Background: Since the coining of the phrase lean production by Womack, Jones and Roos in 1990, this mass production system of Japanese origin has been implemented in a multitude of organizations throughout the world, the results being predominantly positive from a financial point of view. The possibly negative effects of mass production on worker motivation have been discussed since quality of work life became an important political issue in Sweden in the 1970?s. As the popularity of lean service is now increasing, there are still unresolved issues regarding the transferability of a mass production system to the service industry, particularly with regards to the motivation of service employees.Purpose: The purpose of our thesis is to study the lean system of a Swedish bank, SEB Way, from a management- as well as an employee perspective in order to describe how lean may affect the work motivation of service employees.Research procedure: The study is empirically based on observations and interviews on multiple hierarchical levels at SEB. We have conducted a total of 13 interviews with front line employees at SEB, with the central SEB Way team as well as two external lean specialists.Results: The study indicates that SEB Way has little direct influence on the intrinsic work motivation of the SEB front line employees, as work motivation was present prior to the implementation of lean.

This paper investigates the determinants of corporate cash holdings for a broad sample of Swedish non-financial firms in the 1999 - 2009 period. Using a fixed effect regression model, we find that firms with riskier cash flow hold relatively high ratios of cash to total assets. This is in line with both the precautionary motive and agency motive for cash holdings. Net working capital is found to be negatively related to corporate cash holdings. A result commonly interpreted as support for a negative substitution effect between net working capital and cash.

This essay investigates employee buyouts and does so from a number of different perspectives. Employee buyout is a term that describes a way of ending an employment through an agreement where the employee gets a sum of money in exchange of leaving their employment. Technically it is neither a resignation, since the employee gives up the employment in exchange of money, nor a dismissal since the employer does not have legal grounds for dismissing the employee. Employee buyout is not an illegal way to end an employment, as long as it is the result of a mutual agreement between the employer and the employee. In this essay I investigate and analyze employee buyouts in relation to 7 § in the Swedish employment protection act, and also Swedish employment protection in relation to regulations from EU regarding employment protection.

A tough working climate and the lack of extrinsic motivation at workplaces within health care raise the question of what instead drives employees within this industry. A possible answer to this is Public Service Motivation (PSM) - a type of motivation that is based on the desire to do good for society and its individuals. In order to investigate this further we have performed a qualitative study consisting of ten interviews with people working with institutional care, where the purpose has been to identify the sources of motivation and determine the impact of PSM. The results show that the compassion dimension of PSM appears to be one of the most salient motivational factors. While the rest of the PSM dimensions fail to explain the level of motivation to the same extent as compassion, other factors are recognized, such as relatedness and aspects of the nature of the work itself.

The aim of this essay was to gain a deeper understanding about how school employees interpret and practice school law regarding cyber-bullying that occurs between pupils on the internet. To examine this we used a qualitative method. We completed eight interviews with five teachers, one headmaster, one school welfare officer and one special educationist. These eight school employees were from four different high schools. In our interviews we found that the school employees thought it was difficult to define different concepts within the school law such as in association with the occupation and offensive behaviour which prohibits them from interpreting the school law in the same way.

This essay reflects upon how recruiters working at a recruitment-agency interpret their gender equality plan and their understanding of the term gender equality. This was done by semi-structured interviews with five recruiters. Through theories concerning the gender system, organization theory with a gender perspective and the doing-gender-perspective we have come to the conclusion that the employees of the company lack a coherent interpretation of gender equality. Concerning the gender equality plan there were diverse understandings of its meaning and the application of the plan is partly insufficient. As a recruitment agency there are a number of specific difficulties related to working towards gender equality.

This report is about changes in an organization. Changes is something that every organization sooner or later is bound to do. In many cases the changes leads to problems and conflicts. I have chosen to study one change process in the home help service of the municipality of Bollnäs. The change process I have chosen to study is about changes in the day-to-day work for the employees at the home help service.

Companies? ability to differentiate themselves from their competitors becomes increasingly difficult when standardized technical solutions are used, which means that the employees become the most important resource. Many workplaces consist of a mix of employees with different backgrounds and of different ages, which highlight the generational perspective. Previous research has long focused on different generational drivers and of motivation at work, but there has been few studies in which the transfer of knowledge between generations have been examined. With that as a background, a qualitative interview study was conducted at a major IT company to investigate how employees legitimize knowledge and how it affects the transfer of knowledge between generations.

In this report a study is carried out with the aim to identify added values of EPC projects implemented in schools in order to increase the interest of EPC projects on the market. The report examines how the planned maintenance, supervision, maintenance and corrective maintenance is affected, how insurance premiums and terms are affected, the indoor environment and how the tasks of the operating staff is changing. A literature study of energy savings, energy use in schools, maintenance and insurance as well as how energy efficiency improvements are related to the Swedish environmental objectives has been made. Visits were carried out in Ludvika, interviews were also carried out with operation technicians and local strategists in Ludvika as well as employees of insurance companies.Schools often have neglected maintenance and problems with ventilation and indoor environment. Schools also have a large energy saving potential due to their low utilization, mainly because they are empty parts of the year.

Purpose: The purpose of this essay is to examine how managers in companies within wholesale distribution work with motivating their staff, and to examine which factors increase the motivation of employees. By doing this, the essay is expected to examine how managers? and employees? perspectives correspond, and to find which factors differentiate between their views.Method: In order to fulfill the purpose of this study, we have executed two case studies at two different companies that work with wholesale distribution. We have collected data and processed it either quantitatively or qualitatively.Conclusion: This study shows that managers and employees have a relatively united perspective about what they want to achieve by motivation. However, there are different opinions about the factors that are seen as important in order to achieve an increased motivation of the employees.

The thesis explores an ongoing dialectical process between different levels of employees including top management to workers of Scandinavian Airline Service (SAS) regarding a new change program and to find out the possible social construction among them. In particular, it searches for the constructed reality of SAS ground service employees at Malmö Airport with regard to the preparatory stage of SAS Strategy 2011. A possible ambiguity in dialectical process is explored as it relates to an organization?s ability to effectively influence the understanding and identity of its employees through discourse.

The purpose of this study is to examine how employees in an organization using flexible work practices, experience that passive face time influences the evaluated of them. Further, the study aims to understand to what extent that perception of passive face time motivates the employees to spend more time at the office than is necessary for their work situations. The study concludes that employees in general perceive that passive face time does influence how they are evaluated and that this perception motivates employees that are relatively newly employed by the company to spend more time at office..

This thesis addresses the subject of internal communication between the leadership and the employees. Communication is a common process and according to Tufvesson (2008), the primary focus has been on the role and responsibility of the leadership. This can mean that, from the employee's point of view, it is not clear what the organization expects, and this lack of clarity dimishes the ability of the employees to live up to those expectations (ibid). Tufvesson (2008) believes that today's organizations need common interpretations, which requires a well thought out communication strategy between leadership and employees. Because communication represents an organization's functionality, the report?s authors were interested in studying the employees? representatives.

The aim of this essay was to gain a deeper understanding about how school employees interpret and practice school law regarding cyber-bullying that occurs between pupils on the internet. To examine this we used a qualitative method. We completed eight interviews with five teachers, one headmaster, one school welfare officer and one special educationist. These eight school employees were from four different high schools. In our interviews we found that the school employees thought it was difficult to define different concepts within the school law such as in association with the occupation and offensive behaviour which prohibits them from interpreting the school law in the same way.

A budget consists of figures showing how much a particular activity has access to during a given year. With a balanced scorecard, these figures and guidelines can be converted in to more easily understandable non-financial instructions for the employees. One of the most significant differences between the budget and the scorecard is that the budget focuses on short-term results while the scorecard focuses on long-term visions and goals. With a long-term thinking the leaders can  set more long-term goals and also make more well-planned investments which increases the possibility for the organization to evolve and become better in the long term. By combining the two instruments a good balance between short and long term perspectives can be achieved, which creates a more effective steeringIn the 1990s, many of the municipalities introduced needs budget, one of them was Gothenburgs municipality.