The aim of this study was to explore and gain understanding of the situation between managers in different forms of human service organizations. I chose to use a qualitative method and conducted semi-structured interviews with five professional middle managers in the public sector. To accomplish my purpose, I worked on the basis of several questions. The questions dealt with the role of middle management and what it involves, how it is perceived and what the middle managers think of the specific requirements for them and their leadership in organizations that provide services relating to people.  As a result of the analysis I have used the theory of social roles that describes the meaning of the different roles and role conflicts that arise in connection with various and conflicting expectations. The review of the results shows that middle managers in human service organizations experience to have to deal with a complex leadership role.

At the turn of the year 2009/2010 there was a change in the regulations on sickness impact. This led to 328 persons in County of Kronoberg had an expired period of sickness benefit from the Social Insurance Office (Försäkringskassan) when they reached the maximum time for sickness or temporary disability compensation. These individuals were offered introductory programs with the employment services. The purpose of this study is to investigate how the population with expired period of sickness benefit from the Regional Social Insurance Office in the County of Kronoberg (Försäkringskassan Kronoberg) is described in the initial stage, and to explore how individuals who achieved expired period of sickness benefit from the Social Insurance Office (Försäkringskassan) talks about the meaning to get an expired period of sickness benefit regarding economic and social issues. The study was inspired by Grounded theory.

Bakgrund: Basala hygienrutiner ska enligt Socialstyrelsen tillämpas för att förebygga vårdrelaterade infektioner (VRI). VRI är ett hot mot patientsäkerheten och kan medföra ökat lidande för patienten och ökade kostnader för samhället.Syfte: Att undersöka följsamhet till basala hygienrutiner inom ambulanssjukvård i ett antal utvalda omvårdnadssituationer.Metod: En deskriptiv kvantitativ studie där data inhämtades genom strukturerad observation. Bekvämlighetsurval tillämpades och totalt 68 observationer gjordes på två ambulansstationer inom samma landsting.Huvudresultat: Följsamhet till basala hygienrutiner varierade, med högst följsamhet till rutinen om kort eller uppsatt hår (87%) samt till användning av handskar (87%). Lägst följsamhet observerades till rutinen om handdesinfektion före patientnära arbete eller användning av handskar (1%). Inte vid någon observation (0%) visades följsamhet till samtliga sju basala hygienrutiner som undersöktes.Slutsats: Att brister av varierande grad fanns i följsamhet till basala hygienrutiner.

The purpose of this master?s thesis is to examine what needs and expectations the patrons have on the local public library services for adult students. With increased knowledge of these matters the library will be able to support and improve the service for users. The focus is on adult students with immigrant background who study Swedish as second language in a municipal adult education school. The main questions are: How do adult students use the library at present? What do they consider to be most important when using the public library for their studies? How do these expectations correspond to their experience of the library services? Two focusgroups and one in-depth interview were carried out.

As the environmental requirements on businesses increase from various stakeholders, the incentives for businesses to work more with environmental issues also increase. Historically, the requirements were focusing on companies with direct emissions from operations. Lately, the environmental impacts that occur indirectly as results of corporate activities have become more topical. Companies and organizations that mainly offer services often have a greater indirect than direct environmental impact. This is because they are affecting third parties, which in turn have a direct environmental impact.

Social hållbarhet är ett högaktuellt ämne. Delegationen för hållbara städer presenterade år 2012 sin slutrapport och bara ett år senare presenterade Malmökommissionen sin slutrapport för ett social hållbart Malmö. Syftet med uppsatsen är att bredda kunskapen om social konsekvensbeskrivning samt att undersöka dess potentiella effekt på social hållbarhet, eftersom det är av största vikt att hitta konkreta arbetssätt för att uppnå ökad social hållbarhet. Genom en litteraturstudie undersöks i uppsatsens första del vad begreppet social konsekvensbeskrivning har för bakgrund, varför det förespråkas, hur en metod för genomförande skulle kunna se ut samt vilka utmaningar som finns. I uppsatsens andra del studeras tre artiklar som utvärderat effekten av att utföra social konsekvensbeskrivning. Litteraturstudiet resulterar i slutsatsen att social konsekvensbeskrivning har stor effekt på social hållbarhet, på flera olika sätt. Trots att metoden medför en hel del komplexa frågor att förhålla sig till finns det därmed god anledning att utveckla arbetet med social konsekvensbeskrivning, för att vi tillsammans ska nå en mer socialt hållbar framtid..

Within this essay a study is made of an LGBTQ-orientated Christian service in Stockholm called Queer Service. The following questions seek to be answered: What reasons does an individual set for his/hers participation in Queer Service? Which aspects of a queer service highlight the participants as important to them?As a method to answer these questions, the author has observed a number of queer church services in autumn of 2012. Moreover communication within the group of the assembly on the social media page Facebook has been followed and five individuals from the Queer Service congregation have been interviewed. As a background to the study, the European religious climate seen from Grace Davies eyes is depicted.  The reader also learns of how the Swedish church has handled questions about homosexuality and bisexuality and what liberation theology is.

The purpose of this essay was to examine how youths are described in certain written statements that are produced by the social services. The statements that this study has focused on, are those written with the purpose of serving the court with suggestions of treatment-measures when a person between 15 and 18 is suspected of having committed a crime. The main issues were: How is the content in these statements described and what do these descriptions tell the reader? Do the images of youths in the statements differ, depending on the degree of intervention for the suggested treatment-measure? The essay is based on a qualitative content-analysis of 50 statements and the material has been analysed from a social-constructive theoretical perspective.The study shows that the youths in the statements are described through descriptions that reinforces a positive or a negative image of the youth, and that these descriptions are described as either utterances or facts. Depending on the degree of intervention for the suggested treatment-measures, the information in the statements differ in that descriptions that are likely to reinforce a positive image of the youth are more frequent in the statements where no or less intervening treatment-measures is suggested.

This study has a double purpose. First, it explores and maps out the use of quantitative key indicators in social performance reporting within a microfinance portfolio. This was done on behalf of Storebrand Asset Management, who would like to aggregate and report the social results of their microfinance investments to their customers. The study concludes that the extent of social reporting and types of indicators used varies, meaning that it is hard to aggregate data for use in further reporting. Thus, the work towards the goal of social reporting has only just begun.

The aim of this Masters thesis is to, from a users perspective, investigate which factors affect the library use for six persons with disabilities or visual handicaps. My method has been a case study and the methods applied are interviews and observation. As a theoretical framework I use Tom Wilsons theories and models about information behaviour and transform them to a model about library use. Answers are sought to the following questions: - What does the library use look like for six persons with disabilities or visually handicaps? - How do they experience the library in their own municipality? - Which factors affect the disabled persons library use and experience of the library? All interviewees showed a very positive attitude towards the library and the majority of them visited the library regularly or received audio books by mail.

The project is a practical and theoretical test of IP telephony with Skype in order to form a base for a comparison between IP-Telephony with Skype and the Public Switched Telephony Network (PSTN). PSTN is the common standard that most of us use for telephony today. The objective for the study is to simplify the choice between PSTN and IP-Telephony for the Swedish private customer user group. The project is supposed to answer the following questions. - How easy is it to start using IP-telephony with Skype? - How is the quality of IP-telephony compared to PSTN? - Are all services provided by PSTN available and accessible using the IP-solution? - How are the usability and the availability of support with IP telephony? - Is IP-telephony a cheaper solution and in that case under which circumstances? Within the project a collection of practical and theoretical tests have been performed to be able to form an opinion on the IP-solution in the following areas, installation, function, quality, usability, costs, accessibility and security.

When a person arrives at the emergency ward at the Uppsala University Hospital with his or her symptoms he or she explains the problems and then a priority process starts. The staff evaluate at which emergency level the patient is located in a model called Triage. The Triage model helps to decide the priority need and is based upon templates which point out in which of the 5 categories a patient is to be placed, to eliminate any future risk regarding his or her health. A lower triage level means lower priority but implies better health when the evaluation takes place. To obtain optimal effect of the Triage model the evaluation of symptoms must be reproducible so that patients with the same symptoms are placed at the same triage level regardless of whom among the staff conducts the evaluation. The purpose of the study was to see if the resources are allocated based on priority level of the patients.

The aim of the study was to examine how the public libraries participate in the integration of immigrants in the Malmö-/Lund region. Librarians and immigrants were interviewed about the services offered by the libraries in the area of multiculturalism and what kind of service that is requested by the immigrants. The interviews also included possibilities to contribute to increased knowledge among the native Swedish people about different cultures represented among immigrants in Sweden. From the qualitative analyses it is concluded that the libraries represented in the study contribute to the integration of immigrants. The respondents gave multiple examples of the libraries? usefulness in the integration process by offering immigrants possibilities to develop their knowledge in the Swedish language, and also to find information about the Swedish society and culture.

The aim of this Master thesis is to describe why and how public librariesuse the social networks Facebook and Twitter. The focus is to study whatbrought about their use, how the work is carried out, ideas and objectivesbehind the use and what libraries actually convey on the networks. Themethodology is twofold: semi-structured interviews with responsiblepersonnel at four Swedish public libraries, and an ethnographic contentanalysis of four months of the libraries' status updates and tweets onFacebook and Twitter. The theoretical framework consists of a model forthe roles of the public library in society, and of discourses about thepublic library in media.Results indicate that social networks are used to market, make accessibleand inform of the library's resources and services. Furthermore, networksare used to communicate/interact with followers and to inspire people toread.

AbstractThe aim off this study is to research social workers´ knowledge, use, risks and possibilities of social media in their work with clients. Because today the society is using social media networks in daily life and social media has become a tool in social work as well. How does social media and social work cooperate? And how does social media effect social workers? For example the website Facebook has grown huge and many people use it everyday. Where is the line between work and private life? To reach this knowledge in this study, qualitative interviews have been done with six social workers that work with children, youths and families.