The purpose of this thesis has been to explore the topic of business simulation from a theoretical foundation in social constructivism and theories concerning leadership as the management of meaning. The most important findings are that business simulation can be used for strategical leadership by management to create a common vision in the organisation members, which affects their perception of the business and the decisions and actions they make, which in turn can lead to a more efficient organisation that becomes better at meeting set goals. This can be viewed in different ways from different theoretical viewpoints: as inducing targeted changes in mental models to create changes in decision making and actions; as a secondary socialization process where the vision of management is externalized as a business simulation that is in turn internalized by the organisation members that participate in the business simulation, or as a way to frame and define the reality of the organisational members which creates a shared reference point against which a feeling of organisation and direction can emerge. In the future, business simulations may become increasingly used by organizations to create a common vision or to communicate a new decision to the organization members..

The food prices in Finland and Sweden have been a subject for discussion for several years back in time. From the opponents against further European integration one have often heard that the EU and EMU entrance have made an negative impact on the food prices. This study show us that the impactof the entrances was extensive in the short run but rather finite and insignificant in the long run.Other important factors that describe why food prices fluctuate is also discussed. The mainconclusion is that other factors than the EU and EMU entrance should be seen as more likely whenit comes to the development of food prices. The essay is principally based on quantitative statistics of food prices, analysed in the light of economic theory..

Background: Sleeping is a condition that is necessary for all people because the body isgiven time to recover. Studies have shown that patients found it difficult to sleep during thehospital stay and it turned out to be several factors that disturbed the sleep during the night.The nurse should note the patient?s need for sleep and take into account environmental andother sleep disturbances to be able to implement nursing interventions. Purpose: The purposeof this study was to elucidate the factors that interfere with patient?s sleep duringhospitalization and nursing care to promote the patient?s ability to sleep.

The aim of this study is to through six interviews, with six experienced, social workers?, in three cities, understand how the child?s position in the Swedish child protective services? enquiries has change, and the factors behind it. The aim is also to compare if the social workers? view of the child?s position in the enquire has change accordingly to Socialstyrelsens intentions of BBIC. The theoretical approaches that was used is the new institutionalism, the Shier?s pathways to participation and the term discretion.

The most vital for a business is to understand how to please and satisfy its customers in order to make them loyal to the company. Companies weapon for competition in the retail business is defined through the retail mix. The retailer however often have limited resources whereas they have to prioritize between the factors included in the retail mix. The main purpose for this paper is to investigate what kind of internal connections that may occur between the factors in the retail mix, with focus on the job satisfaction as a catalyst on driving the values of the parameters included in the retail mix, where the factor service is the starting shot for the others included..

The technical achievements that have occurred in recent years have led to a greater use of the Internet around the world. Today, more and more people are using virtual communities, a place where communication occurs with people who have similar interest. Due to the option of being an anonymous user, the concept of trust plays a big part in how virtual communities are working. It is therefore of interest to investigate how trust develops between users in virtual communities. This report asks the following question:"How is trust formed between users at a virtual community?"A qualitative and netnographical study was conducted to answer the question above.

Denna uppsats lyfter ut Graham Allisons tre teorier från boken Essence of decision och applicerar dessa på U 137-krisen. Krisen inträffade 1981 då en sovjetisk ubåt gick på grund utanför Karlskrona. Var och en av de tre teorierna är ursprungligen gjorda för att förklara beslutsfattandet under Kubakrisen utifrån olika perspektiv. Uppsatsen prövar de tre teorierna på U 137-krisen och utser den teori som bäst förklarar utrikespolitiskt agerande under krisen. Huvuddelen av uppsatsen beskriver de tre teorierna Rational actor model, Organizational Behavior samt Governmental Politics och applicerar dessa på U 137-krisen.

A clean and affordable energy source for cooking is deficient in developing countries. People rely on fuels that contribute to environmental, social and health problems.Biogas is an alternative energy source and an increased investment in small-scale biogas production can in several developing countries be found. Several projects have started to use the technology in developing countries because of the benefits with biogas. Some cases in the establishment of biogas plants have succeeded and some have not. The study is a literature review supplemented by two field studies.

Previous research has, by studying large listed firms, identified cost reductions and knowledge transference as the primary reasons for outsourcing.  Previous research has also indicated that Business Process Outsourcing is likely to increase in popularity and experience high annual growth going forward. This study aims to explore why mid-sized and large firms decide to in Jämtlands län, fully or partly, outsource their finance/accounting activities. Theories regarding transaction cost economics and resource based view composes the foundation of this study and the information used has been gathered through the use of semi-structured interviews.  The results shows, like the chosen theories and previous research indicates, that the outsourcing decision is primary based on expected cost reductions.

Aim: The aim of this study was to examine nurses experiences of asking patients aboutintimate partner violence and what the nurses believed could be of help or hindrance whenasking the question.Method: The study design was qualitative. Nine nurses from four different divisions wasinterviewed. The participants worked at a Swedish university hospital with an action plan fortaking care of violated women. Data were collected through semi-structured interviews usingan interview guide. The results were analyzed using qualitative content analysis.Main result: The question about intimate partner violence raises a variety of feelings amongnurses, for example anger and empathy.

Background: A majority of strategic alliances do not create value for the participants. One of the main reasons for the high failure rate is an inadequate process for partner selection. If the correct partner is not selected, it can have serious effects on the management of the partnership. This is a serious problem since failed alliances usually are very expensive for the involved companies. Purpose: The purpose of this thesis is to investigate which theoretical factors are important when selecting a partner for a strategic alliance.

ABSTRACT Introduction: This study is based on Aantonovskys SOC-theory; Sense of Coherence. SOC can be described as a theory which describes how a person experience her existence and the theory is based on three key expressions; comprehensibility, manageability and meaningfulness. Aim: The aim of the study is to examine a group of elderly (>80 years) men and women who live alone to investigate how many percent of the group that estimate a high value of SOC. The study aims to investigate which factors contribute to the fact that a person achieve a high value of SOC and increase the understanding about how these factors concretely can appear in a persons life. Methods: Questionnaire (SOC scale) and Interviews.

The purpose of this report was to investigate what characterizes a good psychosocialwork environment, and whether it may have impact on a vessel's safe voyage. Thisreport is proposed to increase the understanding of what creates a good psychosocialwork environment and its potential effect on safety at sea. In order to find out thesuccess factors for a good work environment group interviews were conducted in socalledunstructured focus groups. During these conversations, the participants discussedfreely by the question "what is a good psychosocial work environment for you?? Thesuccess factors were thereafter applied on selected accident reports, to investigate theextent to which they were represented and taken into account.The results of the study show three categories of factors: colleagues, communicationand competence, where colleagues are the main contribution to a good psychosocialwork environment.

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 Master Thesis has its basis in a political decision made by Centerpartiet. The primary goal of the decision was to construct a new government agency, with the power to decide over all areas concerning social insurance. To be able to do this safely, by a merge of two different agencies, the thesis looks at different earlier merges for signs. First of all two agencies, Swedish Tax-agency and Swedish Prison and Probation Service, are studied because they are considered succeful in their earlier merges. Two main signs are that it took a long while and that the organisations worked with similar things before the merge.