This thesis examines if commercial-of-the-shelf (COTS) systems meet the needs in different types of organizations. This was investigated through a case study of a COTS system. The system is built for contact centers and used in different types of organizations. Contextual inquiries with users from six different organizations were held together with interviews with stakeholders of the system. This gave an understanding for how the system is used and the needs to be met in the different organizations were recognized.

This paper provides an explanation of the concepts John A. Warden III describes regarding the use of air power and if this theory can be found, within the confines of an unconventional war. The U.S. ability to air power is overwhelming, however the right kind of warfare can force this great power to abandon their military and political objectives by exhausting its resources over time as it becomes increasingly costly, both economically, politically and morally, to wage war. The research deals with operation Rolling Thunder and John A.

The purpose of this study has been to investigate which factors are important with foster home placing, to achieve a positive result for the child. The questions that we have focused on is the importance of the child's earlier experiences and relations, the foster homes attitude and approach, the social service organization and the cooperation between these concerned parties. We have also looked at the importance that the relation between the biological family, the child and the foster home can have. This study has been carried out using qualitative interviews with several foster homes, social welfare secretaries and a researcher in the area. We have also chosen to separate the foster homes on the basis of two foster homes only accepting teenagers while other accepting younger children.The theoretical concepts we have chosen to use are connected to attachment theory and the ecology of human development point of view.

 Collaboration is a tool many organizations use to achive a certain goal. In previous research it can be read about both advantages and disadvantages of collaboration and also that a well-functioning collaboration is difficult to achieve. In previous research there is a shortage of scientific researches illustrating the outcome of collaboration. I have chosen to examine the cooperation between the social services and schools of the municipality of Växjö. The purpose of this essay is to understand what experiences staff working with children/young people in school and social services have of collaboration between each others organizations.

This study examined the factors influencing dairy farmers´ decisions to invest in automated milking systems (AMS). The problem studied involves uncertainty, information and complexity for dairy farmers in specific decision contexts. The frame of reference in the thesis combines contingency theory and decision theory and is used in a qualitative analysis of a set interview with dairy farmers who have recently bought an AMS and salespersons from Delaval, one of the AMS suppliers.The aim of this study is to develop an understanding of the decision making processes of dairy farmers, and in particular to identify which types of factors influence the outcome of an investment decision in the technological development of a farm.The study uses Thompsons` (1967) theory about the structure that organizations develop to handle the input of information. Thus, interest is focused on how a farm business structure handles information in the AMS decision, investigating the differences in information with Delaval?s "feed first principle" system and Lely?s "free cow traffic" system.The results of the qualitative interviews with the dairy farmers who bought an AMS show that there are three important factors that influence the outcome: employees, suppliers and the owner.

During the autumn of 2007 I carried out an investigation within the bank and finance Sector. The aim of the investigation was to see how informal aspects could be understood in relation to equality within Bank AB? The main question was: Which are the obstacles and opportunities for equality within Bank AB? To answer the main question I asked the following questions to the material: Are there any gender related different within the organization? How are men and women represented within the internal magazine? Which are the conceptions related to sex/gender within the organization? The investigation is based on a survey, the internal magazine was investigated and finally interviews took place. Throughout the investigation I used organization theory in a gender perspective. With the gender organization theory I examined concepts as structures, leadership, symbolism and changes associated with equality.

The purpose of this study is to use a qualitative approach to get an understanding of what is expected of social workers targeted towards women managers in social services. Nine social workers were interviewed. The empirical data was then analyzed on the basis of gender theory. Respondents did not see their supervisor as a manager but more as a social worker with special tasks. Our empirical data indicates that there is a strong belief that men and women possess different properties.

It is a qualitative study that describes and analyzes how professionals deal with social issues of inclusiveness and ethics in the investigation of cases involving interventions for adolescents. The focus is on the strategies that staff in social services expressed in terms of obstacles and opportunities for working participatively and especially when it comes to dealing with ethical dilemmas that may arise.    The method used was qualitative research interviews. Five social workers from two different municipalities were interviewed and the material is analyzed on the basis of socio-cultural theory and organizational theory. Themes that emerged were participation, ethics, discretion and flexibility, collaboration, organization, skills and time. The main obstacles that have emerged in the study are that those who work in social services have had been difficulties to fully create participation due to various factors.

The purpose of this study is to find out how the non-governmental shelters for battered women identify themselves in context of their dependence and cooperation with the municipality. Their legitimacy is also investigated which is based on, along with identity, key concepts of the neoinstitutional organization theory. The mutual dependency between these two actors is problematized along with the question of who is responsible for assisting the battered women, and who takes on the responsibilities for them. The empirical result that is analyzed was gathered through three qualitative semi structured interviews with employed personnel at three different battered women?s shelters in three different municipalities in Sweden.

During the autumn of 2007 I carried out an investigation within the bank and finance Sector. The aim of the investigation was to see how informal aspects could be understood in relation to equality within Bank AB? The main question was: Which are the obstacles and opportunities for equality within Bank AB? To answer the main question I asked the following questions to the material: Are there any gender related different within the organization? How are men and women represented within the internal magazine? Which are the conceptions related to sex/gender within the organization? The investigation is based on a survey, the internal magazine was investigated and finally interviews took place. Throughout the investigation I used organization theory in a gender perspective. With the gender organization theory I examined concepts as structures, leadership, symbolism and changes associated with equality.

The purpose of this study was to examine if there are common factors that lead to young people committing crimes according to professionals in social work, crime prevention and the police. The study also aims to examine if juveniles in Swedish suburbs commit more crimes, the consequences that follows and what actions socialworkers have for these juveniles. The study was conducted through qualitative interviews of five professionals in the area who were contacted from different units. In the analysis Goffmans (1971) theory of stigma was used and Goldberg's (2005) Conspiracy Theory. Some of the conclusions that could be drawn from the study was that there is not only one factor influencing young people to delinquency, but often combinations of different factors that lead to this.

This essay will examine the social organization in the archipelago of Tonga. To accomplish this purpose, archaic societies and structures such as ancient Egypt and Hawaii will be examined to obtain a closer understanding of the building blocks which constitute a chiefdom or kingdom. Since Patrick V. Kirch (2010) recently redefined the Hawaiian archipelago as a kingdom this essay will examine if the same can be done with the chiefdom of Tonga since it have similarities to the Hawaiian social organization.To do this the essay will examine and describe both the geographical organization of the states and the social organization. Social organization in this essay will be defined as an archaic state organization that requires several levels of administration to rule the society..

The network with its virtual business structure challenge the established vertical business structure. Part of the network theory that has developed focuses on relationships that forms B2Bnetworks. One way to create a B2B-network is for independent businesses to form a organization promoting co-operation. For co-operation to be successful it requires well thought-out actions, but a lack of how these actions are implemented have been noticed. This study explores how encouragement of co-operation can be done practically.

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.

The overall purpose of this essay was to provide a better understanding of the importance of discretion for social workers in direct social services. To answer the purpose three questions were formulated: (1) How do social workers define and describe their discretion and their ability to independently accomplish their work? (2) How do social workers experience that workplace organization, policies and economic conditions interact with their discretion and (3) How do social workers experience that the interaction with the client can affect how they use their discretion in the individual case? The method used was qualitative interviews. The theoretical framework was Michael Lipskys (1980) Street-level bureaucracy and the four themes organization, professional role, skills and interaction.The results showed that the respondents, although they did not consider themselves to be affected by the economy still adapted to budget restrictions when they said that they were cost conscious in their work. This adjustment to budget framework could possibly be what made them not feel limited in their work.