Title: The significance of small talk on leadershipDate of seminar: 13 October 2010Course: Bachelor paper in Business, in Organization, 15 ECTSInstitution: Swedish Business School at Orebro UniversityAuthors: Linda Andersson & Ebba HallbergAdvisor: Gabriella WennblomPurpose: The purpose of this paper is to identify and describe how leadership is affected by the small talk, with these three managers. This with the manager?s perspective as a starting point, within the three services we examined.Research methodology: This paper is based on a qualitative method. Targeted open interviews were carried out with three respondents. Literature in the organizational field has been searched through to give a base for the study.Theoretical framework: This paper uses the theory of communication, the theory of leadership and the theory of small talk.Conclusion: The conclusion we make is that the small talk makes it easier for the modern leadership, this is because the small talk, among other things, allows the manager to spread information and to avoid misinterpretation, and that the manager become more involved in the company.Keywords: Communication, small talk, leadership.

AbstractTitle: Course:Authors: Advisor: Keywords:Problem formulation: Purpose:Target group:Theoretical perspectives:Methodology: Result:Enterprise 2.0 - A qualitative approach of how leadership can be affected by Enterprise 2.0 - Bachelor dissertation - Business Administration, LeadershipDavid Ingvarsson, Markus Rengman and Maria Verdin Jenny StåhlLeadership, managers, Enterprise 2.0, impact, communication, empowerment and motivationHow can managerial leadership in the service sector be affected by Enterprise 2.0?The purpose of this study is to create a better understanding of how managers are affected by the implementation and use of Enterprise 2.0. We examine whether managers who figures in organizations where Enterprise 2.0 applications, have adapted their leadership according to the development. The study is based on leadership changes that may be critical for Enterprise 2.0 to generate internal and external competitive advantages.Our study is addressed for leaders who want to create a better understanding of what implementation of Enterprise 2.0 requires from a leadership perspective.We have compiled three subareas in our theoretical framework; communication, empowerment and motivation. In previous research, we found that each area affects Enterprise 2.0 and leadership.

ABSTRACTThe purpose of this c-level essay shall try to illustrate how a good leader is formed. We have investigated what influences leadership style, personal characteristics or individual competence have when recruiting a new manager. This study has been carried out with comparative applications because we wanted to study the similarities and differences between the Unemployment Office, the Social Insurance Office and the Social Welfare Administration.We have used a qualitative method in interviews both with employers as well as the from the trade union representative?s perspective. Part of our results indicates that the trade union representatives and the employers are not always unanimous and do not request equivalent characteristics and knowledge at recruitment.

When a leader changes to a new post in another kind of organisational culture, what happens then? Could a leader use the same kind of leadership when leading different kinds of groups? Different cultures have different needs and ways to handle things and in the end it all comes to situational leadership. Both leaders and theorists claim that the leader must adjust to what the organisation and its members needs. This paper contains an inquiry of how officers have handled their new assignments as leaders in the civilian world of the municipality. The research shows that a former military leader must also be able to lead another kind of group if they change to a civilian career.

AbstractPolitical Science, level III thesisSpring semester 2010Author: Emelie AlfredssonSupervisor: Tomas Mitander"A Changed Leadership? - A study of the EU leadership from a institutional standpoint, related to multilateral environmental negotiations"The EU has for a relatively long time considered itself a leader in the environmental policy area as a whole as well as in multilateral environmental negotiations. This study attempts to classify and identify the European leadership with the purpose of relating it to the institutional framework of the Union. The treaties of the European Union decide its ability to act and its institutions the right to engage in different policy areas, the environmental area being the focus of this study. With the recent ratification of the Lisbon treaty this study aims to make out if the type of leadership the Union showed during the Kyoto negotiations has changed with the new treaty, into a new type during the COP-15 meeting in Copenhagen.

The aim of this master thesis is to examine how leadership in public libraries is constructed discursively in the Swedish library field of today. The empirical material reviewed is job postings and articles from three library related journals.The thesis seeks to identify what different leadership discourses can be found by looking at definitions, forms of address, present actors and themes emerging. It also aims to examine the contingent presence of late modern leadership theories in the order of discourse. The leadership theories primarily investigated are New Public Management (NPM) and value-based leadership.The theoretical starting point of the thesis is discourse theory, developed by Ernesto Laclau and Chantal Mouffe. In the analysis a model of four phases is used; in which central concepts of discourse theory help identify the discourses.

This work is a study of how the principal's educational leadership designs in two different forms of organization. I have chosen to do a comparative study between how two headmasters identify educational leadership, and to what level they feel they can act as educational leaders in their school. The comparison is made between two educational organizations, and two principals? image, one in Sweden and one in New Zealand. I have chosen interview as method and I have only two respondents on the grounds that is the person's unique perception I want to bring into focus.

Date: June 10, 2011Level: Bachelor Thesis in Business Administration, 15 credits.Authors: Erica Halvarsson Caroline Lundberg Moa RydbeckSupervisor: Peter SelegårdTitle: A comparison between a traditional and a new bank ? from a leadership perspectiveProblem: The study focuses how different organizational structures and leadership styles appear in a traditional bank compared to a young bank. The questions we asked ourselves in this study is whether there is any differences?Purpose: The purpose of the study is to from a leadership perspective see if there are any differences between organizational structures, leadership and communication depending on whether it is a traditional or a new bank.Method: In this study, primary and secondary data was used to best obtain comprehensive information, which was analyzed on the basis of a set of question. In order to obtain our raw data, interviews with staff from Swedbank and IKANO bank were conducted.

The recent globalization has to some extent reduced the importance of specific cultures and instead creates a focus on the variation these different cultures provide. Under these circumstances the leader must adapt his leadership to face these new circumstances. The organisations today have to face these new leadership challenges which the global expansion brings. This is a prerequisite for organizations if they want to succeed and be more competitive in a more demanding environment.There are still big differences between the business cultures. There are also differences in the companies? home arena, between groups in the society and all the way down on a family level.

Title: A study about conditions for leadership in knowledge-intensive firms.Authors: Cecilia Ekström and Niklas SandbergKeywords: Leadership, knowledge-intensive firm, hierarchies, followers.Background: Leadership is becoming one of our greatest social myths and is considered a total solution for many problems that occur in an organization. The view of leadership is usually from a top-down perspective, which contributes to an often underestimated view of the follower. Just as it is important to understand the leader's view of leadership, it is important to understand how employees view the structure from which the leader derives its legitimacy. The existing conditions in knowledge-intensive firms, such as autonomy, place special demands on the formal leadership.Purpose: The purpose of this study takes an employee perspective, to understand what the conditions are for formal leadership in knowledge-intensive firms.Method: A qualitative research method was used and empirical material was collected through interviews with employees in knowledge-intensive firms. The empirical material was analyzed by the respondents? mental images which were set against the theoretical framework of the thesis.Conclusions: The conditions for formal leadership in knowledge-intensive firms make it advantageous to have a leader with a withdrawn role.

Over the past thirty years the political parties in Sweden have lost five out of six members. In order to retain existing members leadership in these organizations has become increasingly important. The aim of this paper is to identify what group leaders for party groups within the municipal council believe are the driving forces that underlie the councillors' voluntary commitment, identify the group leaders' leadership style and identify whether there exist a relationship between these driving forces and the leadership style. The approach applied is qualitative consisting of twelve interviews with twelve group leaders from six different municipalities in Stockholm county. The theoretical framework of this paper includes the Volunteer Functions Inventory and the Full Range Leadership Theory.

The transformational leadership and the Swedish Armed Forces? basic outlook on pedagogy are two factors that affect a Swedish military officer. The author has identified a need of understanding the process of personal development. An understanding that couldn?t be supplied by the transformational leadership but that was found in the Swedish Armed Forces? basic outlook on pedagogy.

The purpose of this essay is to examine Egyptian university students´attitudes about the Egyptian education system´s ability to support a democratic process in Egypt. In order to carry out my study, scientific books and articles have been read and interviews have been made among Egyptian university students. The interviews contained questions about the Egyptian education system´s impact on the democratic process in Egypt and which impact the Egyptian education system has had on the Egyptian revolution.The conclusion drawn from my study is that Egyptian university students find the contemporary Egyptian education system based on authoritarian rules and with a lack of democratic values. The Egyptian university students believe that to establish democratic institutions in Egypt, the Egyptian citizens need a better understanding about democratic values. However, some of the students believe that the democracy that should be established in Egypt, must be based on Islamic values and to succeed with that, Islamic studies must play a greater part in the Egyptian education.When it comes to the Egyptian education system´s impact on the Egyptian revolution the Egyptian university students´opinions were somehow divided. .

The aim of this thesis is to examine the politics and activities of the Social Democratic students´ association Spartakus. Their relationships and political and ideological differences towards the Swedish Social Democratic Party (SAP) and the remaining parts of the Social Democratic youth organisation (SSU) in Linköping during 1969-1971 are examined. To fulfil this aim I have studied relevant literature and interviewed people who were active in Spartakus, as well as people from SSU and SAP in the municipal during the period. I have also studied written material produced by the students´ association itself during the period. The theoretical frame of reference consists of Dahl´s theory on a democratic political order, and party theories like the mass party theory of Duverger, theories from Sjöblom, Panebianco, Lipset and Tingsten and also Gidlund&Möller´s theory about different kinds of party members.

AbstractParticiapation from the citizens in a democratic society is one of the ground pilars for the function of the democratic society. The goal for the Swedish contemporary democracy is to complement the representative democracy with different kinds of participatory activities for the citizens. But is it working? The purpose of this essay is to exame the problems that might occur when the citizens participate in a wider extent than just voting. The focus is problems connected to the democratic value political equality.