The purpose of the thesis is to map the meaning of ?international competence? in Swedish company boards of directors. The study is divided in a qualitative part and a quantitative part. The qualitative study consists of a discourse analysis where variation in interpretative repertoires are identified to enhance the understanding of the nature of reasoning related to the meaning and importance of the issue at stake. The discourse analysis is conducted on an empirical material from 27 interviews with decision makers in recruitment processes to Swedish company boards of directors.

Technology based self-service (TBSS) used in supermarket self-scanning checkouts is a relatively new phenomenon in Sweden. Studies on TBSS as a self- checkout device have been formerly carried out but with focus on the customer perspective. The authors therefore saw a challenge in covering the self-scan checkout concept, from a company perspective. The purpose of this research paper is to investigate, through a management perspective, the changes brought about by implementing an innovative TBSS system in Swedish supermarkets, and its effect on the competitiveness of the company. This is done by presenting and linking the theoretical framework and empirical study in the research.

As collaboration between companies move beyond the single transaction into more long-term relationships the consequences of a company's control system become more complex. The aim of this paper is to provide an understanding of how intra- and inter-organizational control and work practices interact through examining how a company's intra-organizational control influences its customer relationships. The empirical research is performed through a qualitative case study where interviews have been conducted with management and sales staff within the case company as well as with one of the customers. The empirical findings have been analyzed using frameworks and theories regarding management control and customer relationships. The study reveals that the intra-organizational control of the case company affects its relationships with customers in a number of ways.

Companies and organizations need to take care of their employees? creative ability. This report gives some examples of work situations that support or prevent creativity. The purpose with this report is to investigate the link between people at work and creativity.It was necessary to delimitate the area and decide which sources to be investigated and presented in the report. The main topic is on sources of creativity, but as more organizations seem to introduce efficiency thinking according to Börnfelt (2009), the interaction between efficiency and creativity is also presented.In this report theory is compared to industrial designers? opinions on creativity.

Internal communication is an important factor in organisations today. For many system development teams it?s critical that the communication works well. Without communication, success would be impossible. This study aims to highlight the effect communication has on the members of agile project teams.

The aim of this Masters thesis is to study opinions about the Swedish hospital libraries and their activities for the patients, in a selection of Swedish library journal articles. The theoretical starting point is grounded in Laclau and Mouffes discourse theory. The empirical material consists of 43 articles from three library journals; Biblioteksbladet, Blänkaren and DIK-forum, published between 1990 and 2004. These are analysed through a reading scheme in four levels. In the empirical material two themes appear; the culture theme and the patient information theme.

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.

Problem: How does the organisational culture affect the internal communication between the middle manager and his or herssubordinates?Purpose: The most common way is to study how the communication affect the organisational culture. In our study we have examined the reverse perspective. The purpose of this study would be to explain how the organisational culture affect the internal communication between the middle manager and his or hers subordinates.Theories: The basic theories in the study are The basic model, Internal communication, Levels of culture, High-power culture, Socialconstructions, Organisational structures and Leader Member Exchange Theory.Method: The study is based on the qualitative approach. We have used interviews for our collection of raw data.

The aim of this study is to examine how public librarians in small Swedish municipalities experience their professional roles. As part of examining such an abstract subject as experiences we also examine what tasks they perform, which will function as a support of the analysis. The theoretical frame-work is based on librarian identities worked out by Anders Ørom and a model of professional roles worked out by Maj Klasson. The analytical procedure consists of both deductive and inductive viewpoints. The empirical material consists of qualitative semi-structured interviews with five librarians that work in public libraries located in municipalities with less than 12 500 inhabitants.

The aim of this work is to examine how a number of class teachers reason about and find their work while teaching students who have reading and writing difficulties / dyslexia. The empirical study was intended to answer the question based on three questions.The work is based on a qualitative method as empirical material gathered in semi-structured interviews. Six classroom teachers, one male and five female teachers were interviewed. The interviewees were from six different schools in Stockholm Municipality and were between 27-61 years old.Most of the classroom teachers feel that there are approximately 4-5 students with reading and writing difficulties / dyslexia in each class. Half of the teachers feel that students with dyslexia may be different as they are quiet, unsecure and shy.

Abstract Author: Robert Andersson & Oskar KarlsjöTitle:?My first thought is a girl that cuts herself? ? A qualitative study about professionals in human service organizations description of self-injurious behavior.Supervisor: Ann OttengrimAssessor: Rickard Ulmestig The purpose of this study has been to understand how professionals in human service organizations (HSO) describe self-injuries behaviour, how they describe the individuals that self-harm and if the professionals describe any possible differences in how men and women self-harm as well as how professional?s knowledge concerning self-injurious behaviour is contructed. The study answers three questions;- What kind of actions do professionals in HSO describe as being self-injurious behaviour?- How is knowledge constructed by professionals in HSO concerning self-injurious behaviour?- How are people who engage in self-injurious behaviour being described?- How do professionals in human service organizations describe potential differences between men and women´s self-injurious behaviour? Qualitative interviews have been chosen as the method in this study to gather empirical data and the social constructionism theory has been implemented to analyse the empirical data.The result of this study shows that self-injurious behaviour is a complex and at the same time a dynamic phenomenon. There are a lot of different actions that are being describes as being self-injurious behaviour.

AbstractPresentation of the problem: The goal with this graduation project is to produce a new visual concept for the student newspaper Campus, this will be expressed in the form of page templates. The page templates will have a visual concept that appears through graphical elements. The client's wishes were that the student newspaper should be audience appropriate, attractive, inviting, reliable, modern and functional to work with.Theory: In order to implement the wishes and in a good way produce a consistent visual concept, we took a starting point in theory of graphic design. This theory has taken many of its principles from aesthetic theory, and therefore have we also used aesthetics to provide a deeper theoretical aspect. The principles we used in graphic design is; how to create a unity in the layout by using basic elements such as text, images, and white space.

Purpose: Our purpose is to achieve a higher understanding of which factors University of Uppsala is using to attract and keep their existing workers.Theory: We have worked with Barrow & Mosley's the employer brand mix, this modelexplains 12 important factors that exists within the employer branding process. External reputation, internal communication, the board, values and corporate social responsibility, internalmeasuring systems, service support, work environment, rewards and acknowledgements, learningand development, performance estimation, team management and recruitment and introduction.Method: To achieve an understanding of our subject we have chosen to work with a qualitativemethod. This type of method is more considerate of the interviewed person?s way of seeingthings and also accounts for how the person answers. To answer our problem statement we haveconducted a case study on University of Uppsala where we used semi structured interviewsbecause we wanted to limit the risk of leading questions.Empirical findings: University of Uppsala were used as material for our empirical discussionContext: The main reasons that workers is attracted to and are staying at the university dependson the external status they achieve when working there, this combined with that the workers getsto be a part of the university's brand.

Recent years there has been discussed how the critical situation in the housing market threatens the Stockholm region's growth. The thesis objective is to examine whether there is a scientific link between the lack of housing supply and growth. The thesis also intends to identify solutions for increased housing construction, for instance by examining the conditions for a greater regional perspective and influence on the region's housing supply. The thesis empirical study is based on semi-structured interviews with representatives from the Government, municipalities and the housing industry.In Sweden, research on the relationship between housing shortages and growth has not been conducted to that extent it can be said to exist scientific evidence regarding the growth threat. However, in Britain and the U.S, Empirical studies show that a lack of housing supply has hindered growth through negative impact on countries' gross domestic product.

Background and aim: Asperger syndrome is a neuropsychiatric disability which is essentially characterized by impairments in social interaction. Little is known about how these individuals experience social interaction and more distinctly close relationships. Therefore the purpose of this present study is to explore how initiating and maintaining close relationships could be facilitated for individuals with Asperger syndrome. Furthermore how these individuals would like others to behave towards them. By assuming an insider perspective the empirical data is based on the participants own descriptions of their experiences, thoughts and ideas about close relationships.Findings: Most respondents state that they experience difficulties initiating social interaction, the main reason being that they don?t know what they are expected to say or how to act in this type of situation.