Due to the highly competitive and busy marketplace of today, companies are forced to take unforeseen measures in defending and developing their brands. Key elements like opinion leadership and lifestyle marketing are commonplace and aim to deliver values that are more difficult to define compared to quality, price, looks and usability. This paper aims to develop what should be considered most fundamental to all commercial branding. By investigating the ideologies that are the core of many successful companies, we hope to clarify the importance of communicating these ideologies. The topic is examined by method of quantitative analysis and the main purpose is to determine; what do the companies think of their ideologies, and how do their consumers recieve them? A secondary purpose is also to investigate whether different kinds of consumers recieve the ideologies in different ways..

Background: First Line Managers are expected to create a health promoting work environment. Research has shown that the prerequisites for accomplishing a health promoting leadership are not always the best. Aim: The aim was to elucidate the prerequisites for a health promoting leadership as First Line Manager at a University hospital in Sweden based on competence, role, support structures and own durability. Results: First Line Managers at the chosen hospital seems to have rather good conditions for conducting a health promoting leadership. All respondents did have a university degree and most thought that their competence corresponded well with the role.

Background: Thanks to the globalization and the EU the international trade is growing faster than ever and companies are able to change ownership across the borders of the nations. Today one can talk about global marketplace with a deeper integration of the economies of the world. The rapidly growing list of mergers of Swedish companies since the last 10 years indicates that the global companies of today is using mergers as a strategic tool for continue their growth. However the number of unsuccessful mergers is big. The need of understanding and knowledge about different cultures is growing in the global business climate of today, since the collaborations across de national borders are increasing.Problem formulation: Which international strategies are fortunate in international mergers with Swedish companies?Purpose: The purpose is to analyze the integration of the three mergers; Vin&Sprit ? Pernod Ricard, Astra - Zeneca and Telia ? Sonera.Method: This study is a case study with a qualitative approach.

The aim of this study was to understand how the professional in social work handles the media scrutiny. When the media writes about social services there is seldom anything positive written about it, many social services organizations are instead heavily criticized and scrutinized by the media. When social services organizations are scrutinized by the media there is a crisis at work, and therefore should be handled as a crisis. Therefore, we describe how a crisis management might look like in an organization. The study is qualitative therefore we have interviewed four municipalities in Sweden that have been exposed by the media at a national level.

This study investigates how social interaction affects newly arrived pupils? views on their study situation in the Swedish educational system. The aim is to give a contribution to the discussion on the notion of including ?the Other? in educational practice in multicultural schools. Semi-structured group interviews were conducted to explore how the intercultural perspective and the theory of inclusion can be used to explain the dynamics of social interaction.

Film is a medium which is mainly used for entertainment. It is a medium that is constantly expanding, and beside from it being a relaxing activity it can also be used for educational purposes. This is an aspect of film that should be valued, since it has the possibility to engage, educate and move its viewers. This is a study which aim is to analyze how employees within the care of disabled in Umeå have perceived educational movies. The movies that the staff has watched are a part of a basic training program, which all employees are required to fulfill.

Sustainability issues have become increasingly high-profile and important in recent decades. In addition, quality issues have come to play a central role in corporate marketing, strategy and management. The word quality can be defined differently in different contexts. This paper focuses on the concept of quality, based on the Total Quality Management perspective, which in Swedish has come to be known as Offensiv kvalitetsutveckling. Offensiv kvalitetsutveckling has been described as a theoretical framework in which an organization continually strives to meet and preferably exceed customer needs and expectations at the lowest cost through continuous improvement, and in which all members of the organization are committed and focused on the organisation's processes. The purpose of this study was twofold. First, to clarify the applicability of the theoretical model Offensiv kvalitetsutveckling as a theoretical explanatory model. Second, to explore how Max Hamburgerrestauranger AB performs according to the values in Offensiv kvalitetsutveckling. A multiple case study was conducted in order to explore these topics. The results showed that Max Hamburgerrestauranger AB is working in a dedicated and value-driven manner, aligned with the values ??that form the basis for Offensiv kvalitetsutveckling. The results also showed that the model for Offensiv kvalitetsutveckling could serve well as a theoretical explanatory model, but that the model would benefit from being developed, enriched or integrated with other models.

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.

Systems development methods has always been an important part of the systems development process. It affects not only the product, but also the organization itself. Today more and more companies are abandoning the more rigid traditional methods for the more flexible agile ones. A transition like this is bound to affect the product and the organization, but in what ways? Is it a difficult transition to make, and how does it affect social environment and dynamics? Does it change how people communicate information to each other? This study was conducted at a local branch of a larger international IT-company.

In this final thesis a study about welfare indicators in the Swedish milk production has been carried out. The system Swedish Animal Welfare Monitoring Scheme developed by the Swedish Dairy Association has been used as a base and the EU project WELFARE QUALITY® has also been used as a source of information. Focus groups have been used as a qualitative investigating method. This included four focus groups, two with farm auditors from the two different dairies and two with dairy farmers. This method was chosen because in this way one can study how a conversation about a given subject takes form in a respectable way.

The study has shown that retailers in the mid-price segment differentiate their brand through developing a strong company identity around the brand. The personality involves store atmosphere, merchandise and advertising. Larger companies have chosen to lay the responsibility on management level, which facilitates on store level. By controlling the strategies on a central level the company can make sure that the stores are steered in the direction that the company wants them to be steered in, and also that they follow the positioning-concept. The company can also devote its efforts to working with its core value, which is service.

Outsourcing påverkar individen i arbetslivet. Jag har med min uppsats försökt visa att det det finns mycket i företagens agerande som medför att individens kompetens inte alltid nyttjas fullt ut efter outsourcingen. Samt att det även på andra sätt påverkar individen i arbetslivet..

The study was conducted at a business in the social service. The purpose was to examine how the business works with human resource planning. In order to answer the purpose two questions was formulated, which human resource planning strategy does the business use? And, how do businesses need to act according to the theory of strategic manpower to achieve human resource planning? Survey data collection was done through a qualitative research design, where interviews with five employees in the business took place.The study shows that the business is using a own made strategy in order to achieve human resource planning. The strategy consists of two steps, in step one they do an background analysis and step two a needs analysis where a goal- and responsibility description are designed and then a set of requirements.

BAE Systems Hägglunds has a long history of producing high performance terrain tracked vehicles (mostly for military applications), and they are now aiming at developing a tracked forwarder with similar techniques.The forwarder will be of series hybrid type where a diesel engine via a generator will power the motors (one for each drive wheel). Thanks to individually controlled motors and the gentle rubber tracks, this forwarder is calculated to have a considerably higher average speed in the terrain and to be more gentle to the soil. The forwarder with a weight of 11 metric tons and a load capacity of 15 metric tons is specified to have an average working speed of 7-10 km/h, a top speed in terrain of 15 km/h and a top speed on roads of 40 km/h.This master?s thesis aims at developing a conceptual design of the forwarder?s drive module which includes electric motor, gear unit, brake and drive wheel.To investigate if the requirements can be fulfilled a study of the dimensioning loading scenarios has been carried out. The resulting needs regarding the torque has been considered in order to determine the required gear ratios for different motor options.

 Date: 2008-10-06Level: Bachelor thesis within Information Technology and business economics, 15p, EIK021Authors: Anna Karlsson, akn05009@student.mdh.seLena-Maria Lindström, llm05002@student.mdh.seMagnus Wretlund, mvd05001@student.seTutor: Marie Mörndal Title: Managing IT-incidents, a case study at ICAs IT department                            OperationsKeywords: IT-incident management, IT-incident management process, IT-incident, ITIL, CCTA Problem: An organization can benefit by having an established management process of handling IT-incidents. But how can this be achieved? Are there step-by-step procedures? What´s included in the management process of IT-incidents? Is the size of the organization relevant to which model is to be chosen? Can the work of the writers of this essay result in a recommendation of a specific model for IT-incident management? These questions lead to the following essay question; How are IT-incidents managed?Purpose: The purpose of this thesis is to describe and discuss how IT incidents can be managed.Method: The writers of this essay have performed a case study at ICA, a Swedish food retail company. Eleven interviews with nine different persons have been carried out. The interviews are analyzed in the chapter called Resultat och analys.Conclusion: Our conclusion is that there are both similarities and differences in Dept.