The care for the elderly in the municipalities has recently seen the need for a formalized system for quality assurance. Under increasing demands for monetary efficiency while bound by law to retain acceptable standards in health care, there is need for efficient and at the same time quality-assured management. The municipalities often solve this puzzle by introducing systems and standards influenced by theory-clusters such as NPM (New Public Management), TQM (Total Quality Management) or other quality management theories.This essay focuses on how the public administration in the municipalities defines quality and designs and implements system for formalized quality assurance. Our basic view of organizations is institutionalist and our theoretical framework includes theories about quality, NPM and TQM..

The aim with this thesis, based on five childrens librarians statements, is to highlight their view of their work, and what they deem to be of importance when working with small children within the library sphere. My main question is as follows: What motive compels childrens librarians in their work with small children, and will Vygotskys theories be recognised in their statements. I have two questions as a base for this main question: How do childrens librarians work with small children, and do they utilise any special methods in their work? How do childrens librarians view their work tasks, and what do they deem to be of importance regarding small children and libraries? The thesis is based on qualitative interviews. As a theory I have decided to concentrate on Vygotskys thoughts on imagination and creativity, the Zone of Proximal Development, and childrens language development.

The aim of this study is to find out in which way the education about climate in school is taught and how the students experience the world situation today. There are various theories about the greenhouse effect and its origin and these theories should be addressed to ensure that students get a broader understanding of how climate change occurs. This includes the natural phenomena and also the human impact on climate change. Students in school are a source of concern that only human are the cause of global warming, and know little or almost nothing about the natural phenomena of global warming.  I will mention what has emphasized in the national steering documents in the case of environmental education at school.I have used a qualitative method, where interviews and document analysis were used as techniques. The interviews took place with five students in ninth grade and with three science teachers in the same school..

This thesis in sociology was based on a qualitative research strategy. Its intention was to analyze how a specific county in the middle of Sweden work to make the integration process of the unaccompanied refugee youths, with a Swedish residence permit, as good as possible, the other intention was to find out the possible following of this work.Interviews were done and statistics were found, this later on became analyzed together with the theories. The basic theories were integration and class theory.The mainly finding in this study was that that the integration of the unaccompanied refugee children leads them into a lower society class of the Swedish community. This since these youth are more of less forced to follow some steps in the education, which for many of them will lead to that they are too old to apply to the national gymnasium in Sweden, and therefore they only get education though the introduction program, which is not leading to a graduation from the gymnasium. Because of this they are not getting the same chances to succeed with the same kind of education as youth on other programs in the Swedish gymnasium..

In this thesis I'm trying to investigate how good educational computer programs work in elementary school. I delimited the study to contain one elementary school in the stages of 6 to 9. The method I used was qualitative and the approach was inductive. I interviewed four teachers and five pupils as the way to collect data for the study. The theories I used were parts from different books with authors, which have done similar studies and researches.

The purpose of this thesis is to see how small differences in a store can affect the customer behavior. The changes consist of auditory and visual sensory cues. Since many companies today makes a lot of changes in their styling element, but without knowing how it really affects the customer behavior we thought it would be interesting to see by doing an experiment at IKEA. The study is therefore based on a quantitative research method, where theories have been described and from which hypotheses have been derived to test the theories. The experience took place at IKEA during two weeks where 5732 observations were made.The result from the experiment is that the sensory cue sight makes individuals spend more time in the environment but not creating attention.

Abstract Semester and year: Spring, 2008Writers: Victor Andersson and Filip ForslundTutor: Thomas HelgessonProgram: Marketing program, Halmstad University - School of Business and EngineeringTitle: Differentiation from a consumer perspective - How important is differentiation from a consumer?s perspektive when choosing a residence? Presentation of problem: How important is differentiation from a consumer?s perspective when choosing a residence?Purpose: The purpose is on basis from previous theories on the subject to describe what kind of differentiating that from a consumerperspective is the most important when choosing a residence. Key words: Differentiation, brand, apartment market Methodology: This thesis is built on an qualitative method, where eight open individual interviews have been made. Our choice of respondents was based on what kind of respondents that could give us the most accurate information on the subject which we based on relevant variables. Theory: The framing of the theories is based on a marketing perspective within the area of differentiating and focuses on how companies use different tools to differentiate their offer to create competitive advantages.

In this essay the author has chosen to analyze the similarities and differences between some of the northern Europe?s late Mesolithic and Neolithic cultures. The research is of a processual standpoint and the information is mainly gathered from secondary sources as well as ethnological studies. The material collected has been analyzed in both a processual and a post-processual manner to most accurately study the foundations of the three primary theories describing the Pitted Ware Culture?s origin.

 Since the 28thof May the project to develop an internal Innovation Leadership Program (ILP)on Accenture has been running and came to an end in November the same year. The taskwas formed into a master thesis and given to two students at the Royal Institute ofTechnology in Sweden.Since the start the content and structure of the ILP has been established based on the resultsof a theoretical study, a gap analysis and an external and internal benchmarking. The theoreticalstudy focused on articles, books and lectures about innovation, creativity and pedagogy. Subjectssuch as leadership, motivation, reflection and coaching were studied as well, but in a smaller scale.The gap analysis consisted of eleven interviews with people from different career levels withinAccenture and the goal was to establish the view of innovation and creativity among the employees.The interviews also asked about the knowledge the participants had about Technology Lab in orderto get insight of how to improve their communication and cooperation with people in client projects.Internally a similar program was studied called Minority Leadership program, whom will not bedescribed further in this report, to get inspiration. The external benchmarking was conducted onStanford and was very successful.

Purpose/Aim: To investigate why people in the age group of 30-40 subscribe to the traditional morning newspaper even though they can get the same information at a much lower cost from for example TV, the internet or the free daily papers. The aim is to also look at possible future alternatives to the traditional morning newspaper.Material/Method: Focus group interviews were used to gather the empirical material. These consisted of a total number of twelve people, divided into three groups. The results from the focus group interviews were analysed with help from established uses & gratifications theories and two diffusion theories.Main results: This study shows that people read the traditional morning newspaper to get a good mixture of entertainment and local, national and global news. It is relaxing to read the newpaper on paper compared to reading it on the internet, mainly because you get a good overview which makes it a lot easier to find exactly want you want to read.

AbstractThe purpose of this study is to answer the following questions regarding confirmation: In what ways do children seek confirmation in preschool? What are children confirmed for and how do they react to the confirmation? How is confirmation used by teachers? What do children want to receive confirmation for?The starting point for this study is based on the unique theories of Skinner, Maslow and Bronfenbrenner. The main focus with regard to Skinner?s theory (in this study) lies in reinforcement. In Maslow?s theory, the concentration is on hierarchy of needs while in Bronfenbrenner?s theory, the study centers upon interaction.

Problem: The relations between first and second tier suppliers within the automotive industry have changed drastically during recent years. Previously involving the supply of simple components, today the relation involves collaborative product development of complex subsystems. The situation is rather new for the actors, hence there are a number of problems that act as restraints for the collaboration. In order to come to terms with these problems, it is important to determine the underlying causes. Purpose: The purpose of this thesis is to make a survey of the main problems in the collaborative product development between first and second tier suppliers within the Swedish automotive industry.

Abstract Semester and year: Spring, 2008Writers: Victor Andersson and Filip ForslundTutor: Thomas HelgessonProgram: Marketing program, Halmstad University - School of Business and EngineeringTitle: Differentiation from a consumer perspective - How important is differentiation from a consumer?s perspektive when choosing a residence? Presentation of problem: How important is differentiation from a consumer?s perspective when choosing a residence?Purpose: The purpose is on basis from previous theories on the subject to describe what kind of differentiating that from a consumerperspective is the most important when choosing a residence. Key words: Differentiation, brand, apartment market Methodology: This thesis is built on an qualitative method, where eight open individual interviews have been made. Our choice of respondents was based on what kind of respondents that could give us the most accurate information on the subject which we based on relevant variables. Theory: The framing of the theories is based on a marketing perspective within the area of differentiating and focuses on how companies use different tools to differentiate their offer to create competitive advantages.

This essay seeks to gain understanding on the thoughts of Konrad Adenauer regarding the future of Europe in the post-WWII era, and European integration in particular. The material used is his memoirs, which gives an insight into the part of his thought that he chose to share with the rest of the world. The essay uses an analytical framework of three theories, popular within the academic discipline of international relations: realism, liberalism and constructivism. The conclusion it draws is that none of the theories can in a satisfying way describe Adenauer?s thoughts, but rather that they all in some way describe certain elements of his thoughts.

The aim of this essay is to analyze how food and meals produce and reproduce values and power relations and how these processes are portrayed in Virginia Woolf?s To the Lighthouse. Using sociological writings in the field of food consumption and production I study the structures that affect our relation to food and eating. This perspective is combined with a phenomenological view, aiming to examine how food is perceived, which is also inspired by queer theories. Using the method of close reading, the theories are applied to Woolf?s work.