Performance appraisals- a study of the performance appraisals significance as a tool for development in the public sector.Anders Larsson and Åsalill OlssonPerformance appraisals have been given a central role in leading businesses in the public sector and are seen as a tool to create development opportunities and achieve better results. This has resulted that performance appraisal in many organizations takes up capacity and time. This was the starting point of our interest to study whether the time spent on performance appraisals effectively pays for itself in the organization, in other words whether the effects expected actually are achieved. The paper examines first line managers` views on staff appraisal purposes and effects of a function within the Landstinget. The survey design, methodology and transaction are of qualitative and quantitative method with three different sources: literature review of previous research, interviews with first line managers in Landstinget Västmanland and the results from an employee satisfaction survey conducted on behalf of Landstinget Västmanland.

The Purpose of this study is to contribute knowledge on and to make the preschool teachers views visible about physical contact between children in wild play in the preschool. I decide to use interview of preschool teachers in a group setting as a mean to investigate this. The group interview is a non-structured interview with open questions where the preschool teachers only received guidance with pre made questions when needed.The result shows what kind of view the preschool teachers have on physical contact and they share concreate examples on how they work in situations like these.By reading this study I hope to contribute better knowledge of the physical contract between children and that the study generates futher reflections on one´s attitude in the matter..

The purpose with this paper is to examine whether other peoples opinions of a song and an artist influences an individuals own opinions of the song and artist. Through a quantitative study we seek to study whether such an influence exists and if it does, how strong that influence is. The study began with a pretest to examine whether differences existed when we manipulated our independent variable, how many times the song has been played at Myspace.com. Subsequently we performed a quantitative study by handing out surveys to students at Stockholm School of Economics on two different occasions. Our results show no significant differences in attitude or intentions when the amount of times the song has been played at Myspace.com is manipulated.

This thesis examines the underlying components that affect consumer behavior regarding organic food. The thesis theoretical framework is based on Ajzen and Fishbein?s The Theory of Reasoned Action combined with theories regarding involvement and routine purchases. The empirical material is based on a desk research with 19 research papers between the years 1994 till 2009 and sales statistics over organic food.  The thesis conclusion shows that the underlying components when looking at attitude towards conventional food are price, taste, expiration-date and healthfulness. While the components for involvement in organic food is the environment, personal health and supply.

This bachelor´s thesis analyzes the debate in a number of Swedish media regarding the introduction of video games as a new medium in the public libraries. The theory and method used is discourse analysis. Three questions were asked: how the introduction of video games as a new media in libraries is discussed, how is it motivated and in what way the authors of the articles analyzed are speaking about new media and the mission of the library. The selected articles were divided into four themes and the analysis resulted in the identification of two main discourses, one which is positive to the introduction and integration of new media in the libraries? collections, and one which has a more negative approach and uses quality and culture as an argument. The conclusion is that video games are a medium so widely used that librarians have to decide whether or not they want to include it in the libraries? collections, and by deciding this they reveal their attitude towards the mission and purpose of the public library..

The aim of the study was to understand how the family home secretary reasons and thinks and how they express themselves in their actions towards the family home?s biological children. The method used is qualitative semi-structured interviews, involving six family home secretaries from four different municipalities. The results were analyzed with the help of two theories ? the theory of grassroots bureaucracy and the sociology of childhood theory.

This report focuses on work schedules in the retail sector, where work schedules are dynamic and change according to the needs and work schedule is a requirement for an effective structure of the work. This structure is important for maintaining a good order and all this is a requirement for a profitable business for both long and short term future. Work schedule also contributes to safety at the workplace. The purpose of this study was to investigate the transfer of knowledge by work schedules. The HRM employee we interviewed worked in Reitan Servicehandel Sverige AB which includes 7-Eleven, Pressbyrån and Shell.

Internet  has  given  possibilities  to  a  whole  new world within communication. Nowadays  the communication  inside organisations and companies  takes place  through  the Internet. The  idea  of  this paper  arose when one of  the  authors discussed  the  general  involvement of  the  tenant-owner?s association  in  the committee. Providing a new channel  for  communication  through a homepage  could  affect  the  attitude  of  the  tenants.  We  were  curious  of  what  effect  on communication  introducing a homepage would give.

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to increase the understanding of the recruitment process and its complexity. The study also aims to examine whether there are any problem areas with a recruitment process which is emotionally based and if so, how these can be resolved. Four issues have been presented, in regard to solving the study?s purpose and problem definition.Theoretical framework: The chapter begins by briefly illustrate the concept of employee turnover and the economic aspects a staff turnover can bring. Thereafter, the importance of a formal preparatory work for recruitment is presented.

The aim of this paper is to make an investigation of how authoritative conceptual framework about immigrants as a group is being constituted in the discourse regarding Swedish language for immigrants. I will also examine what connections there are to the overarching integration discourse. While doing this I try to establish the contrasting relationship between the ?Swedishness? and ?the Other?. My theoretical framework consists of discussions regarding groups and the relation to homogeneity or heterogeneity in various ways and how We tend to construct the discourse in relation to the Other.

Empowerment har blivit ett allt vanligare begrepp för att beskriva olika typer av försök att ge anställda i organisationer ökat inflytande, ökat ansvar och/eller mer självbestämmande. En vital förutsättning för ett lyckat utfall av en empowermentsatsning är upplevelserna hos de anställda.Detta är en forskningsöversikt med syfte att analysera hur empowerment upplevs av "the empowered" samt vilka faktorer i organisationen det är som påverkar dessa upplevelser. Detta sker genom en komparativ analys gjord utifrån fem fallstudier utförda i organisationer och branscher där empowermentsatsningar genomförts.En tydlig aspekt som framkommit är att empowermentsatsningar inte automatiskt får ett positivt utfall. Olika sätt att genomföra empowerment får olika konsekvenser och upplevs på olika sätt av de anställda i organisationen. En lyckad insats kan exempelvis göra att de anställda känner sig mer involverade i organisationen, att nya ansvar och arbetsuppgifter upplevs som en utmaning, att de känner att deras insatser är betydelsefulla och att de kan vara stolta över vad de bidrar med.

The process of gift-giving is something that occurs all around the world, and most people are both givers and receivers of gifts. While receiving a gift is often associated with joyous feelings, purchasing and giving a gift may not generate the same feelings. The worries of giving a gift may include anguish of finding the right gift for the right person, and not to mention it shall be appropriate given the situation. This paper aims to describe consumer attitudes in various gift-giving occasions. To give another perspective the paper also discusses and describes the term of self-gifting, when the giver and receiver is the same person - you.

The interest for organic food has grown a lot over the last 15 years. Even so, only 3.5 % ofthe share of wallet in Sweden goes to organic food. The purpose of this study is to examine and describe how retailers can get consumers to buy more organic fruits and vegetables. The study was carried out by visiting six Coop Konsum-stores, of which three performed poorly and three performed well in organic sales. We conducted interviews with the department managers, customer surveys and in-store observations.

The purpose of this study is from a case study develop a model that aims to cost effectively improve productivity in a manufacturing production process. The study highlights the importance of having knowledge about customer needs and using a holistic process perspective when improving productivity to identify the relations between the process stations and by this find problems that cause waste and losses in productivity. Tools and methods used to make production more efficient such as single minute exchange of die, spaghetti diagram, 5s and master production schedule is presented an applied in the model to see how these effect costs, productivity etc.Maintenance effects on quality and productivity in a manufacturing company will as well be covered in this thesis. The results and conclusions finally reveals how the process improvement tools, maintenance and production planning for example effects each other and why it is important to establish an attitude in the company where continuous process improvement should be emphasized..

The technological development contributes to an increase in advertising when it comes to media. Those who are working to develop advertising are constantly looking for new ways to reach consumers in unexplored contexts. Web TV is a relatively new technique that involves the distribution of television across the Internet. This study intend to investigate how users perceive advertising appearing on web TV, and contribute to the knowledge about how advertising adapt to new media. To reach the results of this study, we used quantitative data, collected in the form of web-surveys and qualitative data collected through semi-structured interviews.