The purpose of this study is to examine in what way a strong corporate culture can have an effect on the ways that individuals perceive their own identity based on different social aspects, thereby meaning the influence of personalities in relation to the environment. In this essay I have used the theory of employer branding in an analysis of the corporate culture at Ikea Barkarby, with the purpose to answer the following questions: How does the relation between the employee and the corporate culture appear from an identity perspective, i.e can an individual’s identity be affected by the influence of a strong corporate culture? If the corporate culture has an influence on the individual’s identity, what rhetorical tools are part of this? How can the surrounding corporate cultures possibly influence the employee’s process of becoming a part of the corporate culture? The method of research that was used in this study is a framing analysis and a semistructured interview method. In the discussion of the influence of social environment on identity I have used the rhetorical term doxa. The material that was examined was an advertisement for employment from the Ikea Barkarby website as well as the response from my interviews of some of the employees. The result of the analysis shows that it is possible for an individual to negotiate with himself about his identity in relation to the actual situation and environment, meaning a possible transformation of the individual’s behavior in different social contexts, in this example the corporate culture at work. At the same time the employees experience that their perceived identity has not been influenced since being introduced to the corporate culture, which I regard as an effect of efficient recruitment work where Ikea employs people with certain values. The conclusion is consequently that the identity can be affected by social influences but it is problematic to unravel whether it is the corporate culture by the use of employer branding that has an effect on the identity, or if there are other social variables that affect the individual’s perceived identity.

This thesis deals with the motivation and remuneration of employees in the company Erste Group Shared Services. Based on the information obtained is analyzed the current situation in the company. Using the survey is examined employee satisfaction with motivational resources used. The final section provides suggestions for streamlining motivation, increase labor productivity and improve employee satisfaction.

Våld och hot från klienter inom socialtjänsten är vanligt förekommande visar en stor andel tidigare forskning. Forskning angående relationens betydelse för uppkomsten av detta fenomen är däremot svårare att finna. Vi har valt att undersöka socialarbetares syn på relationens betydelse för socialt arbete och om den kan påverka uppkomsten av hot och våld inom socialtjänsten. Studien är genomförd i två kommuner i Sverige, respondenterna består av 11 stycken socialarbetare inom försörjningsstöd och en enhetschef. Detta är en kvalitativ undersökning där vi använt oss av semistrukturerade intervjuer. Relationen lyfts som det primära inom de socialkontor vi studerat och våra respondenter menar att utan en god relation blir arbetet mycket svårt att genomföra. Respondenterna menar att en god relation byggs genom empati, förståelse, ödmjukhet och kommunikation samt en tydlighet i vilken roll socialarbetaren befinner sig igenom sitt arbete och sitt uppdrag som myndighetsperson. Resultatet av denna studie tyder på vikten av en god och professionell relation i arbetet med människor och hur viktigt det är att rikta mer forskning mot relationens betydelse.

This study focuses on the case workers, employed by the Social insurance agency and how they experience their work, and the contact with the insured members of the society they deal with on a daily basis. The study is conducted by five interviews from two of the departements that constitutes the agency. Even though the decision making differs in the departements, the informants share many of the same perceptions of their work and how it feels to maintain contact with the insured individuals. The result shows that the case workers maintain a distance to the individual by not trying to engage personally in the different errands. The study also focuses on the organizational endeavours they encounter, for example a high turn over of the staff. The high turn over leads to a difficulty for them to manage all the errands and the employees are there for forced to prioritize among the errands. That becomes a subjective priority based on the case workers view of the importance of the errand. The study has also taken in to account whether or not the case workers engage to coping strategies to cope proffesionally with their insured members. The empirical material has been analyzed mainly with the theories regarding street-level bureaucrats that was first introduced by Michael Lipsky (2010) and Roine Johansson (2007). / Denna studie behandlar hur Försäkringskassans handläggare upplever sina yrken och förhållningssätt till sina uppgifter och de försäkrade individer de möter och har kontakt med. Uppsatsen består av fem kvalitativt genomförda intervjuer på två av myndighetens olika avdelningar. Trots att de beslutsfattande organen på avdelningarna skiljer sig från varandra uppvisar informanterna liknande uppfattningar om arbetet och hur det känns att ha kontakt med de försäkrade. De bibehåller en distans till den försäkrade genom att försöka undvika personligt engagemang till personen. Vidare behandlar studien organisatoriska utmaningar de möter, så som hög arbetsbelastning och stundtals bristande ledarskap. Den höga arbetsbelastningen leder till att de får svårt att hinna med alla ärenden och tvingas att prioritera bland dessa. Det leder till en subjektiv bedömning i vad för handläggaren anses som viktigt. Studien behandlar även om huruvida handläggarna är benägna att använda försvarsstrategier för att kunna vidhålla en professionell attityd till den försäkrade. Det empiriska materialet har bearbetats till största del med hjälp av teorier om gräsrotsbyråkrater av Michael Lipsky (2010) och Roine Johansson (2007)

Syftet med denna kvalitativa studien var att undersöka hur socialsekreterare inom myndighetsutövning, missbruk, upplever att samverkan fungerar med andra organisationer. Fyra socialsekreterare och en förste socialsekreterare intervjuades i studien. Det insamlade materialet från intervjuerna har sedan analyserats med hjälp av en kvalitativ innehållsanalys. Intervjuerna analyserades med hjälp av begreppen problemorientering, målhantering och grad av anpassning. Resultatet visade att det fanns flera faktorer som påverkade samverkan. De faktorer som respondenter uppgav påverkade samverkan gynnande var att skapa bra relationer mellan samverkanspartnerna, tydliga rutiner i samverkan, en nära lokalisering mellan samverkanspartnerna, ledningen och när samverkanspartnerna litade på varandras kompetenser. De faktorer som försvårade samverkan var tidsbrist, brist på kunskap om samverkanspartnerna, olika perspektiv, konflikter, ekonomin, riktlinjer och regler. För att förbättra samverkan behöver samverkanspartnerna få en ökad förståelse för andra organisationers perspektiv och arbetsuppgifter. / The purpose of this qualitative study was to examine how social workers within exercise of authority that worked with clients who abuse substance and alcohol, experience how collaboration works with other organisations. We interviewed four social workers and one first social worker. The collected material from the interviews has been analysed using content analysis. The interviews were interpreted by the concept problem orientation, commitment to goals and degree of adaptation. The results showed several factors that affected collaboration. The factors that respondents stated affected collaboration was to create good relations with the collaboration partners, clear routines in collaboration, a near localization between the collaboration partners, the management and when the collaboration partners trusted each others competences. These were benefitting factors for collaboration. Lack of time, lack of knowledge about the collaboration partners, different perspective, conflicts, economy and rules was aggravating factors for collaboration. In order to improve synergies, collaboration partners need to be better at understanding the other organizations’ perspectives and tasks.

v anglickém jazyce My thesis deals with the problematics of intercultural work with migrants, i. e. with foreigners who live here legally, and with its role in the system of social services in the Czech Republic. Because the position of an intercultural worker is comparatively new in our milieu, I concentrated first on the description of the work and the definition of the kinds of problems that the worker may face, and only then on the specification of the goals of intercultural work as such. Drawing on my personal experience with the work, I then tried to describe competences and role of an intercultural worker with respect to his or her involvement in the system of social services. I also conducted an opinion poll among the intercultural workers and their institution. This topic is now quite current and I hope that my work will help improve the situation in this field.

Socialtjänsten är idag drabbad av en hög arbetsbelastning, något som lett till hög personal omsättning och en hög andel arbetsrelaterade besvär. Flera statliga utredningar av situationen likväl inlägg från intresseorganisationer som SKL och fackförbund föreslår att ett led i att hantera situationen är genom specialisering. Specialiseringen ska bestå i inrättandet av specialistutbildningar och specialisttjänstemän. Studien ger med hjälp av en kartläggning en nulägesbild av specialisttjänsternas förekomst, hur de benämns och inom vilka verksamhetsområden de verkar. Med hjälp av en abduktiv ansats används nyinstitutionell organisationsteori i ett försök att förstå specialisttjänsterna utifrån socialchefers uppfattningar av dessa. / Today the Swedish social services are suffering from high workloads. Consequently this has led to poor retention and high turnover rates. Several Official Reports of the Swedish Governemnt as well as input from unions and Swedish Association of Local Authorities and Regions suggests that one way to handle the situation is through a more specialized social service. The suggested specialization includes masterprograms in socialwork (MSW, 60 ECT) for social workers and specialized civil servants. The present study will examine the prevalence of this kind of specialists, what they are called, their function and in what parts of the social services they serve. In the present studie I will atempt to understand specialized civil servants from interviews with social service managers perceptions using abduction and neoinstutitional organizational theory.

[pt] Esse trabalho usa dados de empregador e empregado para investigar o canal de crédito como um canal de transmissão relevante da crise financeira em 2008 sobre o mercado de trabalho. Eu estudo o impacto entre setores da indústria das decisões das firmas em relação à força de trabalho. Eu uso medidas como taxas de contratação e demissão. Eu encontro que crédito foi um mecanismo de transmissão importante da crise sobre a economia real. Mais especificamente, eu encontro que as taxas de demissão são maiores para firmas mais dependentes de financiamento durante a crise. Trabalhadores mais jovens e menos qualificados foram mais afetados negativamente, através do canal de crédito. Eu também encontro evidências de realocação de trabalhadores entre setores; setores menos dependentes de financiamento roubaram mais trabalhadores de outros setores, especialmente de firmas pequenas. Eu também encontro evidências de realocação de trabalhadores dentro dos setores e entre intervalos de tamanho de firma. / [en] This paper uses matched employer-employee data to investigate the credit channel as a relevant transmission channel of the 2008 financial crisis on the labor market in Brazil. I study the cross-sector impact on employment decisions of firms of the manufacturing industry. I use measures such as hiring and firing rates as outcomes. I find that the credit was an important transmission mechanism of the crises to the real economy. More specifically, I find that the firing rate is higher for more financially dependent industries during the crisis. Younger and less skilled workers were more adversely affected through the credit channel. I also find evience of reallocation of workers across sectors; less financially dependent sectors poached more workers from other sectors, and particularly so from smaller firms. I also find some evidence of reallocation within sector and across firm size intervals.

Magister Philosophiae (Land and Agrarian Studies) - MPhil(LAS) / Over the past fifteen years, the South African government has extended various land, labour and social rights to farm workers, ranging from provisions of basic labour rights in 1993 to the minimum wage in 2003. Literature suggests that social relations on commercial farms do not remain static in the context of policy changes. This thesis sets out to understand the ways in which social relations have or have not changed, on one commercial farm in Limpopo province, South Africa, and to establish factors that impede or promote such change as well as the consequences for farm workers’ daily lives. Drawing from the interpretive and critical social science philosophical perspectives, the thesis adopts a qualitative research methodology that takes into consideration the experiences and perceptions of farm workers, farm managers, the farm owner and key informants from government institutions and civil society. At a theoretical level the study is informed by four paradigms namely: the materialist perspective; the total institution thesis; paternalism; and structuration theory. It considers three overlapping conceptual models of understanding relations between farm owners and farm workers namely the welfarist, workerist and transformative models. The paper argues that, in the past decade, the extension of farm labour and tenure laws to the farm sector has eroded the welfarist relations between the farm owner and farm workers. There is now a rise in workerist relations in a context of unequal power relations tilted in favour of the farm employer. The thesis concludes that in order to adequately understand land, labour and social relations, one has to consider the politics of land ownership as well as the politics of agricultural capitalist employment.

Magister Artium (Human Ecology) - MA(HE) / A theory-based evaluation has been conducted with an improvement-orientated purpose on the Social Auxiliary Worker (SAW) Training Programme for an accredited provider to improve and continue to implement their own SAW Training Programmes. Theory-driven evaluations are essential for distinguishing between the validity of programme implementation and the validity of programme theory. Addressing the social needs of communities through social development and transformation is a top priority for the South African Government. South Africa faces a shortage of Social Work Practitioners (SWPs) due to emigration, as well as insufficient numbers of university graduates. This shortage has left the current SWPs with severe workload pressures. The South African Department of Social Development (DSD) initiated, in 2004, the training of Social Auxiliary Workers (SAWs) to serve as assistants to the SWPs. The SAW qualification initiative has been developed as a course accredited with the South African Qualifications Authority (SAQA) at the National Qualifications Framework (NQF) level 4. Providers of SAW training courses are accredited by the Health and Welfare Sectoral Education and Training Authority (HWSETA) and by the South African Council for Social Services Professions (SACSSP). The empirical part of the study was conducted in two stages. The first stage consisted of a clarificatory evaluation, wherein a step-by-step logical participatory process was followed for the clarification and development of the programme theory. This process resulted in logic models and a theory-of-change model against which the evaluation questions for the study were developed. These questions assessed the need for the SAW training programme - and for the SAW training programme planning and design. It was found that there was a need for SAW training programmes and that the SAW training programme had been designed to address this need. The second stage consisted of an implementation evaluation. This was done by means of a data matrix using the evaluation aspects for each of the objectives developed during the clarificatory evaluation. Data gathering was done by means of content analysis, focus group workshops and questionnaires. Data interpretations, conclusions and judgements were made with regard to each of the objectives and consolidated in a table format which indicated the outputs and outcomes, implementation results- and a judgement and recommendation for each objective. It was found that a standardised and structured process was followed most of the time, but that the knowledge and skills training elements, particularly in their practical application, left room for improvement. The study illustrates the advantages of a theory-based evaluation that assists with programme planning and modification, knowledge development and the planning of evaluation studies.