers när mognaden är låg respektive hög? Man menar att användaren är expert, detta baserat på sin upplevelse av produkten. Idag kan användare själv välja vilka lösningar som bäst motsvarar önskade behov. I denna studie om UX lyfts begreppet UX-mognad. Om UX-mognaden i en organisation är låg betyder det att eventuellt ingen eller få i designteamet tänker användarcentrerad design. Är mognaden däremot hög innebär det att organisation och designteam gemensamt jobbar med UX som förhållningssätt. Det skapar en win-win-situation för både användare, designer och organisation. Men om alla nu å andra sidan använder termen och jobbar UX, vad kommer då att hända med rollen UX? Är det rimligt att enbart en person skall ansvara för UX? Vi samlade 12 experter från företag i Göteborg och samtalade om vilka utmaningar som funnits, vilka som finns idag och tillsammans talade vi om UX-rollen. Vi diskuterade även om den betydelse som en organisations mognad har för de som arbetar med UX. Resultatet visar att kunskap om UX bör spridas i alla led och att med hög mognad blir UX-strategi en del av den övergripande planen. Utövare av UX får här tillfälle att ge sin kompetens en spets och ett djup. Är mognaden däremot låg kan det ligga mer ansvar på den enskilde designern, designern får heller inte samma möjlighet att bli expert på sitt område, utan tvingas ha en bredare och inte lika djup kompetens.

In the current fast-moving, global and complex business world, implementing organisational change has become one of the major leadership issues. Indeed, competitive organisations are turning out to be the ones that are flexible, able to adapt rapidly and continuously; strong leaders are turning out to be the ones who are transformational and who are able to implement change successfully. However, as the business world is becoming more complex, organisations are following the same path and are developing increasingly complicated structures. Risk of failure in implementing change in such complex organisations is consequently high and leaders must lead strategic moves with dexterity. They must understand their role, the required skills as well as the importance of the people while starting to implement change. They must understand where to exert their influence and they should therefore be able to determine what are the key success factors to be taken into consideration in the implementation process.