The Vaxholm conflict was initiated when the Swedish Trade Union for Construction Workers shut down a construction site in order to prevent a Latvian construction company to build a school after the two parties had failed to agree upon a collective agreement in compliance with Swedish regulations. An emotional public debate followed that resulted in a discussion of the proposal for the Services Directive of the EU, based upon the country-of-origin principle. In this thesis we will analyze whether the country-of-origin principle or the country-of-destination principle is best suited to capture the gains-of-trade that the common market hoards and improve welfare within the EU. We conclude that the country-of-origin principle is the more apt of the two, though it leads to some short-run costs such as structural unemployment. But these will be more than outweighed by the gains in aggregate welfare for the EU in the long run..

The aim of this thesis is to examine the fear of crime in old peoples lives. Notwithstanding that the age category is exposed to crime to a low degree, old people are experiencing a great fear of crime relative younger people. This is the paradox of fear, also recognized in gender studies. The question is how this paradox can be understood. To answer this, twelve elderly men and women have been interviewed and the reports about crime in the local newspaper, Norrköpings Tidningar, has been analyzed, through discourse analysis.The discursive construction of fear is here discussed in terms of discourses of a fearful society, and stereotypes of old age.

Background: The real estate market has previously been subsidized by the government. The construction has been characterized by standardization and large scale complex. In the current situation there are other conditions on the real estate market, subsidies do not occur at the same degree and the market is more competitive. Customer influence has also changed. Today the customers want to customize their apartment by personal needs and lifestyle.

This study has been made on behalf of the Swedish Transport Administration to study the work of the department National Projects. The Swedish construction industry has for many years been characterized by low productivity. By being the largest purchaser of contracts in the industry the Swedish Transport Administration has a unique opportunity to influence the productivity. In order to improve in productivity The Swedish Transport Administration is adopting a new role in which they will order more turnkey projects. In our study, we will focus on how one department within the Swedish Transport Administration, National Projects, can perform successful turnkey projects.To clarify how the department National Projects can perform successful projects, this study identifies critical factors for projects and their links to different phases of the project.

The purpose of this thesis is to understand the reasons to why management consultants choose to leave their positions at large and established management consultant companies. The empirical data are made up of eleven interviews with men and women, both management consultants that have left their previous positions as well as a consultant who has chosen to stay with her first company and a representative from one of the large companies active within the management consultant industry. We have used the Job Embeddedness Theory combined with theories about identity, legitimacy, institutional norms and gender in order to understand the thoughts and reasoning behind the management consultants´ resignation. We have found that issues with the work itself and characteristics of the industry prevent the management consultants from being embedded within the management consultant company. Rather, some of the characteristics of the industry such as ?up or out? and the need to constantly perform work as a ?pushing-out mechanism?.

Certification systems, that assess companies? work with social and environmental issues, have emerged in an increasing number of industries. Today, there are environmental certifications for the food industry, the forestry, the fisheries sector and several more. In apparel industry, certification for sustainable working conditions has been of major impact. The property sector is no exception from other industries.

Background: The real estate market has previously been subsidized by the government. The construction has been characterized by standardization and large scale complex. In the current situation there are other conditions on the real estate market, subsidies do not occur at the same degree and the market is more competitive. Customer influence has also changed. Today the customers want to customize their apartment by personal needs and lifestyle.

AbstractIn the fall of 2003 a project was started in the Swedish building sector that is called BASTA (the building sectors’ termination of especially harmful substances). The project is operated by the building companies NCC, Skanska, PEAB and JM, the Swedish Building Industry and the Swedish Environmental Institute IVL. The purpose of the project is to create a common environmental assessment system for the entire building industry and with the help of this system phase out the use of especially harmful properties from building products.In a large sense BASTA works like this; On the BASTA web site there is a database, to which a supplier can register the company and the company’s products. Only those products with a substance content that fulfil the demands of the BASTA system, is to be registered. As it is the supplier himself that carries out the registration of the company and the company’s products to the system, the BASTA-organisation annually controls that the companies that are registered in the database, fulfils BASTA’s demands.Since NCC is one of the companies that operates BASTA, BASTA is probably going to be the environmental assessment system that is recommended for the company in the future.

Thesis Purpose: The purpose of our thesis is to explore different plausible scenarios concerning the future of the Swedish produce industry with regards to branding. Methodology: In order for us to answer the research question and fulfill its purpose, we have utilized a qualitative approach combined with of both an inductive and deductive theoretical approach. Our study is both explorative and speculative. Theoretical Perspective: The theoretical framework of our research is based upon Porters Five Forces and Competitive Advantage combined with Kapferers Brand Identity Prism and his ideas on Brand Innovation. Additionally, we have utilized the Game Theory.

Collaboration is a form of organization on the rise in Sweden. For health care, it is ofinterest to collaborate with industry to ensure that needs for specialist education andtraining are met and that products developed meet the relevant requirements.Conversely, industry actors have an interest to have a close collaboration with healthcare in order to gain insight into customer needs, provide information about theirproducts and to test products in development.The starting point of this study is an agreement and regulatory framework for formsof collaboration between public health care in Sweden in general and thepharmaceutical industry, the medical device industry and the laboratory technologyindustry. The research questions concerns how this agreement has evolved and theprocess surrounding its emergence may contribute to knowledge about collaborationas a form of organization and the relationship to concepts such as legitimacy,corruption and institutional theory.By tracking the emergence of the current regulatory framework genealogicalthroughout history, the study uncovers how the agreements have played a role in andcontributed to the legitimization and institutionalization of collaboration practices andhow crises have changed the shape of the practices. A theoretical treatment ofrelevant concepts such as legitimacy, institutionalization of practices, corruption andstigmatization of organizations form the basis for an interpretation and analysis of theprocess.The conclusions of the examination of the historical process that led to the currentagreements contribute to empirical knowledge of how crises and stigma affect thelegitimacy of collaboration practices and how the repair of legitimacy can be donesuccessfully after a crisis. The treatment of the empirical material is also a historicalsource for the development of ethics agreements between public health care andpharmaceutical industry and the medical industry in Sweden..

White- and blue collar workers traditionally belong to different unions and, therefore, are covered by different collective agreements. Collective agreements for different employee categories create internal divisions, which mean that white collar workers are not obliged to do work that falls under a blue collar agreement and reversed. Historically the difference between white- and blue collar work has been fairly sharp and so has the difference between collective agreements. Due to the continuous development of technology white- and blue collar work within production has become less clear. This has resulted in an increasing amount of disagreements regarding what collective agreement should apply and whether the employee is obliged to perform different work tasks.

SAMMANFATTNING/SUMMARY Titel/Title: Hur myndigheter definierar sina prestationer i förhållande till sina mål och hur dessa följs upp./ How government authorities define their performance indicators and measure them up in relationship to the goals. Författare/Author Almaliki, Rayya; Hulaj, Anita; Nepola, Fisnik Handledare/Supervisor: Gyllberg, Henrick Sektion/Section: Sektionen för Management, Blekinge Tekniska Högskola./ The Section of Management, Blekinge Institute of Technology. Kurs/Course: Kandidatarbete i företagsekonomi (FEC007), 10 poäng./Bachelor?s thesis in Business Administration (FEC007), 10 credits. Syfte/Purpose: Syftet med denna uppsats är att studera hur statliga myndigheter definierar och följer upp sina prestationer, i förhållande till uppsatta mål för verksamheten./ The main purpose with this thesis is to research how government agencies define their performance indicators and measure them up in relationship to the goals. Metod/Method: Vi har genomfört en kvalitativ fallstudie, där vi har utfört sex semistandardiserade intervjuer på Blekinge Tekniska Högskola och Boverket. Det material som vi har fått från intervjuerna samt annat sekundärt material, utgör grunden för vår analys och slutsats./ We have done a qualitative case study, where we did six semi standard interviews at Blekinge Institute of Technology and Boverket. The material we got from the interviews and other secondary material make up the ground, for our analysis and conclusion.

Passive houses are a relatively new concept in Sweden and by that it is meant a house without a traditional heating system. The most acknowledged passive house project is the terrace houses in Lindås, Gothenburg, which we have used as a reference. This project concerns a square apartment block. So far, no square apartment block has been built as a passive house in Sweden.The common opinion in the construction industry is that it is not economical to build extremely energy efficient houses. With Peab as commissioner our task was to investigate if that is true, if regarding the construction of a multi storey house as a passive houseMidroc, now owned by Peab, constructed in the block of Preussen in Jönköping during 2004-2005 four houses, with 132 apartments distributed on seven floors.

AbstractIn the fall of 2003 a project was started in the Swedish building sector that is called BASTA (the building sectors’ termination of especially harmful substances). The project is operated by the building companies NCC, Skanska, PEAB and JM, the Swedish Building Industry and the Swedish Environmental Institute IVL. The purpose of the project is to create a common environmental assessment system for the entire building industry and with the help of this system phase out the use of especially harmful properties from building products.In a large sense BASTA works like this; On the BASTA web site there is a database, to which a supplier can register the company and the company’s products. Only those products with a substance content that fulfil the demands of the BASTA system, is to be registered. As it is the supplier himself that carries out the registration of the company and the company’s products to the system, the BASTA-organisation annually controls that the companies that are registered in the database, fulfils BASTA’s demands.Since NCC is one of the companies that operates BASTA, BASTA is probably going to be the environmental assessment system that is recommended for the company in the future.

In order to accomplish that a construction is correctly built, it is critical to obtain a well functioning control mechanism throughout the project. The way to enable this is not by having an independent inspector constantly at your side. Today it is praxis to use check lists and have people responsible of quality to make sure that these are followed. This is where discretionary inspections play their part. These among others are documents needed to com-plete the check list.