<p>Kreativitet har blivit allt viktigare inom dagens organisationer och forskningen har börjat intressera sig för hur kreativiteten påverkas av nominala eller riktiga grupper, samt hur dessa grupper är sammansatta. Syftet med undersökningen var att se hur kreativiteten i arbetsteam påverkas av mängden yrkesgrupper som ingår, samt att se hur externa faktorer som ledarskap och organisationskultur påverkar. I denna studie intervjuades 14 anställda inom olika branscher om deras syn på kreativitet och det visade sig finnas skillnader mellan grupperna. Arbete i grupp kan ge kreativiteten en annan kvalité och heterogenitet förknippades med mer dynamik och kreativa strategier. Samtliga respondenter i den heterogena gruppen var överens om att arbete i en blandad grupp var en styrka för kreativiteten.</p>

Humor is usually associated with trivial or non-serious banter; it is however a significant factor in the construction of organizational culture. This work provides an experience based organizational account of how organizations are produced and reproduced, as well as how organizational interaction is coupled with structure. This dissertation is based on two ethnographic studies: the first, a year-long study of a hotel kitchen, and the second, a three-year study of a private boarding school. This long term examination of an organization??s interaction is used to illustrate how organizational interaction produces the duality of organizational structuration overtime. An ethnographic communication-focused approach provides methods for recognizing multiple sites and levels of the Structuration process. As a result, this approach provides a major contribution to understanding the process of Structuration through agents?? actions in the context of their organizational culture.

Kreativitet har blivit allt viktigare inom dagens organisationer och forskningen har börjat intressera sig för hur kreativiteten påverkas av nominala eller riktiga grupper, samt hur dessa grupper är sammansatta. Syftet med undersökningen var att se hur kreativiteten i arbetsteam påverkas av mängden yrkesgrupper som ingår, samt att se hur externa faktorer som ledarskap och organisationskultur påverkar. I denna studie intervjuades 14 anställda inom olika branscher om deras syn på kreativitet och det visade sig finnas skillnader mellan grupperna. Arbete i grupp kan ge kreativiteten en annan kvalité och heterogenitet förknippades med mer dynamik och kreativa strategier. Samtliga respondenter i den heterogena gruppen var överens om att arbete i en blandad grupp var en styrka för kreativiteten.

For this qualitative research a single case study was conducted of a faith-based non-profit organization, Health Education and Literacy Providers (H.E.L.P.), which operates simultaneously in the United States and Nigeria. The purpose of this study was to explore the cross-cultural leadership phenomena occurring within H.E.L.P. and to provide evaluation services and research data to the American members of H.E.L.P. Participants included a sample of the American board members, Nigerian board members, and Nigerian employees. Three data collection methods were used to achieve triangulation including participant observations, interviews, and analysis of documents. The first research objective was to investigate the cross-cultural leadership context by analyzing the organizational culture of H.E.L.P. in Nigeria. Results revealed H.E.L.P. was designed by American board members to operate as a bureaucratic culture with an emphasis on a business-like structure, centralized authority, compartmentalization, and efficiency. The Nigerian board members and employees, however, expressed a desire for a supportive culture that focused on love and harmony uncovering a discrepancy between American and Nigerian preferences in organizational culture typology. The results from the Global Leadership and Organizational Behavior Effectiveness (GLOBE) study were referenced to provide a cultural explanation for variations in organizational culture preferences. According to GLOBE study findings, the United States ranked higher on performance orientation meaning Americans are more likely to value results above people, ambition, and competitiveness, and explains the American?s desire for a bureaucratic organizational culture. Nigeria ranked behind the United States as a lower performance oriented society meaning individuals place high value on relationships and harmony, explaining their desire for a supportive culture. The second and third research objectives were to determine how H.E.L.P.'s Nigerian members perceive effective leadership within their culture, and determine how the Nigerians? definition of effective leadership supports or refutes the literature on prevalent Westernized leadership theories. Results indicated the overarching leadership theme perceived to be effective by the Nigerian members of H.E.L.P. was love. Several aspects of a loving leader were evident in the data and divided into five categories each with one subcategory. These findings supported both Transformational and Authentic leadership theories.

Much recent discussion has highlighted the challenges posed by what have variously been called “disruptive”, “discontinuous”, “breakthrough” and “radical” innovations. Although the labelling may vary, the underlying themes appear to be consistent. In particular it is clear that under conditions in which the dominant “rules of the game” change as a result of emergent or shifting markets, major movements at the technological frontier, dislocations in the regulatory environment etc, even organizations with well-developed innovation capabilities get into difficulties. This is less a matter of particular technological, market or political stimuli than of the limitations of the repertoire of organizational responses available to the firm. This resurfaces a long-running concern with managing innovation in two different modes, namely “exploitation” and “exploration”. This thesis reports the results of exploratory research into specific aspects of the organizational culture within the Research and Development (R&D) setting of a small mature UK based company, Cerulean. In doing so it also identifies and discusses key management interventions for developing an innovation culture that facilitates radical product innovation. Cerulean designs and manufactures quality control instrumentation and has in the past been very successful with radically new products. In recent years this propensity for “radicalness” has declined and the company now wishes to regain this capability. A grounded research methodology and a participative action research approach was utilised to surface issues that clearly illustrated both the presence and intensity of aspects of organisation culture that enabled and inhibited radical product innovation. Participative analysis of the data identified nine emerging themes and key constructs of an innovation culture that was found to influence “radicalness” in new product development ventures. The interrelationships between the themes were discussed in the context of current theoretical perspectives in the field of innovation management. This led to the development of a conceptual model that incorporates two “ideal” archetypal forms of innovation culture. A composite instrument was developed based on existing evaluation tools and used to assess the innovation culture. First use of the instrument indicated areas of opportunity in developing a radical innovation culture. Further participative analysis of the emergent themes and the assessment and evaluations of the extant innovation culture, resulted in a series of management interventions to stimulate the development of a culture to facilitate radical product innovation. The design of the interventions was also informed by the literature and other organizations, part of a national Discontinuous Innovation Forum (DIF) undergoing similar ambitions. The proposed interventions comprise a series of linked management actions in the form of a plan to shift the innovation culture of the company closer to a desired radical innovation culture.

The significance of local and international non-governmental organizations in society has beenincreasing quite rapidly. Nevertheless, the research concerning international NGOs internalactivities has not evolved in phase with the growing roles of NGOs’. The internal communicationand organizational culture have significant role on how NGOs works externally. The aim of thisstudy is to gain knowledge on WWF’s (World Wide Fund for Nature) internal communication andorganizational culture. This is achieved by researching the communicational processes aroundWWF’s global “Engaging hundreds of millions” -objective and reflecting the findings on theapproaches and theories among organizational culture and sensemaking. WWF is one of the world’slargest environmental international NGO with over 5,000 employees worldwide. The study bases onthe experiences of WWF’s managing communicators, and it reveals that a majority of them feel thatthe internal communication in the Network does not work as effectively as they hope. According tothe results, many people feel that the internal communication and participation to differentprocesses is unsatisfactory mainly because clear practices and opportunities to participate arelacking. However, the study also reveals that there is a substantial enthusiasm and will to improvethe practices together within the WWF Network.

Ledaren har en avsevärd påverkan på medarbetarens prestationsförmåga ocharbetstillfredsställelse. Stöd är en kommunikationsaspekt som främjardelaktighet, tillfredställelse och prestationsutveckling för individen, menbidrar också till företagets lönsamhet. Första delstudien undersökersambandet mellan ledares kommunikationsförmåga och medarbetarnasprestationsförmåga. Data insamlad i interkulturellt, industriellt företag i sexländer, tre världsdelar (N=2568). Resultatet visar ett signifikant sambandmellan ledarens kommunikationsförmåga och medarbetares prestationsförmåga.Ifrågasätta predicerar medarbetarnas prestation i störstutsträckning i fem av sex länder. Att bli konstruktivt ifrågasatt av sin ledarebidrar till individuell prestationsutveckling. Delstudie två undersöker vilkenav ledarens kommunikationsaspekter som bäst predicerar medarbetarestillfredställelse med ledaren. Data insamlad i utbildningsväsendet ikommun, norra Sverige (N=119). Mätinstrumentet inkluderade LMX-7,samt items om frekvens och kvalitet. Resultat visar att Stöd predicerar engod utbytesrelation. Medarbetaren måste känna stöd från ledaren för attuppleva en god relation/kommunikation. Den viktigaste aspekten avkommunikationen är att stötta och ifrågasätta medarbetaren.

As companies of the 21th century are getting more and more globalized it is important for companies to stay ahead of their known and unknown competitors. Knowledge is a key factor for many companies. Knowledge cannot always be transmitted effectively between employees in companies. Large sized enterprises have adopted various information and communication technologies (ICT) in order to transmit knowledge fast and efficiently. Small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) have according to previous research, not been able to apply ICT to their business as well as large sized firms The purpose of this dissertation is to explore the gap, which exists between the usage of ICT and knowledge sharing in Swedish SMEs. In this dissertation, a deductive approach will be used as the theories are existent but are lacking empirical data. The research was performed through qualitative studies, and the method that was used was case studies. The case studies were performed in four companies, which belong to the production/service industry, all the companies fall into the category of SME. A model was constructed from existing theories made by Hendriks (2001) this model was analyzed and tested thoroughly. In the analysis of this dissertation, the model was developed as new factors were discovered to have an influence on what is affecting managerial perception of ICT and how it is being used for knowledge sharing. Our findings suggest that ICT use is affected by an influence, which exists in an external layer. This influence consists of legal requirements. Legal requirements seem to have a large impact on how ICT is being used in some companies, which are operating in a knowledge-based industry.

Ett företags organisationskultur består av ett gemensamt värdesystem som har en meningsskapande funktion för de anställda i företaget som identifierar sig med organisationen. I en företagsfusion, där två eller flera företag går samman, har det visat sig vara svårt att förena olika organisationskulturer på grund av motstånd från de anställda. Tidigare forskning kring detta har till stor del fokuserat på de anställdas agerande i en fusion. Syftet med denna studie var att undersöka hur anställdas meningsskapande i en fusion påverkades av deras identifikation med organisationen. Med en kvalitativ intervjustudie undersöktes hur anställda i fyra företag hade upplevt en fusion av företagen. Resultatet visade att även om förändringsprocessen hade upplevts negativt av samtliga deltagare varierade upplevelsen av det nya företaget och dess kultur utifrån deltagarnas tidigare bolagstillhörighet. Analysen visade att identifikationen med de tidigare organisationskulturerna påverkade de anställdas menings-skapande i situationen och därmed skapandet av en ny gemensam organisationskultur.

Organizational trust is an important antecedent and the intermediary variables of employee behavior. From the organizational behavior point of view, in the rapidly changing and uncertain environment, organizations need the employees to redouble efforts, and staffs expect the organizations also to provide more care and trust. Therefore, the good relationship between employees and organizations is very important, and Organizations Trust is the core of this relationship. In this study, quantitative research was adopted with the part-time MBA students of Sun Yat-Sen University as target group, who sent out questionnaires in the form of hard copy or electronic file to their friends or colleagues. The research target was limited to Taiwan citizens and employees working in Taiwan companies. A total of 400 questionnaires were distributed, 150 of which aimed to solicit subordinates¡¦ view on their direct supervisors, 150 associates¡¦ view on their peers, and 100 superiors¡¦ view on their subordinates. The feedback of questionnaires totaled 247, with 102, 91 and 54 from subordinates, associates and superiors respectively. The collected data was analyzed and validated by using descriptive statistics, reliability analysis, validity analysis, and structural equation modeling. The conclusions are summarized below: (1) A high degree of confidence lays the foundation of most Taiwan enterprises, exhibiting various features of organizational structure of trust as defined by Guoduohaochu. A few of them are compliance with commitment, integrity and avoiding deliberations, all of which exist in the target confidence measurements among superiors, peers and subordinates. (2) The corporate trust structure also includes three types of trust intentions, i.e. affective state, cognitive, and intent to behave. These factors prove to be highly related. (3) This study found that executives, colleagues and subordinates hold different views on interpretation of the organizational confidence measurement. The views between superiors and associates, superiors and subordinates, and associates and subordinates differ. The results indicate that Taiwan enterprises, like their counterparts in North America and Italy, display similar defined organizational trust measure dimensions of compliance with commitments, negotiating honestly, and avoiding taking excessive advantage. Likewise, the three types of trust intentions, i.e. affective state, cognitive, and intent to behave, are included in the corporate trust structure, with these factors co-existing in a positive correlative manner in the target confidence measurements among groups of superiors, peers and subordinates. However, views on interpretation of the organizational confidence measurement differ a lot. This study demonstrates that Chinese culture differs from Latino or European culture in their upper and lower relationship, where supervisors always play a role similar to Jun Fu, while subordinates play the role of courtiers. Different specifications of the role lead to different expectations on the role. Similarly, the difference in power causes the shift of focus of concern, which subsequently forms two different trust relationships. In brief, this argument also applies to the business organizations trust assessment in Taiwan.