Abstract Author: Annika Sjögren ArvidsonTitle: The reflective leadership role in social service organizations Supervisor: Anders GiertzAssessor: Jan Petersson  I have studied the leadership role of unit managers in social service organizations and their relationship to the concept of reflective approach. I started from a curiosity about how and if unit managers within social services use the concept reflective approach in their leadership role, and how their organizations look upon this and what the consequences are. If in the long term, this affects the individual receiving assistance. All the interviewed persons come from different places, services and organizations. The study is qualitative, with a number of interviews conducted with unit managers.

During the end of the nineteenth century and the beginning of the twentieth century Sweden experienced social changes. The proceeding industrialization led to a process of urbanization where people were forced, more or less, in to the cities to find work. The traditional agricultural self-sufficiency society was successively replaced by salaried employment. This meant that family and home was no longer the major centre of production, nurturance and care. In order to support themselves and their families, even women applied for industrial work.

International organizations are important actors on the stage of world politics, and how these actors securitize the climate change issue is of importance for how it will be tackled by actors on global and national levels. The purpose of this study is to contribute to research on climate security discourses and how climate change is defined as a security concern amongst different actors. This study, in contrast to previous research, focuses on systematically mapping the definitions made by different international organizations by asking: whose security is at stake; who is responsible for responding to the threat; how is the nature of the threat defined; and what responses are suggested? By analyzing material consisting of a variety of documents and statements from five international organizations, I aim to identify differences between these actors ? in how the climate change issue is conceptualized from a security perspective. The result of the study shows that only one of the organizations shows clear elements of the national/geopolitical security discourse, while all of the other actors primarily use the human security discourse.

There are certain organizations that manage to handle risk in such a successful way that they almost stay error-free, in spite of the fact that they daily face the risks of accidents. These organizations are usually given the name High Reliability Organizations (HRO). While the most common example is that of a nuclear plant the variety of what organizations can fit into the category is extensive.The purpose of this study is to describe safety culture and theories about HRO and how these can be found in practise within an organization.This qualitative research uses influences of ethnography in its method. The ethnographical approach was picked due to the field of the study and the cultural context in which it is set.The results of the study identify a number of elements sorted into four themes. These themes are deemed compatible or non-compatible with relevant existing theories.

The concept of a Sharia compliant financial system has been a frequently discussed topic among scholars, bankers and media since the 1960th. It origins from the prohibition of interest, riba, which is stated in the Quran. Islamic banking is spread across the Muslim world and also exists in some western countries. This paper will try to create an image of what Islamic banking is in theory and in practice. This will be done by looking into the different methods of interest free banking, the Quran and the annual reports of four Islamic banks in different countries.

 There is an ongoing reorganization within media industries today as they adapt to new and changing demands - the environment is changing fast and the organizations with it. The development of new technology is contributing to new forms of media distribution in the present media industry. The structure of media organizations is getting flatter and the co-workers are getting a new and bigger role. All this is bringing new challenges for the leaders of the organization. Caught in the middle of these new structures is the middle manager who now is facing different demands from all sides.

Civil society is facing many challenges in modern society and there is a lot of debate about where it is heading - is volunteer work declining or just taking a new form Whichever hypothesis will prove correct in the future, organizations that are dependent on volunteers will need to adapt to the new circumstances. This study aims to examine what forces drive voluntary work at Rädda Barnen (Save the Children Sweden) and Hungerprojektet (The Hunger Project Sweden). Through interviews with employees and volunteers at the two organizations, this study finds that volunteers at Rädda Barnen are primarily driven by values and understanding, and that the volunteers at Hungerprojektet are primarily driven by career and to some extent by values, enhancement and social factors. Understanding these driving forces allow the organizations to adapt to the new circumstances by matching the volunteers interests with the organizations' needs..

The concept of a Sharia compliant financial system has been a frequently discussed topic among scholars, bankers and media since the 1960th. It origins from the prohibition of interest, riba, which is stated in the Quran. Islamic banking is spread across the Muslim world and also exists in some western countries. This paper will try to create an image of what Islamic banking is in theory and in practice. This will be done by looking into the different methods of interest free banking, the Quran and the annual reports of four Islamic banks in different countries.

Uganda and Tanzania are two countries severely affected by HIV/AIDS. Hence, there are a numbers of associations for PLHA there. In "Global transformations. Politics, economics and culture", Held, Mc Greew, Goldblatt and Perrton focuses None Governmental Organizations as important actors in the globalized world of today, with increased opportunities to influence and affect the politics. The aim of this paper is to investigate the opportunities for associations for PLHA in Tanzania and Uganda to affect in the national level of politics.

The term ?social competence? is widely used by organizations in job advertisements, despite the problems of making a unified definition of it. The purpose of this study is to investigate which features the organizations require, why organizations require them and how the assessment is implemented for recruitment. To answer the purpose of this study, eight qualitative interviews conducted with recruiters from four different staffing agencies. Further a literature study was performed to define the concept of ?social competence? and its meaning, in order to later connect this to the result.

Background: Corporations are established and organized in order to create economic values for their owners and the main aim of every business enterprise is to be profitable and satisfy the financial expectations of their shareholders. However, corporate social responsibility focuses on the ethical aspects of corporate business in order to achieve the balance between the profitability and social responsibility. Nongovernmental organizations through their activities promote the respect for human rights and environmental care within the corporate world. Purpose and Scope: To make an in-depth study about the role of nongovernmental organizations regarding corporate social responsibility in order to increase the understanding of corporate social responsibility. Methodology: We used literature research for our thesis and we analysed the secondary data related to the corporate social responsibility.

My aim is to provide knowledge about ways of understanding Intranet as a communication artifact. Today organizations plan to update their technology so as to make the communicative functions of Web 2.0 come true. With this objective in mind organizations will be prepared to meet social demands among staff. After interviewing intranet managers I have compiled qualitative data in categories. My approach is influenced by a phenomenographic approach.

Problem: The authors have, during the process of development of this thesis, tried to create an understanding of how a number of organizations, all working with different approaches around the ?brand Sweden?, perceive the efficiency and benefits of using extended concept around embassies as a tool in their strategic work. The embassies in question have an evolved concept in the sense that they don not only hold a traditional political and legal role. The problem facing us authors was the issue whether theses embassies are efficient arenas to coordinate the forces and resources of the organizations concerned, in the mission to enhance the visibility and awareness of Sweden abroad.Purpose: The purpose is to describe the strategic work with marketing Sweden to be able to look in to whether the evolved concept behind the embassies in question are used as a tool in within the work of the organizations. We wish to research this to be able to evaluate if this arena is perceived as efficient for the organizations concerned.Method: In order to get a background to which one establish and communicate a nations brand the authors have studied literature within the subject.

Objective: In this thesis, we assume that the organizations' interests are governing their behavior/positions. It seems possible to draw conclusions about organizations'interests on the basis of the behavior / positions that will appear in the givenopinions on Swedish Public Investigations. The purpose of this thesis is toidentify self-interests of the studied organizations as they appear in their givenopinions.Method: The authors have made a qualitative and quantitative study of the opinions.Theoretical perspective: The basis of the study is the organization theories that focus the self-interest oforganizations.Empiric: Information is taken from four Swedish Public Investigations: the New Company Act, International Accounting for Swedish companies, Abolition of the audit requirement for small and medium sized enterprise and Simplified accounting. Altogether 310 opinions have been given on these, out of which we have studied 59. Furthermore, we have collected information on tasks, activities and objectives from the websites of the opinion giving organizations.Conclusions: In the literature, we found, as mentioned, that organizations havet hree self- interests which we define as general self-interests.

Worldwide result over internetusers show that Sweden internet users comes at third place. The technological development has been explosive. Individuals can with the help of technology live some, in other cases all their social lifes through social media. Therefore organizations has a lot to gain by using social media to interact and start up dialogue with their audicence. There are different views whether a civic society has developed on internet or not.