This thesis aims to examine the possibility of understanding social change by using new institutionalism approaches on a specific case, The case, which describes the implementation of new public management reform in the Swedish health care system, is analysed from two separate new institutionalismperspectives; the tool perspective and the symbol perspective. These approaches differ from one another in the sense that the first relies on a rational choice ontology, while the latter rather refers to a sociological tradition. In the analysis, causal explanations as well as aim related explanations are presented. Formative moments such as economic stagnation, non-socialist governments and ideological isomorfism are presented as important factors behind the reformation. By using the tool perspective, the motives of the idea spreading and reformation of the Swedish health care system, are connected to a strictly rationalbasis such as cost efficiency and quality improvements.

Background: Loneliness is an ordinary but complex concept which exist of several dimensions. Loneliness can mean and create suffering for the individual but there is sometimes a need to be alone and some individuals who live alone can experience a communion with the existence itself.Aim: To clarify the concept loneliness and its complexity with focus on the experience of loneliness in elderly individuals.Method: Walker and Avants (2005) model for concept analysisResults: The defining attributes the analysis resulted in that the experience of loneliness in elderly individual's is: a subjective and unique experience; positive or negative and ranges in intensity; strongly connected to communion and social relationships with other individuals; connected to loss and miss of one or several elements as meaningful interactions, communion, physical abilities, work, respect, health and quality of life. The attributes were also closely connected to their antecedents and consequences. To clarify the concept further was a model case, a borderline case and a contrary case created. The empirical referents are presented in the discussion.Conclusion: Through clarifying the core of the concept with focus on elderly individual's experience of loneliness is the hope that this concept analysis can support nursing staff to search for understanding for the elderly individual's experience of loneliness and pay attention to its complexity..

If Swedish companies are to compete with companies in low-cost countries they have to achieve a more efficient production. The purpose of Total Productivity Maintenance (TPM) is to increase the company's profitability by increasing the productivity. TPM is a method that involves all employees and aims to prevent failures in order to increase the availability of existing equipment.The aim of this paper is to evaluate the implementation process of TPM and give recommendations for the further implementation process. The conclusion and the analysis are based on a case study done at a production department at ABB Cewe-Controls facilities in Nyköping. The case study consists mainly of qualitative data from participation observations, surveys and interviews.Commitment of the management is a key factor in the implementation process of TPM.

The formation of sovereign states in regional blocks has become an essential feature in the world system. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to investigate which motives and driving forces that affect the creation of projects of regional integration outside Europe and the Western World. By choosing the Latin American project of integration ALBA (the Bolivarian Alliance of the Americas) as a case of regional integration outside Europe and the Western World, the study investigates the motives expressed by the most prominent actors of the project, Venezuela and Cuba. ALBA is chosen as a representative and a unique case and through the consumption of the gramscian and the realist approaches, the essay defines two motives that affect the creation of projects of regional integration. As a way of investigating the actors? motives, the paper studies political statements, especially those of the Venezuelan president Hugo Chávez, and official positions expressed in central documents and declarations.

The society of today is overflowed with information and commercials. There is a thick media noise that the marketers finds hard to penetrate. Bearing this in mind, we can see that Event Marketing, witch is marketing through events, has grown to be a popular form of communication as it has an ability to work its way through the existing media noise. Through events a company can strengthen its brand and image as well as form a lasting relationship with its consumers. What other functions does Event Marketing possess? In what context is Event Marketing an appropriate marketing strategy to use? These are two questions that we aim to answer through this essay.To be able to answer these questions we interviewed the marketing manager of two different companies, L´oréal and TeliaSonera.

Abstract During object-oriented system development, programming should be preceded by analysis and design to assure that the system fulfils the demands of the customer and simplify during the development phase and documentation. When modeling the analysis and design phases, several different notations may be used. One of these is the UML (Unified Modeling Language) which this thesis will cover. The aim is to compare the use of the UML i practice versus what is said in the literature. The investigation is built upon interviews at different companies to receive their reflections about the UML.

The aim of this study is to explain the paradox of the memberstates willingness to surrender power of important issues such as asylum and refugee policy and therefore partly abandon its sovereignty. We also discuss the relation between internationalization, regionalization and globalization since these processes form the context in which our research problem is found. A case study is used as a method in this paper.In our quest for answers we use a theory of internationalization that we place in its context by primarily discussing the relation between globalization and regionalization. The theory is used as an explanatory force and to give it a concrete form we operationalised its three processes; internationalization of problems, internationalization of the societies and internationalization of the descisionmaking.The result of the case study shows that the increase in asylumseekers leads to a higher risk of negative competition wich give rise to the memberstates need to coordinate their politics.We found that when societies and problems are being internationalized, the state finds it difficult to resolve problems on their own and this leads to the internationalization of the dedescisionmaking. The internationalization of the decision-making process is therefore natural, which in this case means the decisions are taken by the EU rather than by the member states..

HOW DO SOCIAL WORKERS WORK WITH PROSTITUTION? A case study on social work in the work with prostitution and perspectives on the sex purchase law from social workers. PERNILLA ELOFSSON MARIA AHLQVIST Elofsson, P. & Ahlqvist, M. How do social workers work with prostitution? A case study on social work in the work with prostitution and perspectives on the sex purchase law from social workers.

A large proportion of businesses around the world is today ISO 9001 certified and is consequently conducting internal audits on a regular basis. It has however not been possible to conclude that internal audits always add value to the organisation, despite the large utilisation of this tool. Some authors, e.g. Alic & Rusjan (2010) and Wealleans (2000), mean that there are possibilities that internal audits may be used as a value-adding improvement tool. This has led to the emergence of this master?s thesis.The purpose of the case study was therefore formulated to examine how internal quality audits can be made more effective and used as an improvement tool.

In the present case, the conception of policy hitchhiking gets evaluated in terms of its implications for democracy. This task is executed through the accomplishment of a case study of the use of social- and environmental clauses in the Swedish competitive tendering.A useful definition of policy hitchhiking, including different types of actors, is created.Through the defining of democracy and policy hitchhiking, the author comes to the conclusion that policy hitchhiking in some respects does meet democracy values.The thesis? result can in some sense be regarded as a contribution to the pursuit of knowledge of how power is distributed in the society and how the current distribution can be explained and understood..

Within system development users have rarely been involved or received much attention during the development. Most of the times, the primary focus within system development lies on insuring functionality, rather than making the system usable. The literature specifies that a non user-centered approach can contribute to a product with low usability, which can lead to an ineffective and unsatisfactory experience for the end users.The purpose of this thesis is to begin an investigation to see if the use of non user-oriented system development methods is a possible cause of low usability in the final system.To achieve the purpose of this thesis, we have conducted a case study. Within the case study we examined the usability of a time reporting system. The case study included seven minor studies; an investigation concerning the development of the system, an expert evaluation of the system, interviews and observations of users, developed paper prototypes and executable prototypes, both which user testing was performed on.The result of this study shows that by working with user-entered methods, the usability in the time reporting system increased after the design had been revised.

The purpose of this thesis is to shine some light on how B2C companies in Sweden carry out a viral marketing campaign. Through case studies of two comparably sized companies, Arla and If Skadeförsäkringar, this was examined. This study shows that viral marketing is still a new subject for both marketers and researchers. It is hard to find conclusive methods for how to carry out such a marketing campaign successfully leaving companies feeling that they first have to go through a trial and error process. This is evident in this case study, where viral marketing is degraded to a tool for generating awareness rather than producing actual results as part of a holistic marketing plan and where those results are too uncertain to rely on.

AbstractIn this master´s thesis I primarily investigate librarians´ and teachers´ conceptions of collaboration between libraries and schools and their conceptions of childrens´reading. Secondary I investigate the contents of laws concerning libraries and schools and also the school curriculums concerning the subject field of the Swedish language. My theoretical point of departure is that of social constructionism. I use two models in my analysis. One is a model of collaboration created by Patricia Montiel-Overall, called TLC (Teacher Librarian Collaboration), which grades collaboration from the lowest level (A) to the highest (D).

Either if you are a company or a state owned organization, in our case Sodertorn University collage, it is very highly demanded and needed that there is a well-defined definition of the area you perform in. It is also highly recommended that you have an accurate and informal profile of the type of company you are and that you have an effective communication to your surroundings, so that they can perceive it the way the company wishes mediate the message. In this essay we have tried to explain the kind of profile Sodertorn University collage has, and how its current students perceive this profiling strategy.Sodertorn University collage profiles itself through three significant areas: the school claim themselves to be multicultural, multiscientific in an aspect when it comes to courses and programs, and as a school with an ambition to educate and form more critical thinking students. This has become Sodertorn University collages trademark and is quite significant for the school, something that we have examined in our survey among the current students. What we will examine in our essay will only be the two first mentioned components, multicultural and multiscientific programs and courses.We have also had the intention to do a comparison with an earlier essay from 1997 made by two economics students, and put our results in contrast to the earlier results since there were no previous research after this one.

Background: First Line Managers are expected to create a health promoting work environment. Research has shown that the prerequisites for accomplishing a health promoting leadership are not always the best. Aim: The aim was to elucidate the prerequisites for a health promoting leadership as First Line Manager at a University hospital in Sweden based on competence, role, support structures and own durability. Results: First Line Managers at the chosen hospital seems to have rather good conditions for conducting a health promoting leadership. All respondents did have a university degree and most thought that their competence corresponded well with the role.