SAMMANFATTNING   Vi har valt att undersöka konflikthantering inom organisationer. Syftet med denna studie är att undersöka hur cheferna hanterar konflikter inom organisationen och hur de upplever detta. Vi menar att detta är ett understuderat ämne som av många olika orsaker bör lyftas fram och undersökas närmre. Konflikter kan få stora ekonomiska konsekvenser exempelvis genom minskad arbetsprestation, sjukskrivningar och så vidare. Konflikter kan också få slitsamma konsekvenser känslomässigt och psykiskt. Konflikter är något som i olika grader förekommer dagligen varför ämnet i allra högsta grad är aktuellt. Det är något alla är inblandade i och som de flesta tycker är obehagligt att hamna i, vår uppfattning är att det kan bero på att få vet hur konflikter bör hanteras och varför de uppstår. Något av det mest anmärkningsvärda i våra resultat var hur lågt stöd som fanns för några av cheferna i dessa frågor. De förväntades veta hur de skulle lösa konflikterna helt själva. Detta visar enligt oss på behovet av större kunskap på området.   Vi har intervjuat chefer från olika organisationer och utifrån deras upplevelse analyserat hur de agerat i dessa, för att se om vi kan identifiera de konflikthanteringsstrategier de har använt för att lösa konflikten. Vi har också analyserat vilka konsekvenser konflikten fått samt hur cheferna arbetade förebyggande mot att konflikter skulle uppstå. I den teoretiska referensramens första del redogörs för begreppet konflikt samt omkringliggande råden. I den andra delen är de teoretiska inslagen mer specifikt inriktade med områden som; konflikter inom organisationer,  identifiering av olika typer av konflikter, konflikthanteringsstrategier, makt samt kommunikation och ledarstilar.   I våra resultat har vi sett att chefer fäster stor vikt vid själva kommunikationen mellan sig och medarbetarna men också hur de har fokus på hur deras medarbetare för sina dialoger sinsemellan. Vi har sett att några av våra informanter inledningsvis avvaktar vid konflikter för att sedan ingripa om konflikten fortsätter. Dessa konflikter påverkade både medarbetare och chefers välmående. Vi har också sett att några av konflikterna har fått konsekvenser i form av att inblandade medarbetare inte får lönehöjningar vid löneutvecklingssamtal och att medarbetaren i vissa fall fått byta arbetsuppgifter till andra uppdrag med tydligare ramar för utförandet.   Att gå olika vägar för att avsluta anställningen var en av de konflikthanteringsstrategier vi kunde se. Exempel på förebyggande arbete för att motverka uppkomst av konflikter var: rekrytera medarbetare som passade i arbetsgruppen och samtala regelbundet med medarbetarna. Nyckelord: Konflikt, konflikthantering, kommunikation, chef, social interaktion

The aim of this research is to provide insight into how middle school learners experience an inclusive multicultural learning environment. Increasing diversity is challenging European educational systems, which have the arduous task to foster inclusion of learners with diverse educational needs. In order to explore the participants’ descriptions, a qualitative approach based on semi-structured interviews with six learners was employed. Learners’ positions in the educational scenery are central and unique; they are the main experts on their own situations and therefore precious contributors to educational research. Results have been discussed according to a sociocultural perspective. The analysis of my data suggests that the learners perceive their inclusive environment as beneficial. Moreover, they perceive their cultural diversity as strength, reckon social interaction and teamwork with peers as favorable conditions for learning, feel competent in multicultural communication and believe that respect and acceptance towards others are necessary common values. Some implications of multiculturalism in special education are discussed according to the results of a recent European study, which shows that in all the participating European countries, Sweden included, there is a consistent discrepancy in the proportions of learners with immigrant background within special education. Assessment methods developed for mono-cultural learners appear to be a valid reason why multicultural learners are over-or under-represented in special education. Research also shows that inclusion of diversity in educational environment enables the development of social skills in all learners.

This is a compilation thesis consisting of three different articles with the purpose to explore the relationships between language practices, identity construction and learning in the context of the Vehicle Program, a vocational program in Swedish upper secondary schools. A feature of the particular setting studied here that sets it apart from the general education of auto mechanics in Sweden is that it was carried out in English. The study focuses on language practices within a community of practice where the norms for second language use, gender arrangements and identity work are negotiated in conversations between students and between students and teachers. The language practices are considered as talk-in-interaction, and identity construction and learning are understood as processes in socially situated activities. The study was conducted through an ethnographic approach, including observation, field notes, approximately 200 hours of video recorded interactions, and interviews with students and teachers. The recorded interactions were analysed using tools from conversational analysis and methods focusing on linguistic activities and interactional patterns. An eclectic approach combining linguistic ethnography, ethnometodological conversation analysis and socio-cultural theory of learning, in particular the concept of communities of practice, form the basis of the theoretical framework. The findings in study I highlight that language alternations are repeatedly used in the workshop as a meta-language to play around with language, which relates to emerging communicative strategies that also produces – and helps contest – local language norms. Study III suggests that teasing in students’ peer relations are not only disruptive, off-task behavior, thereby rendering them important only from a classroom management perspective. Teasing, this study proposes, should rather be seen as an organizing principle by which the students are able to position themselves in relation to an institutionally established language ideology. Study II focuses on how participants invoke and renegotiate conventional forms of masculinity tied to the ability of handling tools. Such micro-processes illuminate how gender is a constantly shifting social category that is done, redone and possibly undone. The findings suggest that new forms of auto mechanic student identities are formed that challenge current dominant discourses about what a mechanic should be.

Gustav Jonson's theory of the social heritage characterized social work in Sweden during the 1960s and onwards. The social policy issues debated then were about class society, labelling and alienation. After thirty years of professional work as a social worker, I find it interesting that the work still focuses on the theory of the social heritage and methods for breaking it. The aim of this study is to examine possible explanations to why this is so. The empirical material is taken from interviews with senior social workers. Issues examined are how they perceive social work and the theory of the social heritage. The results of the interviews have been processed based upon narrative analysis and reported in the form of meta-narratives. The stories provide a historical view of social work, encounters, situations and contexts. The final discussion is about how the social heritage is created, identified and carried forward. The conclusions show that the social heritage is a social construction created by the society and its inhabitants.The issue then, is to understand and to relate to this context, creating security control and balance in it. As a phenomenon, the social heritage can come to act as conservation and thus become a counterforce to change. Based on discussion and conclusions, it appears that efforts to break the social heritage are questionable. The study is a social psychological qualitative study worked with from a social constructionist perspective.

Thesis (M.A.)--University of Stellenbosch, 2001. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: Since its birth in the early 1960's the Internet has been growing exponentially in all areas and it is predicted that by the year 2002, 490 million people around the world will have Internet access. Similarly, a rapidly increasing number of people are finding themselves working and playing on the Internet, using computer mediated communication (CMC) to converse, exchange information, debate, court, and show compassion. As a result CMC has become a new way for people to find or meet each other via social Internet tools and form and develop personal relationships. Malcolm R. Parks (1997) compiled a theory of relational development, incorporating seven dimensions along which the nature of interaction changes as relationships develop or deteriorate: 1. Interdependence (influence on each other), 2. Breadth (variety of interaction), 3. Depth (intimacy of interaction), 4. Commitment (expectations that a relationship will continue), 5. Predictability and understanding (familiarity with each other), 6. Code change (creating own linguistic forms and culture) and 7. Network convergence (introducing each other to respective online contacts and social networks). This study investigated the relational development reached in interpersonal relationships initiated and maintained online via social Internet tools. As mainly South Africans responded, results provide first time information about South African Web users' online relationships. Results show that the majority of online relationships reached above average levels of relational development as measured by elevated scores on most of the seven dimensions. The results also show significant differences between the levels of relational development reached in online friendships as opposed to online romantic attachments. The results are consistent with past research and could be used as a point of departure for further investigations into South African's Internet social practices and relational development in online settings. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Die Internet het, sedert sy oorsprong in die vroee 1960's, eksponensieel gegroei tot die mate dat, teen die jaar 2002, 'n voorspelde 490 miljoen mense wereldwyd Internet toegang sal he. Daar is net so 'n dramatiese toename in die hoeveelheid mense wat die Internet begin gebruik ten einde te werk en te speel, deur CMC (computer mediated communication) te gebruik om te gesels, te debatteer, inligting uit te ruil, mekaar die hof te maak en ondersteuning te verleen. As gevolg hiervan is CMC 'n nuwe platform waar mense mekaar ontmoet deur sosiale Internet instrumente in te span en op hierdie wyse persoonlike verhoudings te begin. Malcolm R. Parks (1997) het 'n teorie van relasionele ontwikkeling saamgestel, waarvolgens hy die sewe dimensies wat verander soos verhoudings groei of disintegreer, inkorporeer. Die dimensies is: 1. Interafhanklikheid (invloed op mekaar), 2. Breedte (variasie van interaksie), 3. Diepte (intimiteit van interaksie), 4. Verbintenis (verwagting dat die verhouding sal hou), 5. Voorspelbaarheid en begrip (bekend wees met mekaar), 6. Kode verandering (nuwe taalvorme en idiome) en 7. Netwerk konversie (om mekaar bekend te stel aan elektroniese en ander kontakte). Hierdie studie het die relasionele ontwikkeling ondersoek wat bereik is deur interpersoonlike verhoudinge wat deur middel van 'n sosiale Internet instrument ge'inisieer en onderhou is. Hoofsaaklik Suid-Afrikaners het deelgeneem en vir die eerste keer is statistiek oor Suid- Afrikaanse Internet gebruikers se elektroniese vehoudings beskikbaar. Resuitate toon dat die meerderheid van die verhoudings hoer as gemiddelde vlakke van relasionele ontwikkeling bereik het, 5005 gemeet deur die sewe dimensies. Die resultate wys ook dat daar 'n betekenisvolle verskil is tussen die relasionele ontwikkeling van elektroniese vriendskappe en romantiese verbintenisse. Die resultate stem ooreen met vorige studies en vorm 'n stewige grondslag vir verdere navorsing oor Suid-Afrikaners se sosiale Internet praktyke en verhoudings.

The main aim of this thesis was to explore the maintenance of personhood and self-image in dementia by way of facilitating collaborative communication between people with dementia and their caregivers/interaction partners. As such, the roles of the person with dementia and the interaction partner were examined in each study within the realms of the ‘Collaborative Personhood Model’. Findings of the first study highlighted strategies used by people with mild to severe dementia to maintain social interactions, to save-face and to maintain and project a sense of self-image in a reminiscence situation. The impact of introducing a family member as the interaction partner in a similar reminiscence-based situation using personal photographs was then explored. The findings of this study indicated that the personal nature of the photographs can create conflict between the person with dementia and her family member. Crucially, these studies illuminated the supportive role that the communication partner must adopt in order to successfully facilitate people with dementia to maximise their retained communication skills. Communication and sense of self was then examined in an individual with very severe dementia with some retained speech. The findings of this study illuminated the potential of imitation in communicating with people at this stage of the illness. These findings were then built upon by exploring the use of Intensive Interaction (II) in a person with very advanced dementia with no retained speech. Findings of this study indicated retained awareness of self and functional communication skills at very late stages of dementia. Finally, this study was expanded using a modified version of II (Adaptive Interaction) in a small group of individuals with very severe dementia with very little or no retained speech. These findings indicated an unprecedented desire and ability to communicate in people with such severe dementia. Taken as a whole, these studies highlighted the adaptive and collaborative role that the interaction partner must adopt in order to facilitate the maintenance of personhood and self-image in people with dementia. More specifically, the interaction partner must adjust to the communicative repertoire that is maintained at each stage of dementia and in each individual. The ‘Collaborative Personhood Model’ represents an attempt to explain how this might be achieved.

published_or_final_version / abstract / Urban Design / Master / Master of Urban Design

This dissertation demonstrates, in a non-semantic information-theoretic framework, how the principles of 'maximisation of relevant information' and 'information parsimony' can guide the adaptation of an agent towards agent-agent interaction. Central to this thesis is the concept of digested information; I argue that an agent is intrinsically motivated to a.) process the relevant information in its environment and b.) display this information in its own actions. From the perspective of similar agents, who require similar information, this differentiates other agents from the rest of the environment, by virtue of the information they provide. This provides an informational incentive to observe other agents and integrate their information into one's own decision making process. This process is formalized in the framework of information theory, which allows for a quantitative treatment of the resulting effects, specifically how the digested information of an agent is influenced by several factors, such as the agent's performance and the integrated information of other agents. Two specific phenomena based on information maximisation arise in this thesis. One is flocking behaviour similar to boids that results when agents are searching for a location in a girdworld and integrated the information in other agent's actions via Bayes' Theorem. The other is an effect where integrating information from too many agents becomes detrimental to an agent's performance, for which several explanations are provided.

Young people’s challenging behaviour in the school classroom and elsewhere has long been subject to research and policy attention. Despite inherent definitional difficulties, challenging behaviour is often constructed as a product of an individual young person’s pathology (whether biologically, psychologically or socially determined). Adopting an alternative starting point, this study focuses on a youth work setting and conceptualises challenging behaviour as something created in and through social interaction. The aim of this study is to contribute to a contextualised understanding of challenging behaviour as a social phenomenon that ordinarily arises when working with young people. As an exploratory study of everyday youth work practices, a year-long ethnographic study was conducted of an open-access youth club, located in a Scottish secondary school. Data were generated through participant observation, interviews, question sheets and written evaluation records. The data were analysed to identify significant themes facilitating the construction of a meaningful and accurate account of challenging interactions in this youth club. The thesis suggests that ‘doing’ and drawing attention to challenging behaviour functions to delineate the boundaries around acceptable and unacceptable behaviour in the youth club. Challenging behaviour plays a substantial role in the social interactions of this setting, linked to personal and professional identities. The youth club is described as a chaotic (dynamic, bodily and playful) space, where challenging behaviour is expected and normalised yet it is still identified and disciplined. The study suggests it is difficult to reach a subjective contextual definition of challenging behaviour because although certain types of behaviour are repeatedly acknowledged as problematic, in practice there are inconsistencies in whether and how these behaviours are challenged. Challenging interactions are argued to emerge in the negotiation of control over the behaviour of self and others. The research indentified ‘humour’ and ‘playfulness’ as significant in the construction, diffusion and emotional management of recurring challenging interactions. The study concludes that it is fruitful to conceptualise challenging behaviour as a social phenomenon - something created in the moment - in advancing an understanding of the complexity of working with young people perceived to be challenging. The findings, and limitations, of this study suggest that it would be useful to conduct further research into: the emotional aspects of challenging interactions; potential age and gender differences in negotiating challenging interactions; and the relationship between challenging behaviour, creativity and transformative actions.

This thesis explores age differences in the ability to decode basic social cues from the face and, in particular, the eye region. Age-related declines in complex aspects of social perception, such as forced choice labelling of emotional expressions and theory of mind reasoning, are well documented.  However, research, to date, has not assessed age differences in more basic aspects of social perception such as eye-gaze detection, joint attention, or more implicit responses to emotional cues.  The first two experimental chapters of this thesis report a series of studies investigating age-related changes in gaze processing.  Both the ability to detect subtle differences in gaze direction and to subsequently follow the gaze cues given by others was found to decline with age. Age-related changes were also found in the integration of gaze direction with emotional (angry, joyful and disgusted) facial expressions, when making emotion perception and approachability judgements (Chapters 4 and 5).  Age differences in responses to happy facial expressions are further investigated in Chapter 6 by assessing sensitivity to discriminate between enjoyment and non-enjoyment smiles.  Findings indicated that older adults demonstrated a greater bias towards thinking that any smiling individual was feeling happy.  They were also more likely than younger participants to choose to approach an individual displaying a non-enjoyment smile.  The final experimental chapter explores whether the age of the face influences age-related changes in gaze following.  Age-related declines in gaze following were greatest when following the gaze cues of younger (vs. older) adults, highlighting the importance of closely matching age of stimulus and participant when investigating age differences in social perception.  Perceptual, neuropsychological and motivational explanations for these results are evaluated and implications of these research findings for older adults’ social functioning are discussed.