Adaptive capacity is essential for organisations to be able to adapt to the sustainability challenge, and change its course. Nonviolent Communication (NVC) is an interpersonal communication tool that enables a user to move from a language of judgements to a language of needs by using 4 steps: observation, feelings, needs, and request. As communication is essential to the adaptive capacity of a social system, this thesis explores the question: How does Nonviolent Communication support the adaptive capacity of organisations? Through a mixed methods approach (semi-structured interviews and surveys with NVC trainers, organisational representatives and employees), the effects of NVC on communication in 3 sample organisations in the Netherlands (a school, NGO and research institute), is explored. Quantitative survey results show that NVC has a positive to very positive effect on common organisational communication dynamics. Qualitative data supports this finding and shows that NVC brings positive effects of increased understanding, listening, and progress in work related issues through an increased awareness of one’s own and other’s needs and feelings. When linking these results to adaptive capacity of organisations, it is concluded that NVC directly supports the adaptive capacity elements of trust, diversity and learning, and indirectly supports common meaning and self-organisation.

The general awareness of the sustainability challenge and the urgency to act is increasing. However, the actions being taken do not seem to be sufficient, nor the communication about sustainability effective enough, to ensure a sustainable future. For our research, we looked at the work of sustainability practitioners using a scientifically robust framework called the Framework for Strategic Sustainable Development (FSSD). The research focuses on the interaction between the sustainability practitioner and the audience when communicating the FSSD. It is guided by its central inquiry, how the practice of storytelling can support sustainability practitioners in their work context. A literature review and a total of 13 interviews with sustainability and storytelling practitioners comprise the basis for this analysis. Based on our findings we map out the current practices of storytelling used by sustainability practitioners in the field and offer recommendations with the intention of enhancing this practice. Our research showed that sustainability practitioners practice and benefit from storytelling throughout their work in various ways. We consider this research with all its limitations as an awareness raiser and invitation to deepen the conversation and the exchange of experience and knowledge around the topic of storytelling for sustainability. 

This thesis focuses on persuasion and how principles of persuasion embedded within mobile health applications are there to promote attitude and behavioral change. It includes a background in rhetoric; beginning with the Aristotelian method for persuasion, then stretching on to psychological rhetoric, and finally how the Aristotelian methods have worked its way into everyday society, especially in marketing and games. The thesis then benefits from the rhetoric background as it explores Dr. BJ Fogg’s model of behavior as well as his principles of persuasion.

An analysis of the mobile health application “My Fitness Pal” is made. After which the principles are transferred into a mockup designed to fit another context, namely education. This to challenge the authors hypothesis, that the same principles of persuasion used to promote and persuade the user to do a physical activity, can also be used to persuade a user to study.

Background

Distance management is regarded as the modern organization's way of directing its employees to achieve what is best for the organization. They primarily control their employees by setting organizational goals to guide employees in the right direction. In order to achieve good management, it is necessary that the organizations have good communication with their employees, not least when information about their goals is to be communicated. Recent technological advances in communication have helped organizations develop their way of communicating to their employees. Within organizations, it is important to have a variety of different and functioning strategies for communicating and achieving their organizational goals. The development of communication has thus led to the management of organizations to convey their organizational goals by means of a variety of communication channels. The literature study pointed out that organizations are increasingly using distance communication in their operations. Management within consulting companies has a constant distance factor to take into account when it comes to managing their organizations. And that their employees work for two organizations, which leads to a multi-organizational culture. The consulting industry thus became interesting to investigate because of its distance management, distance communication and multi-organizational culture as other industries also tend to go against this organizational structure.

Purpose

This study aims to investigate how knowledge-intensive organizations in the form of consulting companies control their activities with the help of organizational goals. A major focus will be on communication about the organizational goals between company management and employees.

Method

This is an explorative study where a couple of consulting companies were included in a case study to investigate how communication about the organizational goals is perceived and managed by the consultants involved. The study is structured so that the management company management stands for one party and the consultants for the other. Since then, their perception of communication regarding the organizational goals has been investigated with the help of interviews and questionnaires. Furthermore, the two parties were compared to identify any differences in their views. The reason why a particular consulting company was chosen was because a large part of this study will focus on the distance dimension of communication. This is because the management within the consulting company and the consultants usually do not do their everyday work under the same roof.

Result

The result indicated that there discrepancy in specific communication aspects between the management within the consulting company and the consultants. In other aspects, the two parties' views reflect each other better. The biggest similarities identified were awareness of the existence of organizational goals and its importance to the company as a whole. However, perceptions differed somewhat when it came to the significance of organizational goals at the local level. Further to the result, it is possible to further question whether the management of the respective respective consulting companies is managed with regard to the organizational goals.

Conclusion

Some conclusions that were drawn were that the consultancy companies in the study place great focus on their management work on mediating, feedback and creating a good understanding among the organization's consultants about organizational goals. It can also be noted that the consultancy companies involved are actively working on methods and approaches to the communication of the organizational goals that are well founded in the theory of communication. The consulting companies primarily solve the problems regarding the distance factor and the multi-organizational culture by mostly communicating organizational goals through physical meetings with their consultants. The management company's management is well aware that initially the organizational goals are often abstract. Which means they have to be broken down and concreteized, preferably with the help of the consultants so that they can more easily apply them to their everyday work. The result also shows that there is a certain problem of conflicts between the consulting company's organizational goals and the customer company's organizational goals. 

Communication is a large part of multiplayer games, however sometimes communication may lead to misunderstandings or undesired effects which results in hostile behaviors. Toxicity is a huge problem in the video game culture, but by knowing the different emotional effects that voice and text communication causes on a human in a game environment, might be a step towards preventing toxicity from happening.

This bachelor thesis is about the human identity in the postmodern society, and how it changes throughout the paradigm shift we’re going forward into. What kind of impact do the various blogs have on their public concerning the consumption of brands and fashion? And how come various big brands choose to do their product placement on specific blogs? In this thesis I will discuss and compare the changes from how we used to show our status in the society in the past and how we do it today with digital tools.  Why are people so urged to show others in the society who they are, and how come we do it by wearing specific clothes and brands that other tells us to wear in order to have a higher status? These phenomena’s reflects the way we build our identity today. The other aspect of the digitalization I’m discussing in this thesis is the importance of package-design in order to attract costumers to the physical store, and maintain the brand-loyalty during the transition for the stores.