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An important issue that managers are facing in today’s intensive business environment is how to compensate their employees to keep them motivated. The trend is to be rewarded for the individual performances, which has increased the usage of commission based salary systems. Previous research suggests that commission salary provokes internal competition, while it damages cooperation. However, the main issue in feminine and masculine societies is what motivates people, which indicates that the effects of commission based salary systems needed to be examined from a cultural perspective. Therefore, with the main aim was to enhance the understanding of this, the problem was addressed by the overreaching research question: How do commission based salary systems affect cooperation and internal competition in masculine and in feminine societies? To answer this, empirical data was acquired from Sweden and the United States. Sweden is recognized as the most feminine society, where social motives are dominating. The United States on the other hand, is recognized as a masculine society that encourages competition and where money is the main motivator. The empirical data derived from personal interviews with real estate agents that work with commission salary. Three case companies within each country were included in the study and three interviewees within each company participated. The findings showed that commission salary tends to increase the work effort, limit the cooperation, while it increases the internal competition. Nevertheless, the effects it has distinctively differs between the societies. In Sweden, the importance of group cohesion and interpersonal relationship results in a higher level of cooperation than in the United States. Despite that commission salary evokes internal competition, colleagues are colleagues above all in Sweden. In the United States however, cooperation mainly occurs when it serves the individual performances. Here, money and the own success are what matter the most and due to the competitive mindset, internal competition becomes significantly more intensive in the United States than in Sweden. In contrary to Sweden, commission salary can turn colleagues into competitors, for better or for worse. / Master thesis

Combining theories of social motives, goal interdependence, and conflict management, this study theorized a model in which interdepartmental goal interdependence affects conflict outcomes between different departments through open-minded discussion dynamics adopted by employees from different departments in the organization. This study also proposes that social motives moderate the link between inter-departmental goal interdependence and open-minded discussion. A sample of 133 employees from different business organizations in China were interviewed to recall a critical incident when they had a conflict with their coworker from different departments. SEM results and other analysis results support the hypotheses that cooperative interdepartmental goal interdependence and competitive goal interdependence are antecedents to employees engaging in open-minded discussion in the context of interdepartmental collaboration, and that open-minded discussion in turn influences conflict outcomes, i.e. task accomplishment, relationship strengthening, and future collaboration. Results further suggest that employee’s pro-social motive moderates the relationship between competitive goal interdependence and open-minded discussion, and that proself motive moderates the relationship between cooperative goal interdependence and open-minded discussion. Findings also suggest that practitioners promote effective interdepartmental collaboration by strengthening their prosocial motive when perceiving competitive goal and proself motive when perceiving cooperative goal, setting cooperative interdepartmental goal interdependence, and handling conflict through open-minded discussion. The study contributes to conflict management literature as well as the goal interdependence theory in the organizational behavior literatures.

Background: Electronic Word of Mouth (eWOM) is something that lately has gained increasing relevance and importance when it comes to consumers purchase decisions. Online reviews are considered to be the most important and reliable form of eWOM and it refers to when consumers communicate with other consumers online regarding their previous shopping experiences. In order to increase the generalizability and understanding of motives that influence consumers intention to write online reviews, authors of previous studies have suggested that future research should intend to focus on motives that influence intention to write online reviews in other contexts that are not aimed towards the service industry. Purpose: The purpose of this study is to explain how personal- and social motives influence consumers intention to write online product reviews. Methodology: For this explanatory study, a quantitative strategy with a cross-sectional research design were used in order to test the model founded on two major hypotheses. The data was gathered through a self-completed questionnaire with a sample of 222 respondents. Findings: In this study, two major hypotheses were conducted in order to explain how personal motives and social motives influence consumers intention to write online product reviews. After analysing the data that emerged from the survey, a conclusion can be drawn that the hypothesis concerning personal motives and its influence on consumers intention to write online product reviews was accepted whereas the hypothesis concerning social motives was rejected. Conclusion: In this study, it has been recommended that future studies should test the suggestions found in this study with a more diverse sample in order to increase the generalizability of the theoretical implications. Furthermore, directions for future research will also recommend testing the modified model that emerged in this paper in order to detect if there are any additions that need to be added to increase the predictability of the findings.

Förvånansvärt lite forskning har ägnats åt ungdomars deltagande i partipolitiska ungdomsförbund trots en långvarig nedåtgående trend i medlemsantal. Studier visar att ungdomsförbunden har svårt att rekrytera samt behålla sina medlemmar vilket är oroande då vi behöver ungdomars röster i partipolitiken för vår representativa demokrati och för att ungdomförbunden är den främsta rektryteringskällan till våra moderpartier. Denna studie syftar till att få en djupare förståelse kring varför ett urval av ungdomar väljer att gå med i partipolitiska ungdomsförbund samt vad de har för motiv till att stanna kvar. Studien består av semistrukturerade intervjuer med åtta ungdomar som är eller har varit aktiva inom ungdomsförbunden Ung Vänster och Moderateras ungdomsförbund MUF. För att undersöka detta har studien fokuserat på individuella resurser och faktorer och moraliska, sociala och materiella motiv till partipolitiskt deltagande. Resultatet visade på att individuella resurser och faktorer som politiskt intresse, motivation och sociala nätverk var viktiga kopplat till varför ungdomarna väljer att gå med i ett partipolitiskt ungdomsförbund. Sociala och moraliska motiv var högst förekommande bland ungdomarna för både varför de väljer att gå med men också vad som gör att de stannar kvar inom förbundet. / Surprisingly little research has been devoted to young peoples participation in party-affiliated youth organizations, despite a prolonged downward trend in membership numbers. Studies indicate that these youth organizations struggle to recruit and retain their members, which is concerning since young peoples voices in party politics are crucial for our reprecentative democracie and because these organizations serve as the primary recruitment source for their motherparties. This study aims to gain a deeper understanding of why a selection of young individuals choose to join party-affiliated youth organizations and what motivates them to remain. The study consists of semi-structured interviews with eight youths who are or have been active within the youth organizations Ung Vänster and Moderaternas ungdomsförbund MUF. To investigate this, the study focuses on individual resources and factors and also moral, social, and material motives for political participation. The results indicate that individual resources and factors such as political interest, motivation, and social networks are significant in why young people choose to join a party-affiliated youth organization. Social and moral motives are most common motives among the youth for why they choose to join and what keeps them engaged within the organization.