This investigation aimed to shed light on the terms of the dispensing and the retaining of municipal social benefits granted by Swedish social services, this in regard of a less visible societal subgroup; citizens who cannot attain or retain housing of their own.Through qualitative interviews with six municipal social workers in Skåne, the plight of these citizens is revealed from a policy-making perspective in respect of views on discretion and individual appreciation. How may the applicant impact the application process and how does social subletting operate as a service effort?Further analysis of the accounts of informants? views on change and the reasons for change, sketched an image of a society where public acceptance and tolerance are crucial factors for citizens hoping to achieve a homestead through means of municipal intervention.In conclusion, flexible attitudes towards job description are of major import to the possibility of offering client support in under-staffed municipal environs. Furthermore, reflexive social workers allying with the applicant throughout the process, from application to intervention are decisive for efficacious, long-term social work..

Organizational democracy has been a popular research area in recent decades but the implementation in real organizations is slow (Kokkinidis, 2012; Verdorfer, Weber, Unter Rainer & Seyr, 2013). Several researchers (Schön Jansson, 2012; Falkheimer, Heide & Johansson, 2013) argue that communication practitioners have a key role in democratic processes and that because their job role is under constant change there are only a few modern studies regarding the subject. The purpose of this study is to illustrate how communication practitioners in private and public organizations experience their role in the process of internal communication and to what extent they are aware of, and work with internal organizational democracy.The practitioners we interviewed had a strong feeling that they were a support function for the business and the organizational management. As a result of the study it is clear that communication practitioners are very loyal to their employers and to the organization they work for. They are, therefore, not neutral in their professional role and argue that their task is to represent the management's interests.

The aim of this Masters thesis is to examine the use of IT, that is the Internet and other applications of personal computers, among seniors 65+. It also deals with issues of access to IT for seniors in public libraries. The theoretical background of the study consists of Rogers "Diffusion of innovations", Hektors categories of information activities, and the Swedish IT-commissions categories of motives and prerequisites for the use of IT. The research questions focus on factors motivating the use of IT, the extent and the purposes of IT use, the consequences and the barriers that IT-users experience, and views on IT in public libraries and IT courses, respectively. Qualitative interviews were carried out with nine senior IT-users.

Material handling is a term that includes all kinds of handling of material from a raw product to a finished one. ABB is active in the following segments; foundry, packaging and palletizing, metal industry and plastics industry.The demands for efficiency and reliability have been set very high in the industrial sector. Optimizing of the material handling will give the company higher cost-effectiveness. Around the robot there are different kinds of material flows, to optimize the cycle time, consisting of carriages combined in different ways.Motion Control is a complex system with main functions such as; positioning, synchronizing, indexing and more. The products in the system need to cooperate to make these functions possible therefore integration of motor- and servo products are important.

The study aims to investigate what the iPad in SFI education means for the individual when it comes to becoming literate from having been illiterate. The focus of the study is on reading and writing in combination with individual motivation and opinions on iPad as a teaching tool.The study is based on interviews of three illiterate participants of sfi. The interviews give an idea of the individuals´ attitudes to the iPad and whether they think they learn to read and write with the iPad. The study also discusses what the participants think they cannot learn with the iPad.The study also includes two interviews with teachers, which aims to broaden and nuance pictures of how the iPad works in the classroom. Even the teachers' perceptions of the iPad as a teaching tool are examined.

The aim of this thesis is to investigate how purchasingmanagers in bookshops and public librarians reason withregards to their selection of fiction literature. Nineinterviews have been conducted in this qualitative studymade in the spring of 2013; four librarians, four bookmerchants, as well as a market director of a major chain ofbookstores. Our focus has been particularly directed toascertaining what influence the cultural-political mission oflibraries have had on the process of selection, as well as theextent to which factors such as demand and quality play apart in both organizations. We have been interested inseeing how libraries and bookstores compare with regards tothese factors, because of obvious differences in their goalsand purposes. Librarians see both the benefits and flaws intheir way of working, as well as in the way in whichbookstores conduct their business, and vice versa, that theyare often successful in cooperating, like when arrangingvisits from authors etc.

A clean and affordable energy source for cooking is deficient in developing countries. People rely on fuels that contribute to environmental, social and health problems.Biogas is an alternative energy source and an increased investment in small-scale biogas production can in several developing countries be found. Several projects have started to use the technology in developing countries because of the benefits with biogas. Some cases in the establishment of biogas plants have succeeded and some have not. The study is a literature review supplemented by two field studies.

Many enterprises have shortcomings in the transfer of information between different departments. Furthermore, routines for maintaining knowledge in order to be able to use this experience in the future are often lacking. Time and resources spent on improving these systems and procedures can provide significant benefits in terms of saved time and reduced costs in the later stages of a project. The benefit of this is not only a greater clarity and a reduced risk of misunderstandings, but also the preservation of knowledge that would otherwise be lost.The aim of this study has been to examine the process of information transfer and the transfer of knowledge between the calculus department and production manager in projects at Erlandsson Bygg i Öst AB. An additional aim was suggestions for improvements in the calculation handover and at the end of a project, where it was possible.The study was primarily conducted through literature studies and interviews.

One year Master's thesis, Degree of master in Business and Economics, School ofBusiness and Economics at Linnaeus University, Management, 4FE10E SpringSemester 2014.Author: Johanna Björklund and Sarah Gustafsson.Mentor: Magnus Forslund.Title: Lean in the public sector - Potential barriers to a long-term Lean work.Background: Organizational changes are something that is constantly done inorganizations, and in the last decade, there has arisen a plethora of different changemodels. A reorganization that is popular among companies today is Lean. Lean is aconcept that was developed within the Japanese automotive industry, but has evolvedfrom the Japanese shop floor and is now a concept that can be found in, for example,several Swedish municipalities.Purpose: The purpose of this study was to create an understanding of why the conceptLean may have difficulty getting a hold in the in the long term.Methodology: The study was done with a qualitative research approach and through anabductive approach. As we intended to create an understanding, of what potentialbarriers that may affect that a Lean work, in some cases, does not become a long-termcondition, it seemed natural to choose a hermeneutic approach to knowledge. Theempirical data collected via individual unstructured interviews, through a groupinterview, and by non-participant observations.

The purposeof this study was to investigate whether preschool staff who participated in a previous health project retains the good behavior change, and to explore their perceived barriers and opportunities for this. The study was conducted on a "feel good" preschool and the selected population was preschool teachers and/or child minders. The selected method was qualitative, descriptive, and through the interviews the respondents got questions about their behavior changes and their experiences of this. The result of the survey showed that nearly all of the participants in the study had maintained the good behavior changes and most of them had implemented them in their lives. The obstacles that individuals perceived were mainly time constraints and the opportunities they saw were planning, motivation and positive experience.

Titel: Thinking outside the box: Goals and Salary boxes as motivational factorsAuthors: Anna Ceder and  Karin Barwinger PlogareSeat of Learning: Uppsala UniversityPurpose: The purpose of this study was to investigate if the imposition of salary boxes in Uppsala municipality has had any influence on the organisation?s employees? to improve their work motivation. The reason for the study was to look deeper into employees? motivational factors, this with a focus on salary as motivational factor in structures of salary boxes where it is possible for the employee to work towards goals which affect their salary. The primary purpose of the study was to look into if employees? ability to advance their performance had any connection to the impostion of salary boxes.Methodology: In order to collect as much data as possible for the measurements one of the largest occupational groups in Uppsala municipality was chosen, which represents the group of pre-school teachers.

Wood pellets are an upgraded product of residuals from several wood processing industries, for example saw mills and pulp industries. The pellets are produced by pressing the milled and dried sawdust to cylindrical units with a higher density than the initial raw material. Pellets have great benefits compared to the raw material: high energy per volume, good transport and storage properties and homogeneity. Several parameters collaborate in the whole process, which makes it complex. Wood is a heterogeneous material, chemically and structurally dependent on wood parts, habitat and storage procedures.

Welfare is every person's right. To create conditions for a good welfare it requires coordinated strategic interventions at national and local level. Efforts must be politically supported to be able to strengthen public health. Local welfare management is a measure used to control and monitor public health. The purpose of this study was to investigate local actors perceptions of collaboration in strategic public health efforts with local welfare management in a municipality in central Sweden.

The Arctic region is rich in natural resources such as oil, gas, minerals and fish. Climate change causes the Arctic ice melt, making resource extraction possible as well as opening up new transport routes through the Northwest Passage and the Northeast Passage. This has led to competition and cross-border strife among the Arctic States. The two largest states in the Arctic are Russia and Canada, which are also members of the Arctic Council. Russia and Canada are at the moment involved in several disputes regarding the Arctic territory where the ownership of the North Pole is one example.

The purpose of the study is to explore how social workers work with youths that seek financial assistance and what importance gender plays in this process. The participants were six female social workers that work with financial assistance. They were interviewed and had to reflect over a case, where the client where either male or female. The results was analyzed and compared in relation to social constructive theory and gender theory. The study shows that social workers work in two parallel processes, when they decide about financial assistance and other help benefits, the formal and the intuitive.