"Public on the outside, private on the inside": the organizational hybridization, sense of belonging and identity strategies of the employees of a public unemployment insurance fund in Switzerland

A number of studies show that New Public Management reforms have altered the current identity benchmarks of public officials, particularly by hybridizing values or management practices. However, existing studies have largely glossed over the sense of belonging of officials when their organization straddles the concerns of public service and private enterprise, so that the boundary between public and private sector is blurred. The purpose of this article is precisely to explore this sense of belonging in the context of organizational hybridization. It does so by drawing on the results of research conducted among the employees of a public unemployment insurance fund in Switzerland. On the one hand, the analysis shows how much their markers of belonging are hybrid, multiple and constructed in negative terms (with regard to the State), while indicating that the working practices of the employees point to an identity that is nevertheless closely bound with the public sector. On the other hand, the analysis shows that the organization plays strategically with its State status, by exploiting either its private or public identity in line with the needs related to its external image. The article concludes with a discussion of the results highlighting the strategic functionality of the hybrid identity of the actors.

Corporate Identity and Desired Image Elements as a Basis for Corporate Image Development, Case: Myllykoski Sales

Tutkimuksen päätavoitteena oli auttaa Myllykoski –ryhmää määrittämään, mistä tekijöistä ryhmän uuden myyntiorganisaation, Myllykoski Salesin, tulevaisuuden imagon tulisi koostua. Näin ollen tutkimus pyrki selvittämään Myllykoski –ryhmän yritysidentiteetin nykytilaa ja Myllykoski Salesin toivottuja imagotekijöitä, sekä vertaamaan niiden vastaavuutta. Lisäksi tutkimuksen tavoitteena oli tutkia Myllykoski –ryhmän nykyistä ja toivottua tulevaisuuden imagotilaa. Jotta imagonrakennusprosessi olisi menestyksekäs, rakennettavan imagon ja viestittävien imagotekijöiden tulisi perustua yritysidentiteetin todellisiin tekijöihin. Yritysidentiteetin voidaan määritellä olevan yhtäläinen sisäisten sidosryhmien muodostaman yritysmielikuvan kanssa ja näin ollen nykyinen yritysidentiteetti voidaan paljastaa tutkimalla henkilökunnan mielipiteitä työorganisaatiotaan kohtaan. Näin ollen käsiteltävä tutkimus suoritettiin tekemällä kaksi sähköpostikyselyä, jotka suunnattiin Myllykoski -ryhmän myynti- ja markkinointihenkilökunnalle. Tutkimusten vastausprosentit olivat 71,4 % (johto, 14 lähetettyä kyselyä) ja 51,9 % (muu henkilökunta, 108 lähetettyä kyselyä). Saatuja vastauksia analysoitiin sekä laadullisesti että määrällisesti. Saaduista vastauksista oli selvästi havaittavissa Myllykoski –ryhmän yritysidentiteetin nykytila, nykyinen ja toivottu imagotila, sekä Myllykoski Salesin toivotut imagotekijät. Verrattaessa toivottuja imagotekijöitä ryhmän yritysidentiteettiin havaittiin, että suurin osa halutuista imagotekijöistä vastasi ryhmän identiteetin nykytilan ominaisuuksia ja näin ollen kyseisiä tekijöitä voitaisiin huoletta viestiä rakennettaessa Myllykoski Salesin imagoa. Joidenkin toivottujen imagotekijöiden viestintää tulisi kuitenkin vakavasti harkita, jottei rakennettaisi epärealistista imagoa.

Learning experience and identity development as a research assistant /

What research learning experiences do current students have as research assistants (RAs) in the Faculty of Education at Brock University? How do the experiences of research assistants contribute to the formation of a researcher identity and influence future research plans? Despite the importance of these questions, there seems to be very little research conducted or written about the experiences of research assistants as they engage in the research process. There are few resources to which research assistants or their advisors can refer regarding graduate student research learning experiences. The purpose of this study was to understand the kinds of learning experiences that 4 RAs (who are enrolled in the Faculty of Education at Brock University, St. Catharines, Ontario) have and how those experiences contribute to their identities as researchers. Through interviews with participants, observations of participants, and textual documents produced by participants, I have (a) discovered what 4 RAs have learned while engaged in one or more research assistantships and (b) explored how these 4 RAs' experiences have shaped their identities as new researchers. My research design provided a separate case study for each participant RA, including myself as a research participant. Then as a collective, I studied all 4 cases as a case study in itself in the form of a cross-analysis to identify similarities and differences between cases. Using a variety of writing forms and visual narratives, I analyzed and interpreted the experiences of my participants utilizing arts-based literature to inform my analysis and thesis format. The final presentation includes electronic diagrams, models, poetry, a newsletter, a website presentation, and other representational arts-based forms.This thesis is a resource for current and future research assistants who can learn from the research assistant experiences presented in the research. Faculty members who hire research assistants to assist them with their research will also benefit from reading about RAs' learning experiences from the RAs' perspective. The information provided in this thesis document is a resource to inform future policies and research training initiatives in faculty departments and offices at universities. Consequently, this thesis also informs researchers (experienced and inexperienced) about how to conduct research in ways that benefit all parties and provide insight into potential ways to improve research assistantship practices.

Moral identity, youth engagement, and discussions with parents and peers /

The strength of adolescents' moral identity was examined in relation to their sense of social responsibility, frequency of community engagement, and interactions with parents and friends. Participants were 191 applicants to national youth conferences, ranging in age from 14-19, who completed a 40-minute survey. 76% of the participants were female. Social responsibility, community engagement, and discussion with parents and friends were measured using self-report questionnaires. Participants also reported on the importance of various values to themselves, their parents, and their friends, which were used to create an index of the degree of disagreement between the youth and their parents and friends. In addition, participants provided self-descriptions, which were used to measure moral identity with both a coding scheme and a ratings measure. Moral identity as measured by coding was not related to social responsibility, community engagement, or any other study variables, and thus did not appear to be a valid measure of moral identity. However, moral identity as measured by ratings was related to both social responsibility and community engagement, and thus appeared to be a valid measure. Neither disagreement nor discussion with friends was related to moral identity. However, disagreement with parents was positively related to moral identity ratings, and for girls only was negatively related to social responsibility. Furthermore, discussion with parents was positively related to moral identity for boys only. The hypothesis predicting a mediational model was not supported. Results were discussed in terms of theoretical positions on the role of parents and friends in children's moral development and suggestions for ftiture research were made.

The implications of being an international medical graduate (IMG) in Canadian society : a qualitative study of foreign-trained physicians' resettlement, sense of identity and health status

This qualitative research study used grounded theory methodology to explore the settlement experiences and changes in professional identity, self esteem and health status of foreign-trained physicians (FTPs) who resettled in Canada and were not able to practice their profession. Seventeen foreign-trained physicians completed a pre-survey and rated their health status, quality of life, self esteem and stress before and after coming to Canada. They also rated changes in their experiences of violence and trauma, inclusion and belonging, and racism and discrimination. Eight FTPs from the survey sample were interviewed in semi-structured qualitative interviews to explore their experiences with the loss of their professional medical identities and attempts to regain them during resettlement. This study found that without their medical license and identity, this group of FTPs could not fully restore their professional, social, and economic status and this affected their self esteem and health status. The core theme of the loss of professional identity and attempts to regain it while being underemployed were connected with the multifaceted challenges of resettlement which created experiences of lowered selfesteem, and increased stress, anxiety and depression. They identified the re-licensing process (cost, time, energy, few residency positions, and low success rate) as the major barrier to a full and successful settlement and re-establishment of their identities. Grounded research was used to develop General Resettlement Process Model and a Physician Re-licensing Model outlining the tasks and steps for the successfiil general resettlement of all newcomers to Canada with additional process steps to be accomplished by foreign-trained physicians. Maslow's Theory of Needs was expanded to include the re-establishment of professional identity for this group to re-establish levels of safety, security, belonging, self-esteem and self-actualization. Foreign-trained physicians had established prior professional medical identities, self-esteem, recognition, social status, purpose and meaning and bring needed human capital and skills to Canada. However, without identifying and addressing the barriers to their full inclusion in Canadian society, the health of this population may deteriorate and the health system of the host country may miss out on their needed contributions.

Exploring exploration : career identity development and temperment /

Career identity exploration is a central component of the lives of undergraduate university students. Although students are encouraged to explore, it is unclear whether different methods of exploration are better suited for certain individuals. In the present study, quantitative data were collected to examine the relationship between shyness and various methods of exploration. Two hundred fifty-seven university undergraduate students (29 male), ranging in age from 17-25 years completed a 60-minute self-report questionnaire. Shyness, identity, identity distress, subjective dimensions of exploration (satisfaction with exploration, reasons for not exploring, helpfulness of exploration methods), foci of exploration (non-social, social, self, and environmental), approaches to exploration (breadth, depth), and moderating variables (social support, sociability) were measured. Shyness was positively correlated with moratorium (high exploration, low commitment) and uncorrelated with the other identity statuses. Shyness was also positively correlated with identity distress, and a predicted interaction between shyness and identity diffusion predicting career identity distress was supported. Shyness was negatively correlated with satisfaction with amount of exploration engaged in to-date. In addition, shyness was correlated with the likelihood of selecting too stressful and too anxiety provoking as reasons for engaging in less exploration than one would like. Expected relationships between shyness and beliefs about, and engagement in, various methods of exploration were largely non-significant. Exceptions to this were the negative correlations between shyness and engagement in social exploration, and beliefs about the helpfulness of social self-exploration, both of which were significant at a trend level. A predicted interaction between shyness and social support predicting total social exploration was supported, showing that high social support buffers the negative relationship between shyness and exploration; such a moderating relationship did not exist, however, between sociability, shyness and social exploration. Results suggest that although shy university students are engaged in career exploration, they are experiencing feelings of distress and dissatisfaction with their career identity exploration and development. Thus, to help shy students become successfiil in their exploration, it is important for counsellors, family members, and peers to be aware of the feelings the individuals are experiencing and help them reduce the anxiety and stress associated with the exploration process. One promising method, supported by the results in this study, is by encouraging shy individuals to explore with social support.

Buddy films and gender identity : representing the bonds of masculinity /

The study examines the buddy film genre and the representation of masculinity in relation to the homosocial and the homoerotic. As a genre, the buddy films focus on male relationships, thematically seeking to mediate the boundaries surrounding the homosocial continuum and the intimacy and eroticism implicit in male bonding. Theories of genre, gender and identity are used to analyze the construction of masculine identity within the films. By providing a qualitative analysis of films from the 1960s to contemporary times, the research establishes a relationship between social changes, attitudes toward men and depictions of men. The buddy films adapt to address changes in the representation of masculinity, embodied in the difference between the male couple in the films. The early films of the 1960s served as templates that deconstructed traditional representations of male identity through articulating the tension within homosocial relationships. However, in the later films this tension became a refle~ive convention, acting to undermine the eroticism onto a displaced Other. The buddy film genre highlights the tension inherent to the male masquerade. This tension is situated in the need to represent the protagonist's homosocial relationship, while disavowing the eroticism that surrounds homosocial bonding. The structure of the buddy film genre, which focuses on the exploration of masculinity and representing the bonds of homosocial intimacy, makes these films a significant site for investigating the cultural construction of masculine identities.

Electrophysiological and behavioural correlates of facial identity and expression perception deficits following a closed head injury /

A large variety of social signals, such as facial expression and body language, are conveyed in everyday interactions and an accurate perception and interpretation of these social cues is necessary in order for reciprocal social interactions to take place successfully and efficiently. The present study was conducted to determine whether impairments in social functioning that are commonly observed following a closed head injury, could at least be partially attributable to disruption in the ability to appreciate social cues. More specifically, an attempt was made to determine whether face processing deficits following a closed head injury (CHI) coincide with changes in electrophysiological responsivity to the presentation of facial stimuli. A number of event-related potentials (ERPs) that have been linked specifically to various aspects of visual processing were examined. These included the N170, an index of structural encoding ability, the N400, an index of the ability to detect differences in serially presented stimuli, and the Late Positivity (LP), an index of the sensitivity to affective content in visually-presented stimuli. Electrophysiological responses were recorded while participants with and without a closed head injury were presented with pairs of faces delivered in a rapid sequence and asked to compare them on the basis of whether they matched with respect to identity or emotion. Other behavioural measures of identity and emotion recognition were also employed, along with a small battery of standard neuropsychological tests used to determine general levels of cognitive impairment. Participants in the CHI group were impaired in a number of cognitive domains that are commonly affected following a brain injury. These impairments included reduced efficiency in various aspects of encoding verbal information into memory, general slower rate of information processing, decreased sensitivity to smell, and greater difficulty in the regulation of emotion and a limited awareness of this impairment. Impairments in face and emotion processing were clearly evident in the CHI group. However, despite these impairments in face processing, there were no significant differences between groups in the electrophysiological components examined. The only exception was a trend indicating delayed N170 peak latencies in the CHI group (p = .09), which may reflect inefficient structural encoding processes. In addition, group differences were noted in the region of the N100, thought to reflect very early selective attention. It is possible, then, that facial expression and identity processing deficits following CHI are secondary to (or exacerbated by) an underlying disruption of very early attentional processes. Alternately the difficulty may arise in the later cognitive stages involved in the interpretation of the relevant visual information. However, the present data do not allow these alternatives to be distinguished. Nonetheless, it was clearly evident that individuals with CHI are more likely than controls to make face processing errors, particularly for the more difficult to discriminate negative emotions. Those working with individuals who have sustained a head injury should be alerted to this potential source of social monitoring difficulties which is often observed as part of the sequelae following a CHI.

Steeltown scene : genre, performance and identity in the alternative independent music scene in Hamilton, Ontario

This thesis examines the independent alternative music scene in the city of Hamilton, Ontario, also known, with reference to its industrial heritage, as "Steeltown." Drawing on the growing literature on the relationship between place and popular music, on my own experience as a local musician, direct observation of performances and of venues and other sites of interaction, as well as ethnographic interviews with scene participants, I focus on the role of space, genre and performance within the scene, and their contribution to a sense of local identity. In particular, I argue that the live performance event is essential to the success of the local music scene, as it represents an immediate process, a connection between performers and audience, one which is temporally rooted in the present. My research suggests that the Hamilton alternative music scene has become postmodern, embracing forms of "indie" music that lie outside of mainstream taste, and particularly those which engage in the exploration and deconstruction of pre-existing genres. Eventually, however, the creative successes of an "indiescene" permeate mass culture and often become co-opted into the popular music mainstream, a process which, in turn, promotes new experimentation and innovation at the local level.

Mediated action, narratives of risk-taking, and identity formation in adolescents with a visual impairment

The purpose of this project was to discern the inherent tension present in narratives told by adolescents with a visual impairment as they attempted to make sense of their experiences, specifically those surrounding risk. Mediated action, based on the foundational work of Vygotsky and Bakhtin, was used as both a theoretical and methodological approach; it is the theory that there are two components that constitute any human action: the "agent," or the person who is doing the acting, and the "mediational means" that he or she is using to accomplish the action in question. Tension ensues as neither is able to fully explain human behaviour. Ten adolescents with a visual impairment participated in a narrative interview, revealing numerous counter-narratives surrounding risk-taking, including "experimentation undertaken using good judgment." Participants offered examples of how they engaged, appropriated, resisted and transformed the dominant narratives of disability and adolescence in their identity formation.