Quality Assurance in Service Procurement --- Total Quality and Total Quality Management refer to popular management philosophies in organizations these days. The purchasing department has an important part in the strive for organizational quality as several studies show corporate spend is significant and increasing. In this master thesis I study the actions companies take to ensure quality in service procurement. I argue that managing quality when sourcing services is particularly tricky, because of the special characteristics that belong to services. The purpose of the study is to examine whether different actions are taken to ensure the quality of different kinds of services.

The study was conducted with an landscape approach with an subject related approach in the field of environmental psychology to investigate how road design affects drivers' choice of speed. The purpose was to portray road environments on thoroughfares in urban areas to motivate motorists to keep the speed limit and thus increase road safety for vulnerable road users. The task question was formulated, how can thoroughfares in suburban settings be portrayed to motivate motorists to reduce speed? The study was conducted throughout a literature review of motivational speed measures along with interviews with road design experts at the Swedish Transport Administration. Case studies were conducted on three thoroughfares in the Stockholm suburbs Vallentuna, Upplands Väsby and Danderyd.

Prior research on the ability of financial ratios to predict bankruptcies has shown a significant difference between the companies that went into bankruptcy and those that survived. This paper investigates whether there is a difference in the prediction ability of financial ratios during the last financial crisis compared to relatively normal macroeconomic environments in which most previous studies have been conducted. We use univariate analysis to compare companies that went into bankruptcy during 2010 and 2011 with companies that remained active. Our dataset consists of 51 failed companies that are matched with 102 companies that remained active. All companies were Swedish limited companies with more than 50 employees and the comparison is made with 26 financial ratios.

Purpose/Aim: The aim of this thesis was to examine how multi channel publishing in different stages effect the work for journalists.Material/Method: The thesis is based on ten case studies selected from the literature and one conducted especially for this thesis. The case studies have been categorized according to a model that describes three strategies for multi channel publishing. The first strategy is to have a primary publishing channel, the second is to have separate editorial staffs for all publishing channels and the third is to treat all publishing channels equally.Main results: Journalists working for companies using the first strategy have not experienced any major differences in working conditions or work practices. For journalists employed by companies using the second strategy for multi channel publishing the effects on the journalists was noticeable but not major. The effects on journalists in companies using the third strategy are mainly stress and an uncertainty regarding how to use special media techniques..

The aim of this study was to explore the students? use of and attitudes towards cannabis at Linnaeus University. Social psychology and gender perspective was used as theories to explain the use and attitudes among the students? and how the use and attitudes could change through social influence. The study operates from a quantitative approach and is based on an online survey which includes answers from 126 respondents.

This paper attempts to display how five teachers of social studies use and relate to the policy documents and their instructions on gender. To penetrate the subject, five teachers were intreviewed. Each interview focused on how the curriculum attempts to guide teachers regarding gender, sex differences and equality of opportunity. The collected information was processed, analyzed and discussed using gender studies and discourse theory.The results show that the interpretation and usage of the curriculum is very subjective and varies greatly between all the interviewed teachers. Their personal interpretation proves to be crucial when it comes to making reality of the stated goals in the curriculum, concerning actively working towards equality of opportunity between sexes.

Sahlgrenska AcademyAt University of GothenburgDepartment of Internal Medicine and Clinical NutritionAbstract:Titel: Effect on muscle building associated with alcohol intake after exerciseAuthor: Frida Bond och Linnea DanielssonSupervisor: Frode SlindeExamminer: Anna WinkvistProgramme: Dietician study programme, 180/240 ECTSType of paper: Examination paper, 15 hpDatum: May 26, 2014Background: Drinking alcohol is often used as something to spice up weekdays as well as more festive occasions. The reverse aspect of alcohol consumption is that the body sees alcohol as toxic and therefore the basis for a number of diseases. Exercise and physical activity have been proven to be good for several welfare diseases such as diabetes and cardiovascular disease. Among people in general, opinion is divided as to how exercise combined with alcohol affects muscle building, but what do science say? Objective: The purpose of this review article is to analyze and summarize the existing scientific data about how the structure of muscles is affected in relation to alcohol intake after exercise.

Detta är en kvalitativ studie som baseras på innehållsanalys av två etnografiska dokumentärfilmer. Den första är den världskända ?Nanook of the North?, här får man följa inuiterna under ett år (1922). Den andra filmen är ?Ett år med Samer och Renar?, här får man följa samerna under ett år (1993).

This essay aims to study how national tests in the ninth grade are being viewed upon in the Swedish school system. What are the affected people?s thoughts regarding its field of application? For further information about this matter, three different sub studies have taken place. In the first sub study, literature from The Swedish National Agency for Education (SNAE) has been studied and compared to other researches. In the second sub study, pupils who took part in the national tests during the previous year answered a survey about their experiences working with the tests.

Construction companies are frequently criticized for high prices and long construction time. At the same time, statistics shows that construction workers are on the sick-list for occupational injuries or casualties more than other groups at the labour market.Skanska built a block of flats with tenant-ownerships in Gävle. The construction consists of concrete walls with in-fill walls in the front. The purpose with this degree project is to perform a risk analysis in work environment with focus on repetitive strain injuries and control the time report for in-fill walls manufactured in a field factory. The result of this project will help to make more realistic cost predictions in the future.This degree project has been performed in cooperation with the construction company Skanska.

Drink! The Marketing History of The Coca-Cola Company: A Modernization Perspective examines the development of The Coca-Cola Company?s marketing history, from the founding of the company in 1886 until today. The Coca-Cola Company has been superior on the market for over a century. It has also developed along with the urbanisation of its society, which is interesting in a modernization perspective. The essay investigates the marketing strategies of the company, with focus on three themes: gender, sponsorship and interactive culture phenomenon.

The purpose of this essay is to analytically review and discuss architecturalcompetitions, mainly through the general views of a few selected workinglandscape architects, architects and scientists. I have studied the moral and workethicalaspects of using graphical presentations as a mean to draw attention,rather than trying to meet the set program points.My results are derived from e-mail interviews, literature studies and studies ofthe competition entry Stockholmssfären from the competition Stockholmsportenwhich was held in Sweden early 2011.The literature studies have shown that the available literature on architecturalcompetitions and research on the subject is biased towards architecture ratherthan landscape architecture. Worth mentioning is also that there is not a lot ofavailable literature, mainly due to lacking research on the subject.The informants for the interviews were selected based upon their academicmerits and/or experience of working with or doing scientific research onarchitectural competitions. The landscape architects? opinions regardingarchitectural competitions turned out to be in many ways alike ? they seemed tohave a pretty relaxed view of competing in architecture.

The purpose of this study was to investigate if preferences for high- and low context communication differed significantly between individuals from individualistic and collectivistic cultures, living in a multicultural environment. A quantitative survey was used as method and the survey was answered by 150 students at Jönköping University and Uppsala University. Two self-assessment scales, obtained from previous studies were used to measure the degree of the two cultural dimensions and communication styles. Two multiple regression analyzes were performed to investigate the connection between collectivist cultures preference for high context communication and individualistic cultures preference for low context communication, that has been found in previous studies. Two ANOVAs were also performed to investigate differences in communication style depending on sex and length of stay in Sweden.

In this paper I have conducted an analysis to critically examine survey questionnaire forms used in political research to measure trust and distrust. During the first step of the analysis I aimed to identify how the concepts where used in the forms. The second step involved examining if it was possible to relate the questions and items to five theoretical assumptions based on theories of trust (and distrust). The third step was to examine the quality of the forms, in relation to survey and questionnaire designs.The results of the analysis showed that the institutes that conduct the studies tended to use similar questions to measure trust. Some of the forms that where analyzed had very many questions, which could lead to exhaustion for those participating in studies.

From a management point of view, enabling organizational creativity is often referred to as reducing immediate control, increasing autonomy and enhancing the access to slack resources. At the same time, the business environment of today is fiercer than it was only a decade ago, and this renders a quest for more efficient approaches to competitively run a business. This paper aims to examine creative industries and more specifically try to identify a set of elements that are common for successful companies. As this industry has not been subject to any considerable array of studies, this thesis seeks to establish a structure for how to take both organizational models and leadership theories into account when developing an understanding for the process, organization and leadership of the creative business. By studying six separate creative companies, our findings suggest that conventional theories on organizational creativity do not adequately account for all factors that contribute to these companies' creative success.