The aim of this study has been to examine what students within the sport of skydiving think about their education and the social spirit of the community. The purpose of the study is thereby to answer the study's aim through the following questions; how does group dynamics and social solidarity work within the skydiving community, how do the students feel about group dynamics and social solidarity within the skydiving community, and what factors makes the students feel included or respectively excluded from the spirit of the togetherness?The theoretical part of the study focuses on group dynamics and groups overall. Further on earlier research within adventure sports and skydiving regarding group dynamics and community spirit is presented. My survey is based on 35 interviews with skydiving students.The result shows that the community spirit within skydiving sports is described by the students as very special, unique, and strong among the members.

The purpose of this thesis was to illustrate the connection between personal networks and entrepreneurial business in the music industry. It also aims to examine how and why entrepreneurs in the music industry use personal networks in their entrepreneurial business activities. In order to explore the extent to which entrepreneurs in the music industry obtain support through personal networks, a case study was conducted based on interviews with entrepreneurs in various areas of the music industry. The study has shown that entrepreneurs in the music industry clearly see distinct advantages through the use of their personal networks, especially in terms of an enhanced supply of resources and through an increased amount of business opportunities. Personal networks have also shown to constitute a considerable amount of moral support for the entrepreneurs in the development process of the entrepreneurial business.

This paper aims at assessing the relationship between female and male part-time employment and the business cycle in Sweden during the years 1987?2005 using quarterly time-series data and two alternative indicators of the business cycle. It further aims at determining whether the share of women working part-time has changed over time. Key results include that the relationship between the business cycle and female part-time employment is found to be significant and countercyclical. No significant effect is however found for men.

A flat organisation makes a horizontal career development possible, which means that it is more important to develop an individual?s knowledge base than to gain a higher title. This leads to a personal development, which motivates expats to stay. Since the responsibility of the career development mostly lies on expats themselves, companies should create conditions that make individual, internal job search possible. Like in IKEA:s case, it can be done through a strong and prestige less company culture, that penetrates the whole company.

The competitive nature of the automotive industry has always implied a necessity to improve product development concerning time-to-market, cost and product quality. As capacity of computer-aided engineering (CAE) tools has evolved, so has the strive for simulation-driven design. Virtual durability testing using full vehicle models is one of many challenges posed in front of vehicle manufacturers when computer simulations are given a key role in product development.This thesis has been initiated as a preliminary step towards implementing dynamic virtual durability testing in the development of buses and coaches at Scania. The objective has been to assess the predictability of a full vehicle coach model and to what level of precision structural loads can be predicted. Previously performed proving ground testing of a Scania Touring coach has been the basis for the modelling and simulations in this thesis.A virtual model of the Scania Touring coach has been created in multi-body simulation software package MSC.Adams.

The study was conducted at a business in the social service. The purpose was to examine how the business works with human resource planning. In order to answer the purpose two questions was formulated, which human resource planning strategy does the business use? And, how do businesses need to act according to the theory of strategic manpower to achieve human resource planning? Survey data collection was done through a qualitative research design, where interviews with five employees in the business took place.The study shows that the business is using a own made strategy in order to achieve human resource planning. The strategy consists of two steps, in step one they do an background analysis and step two a needs analysis where a goal- and responsibility description are designed and then a set of requirements.

The current paper compares the relations between different measures of activity and some common neuropsychological tests. One-hundred and fifty five healthy elderly, aged 55 - 85, living in Sweden were included. Gender-specific patterns were found for both activities and correlations between activities and cognitive measures. The main findings suggest that activities are associated with cognitive speed in men, whereas, for women, active and passive activities correlate, positively and negatively accordingly, with education. In comparison, complex models of activity outperform simpler ones and theory-driven measures just barely outperform intuitive models..

Background: Knowledge of customer needs is a key factor in companies? struggle to develop successful products. Several studies illustrate that the main reason for failure in product development is lack of customer understanding. Lately considerable changes have occurred. Large-scale mass production is continuously being replaced by customer orientation, especially in the high technological market.

This Master?s thesis is one of two parts of a combined project called Sustainable development around the Lake Victoria, the purpose of which is to investigate the importance of local anchoring and active participation in the work towards sustainable development. The present study aims to investigate whether men and women are empowered by the participatory rural appraisal (PRA) process promoted in their villages by the VI Agroforestry Project Masaka/Rakai. The study is primarily based on interviews with farmers within the project area and brings up a local perspective on the concepts sustainable development, active participation and empowerment. The study shows that to improve the farmers? livelihood and to create a sustainable development in the community, the farmers have to be actively involved in, and in control of, the process.

This essay examines the limits of marketing strategies in the online casino industry, focusing on how data-driven and advanced marketing practices influence consumer behavior and contribute to problematic gambling consumption. By observing the online casino industry, the study identifies how companies use sophisticated data analysis methods and psychological techniques to attract and retain customers, raising significant ethical and social issues. The study highlights three key perspectives: the consumer's, the producer's, and the legislator's. From the consumer's perspective, it explores how various consumer behaviors, from responsible gambling to problematic overconsumption, are influenced by marketing and gaming experiences. This includes an analysis of how cognitive limitations and psychological biases can lead to irrational decisions and an increased risk of gambling addiction. From the producer's perspective, it examines how gambling companies use marketing strategies and technologies to increase profitability and what incentives they have to take social responsibility according to modern Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) principles. It appears that companies do not see CSR as a business goal beyond the risk of current and future regulatory compliance requirements and policy changes. From the legislator's viewpoint, the current regulatory framework for the gambling industry is discussed, including the changes that occurred in 2019 when the special monopoly form we had in Sweden was transformed into a license market.

This study examines the closure of public libraries, and the nonprofit organizations takeover of them as a phenomenon. The aim is to understand why the nonprofit takeover is common and what the takeover symbolizes and if the discourse in media invokes the views on libraries and the profession.Interviews were made with librarians, politicians and representatives of a nonprofit organization to study different sides of the phenomenon. Other empirical data were found in local and national newspapers and media-channels. I discovered that public libraries are highly valued by both politicians and the community. The study also showed that a library in a community makes people feel valued.

AbstractDenna uppsats handlar om hur community radiostationerna Mega FM och Radio Wa i norra Uganda arbetar med fredsjournalistik. Syftet med uppsatsen är att öka förståelsen för relationen mellan community radio och fredsjournalistik. Det är inte bara relevant för journalistikvetenskapen, utan även för alla som är intresserade av utveckling och freds- och säkerhetsfrågor i konfliktområden.  Hur ser det fredsjournalistiska arbetet ut i praktiken på community radiostationerna Mega FM och Radio Wa? Vilka förutsättningar är nödvändiga, enligt Mega FM och Radio Wa, för att skapa ett generellt freds- och försoningsrelaterat radioprogram? Vilka svårigheter finns för att lyckas genomföra ett fredsjournalistiskt arbete, enligt Mega FM och Radio Wa? Frågeställningarna har besvarats genom kvalitativa informantintervjuer med radiojournalister i Gulu och Lira, och observationer. Det teoretiska ramverket inkluderar fredsforskning, utvecklingskommunikation, deltagande kommunikation, teorier om community radio och fredsjournalistik.

The role of the quality manager has evolved from being a quality controller to work with a more global business. Within many organizations in Sweden, however, the traditional role of the quality manager's remains and the tasks categorized as quality control still takes up most of the quality manager's time. The survey conducted as part of this master thesis shows that the quality manager in most businesses has multiple roles in addition to the role of quality manager, which can create a role conflict. One consequence of this is that each improvement is not given priority due to time constraints. Although the importance of a clear and committed leadership is the key for succeeding as the quality manager.

This study is an attempt to examine the information needs and use in everyday tasks inthe work environment of community health nurses. The purpose of this paper is double toexamine the information need and use of the community health nurses and to test and validatea method and a theory for the studying of information need and use in workers everydaytasks adapted from Byström and Järvelin (1995). Most of the data were collected throughdiaries kept by the informants in close relationship to the problem situations and were analysedqualitatively. Furthermore a literature survey was made in nursing infomatics and informationscience and it showed that there is no absolute common ground between the disciplinesin the way they use the information concept.The theory and method were validated in a broad outline and were very useful in the study ofcommunity health nurses' information needs and use. The study also shows that the contextof community health nurses plays an important role in the nurses information behaviour..

Public concern and the need of responsible way of doing business have brought forward the issue of sustainability at the forefront of discussion in the last decade. Even though, food retailers are playing an important role in the economy, they are exposed for criticism by media and consumers for any socially and environmentally irresponsible business practices because, the potential environmental and social impacts from their operations are significant. These impacts need to be recognized and properly addressed. The main objective of this study was to assess the sustainable business management of a cooperative food retail business in Sweden, known as Konsum Värmland (KV). The necessary data and information on history and status of KV, and its practical activities concerning the implementation of sustainable development programs as well as the motivation and challenges encountered by KV during the implementation were gathered via reviewing different documents, research papers and press releases; interviewing decision makers and other personnel in KV and other researchers from Swedish University of Agricultural University who have investigated KV.