Title: Management control of facility efficiency in municipalities - A case study of Halmstad municipalityLevel: BachelorSeminar date: 2012-05-31Authors: Markus Nilsson & Sara MattssonAdvisor: Sven-Ola CarlssonKey words: Control management in municipality, facility efficiency, management by objectives, internal rents and incentivesBackground: The public sector owns and manages a large property portfolio and in the municipalities, the properties are always a big cost item. Because of the outside world changes and the public interest, the properties should be used as efficiently as possible.Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to describe how control management of facilities looks like a municipality. The paper also seeks to explain how employees work to make the facilities more efficient in a municipality.Methodology: The authors use a qualitative method with open interviews.Theoretical perspectives: The choice of theory was made with the field of management control and facility efficiency in mind. The theory therefore includes management by objectives, internal rents and reward systems, motivation and communication within organizations.Empirical foundation: The organization has undergone a reorganization 2010/2011. There are no clear incentives to reduce facility costs.

I vår produktion har vi tagit fram ett system för order- och lagerhantering, med vikt på realtidsuppdateringar, åt en extern mottagare där infrastrukturen inte hängt med i företagets utveckling. Vi valde detta projekt i syfte att bredda våra kunskaper inom både programmering och projekthantering. Denna slutreflektion tar upp den förundersökning vi gjorde för att kunna besluta om vilka verktyg vi använde i utvecklingen, den tar även upp vårt sätt att hantera och planera projektet. Under projektet har vi arbetat med en egenutformad arbetsprocess vilken även beskrivs här. --- Our production has been to design a system for ordering and supply management with emphasis on realtime updates to an external recipient, where the infrastructure has not kept pace with the development of the company. We chose this project in order to broaden our knowledge in both programming and project management. This text brings up the investigation we made to decide which tools to use in the development, it also brings up the way we managed and planned our project. During the project we have worked with a self-designed software development process which is also described here..

Uppsatsen syftar till att studera hur verksamhetsstyrningen på fyra utvalda företag ser ut i goda och dåliga tider. Vi har använt oss av ett kvalitativt angreppssätt genom ställda enkätfrågor till chefer samt en chefsrekryterare. Angreppsättet är även abduktivt då vi växlar mellan empiri och teorier. De utvalda företagen är placerade i Brandingers modell över planeringssituationer för att sprida dem enligt kriterierna "föränderliga affärsförutsättningar" och "lätthet att förändras". Vi har kommit fram till ett antal hypoteser som visar på tendenser att mer förändringsbenägna företag förändrar sin verksamhetsstyrning i större utsträckning.

Companies and organizations recognize the importance of collaboration to develop responsibility and ability of change in the workplace. The concept of collaboration was a relatively new idea in business in the late 1980s. In a Nordic context, collaboration is a traditional approach that companies use successfully for competition, survival and development. Collaborative organizational efforts cover management of committed people who can help companies achieve flexibility, customer loyalty, innovation and economic success on a challenging and competitive market. Many theorists believe that collaboration is the key to integrating technology, financial competence and innovation.

The management of information is one of the key aspects within a successful andefficient product development process, particularly regarding complex products.Scania CV AB is at the moment developing a new IT-system, OAS, which aims tomanage the company?s product data. With this as a background, the purpose of thismaster thesis is to identify the cross-functional user needs within Scania?s organizationconcerning product data and the management around it.To fulfill the purpose, an empirical study consisting of 40 personal interviews with 50representatives from different functions within Scania?s organization was carriedthrough. The empirical data was then analyzed focusing on identifying thecross-functional needs and issues.The study points out that there is a big potential regarding improvement among themanagement of product data.

Wildlife contributes with many benefits to humans but also brings economic costs. From being eradicated in Scandinavia the grey wolf (Canis lupus) is returning to South-Western Sweden and people are not used to its presence. In Scandinavia carnivores have to co-occur with humans in a landscape used for many different interests. Consequences of wolf establishments are e.g. competition for moose, depredation on sheep and attacks on hunting dogs.

Syftet med denna undersökning är att identifiera, utifrån leverantörens synvinkel, lämpliga förändringar i processer som leder till reducering av slöseri i byggprojekt. Därefter vill vi ta fram en referensram för hur Supply Chain Management bör utformas och styras för att genomföra förbättringar inom de identifierade förändringsområdena.Uppsatsen bygger på en kvalitativ fallstudie av en materialleverantör i branschen, samt en vetenskaplig rapport inriktad på slöseri inom byggprojekt. Fallstudien baseras på material från interjuver och observationer. Både byggbranschen och fallföretaget studerades utifrån utvalda teorier om slöseri och värdeskapande samt Supply Chain Management.Den teoretiska tyngden ligger på Supply Chain och Supply Chain Management. Därefter användes teorier för slöseri och värdeskapande samt vilka beståndsdelar och hur man ska analysera de olika beståndsdelarna.

Umeå University currently uses two Course Management System, Moodle and Sakai (Cambro). Both Moodle and Sakai are based on open source code and are today the two more popular choices among Swedish Universities. They both have different strengths and weaknesses both from a technical perspective and a user perspective. This can create problems for a course responsible/teacher when it comes to planning the course structure at a distance course but also when planning the course structure on a campus course that uses a Course Management System. With this as my starting point my formulations of questions become:How do the Course Management Systems that Umeå University uses differs, both from a technical perspective and user perspective?What possibilities is there in the Course Management Systems to use a different Course Structure?Is there a noticeable difference on the view of Course Management System of teachers and students at different departments?The purpose with my essay is to create a basis that course responsible/teacher can use to plan the course structure.

Syftet med denna studie inom den svenska dagligvaruhandeln är att studera vilken attityd konsumenter har och varför, när de värderar utbudet av EVM och LVM i butiken. Jag ville ta reda på vilka attibut och känslomässiga värden det är som påverkar konsumenten när, hon/han i sitt medvetnade positionerar EVM och LVM i förhållande till varandra. Eftersom problemområdet utgör en kunskapslucka inom Category Management litteraturen valde jag en explorativ inriktning. Genom den kvalitativa metodens djupintervjuer sökte jag uppnå en förståelse för problemområdet. det som farmkom i studien var att om man inom Category Management säger sig ha konsumenten i fokus så måste butikens varumärkesportföljen ses över.

Since 1983 Sweden has a general audit obligation for joint-stock companies. At this moment the Government has issued an investigation concerning the subject. The purpose of this paper is to examine what effects an abolition of the audit obligation for small joint-stock companies can have on the Swedish tax department regarding economic crime. An angel on the report is to examine how the tax department uses adverse auditor?s reports.

The starting point of this study is theories of European integration, which are used to formulate different scenarios about the future of the European Union. This is made in regards to the eurocrisis which has intensified the discussion about how to change the construction of the euro to overcome the economic difficulties that has arisen. In this study, four different scenarios are presented: "An updated Europe", "A new Europe", "The death of the euro" and "Goodbye Greece". The first two scenarios takes its starting point in the neofunctionalist theory of European integration and describes how the EU might increase its level of integration in different ways. We can either see a development where the EU tries to improve the implementation of the rules that are meant to coordinate the member states? economic policy, or we might encounter a more advanced integration where fiscal policy competences are transferred to the EU-level.The latter scenarios, however, takes another theory in to account, liberal intergovernmentalism, and describes how the eurozone might be fragmented in different ways due to conflicts of interest between lenders and countries that has to receive loan-packages.

Social inequality, economic imbalances and greenhouse gas emissions are some of the greatest risks threatening society today. Society has become more aware of these risks and has started to demand firms to take more responsibility. During the last 30 years firms and mainly large firms has chosen to work with something called CSR. CSR stands for Corporate Social Responsibility which is the work firms engage with to take responsibility for environment and society as a whole. Scientists and business people has taken two sides towards CSR, one side argues that CSR cost more than it tastes and the other side argues that firms which engage with CSR will gain economic benefits.

Over a long period of time, there has been a rich debate in the academic and financial world if active management can generate an excess return. Many experts say that the current active management strategies is nothing more than a money grab that produces large gains, for banks and investment firms, through high management fees while producing no excess value for the individuals buying their service. In short, an effective market makes it almost impossible for fund managers to produce value for their clients in the long run.No argument has only one side though, other experts say that active management has a role to play because not all investors are rational. This irrationality can lead to mispricing on financial assets in the marketplace and in turn lead to an ineffective market where active management can fill a much needed role. The purpose of this study is therefore to see if active management strategies can create a higher risk adjusted return, taking management fees into consideration, during times of high volatility when the uncertainty is at its peak.

Urbanization and the flight of the creative class drains the countryside when it comes to creativity and talent. Especially the young leave sleepy societies. Richard Florida claims that the city attracts the creative class and enables for economic growth to flourish. Robert Putnam adds to the picture by saying social capital might be equally effective as nourishment for growth. In Uddebo, a rural village in the south of Sweden one combines the two creating a vivid society where creativity flies high and ideas fertilize each other?s.

The study aims to investigate the feasibility of small-scale electricity production with solar electricity systems, also known as PV (photovoltaic) systems, in Australia. Due to the global warming, sustainable energy has in recent years become an increasingly important issue, both internationally and in Australia. With one of the largest dependencies on fossil energy sources in the world, the country's abundant solar radiation is a possible solution to this issue.Both the technical and the economic feasibility of small-scale PV systems were investigated. On the technological side, the electricity generation, distribution and consumption systems were studied. On the economical side, the parameters that drive the profitability of a PV investment were investigated.