Abstract Title: How to source from Russia? - A multiple case study of six companies? experience of purchasing in Russia. Authors: Richard Werthén, Technology ManagementJohan Öhlén, Production Engineering and Management Supervisors: Christer Kedström, Dept of Business Administration Johan Lundin, Dept of Industrial Management and Logistics, Engineering LogisticsRolf Blomgren, Purchasing Manager SR, ScaniaLars Erik Nerback, Purchasing Director SE, Scania Issues: The issues presented are:? What characterise Russia as a supplier market?? Which sourcing experiences have been made by other Swedish companies in Russia?? How can this knowledge be utilised at Scania? Purpose: The purpose of this master thesis is to find out whether it is worthwhile for Scania to look for new suppliers in Russia, based on other Swedish companies? experiences of purchasing in the country. Method: In order to answer the purpose of our thesis the study of Scania?s purchasing organisation has to be complemented with in-depth studies of other companies? purchasing organisations.

On social media, girls create digital spaces where a distinctive spiritual culture emerges. This spiritual culture is therapeutic in nature, consisting of therapeutic compositions and happiness-generating templates that contribute to the girls' respectability by allowing them to take responsibility through their intuitive knowledge. The purpose of this study is to investigate how the pursuit of respectability is manifested in these digital spaces by examining spiritual expressions and exploring how participation in therapeutic culture online serves the attainment of respectability. The study employs a participatory netnographic method, focusing on observations of LIVE broadcasts on TikTok. In these broadcasts, girls engage in various spiritual practices within a shared digital sphere. The observations are analyzed through the theoretical frameworks of Beverley Skeggs' concept of respectability and theories related to therapeutic culture, including happiness culture and therapeutic assemblage. The findings reveal that both the girls hosting the LIVE broadcasts and those participating by commenting collaboratively create a digital culture through the exchange of advice.

This research addresses the issues of identity and culture in Latvia in the context of the upcoming European Union enlargement in 2004. Political self- determination of Latvia was historically indebted to culture. The phenomenon of cultural identity, so important 12 years ago when Latvian independence was regained, is largely ignored by politicians in the upcoming enlargement process. This is especially worth attention since the 8-th parliamentary elections took place in October 2002. The obvious lack of interest in cultural issues on the part of politicians is compensated by the apprehensions in the society (reflected in mass media) to loose Latvian specific culture and identity when joining the big European family.

Research in the field of gaming and the gaming culture shows that the culture is characterized by sexism and hypermasculinity, however a majority of this research is conducted in an Anglo-Saxon context. Therefore the aim of this study was to elucidate the Swedish gaming discourse in relation to gender, gendered norms and stereotypes. We also sought to examine the relationship between the editorial content and the blog comments. The study was based on a critical discourse analysis with a gender perspective, applied to five Swedish gaming blogs. By implementing power theory and encoding/decoding theory, we have concluded that there is a discursive struggle, where one part of the gaming culture is characterized by male dominance, while the other part of the discourse is showing signs of resistance to this hypermasculinity.

The intention has been to look at the school system in South Africa and specifically at arts and culture in grade 10 to 12. I have visited a number of classes and interviewed the teachers working at the art centre PJ Olivier in Stellenbosch. By doing this I wanted to get to know the system and to understand the intentions that the curriculum describes.I have all through the study related the areas I?ve looked at to the curriculum to see how well the intentions are implemented. I have also compared everything with the Swedish school system.The curriculum has good intentions but the country has a lot to do before they reach the goals with a school system where everybody is included and where there is ?ubuntu? (Zulu word for humanity or I am what I am because of what we all are).

This study examines how upper secondary school teachers in Västerbotten and Österbotten plan to teach about the Finnish War 1808-09. The study includes written interviews with nine teachers in Västerbotten and eight teachers in Österbotten, who have answered questions concerning school policy documents, content and didactic methods. The purpose has been to examine whether there is a difference in historical culture in how the war is treated in the two regions. Historical culture is here meant within the prospective history lesson, where the pupils encounter history within certain boundaries.The result of the interview study shows that there are differences in structure concerning the school policy documents, but that these differences on the whole are compensated by the widespread interest in the Finnish War by the teachers in both regions. The differences in historical culture can be found within the construction of the content when it comes to the aftermaths of the war as well as the purpose of the teaching.

ABSTRACTHelena Nowachek The purpose of the following study is to focus upon the possibilities and challenges associated with the transference of corporate culture from one organization to another. I have chosen to address this by looking at the franchise company Jobzone, which works specifically with recruitment and outsourcing. As a method I have interviewed three people in Jobzone: one person who is responsible for education, one franchising boss in Sweden and one franchisee. To delineate the concept of culture I apply both Schein?s model, in which he divides culture into the three levels of artifacts, values and basic assumptions, as well as a general theory of communication.

The purpose of this study was to identify the positive and negative aspects of the work and dynamics of a management team and from that recommend how the team can improve. The aim was also to investigate whether there was a gap between how the members of the management team comprehend themselves and how the project, section and team managers comprehend the management team. The management team contains of seven core team members and is the head function of a research and development site in central Sweden. The results are based on interviews with the present members of the management team and three former members, a survey among the project, section and team managers and by participating observation on meetings with the team. The results show that the management team is an overall well-functioning team that with some changes and improvements, especially concerning communication and information, can reach even further.

There is a relationship between confidence in management and personnel satisfaction. The personnel?s confidence in management can be seen as a fundamental tool which is needed to ensure the success of the organizations mandate. This study investigates how management works to create and maintain confidence. The conditions that management has for building confidence are explored, as well as the significance of leadership in the building of confidence.

The purpose of the study was to investigate, using data from the sacerdotal culture, t h espouses of five priests. The main questions were: How does the priestly calling affect thespouse? Do the spouses involve themselves with voluntary work? Do the spouses feel thecongregation have expectations? Do the female and male answers differ?The sacerdotal culture has consisted of several elements. The main element is the priest?scalling for his work.

Through a case study at an IT company we have attempted to ascertain how a company's organizational culture affects its designers' way of working. By examining what ?type? of designers the employees are and how this is reflected in their work, we hope to have correctly determined what their organizational culture looks like and thereby have achieved a plausible result in our study.Aside from two interviews with the company's CEO, we also performed eight observations at the company, where we tried to blend in with the employees, to better determine their way of working together.We have found that the designers' trust in their own instincts has led them to rarely act on feedback from clients ? they only pick out the proposals which have a ?mainstream? potential. We have also discovered that their design approach is something they don't feel inclined to discuss amongst themselves. As it is often ?indescribable?, they go with their intuition and unspoken design conventions..

Trade Unions are finding it increasingly challenging to appeal to employees and all trade unions alike are encountering new challenges to attract and retain members. Additionally a more diversified and educated labor market is creating demands for trade unions to better meet individual needs. The purpose of this study was to explore and analyze the role of branding in Unionen, the largest white-collar trade union in Sweden, and how branding efforts help in attracting and retaining trade union members. The theoretical foundation of this thesis is based on theories related to corporate branding and relationship marketing. Furthermore, the study develops and introduces the concept of member branding in the context of trade unions.

AbstractTitle: Interactivity and participation - a qualitative study about the making of machinima withWorld of Warcraft (Interaktivitet och och deltagande ? en kvalitativ studie kring skapandet avmachinima med World of Warcraft)Number of pages: 68 total, 50 without appendixAuthor: Peter BrandbergTutor: Else NygrenPeriod: Autumn 2006Course: Media and Communication Studies CUniversity: Division of Media and Communication, Department of Information Science, Uppsala UniversityPurpose/Aim: The aim of this study is to take a closer look at the phenomenon machinima by analysing a number of specific movies from the site worldcraftmovies.com. This analyse is focusing on how the content of these movies relate to the wider game culture of the MMORPG World of Warcraft, what specific elements in the movies is referring to and if there is differences or similarities between different genres (or categories).Material/Method: The method used in analysing the movies is a combined method inspired by hermeneutic, semiotics and discourse analysis.Main results: Instead of answers this study raises many questions about the diverse content of the movies. A general division can be seen between movies focusing on the games rules and movies that are trying to present a fictive world. But the study also shows how there are many movies moving between these two points.

The aim of this study was to investigate how selected municipalities? use social media, with a focus on how they are working to increase the dialogue between municipalities? and residents. To answer the purpose of the study three questions has been formulated: how do the communicators use social media in their daily work? What opportunities and challenges are the municipalities? experiencing with Facebook? How do they work with Facebook to increase dialogue with citizens?The theories that has been used in this study is Cutlip?s and Grunig?s public relations theories, Shannon and weavers communication model, Cutlip?s and Heath?s theory of issue management and Jenkins theory of convergence culture. The method that has been used in this study is qualitative semi-structured interviews and the analysis is done with a thematic text analysis.

Culture is seen as an abstract phenomenon, not easily defined. It is cathegorized as something that affects every person, though it is seldom described how. This study adress how culture, in the form of basic assumptions and accepted behaviors and ways to think affected how young coaches formed their leadership under the influence of their organization. The possible implications for the importance of knowing about ones culture in an organization affect both the recruitment process in organizations and what the organization stands for and what is conveyed through values and ways to act in the organization. The purpose of this study was, through the use of semi-structured interviews with young coaches and organizational leaders and a review of policys, to get the perspective and experiences of young coaches regarding cultural influence on their leadership.