Syftet med denna studie har varit att studera kulturskillnader mellan Sverige och Baltikum upplevda av medarbetare på nyckelpositioner inom Swedbank. Medarbetare från både Sverige och de baltiska staterna har intervjuats för att ge sin syn på Swedbanks internationalisering. Studien har utgått från Geert Hofstedes begreppsapparat om kulturskillnader och senare forskning inom ämnet, samt forskning om svenska bankers internationalisering. För att operationalisera syftet har fyra frågor skapats med utgångspunkt i teorin, dessa frågor används senare för att kategorisera källmaterialet. Studien visar att kulturskillnader upplevs tydligare i samband med organisatoriska förändringar eller när en lågkonjunktur inträffar och att den svenska synen på konsensus inte är gällande överallt.

The aim of this essay is to investigate what is burnout and how women who are affected by it manage their condition. Furthermore, we have investigated stigma and whether or not those affected by burnout are in turn stigmatised.A qualitative approach has been used to achieve our aims with this project. To support our analysis we have interviewed ten women who all have been diagnosed with fatigue syndrome along with studying relevant literature. The main theories used in this investigation are the symbolic interaktionism by G.H Mead, the term stigma by Erving Goffman and different theories on coping.The results show that the majority of women in the study had suffered from burnout due to work related stress and changes in their working environment. How they coped with and recovered from the condition depended on their own activity and how it related to their own support system.

The aim of this study is to analyse and investigate a rather new field of LIS studies, i.e. link analysis which is a part of webometrics. Webometrics has been described as the quantitative study of web based phenomena drawing on bibliometric or informetric methods. Link analysis has its counterpart in citation analysis within the field of bibliometrics. The questions the study investigates are if webometrics can provide LIS with new knowledge and if there is a place for webometric studies in LIS research.

Government regulations and customs duties restrict the import of trucks to some of the markets to which Scania tries to sell their trucks. The distribution problem due to these regulations is solved by the foreign assembly department, KD, at Scania. This means that competence is needed and costs are added not related to Scania's core operations.The aim of this master thesis has been to analyse and to evaluate alternative ways of managing the packing operations considering cost, quality and work organisation. To study and examine the work methods and operations of today and also to present methods measuring the operations effectiveness and productivity.We have used the system approach to maintain totality and to understand the component's relation to this totality. Field studies combined with studies of relevant literature and studies of other companies operations have given us the knowledge and the understanding of the packing operations needed.

The purpose of this study was to highlight how women who have been victims of rape are described in discussion forums on the Internet and how the view obtained is affected by victim and gender constructions. By observing several discussion threads on Swedish internet forums, we have been able to explore how discussions and attitudes are made about women who are victims of rape and which characteristics are assigned females. This study analyzes these attitudes from a gender construction theory and a victim construction theory. Through this analysis, we wanted to gain a deeper understanding of attitudes about female rape victims and if the attitudes are rooted in victim and gender constructions. This study shows that women are often assigned responsibility to a rape if she put herself at risk and if she is assigned negative attributes such as promiscuous, as a liar or if she drinks too much alcohol.

Syftet med studien var att studera hur fenomenet självläkning framställdes i nationell och internationell forskning. Studien omfattar tre frågeställningar: (1) Hur definieras alkoholmissbruk i artiklarna? (2) Hur definieras självläkning i artiklarna? (3) Hur framställs självläkningsprocessen i artiklarna? För att besvara dessa frågeställningar gjordes en selektiv kunskapsöversikt och en kvalitativ innehållsanalys användes som metod. Kunskapsöversikten utgjordes av tio forskningsdokument vilka omfattades av kvalitativa och kvantitativa undersökningar mellan åren 1996-2007. Studiens position är postmodern.

This study focuses upon the new societal objects that are termed public privatepartnerships where the public sector forms strategic alliances with the private sectorand the civil society to manage the wicked issues of today. An exampel of suchcooperation is Vänerhamn AB where the municipalities around the lake of Vänernand the private shipping companies got togheter to handle an economic crisis of theshipping buisiness. The partnership Vänerhamn has developed from a problematicactivity to a healthy company and the aim of this thesis is to illuminate thisdevelopment through an historical institutional approach, focusing critical junctureto discover if the governance theory can be used to understand the partnershipspositive process. This will be done through research questions about the organisation of thepartnership, about the members interests with the partnership and about eventuallycoordination problems in the partnership. The questions derive from dimensions ingovernance theory, central for the activity of partnerships. Interviews with centralinformants where held and it was complemented through a document analyses inorder to search for indications of the dimensions and that is the methodologicalapproach of the study. The conclusion of this thesis is that the governance theory can be used tounderstand Vänerhamns postive development since the members interest with thepartnership to a begining was not at all conformed and that led to obviouscoordination problems.

The workplace is perhaps the most developed arena for prevention of diseases and injuries among employees. In addition, according to the Swedish Work Environment Act, the employer is responsible to address physical and psychosocial risk factors. Moreover, many employers use health promotion, primarily related to individuals and their ambition to maintain or improve health, for example through dietary means and exercise. The aim of this study is to investigate health inspirers in municipal activities and their perceived support and motivation in work related to health promotion at the workplace. A qualitative method was chosen where six health inspirers within Ludvika kommun were interviewed.

Den sociala ångesten många känner i olika situationer kan leda till undvikande, isolering och ibland även kompliceras av depressiva symtom och/eller alkoholanvändning. Huruvida ett samband mellan dessa problem kan visa sig i 16-17 årsåldern undersöktes genom en enkät om nedstämdhet, alkoholanvändning och social ångest. Resultatet visade att nedstämdhet hade en inverkan på grad av social ångest hos båda könen. Dock var tjejer i högre grad än killar mer nedstämda. Tjejer som drack mindre uppvisade en högre grad av social ångest.

The purpose of this essay was first and foremost to find out the problems that exist around user education in a university library and the opportunities that exist for university librarians to improve their work with students. My method of use was qualitative and more precise qualitative interviews. By interviewing five teaching librarians with five different subject specializations, I wanted to get an an-swer to what they teach when they meet the students and how they view their teaching. Responses resulted then in an analysis using Christine Bruce's theory of information literacy and Carol C. Kuhlthaus theory of librarian roles and her theory of information retrieval process.

In my degree project I have focused on how to make it easier for ambulance personnel to remove a motorcycle helmet after an accident. During my research I have interviewed ambulance personnel from different cities and a trauma surgeon to get a better understanding of how they work today and the problems they experience. Some of the problem areas are that you need a lot of force to remove the helmet, that the padding catches the ears and that the chin guard catches the face. Since ambulance personnel always assume that there is a neck injury after an accident, all these problems make it difficult to remove the helmet safely.The result is a motorcycle helmet with a focus on safe removal after an accident, to reduce the risk of worsening a neck injury. The solution suggested is that a small part of the back of the helmet is detachable, to make the opening larger.

Over the last decade, the private insurance market has undergone a stable growth in turnover and growing demand for insurance products in all Member States of the European Union. Therefore, the creation of a single market in insurance will enable consumers to have access to wider choice of insurance products, and insurance companies to gain access to markets in various Member States and compete effectively. The EU legal framework for the insurance industry embraces the Treaty freedoms of services, establishment and capital, the EC Directives and the ECJ case-law. The present thesis identifies numerous factors that hinder the Community insurance market integration and offers possible remedies. The summary of the market obstacles is all-inclusive and reflects the responses to the questionnaires and the Commission surveys.

The aim of this study was to examine how adoptive parents related to parenting and how they related to their children?s biological origin. Issues that were used were how adoptive parents described their own parenting, how they described their own thoughts about their children eventually wanting to search their biological origin and how adoptive parents described the child´s country of birth attitudes towards adoptees wishes to search their biological origin. The method used was qualitative research interviews. The theory that was used for analyzing the collected data was attachment theory.

Adolescence is a turbulent time in life and gives rise to new information needs for young people. Information needs related to school subjects have been relatively well researched but few studies have focused on information needs and use related to life concerns. The purpose of this Master's thesis is to examine the information needs of a number of teenage girls in relation to their life concerns and how they meet these needs. The sample consists of twenty-one girls aged thirteen and fourteen. The research is based on literature studies and qualitative interviews combined with a questionnaire.

The aim of the study was to examine how substance abuse influences social relationships to families, friends and others. Five ex addicts in a treatment centre were interviewed. We used thematic interviews with themes that we regarded as relevant for our study. In the analysis we applied the theoretical concept of symbolic interactionism. Theories of emotions also helped us to explain feelings that arise in the social relationships.