Browsing by Subject "communication"

This thesis does study buyer-supplier dyads in the context of corporate responsibility for sustainability. Companies have recognized the need to act on sustainability when expectations on corporate responsibility increases. The pressure to act more responsibly comes from various stakeholders, however this research focuses on buyers’ expectations on suppliers. The aim of the study is to identify (a) the expectations buyers (B2B customers) have on the focal company (supplier) in terms of the responsibility of its supply and (b) analysing how the focal firms should communicatively respond to these expectations. The thesis was completed using a qualitative research method by executing a semi-structured thematic interview style. Interviews were done to find out, what corporate responsibility expectations buyers really have on their supply and how suppliers should respond to them. Eight thematic interviews with B2B customers were conducted. The theoretical framework of this research is based on previous research concerning the research theme. The study results were analysed through thematic analysis. The theoretical framework got formed based on Carroll’s (1979) pyramid of CSR: economic responsibility, legal responsibility, ethical responsibility, and philanthropic responsibility. Another framework of five CR categories: the defensive, compliance, managerial and risk tackling, opportunity and strategy, and transformative CR category was also formed and used. The theory was used to identify and categorize buyers’ CR expectations. The study results indicated buyers’ expectations on corporate responsibility for sustainability to be mostly related to environmental and social corporate responsibility. Domesticity (Finnish origin)/background of products and processes, quality (long life cycle) and reduced CO2-emissions are specific CR themes that B2B customers have most expectations on in their procurement. Other expectations are product responsibility, responsible procurement, longevity, environmental-labels, environmentally friendly packaging, recyclability, and safety in production/service. The buyers’ expectations are mostly categorized in the economic and legal responsibility as well as the compliance category of CR. The CR expectations are however very little prioritized in procurement of buyers, which challenges the idea of a big and increasing CR pressure on suppliers. The content of suppliers CR reporting and communication should involve the themes that customers raise expectations on. The importance of CR and sustainability reports got challenged due to buyers highlighting a demand for other communication sources. Salespersons and websites are more requested sources to receive suppliers CR information from than specific CR reports. The most important factors of CR communication and reporting for buyers is easy access and uncomplicated comprehension. The CR expectations do also indicate a movement towards CR reporting in shared databases. The B2B customers varying CR expectations should all be acknowledged while suppliers are developing their CR for sustainability as well as the reporting/communication. The identification and categorization of buyers CR expectations is important for suppliers to understand the phenomena profoundly. A consistent result that this study indicates is a prominent need for increased CR related dialogues in buyer-supplier dyads. A better understanding of buyers CR expectations help suppliers respond to their expectations and communicate them according to the demand.

Concern about global warming can lead to climate change anxiety, a form of anxiety characterized by excessive worry about the climate crisis and associated consequences on the natural world and human society. It has been suggested by previous research that humor can be used to manage feelings of anxiety. This study seeks to determine if this phenomenon can be applied specifically to climate change anxiety. The research combines a comprehensive literature review with an online survey that leveraged climate change themed internet memes as a proxy for humor to gather opinions about the intersections between these two topics. The survey data supplemented claims made by existing literature, indicating that climate change themed internet memes and humor in general can be useful coping mechanisms to mitigate feelings of climate anxiety. The survey was completed by 93 respondents; most of these participants were women, located in the US, and/or between the ages of 20 and 29. Results from the survey showed that people tend to feel best about their environmental anxiety when they are taking active steps to solve the problem. Conscious decisions such as reducing waste or participating in activist movements are easier to recognize and self-report than more passive coping skills. Reliance on humor was reported as a supplementary coping skill, but many respondents indicated that looking at humorous climate change themed memes did influence their feelings about climate change overall. The scope of this study was relatively small in scale, therefore the results presented in this thesis may not be indicative of broader social trends and likely require further research.

As in many countries, education in Chile has been a huge problem for authorities and researchers. Over time, there have been many attempts to improve quality, but with little to no success. It is difficult to find the main reason why Chilean education faces many problems. One reason could be the way teachers understand the policy instruments; the national curriculum, and how clear it is. However, it also could be related to the way of using skills related to communication in general, and teacher-student interaction in particular. My assumption is they have been ignored or under considered as part of the teaching process. Some experts have recognized the relevance of communication and teacher- student interaction, because of the significance of reciprocity. It has a very crucial role for effective teaching and learning to take place (Arthur, Gordon, & Butterfield, 2003). This is an in-depth research into both systems of education, a comparative and qualitative investigation that aim to analyse guidelines for teachers and principals. This research will collect data through the analysis of both national curriculums, to see how these terms are mentioned and described in them as part of the guidelines of every taught subject, and how many of these teaching methods include teacher-student interaction. For this reason, the purpose of my thesis is to analyse how the elements of communication and teacher-student interaction are presented in the official curriculums of Chile and Finland. Although the analysis of documents is the main source of data, this investigation considers also the observation to understand the dynamics in the classroom, despite being only an illustration.

To my knowledge, this is the first study describing student communication, learning, and wellbeing at the university-level during Covid-19 in Finland. This research is meant to correspond to the need for more research regarding the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic on youth (aged 29 and younger according to the Finnish legislation). The goal of the research is to provide solutions to the complex challenges which have arisen during the pandemic and a rapid transition to a fully online learning and teaching format in Finland. The thesis brings to light student experiences regarding online learning, communication and wellbeing, during the Covid-19 pandemic. This research is guided by two research questions: 1. How do students at the University of Helsinki describe their experiences of distance communication and learning during the Covid-19 pandemic? And second: 2. How has the Covid-19 pandemic influenced the wellbeing of students at the university? Theoretically, the approach of this thesis builds on social constructionism. Methodologically, reflexive thematic analysis is used, to examine the research material. The empirical data consists of qualitative semi-structured interviews with five university students at the University of Helsinki. The analysis showed significant challenges with communication, learning and wellbeing in the student population, during the Covid-19 pandemic. Overall, communication had deteriorated during the initial phases of the Covid-19 pandemic; however, improved over time. The main recommendation of the research is coordinated action in form of a unified manual regarding online teaching and behavior on Zoom, by universities or similar institutions in Finland, which face a similar challenge as the University of Helsinki. Lecturers are encouraged to take a personal interest in student engagement online, and strongly recommend using cameras, speaking more freely, and participating actively in small groups, for better student success, communication and wellbeing. In addition, students are encouraged to stay social and form support groups on for example Whatsapp or other similar application. In the future, students may be able to use distance learning opportunities for networking and potentially, meeting future colleagues online. Lastly, student wellbeing is in focus, and should be researched further, to implement strategies for the preservation of student wellbeing, wellbeing at university and for sustainable networks in the academic environment.

Nowadays, with the influence of global economy large corporations use global software development to utilise advantages of geographically decentralised organisations and global outsourced software development. Through distributed organisations the work can be done around the clock. Global software development is impacted by three distance dimensions: time distance, geographical distance, and socio-cultural distance, which all bring some challenges. At the same time agile way of working has become more and more popular method in software development. As agile practises are created for co-located teams there is a demand for having working online solutions for communication and collaboration in distributed teams. Corporations use scaled agile way of working to support software develop-ment of large initiatives and projects. Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe) is the most popular among the scaled agile methods. This thesis was conducted as a case study in a multinational corporation. Objective of the case study was to research effectiveness of scaled agile methodology SAFe on communication and collaboration in teams and agile release trains. The case study included two parts: a web-survey and interviews. The results of the analyses of the case study support findings from the literature in the field. The results indicate the importance of communication and collaboration in agile practices and the significance of the online tools that support it.

Synthetic biology is an emerging interdisciplinary field of biology that aims to system-atically design artificial biological systems. As synthetic biologists seek increasingly complex control over cellular processes to achieve robust and predictable systems. A new frontier in synthetic biology is engineering synthetic microbial consortia. This ap-proach employs the concept of division of labor, instead of introducing large genetic cir-cuitry to homogenous cell populations. In this approach, different cell types are assigned to execute a portion of the overall circuit. Each cell type communicates with their co-worker subpopulations to complete the circuit. The main advantage of this strategy is the reduced metabolic burden on each cell type. Thus, leading to more reliable and stable overall performance. In this work, to simplify cellular communication between the mem-bers of the consortium, we used the simple architecture of quorum sensing machinery. We constructed a toolbox that contains promoter, receptor and quorum sensing signal synthase genes along with fluorescent reporters. Using this toolbox, we constructed dif-ferent cell types that can be used in synthetic consortia forming various communication topologies. We characterized the constructed cell types individually and in co-cultures.

Aims The aim for this cross-cultural study was to increase understanding of today's modern relationships by researching the nature of the friends with benefits relationships (FWBRs). The FWBRs are an example of a current type of phenomenon in interpersonal relationships and a new area of investigation in the field of Interpersonal Communication Studies. The FWBR is identified as a friendship where the participants also have sex. The phenomenon was defined and explained through both Finnish and American informants' real life experiences. The research followed the hermeneutic phenomenological tradition with the goal of creating meaning and probing particular features of this kind of relationship. Previous academic research on FWBRs has only concentrated on studying American undergraduate college-students and has mostly been done with quantitative surveys. Unlike the existing academic literature, this study aimed to explore older adults outside of the college surroundings by conducting research with qualitative methods. Methods Half-structured theme interviews were used as a method to gain a deeper understanding of the informants' thoughts, attitudes and experiences. Altogether, 21 interviews were collected for this study. 10 interviews were done in Helsinki, Finland and 11 were done in San Francisco, USA. The participants were heterosexual men and women, aged 24-54. The data was analyzed holistically using the hermeneutical phenomenological approach, combined with qualitative content analysis. Results and Conclusions The FWBR was researched as a complex and ill-defined phenomenon. Certain recurring communication patterns and relationship features were observed to be particular to FWBRs. The biggest differences were observed between different age groups, rather than between the different cultures or genders. The informants agreed that the phenomenon is becoming more acknowledged and popular, and that it should be discussed more openly. FWBRs were seen mainly as experimental relationships that are part of being youth. However, they were observed also as meaningful relationships among older adults. The informants' experiences with FWBRs were mainly positive. However, the participants did not desire to have casual sex. Rather, they were looking for a deeper connection and the possibility for a romantic relationship.

Social capital theory highlights the value of social networks in encouraging cooperation and facilitating change. However, research within this field rarely undertakes a communicative approach to social capital, which ignores the importance of communication in supporting understanding and connections in social interactions. The narrative paradigm is one facet of communication theory but it has considerable pertinence to this research because stories both define and connect us. When narratives are experienced they provide common purpose and action. Nonprofit organizations are another crucial element to understanding the interconnection between social capital and narratives because they provide a space for individuals to build a sense of belonging and solidarity. The primary objective of this paper is to analyze how a nonprofit organization’s narratives foster social capital. This research was a case study of the nonprofit organization HeSeta based in Helsinki, Finland. The data was collected through several in-person interviews, HeSeta’s website, HeSeta’s official Facebook page, and public organizational documents. The results indicate that narratives foster social capital by establishing reasons to connect and interact, creating basic responsibilities to one another and encouraging action together. The creation of shared goals, values, obligations, expectations, and identification helps to build norms of trust, honesty, reciprocity, which establish and sustain a social network and its narratives. The study encourages the development of more critical formations of organizational narratives in nonprofit organizations’ communication to their stakeholders and community, which prioritizes social capital, to help encourage greater interaction and collective action.

Teamwork as a method is very common among employees. Working together and achieving goals craves a lot of communication and knowledge sharing among colleagues. When working with people, it is fact that there are many different personalities and communication habits. Purpose of this study was to examine how knowledge is created in teamwork. The process of the knowledge creation was examined through communication and knowledge sharing among team members. Purpose of this study was to bring up the problem points in this team and through that develop knowledge sharing and make teamwork more effective. The theoretical framework of this study concentrates to examine Nonaka and Takeuchi's (1995) theory of knowledge creation through knowledge conversion, but phenomenon is examined also through other researchers point of view. Results are viewed through this knowledge conversion model. The data was collected from one company's team in October-November 2015. Team members answered to a questionnaire and wrote down memories about their knowledge sharing. I also interviewed eight team members and observed two team meetings. In this team they are communicating a lot, but still there are problems with the knowledge sharing. Team is split in to two different teams, where only one half gets all the information and also shares it. Part of the team members feels that they cannot openly communicate with other team members and cannot bring up development ideas, which affects to knowledge creation. The results show that there is problem with the knowledge sharing between researcher and some research assistants.