This thesis investigates the role of organisational self-understanding in strategyprocesses. The concept of organisational self-understanding denotes members’understanding of their organisation’s identity. The study illustrates that strategyprocesses in companies are processes of self-understanding. During strategy making,strategic actors engage in the interpretation of their organisation’s identity.This self-understanding provides guidance for strategic action while it at thesame time implies understanding strategic action from the past.Organisational self-understanding is concerned with the maintenance of institutionalintegrity. In order to achieve this, those aspects of self-understandingthat have become particularly institutionalised need to develop in a continuousmanner. Previous literature on strategy and organisational identity has put toomuch emphasis on the stability/change dichotomy. The present study shows thatit is possible to maintain continuity even in times of change. Such continuity canbe established by avoiding strategic action that is perceived as disruptive withregard to self-understanding and by providing interpretations of the past thatmake developments over time appear as free from ruptures. Self-undertsandingis hence an inherently historical phenomenon.Empirically, this study is based on in-depth case studies of strategy processesin two large Swedish companies, namely the truck manufacturer Scania and thebank Handelsbanken. In each of the companies, three strategic themes in whichorganisational self-understanding has become particularly salient are studied. / <p><b>Sponsorship</b>:</p><p>Marknadstekniskt Centrum (MTC)</p>

The purpose of this paper is to advance research on CSR beyond the stalemate of economic versus ethical models by providing an alternative perspective integrating existing views and allowing for more shared dialog and research in the field. It is suggested that we move beyond making a normative case for ethical models and practices of CSR by moving beyond the question of how to manage organizational self-interest toward the question of how accurate current conceptions of the organizational self seem to be. Specifically, it is proposed that CSR is not a question of how self-interested the corporation should be, but how this self is defined. Economic and ethical models of CSR are not models of opposition but exist on a continuum between egoic and post-egoic, illusory and authentic conceptions of the organizational self. This means that moving from one to the other is not a question of adopting different paradigms but rather of moving from illusion and dysfunction to authenticity and functionality, from pathology to health.

This research examined if differences in social categories between two groups, natural—born U.S. citizens and undocumented immigrants with deferred action (DACA) led to differences in self-perceptions at work in areas such as Occupational Self-Efficacy (OSE), Organization Based Self-Esteem (OBSE), and Perceived Employability (PE). Additionally, the effect of Perceived Supervisor Similarity (PSS) on these relationships was also observed. Results showed significant differences only in PE with the DACA group having an unexpectedly higher level than the citizen group. The model was supported as OSE, OBSE, and PSS all significantly predicted PSS in both groups. Lastly, interaction effects were only found in the citizen group with PSS moderating the relationship between OSE and OBSE predicting PE. Specifically, PSS affected levels of PE at high levels of OSE and at low levels of OBSE. Lastly, I explored how temporal self-appraisals may have lead the DACA group to be less of an out-group along with additional implications to this field of research with this population.

Healthy work environments are critical in fostering occupational self-care for helping professionals, but information on the self-care and the work environment is limited among community college counselors in California. Self-care is essential for the counseling profession in California community colleges (CCC), as it promotes wellness, which is needed in order to provide optimal services to students/clients. The lack of self-care results in counselor impairment, leading to undesirable factors (i.e., burnout, health conditions, and decrease in productivity). In educational institutions, counselors often find it difficult to maintain their own self-care. However, work environments have been shown to affect self-care at work (professional self-care). Past studies have suggested that the work environment can help counselors increase their ability to practice self-care. In this quantitative statewide study on 324 CCC counselors, it was found that the work environment was related to and predicted CCC counselors' professional self-care, even when considering demographic variables. Additional findings from this research study indicated that CCC counselors’ workload had the highest relation with counselors’ daily balance. Differences in groups (e.g., demographic/contextual factors) are found among CCC counselors' work environment and professional self-care, with the greatest group difference on CCC counselors’ status (e.g., tenured, adjunct). Results also suggest that CCC counselors who worked overload (if full-time) strengthened the relationship between their professional development and a sense of community in the workplace. However, overload hours worked per week showed a negative association with their sense of community. These results may be useful to community college counselors and administrators for organizational planning, policy, and advocacy of self-care-promoting work environments for CCC counselors. A limitation of the study was that the majority of participants were female, White, and tenured faculty, which may not represent those outside of this population.