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Organizations are today working actively with diversity management in alignment with the regulations from Riksdagen to reduce discrimination against employees based on their "Gender, transgender identity or expression, ethnicity, disability, sexual orientation and age". Previously most focus has been put on the surface-level attributes of diversity such as age, gender and ethnicity but more emphasis and concern should be put on the deeper-level diversities such as personality. Scholars have stressed the importance of conducting qualitative studies that examine the deeper-level diversities in relation to diversity management. Moreover, there is an explicit need for investigating the effect that such a linkage between personality and diversity management can have on employee engagement levels. The purpose of this study is to investigate whether diversity management can be developed by looking at people’s personalities. This is achieved by answering the research question: How could an understanding of diverse personalities improve employee engagement? By examining this question, this study will give insight to whether personality is an aspect companies should consider in their diversity management when trying to understand and enhance employee engagement. By analyzing seven individuals at two international companies, located in Sweden, we were able to investigate a single case deeply and collect their subjective realities. Further, the study has taken a qualitative research approach in which seven semi-structured interviews were held and the empirical data was later derived through the use of a thematic analysis. It has been found with the application of the Five Factor Model (FFM) that the employees' personalities have a connection to their engagement levels. The analysis implied that the employees' personalities rather than surface-level diversities had an impact on their engagement. This makes it in turn reasonable to suggest that companies' diversity management practices can be further developed if looking at their employees' personalities. Ultimately this thesis has derived salient conclusions about the fact that FFM could be used to develop the understanding of diversity and diversity management. In turn this contributes with insight on how workplaces and the well-being of employees can be enhanced.

The rise of social media has emerged the social phenomena called cancel culture, where individuals hold influencers and endorsed brands accountable for perceived immoral actions. Cancel culture originates from a desire for social justice, where the consequences of those cancelled could be temporary and long-lasting reputational damage. The behavior to cancel is individually complex and has many different drivers influencing the performance of behavior.  Despite its significant impact, cancel culture within research is just in its early stage and has received limited research from a qualitative perspective. Previous studies have researched cancel culture through the perspective of consumer power, celebrity transgressions, psychological drivers, and social identity. Moreover, previous research has studied the intended behavior to cancel, not the actual performance to cancel. There still remains a research gap in understanding the personal and social drivers that influence the process to cancel an influencer and endorsed brand. By this, it led us to our research question: “What are the personal and social drivers that could influence the behavior to engage in cancel culture?”. With an aim to provide a deeper understanding of the complex phenomena of cancel culture between consumers, influencers and the endorsed brands. By examining drivers such as norms, beliefs, values and traits our study seeks to shed light on the drivers and how they influence the behavior of cancel culture.  The findings revealed an interesting insight from the consumer perspective. An actual cancellation has a higher chance of occurring if the influencer's action is perceived to cross an moral barrier of a follower. However, our study found that subjectivity increases complexity of the behavior as every individual has their own moral barrier. For example, if the action is perceived to clash with the followers’ personal beliefs and values, cancellation might occur, however another individual might not perceive the action to cross their moral barrier. Moreover, our study found that the desire of social belongingness and social acceptance has a significant role when making a decision to cancel. From our study we have revealed that cancel culture is both an individual and social phenomenon, where the influence of one's own personal drivers is just as influential as the social influence. More specifically, followers' idea of their self- concept is just as influential as the pressure from their social environment. In conclusion, personal and social drivers influence the decision to cancel an influencer and endorsed brands. However, as subjectivity matters, these personal and social drivers influence the process differently for each individual. From a managerial perspective, our findings could contribute to influencer marketing strategies trying to improve their selection process or response strategy if an cancellation would occur.

This study investigates the correlation between Millennial workers' sense of belonging and a company’s Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) initiatives. Bearing in mind the gap in academic research on the introspective impact CSR has on a company’s employees, this study aims to explore how the Millennial workers at one of the biggest banking and insurance companies operating in Bulgaria understand and relate to companies’ philanthropic endeavours. To do so, this paper has used a theoretical framework, which combines four pillars that interact with and amplify one another. Two of them are empirical and present CSR and the Millennials as a generation. The other two are theoretical with social identity theory (SIT), which explains the sense of belonging innate to the Millennials, and corporate citizenship and shareholder value theory, which represent the polar opposites of what CSR should be about. As such, the thesis probes the hypotheses that, on one hand, if a company engages in genuine CSR initiatives, this will lead to an increased sense of belonging from the Millennial employees. However, on the other hand, if the company engages in greenwashing instead, this will lead to a diminished sense of belonging in the target group.  The findings infer that the Millennial workers at the banking and insurance company have strong opinions favouring their company utilizing genuine CSR practices. In addition, the majority of them have shared that if the company started utilizing CSR as means of greenwashing, this would lead to their overall disappointment and a diminished sense of association with the employer. However, the data has also shown that there might be different reasons for why people are joining CSR initiatives. These findings were produced with the help of mixed-method research combining quantitative survey plus qualitative semi-structured individual and focus group interviews.

Syftet med denna studie är att belysa A-traktorförares upplevelser av att ingå i en grupp som är stigmatiserad av samhället – hur de socialt konstruerar och reproducerar sin gruppidentitet i en kontext där de är ifrågasatta i media, liksom av sin omgivande sociala kontext. Social identitetskonstruktion, gruppnormer och sociala normer, och andra etablerade teorier och koncept användes för att tolka våra resultat. En kvalitativ approach antogs genom att använda en semi-strukturerad intervjumetodologi i form av två fokusgruppintervjuer och tre enskilda intervjuer med totalt tio respondenter. Resultatet visade att A-traktorförarna känner en tillhörighet till gruppen genom social utvidgning, frihet och spontanitet, även om den utsträckning i vilken de identifierar sig med gruppen varierar beroende på en rad underliggande orsaker. Vi fann också belägg för att gruppmedlemmarna känner sig utsatta för generalisering och stereotypisering, som ett resultat av bilden av A-traktorförare som ges i media och sociala medier. Denna företeelse visade sig ha ett nära samband med omgivningens reaktioner, vilket skapar en känsla av stämpling och, i viss mån, avvikelse. Fynden i denna studie belyser vikten av social kontext och normativt beteende för att förstå A-traktorförares upplevelser i en stigmatiserad grupp. / The aim of this study is to illuminate the experiences of tractor class A-drivers, being part of a group stigmatized by society - socially constructing and reproducing their group identity in a situation where they are questioned in the media as well as by their surrounding social context. We have applied social identity construction, group- and social norms, and other established relevant theories and concepts to interpret our results. We adopted a qualitative approach, by conducting a semi-structured interview methodology in the form of two focus group interviews and three single interviews, with a total of ten respondents. The result showed that the tractor class A-drivers feel a belonging to the group through social expansion, freedom and spontaneity, though the extent to which they identify with the group varies due to a number of underlying causes. We also found evidence that the group members felt exposed to generalization and stereotyping as a result of how tractor class A-drivers were depicted in news media and social media. This phenomenon showed to be closely linked to the reaction from the environment, creating an experience of labeling and, to some extent, deviance. The findings of this study illuminates the importance of social context and normative behavior to understand the experiences of tractor class A-drivers in a stigmatized group.

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No description available.

Efter att jag har genomfört en litteraturgenomgång fann jag ett forskningsgap som berör chefers yrkesidentitet och deras reflexivitet. Studiens syfte är därför att bidra med mer kunskap om hur chefer beskriver sin yrkesidentitet och hur de reflekterar kring sitt ledarskap. Min ambition är att fylla ett forskningsgap som berör chefers yrkesidentitet och deras reflexivitet. Kvalitativ metod användes för att undersöka hur respondenterna tänker och beter sig i olika situationer som berör yrkesidentitet och reflektion. Narrativa semistrukturerade intervjuer tillämpades som kvalitativ forskningsmetod för att samla in data. Totalt intervjuades åtta chefer från olika nivåer i företagshierarkin i ett IT konsultföretag med minst 200 anställda. En teoretisk analysmodell och tidigare forskning tillämpades för att kunna analysera och tolka empirin. Empirin består av två kategorier och sex innehållskategorier som är strukturerade utifrån studiens två forskningsfrågor. Den första forskningsfrågan som lyder "Hur beskriver chefer sinyrkesidentitet i ett företag?" är relaterad till kategorin yrkesidentitet och de tre innehållskategorierna: hur ledarskap utövas, företagets struktur och vad som påverkarledarskapet samt när ledarskap inte utövas. Medan den andra forskningsfrågan som lyder "Hur reflekterar chefer kring sitt ledarskap i ett företag?" är kopplad till kategorin reflektion och de tre innehållskategorierna: situationer som leder till reflektion och icke-reflektion, skapa goda förutsättningar för anställda och att förbättra sig samt tidens roll vid mest respektive minst reflektion. Studiens slutsatser är att respondenterna ville lyssna på sina medarbetare innan respondenterna tog ett beslut och vara allmänt öppna för feedback. Företagets struktur, aspekter inom och utanför företagets kontext kunde påverka ledarskapet. I de fall ledarskap inte utövades var för att exempelvis medarbetare skall kunna utvecklas. Reflektion kring ledarskapet kan utlösas i form av utvärderingar med underställda, innan en tuff sak skall framföras och sättet att kommunicera med underställda. Reflektion kring sitt ledarskap var framträdande kring att utveckla sina medarbetare och underlätta deras arbete. Respondenterna reflekterar och tänker kritiskt kring sitt ledarskap mest efter arbetsdagen och minst under arbetsdagen. De som var reflexiva på arbetet var oftast meta-reflexiva. / After I conducted a literature review, I found a research gap that concerns managers' professional identities and their reflexivity. The purpose of the study is therefore to contribute with more knowledge about how managers describe their working identity and how they reflect on their leadership. My ambition is to fill a research gap that affects managers' working identity and their reflexivity. Qualitative method was used to examine how the respondents think and behave in different situations that affect working identity and reflection. Narrative semi-structured interviews were applied as a qualitative research method to collect data. A total of eight managers from different levels in the company hierarchy were interviewed in an IT consulting company with at least 200 employees. A theoretical analysis model and previous research were applied to analyze and interpret the empirics. The empirics consist of two categories and six content categories that are structured along the study's two research questions. The first research question that reads "How do managers describe their working identity?" is related to the category of working identity and the three content categories: how leadership is exercised, the company's structure and what affects the leadership and also when leadership is not exercised. While the second research question is "How do managers reflect on their leadership in a company?" is linked to the category of reflection and the three content categories: situations that lead to reflection and non-reflection, create good conditions for employees and to improve yourself and also the role of time in most and least reflection, respectively. The conclusions of the study are that respondents wanted to listen to their employees before the respondents took a decision and be generally open to feedback. The company's structure, aspects within and outside the company's context could affect leadership. In cases where leadership was not exercised where for example so employees could be developed. Reflection on leadership can be triggered in the form of evaluations with subordinates, before a tough thing is to be presented and the way of communicating with subordinates. Reflection on their leadership was prominent in developing their employees and facilitating their work. The respondents reflect and think critically about their leadership most after the working day and least during the working day. Those who were reflexive at work were usually meta-reflexive.

The main purpose of this study was to increase the knowledge about how it is to be a newly arrived refugee in the Swedish school as well as what role the Swedish school plays in the integration process. The respondents in this study have all arrived to Sweden in the past four years as refugees from war-torn countries. In total seven young people in the age 15-16 took part in this study. How do the newly arrived youths experience the time in the preparatory class and the ordinary class? Which social networks does the newly arrived youths have in and outside school? How can the school help them by giving them skills and ability to integrate into the Swedish society? To find the answers to these questions I made a qualitative study. The study is based on interviews with seven young people who are attending Swedish upper secondary (8th or 9th grade) or are in preparatory class. To be able to analyze my qualitative interviews I used three theories; stigmatization, social identity and sociocultural perspective. The results of the survey show that the newly arrived students both have positive and negative experiences of the Swedish school. The newly arrived students experience the time in preparatory class as safe, they have a big community with their classmates and get support and help from their teachers. At the same time, they feel excluded, both in preparatory and ordinary class, due to the lack of wider social networks. According to the students the Swedish school has more to improve when it comes to giving the newly arrived youth’s greater opportunities in the integration process.