Competence is a complex concept that encompasses many facets. This study aims fora better understanding of the concept. Many branches of business administration science would benefit from a better understanding of competence and, through that understanding, find solutions where competence is one of many variables. By combining a positivistic and phenomenological approach, this study has created a broader understanding of the concept of competence.The study combines systematic study of the relevant literature with in-depth interviewswith people representing both the employer and the union within the staffing company world.The results show that quantifying competence is a complex and next to impossible task, as it would involve including the whole concept of competence in the calculations. When this is done, the phenomenon itself becomes so complex that it loses its validity.This is why theorists who want to perform this type of calculations put most of the competence complexity in ?the black box?.

The prevention of age discrimination in Sweden did not have any solvent grounds until directive 2000/78/EG was implemented into Swedish law. Today age discrimination has been banned for just over two years. This ground of discrimination has, compared to other existing grounds of discrimination in Swedish law, a lot more opportunities to make exceptions from. Given the fact that the exemption rules are vague, it is difficult to determine whether the protection against age discrimination is in fact a protection at all. The purpose of this essay is to describe what the law regarding age discrimination means.

Good business relations can contribute to the success of IT-outsourcing, and create new business opportunities. Despite a sharply increasing trend to outsource IT-operations there is a high degree of failures related. The cause may be that some important factors have not been taken into account. The purpose is to investigate elationships within IT-outsourcing and test if specific factors identified by previous research are being concerned in IT-outsourcing relationships and also to investigate the view IT-outsourcing customers and suppliers have on business. Research shows that business relationships are widespread throughout companies. It demonstrated that a small number of business relationships can have a major impact on a company's financial performance and may create stability. Business relationships can be divided into an arm's length relationships and strategic alliances depending on the degree of involvement.

Middle managers in social care find themselves in a middle position. The middle management position involves demands from several interested parties. The demands affect and generate feelings both within themselves and within others and the middle managers have to deal with them all.The aim of this study was to investigate the social care middle manager?s personal experiences of emotions in work.We have completed interviews with four middle managers who are assigned to carry out social care. When doing the interviews we used an interview guide divided into different interview areas.

The purpose of this thesis is to study what motivational factors motivates the staff in the public elderly care and to investigate how the staff ranks the different motivational factors and if the rankings differ depending on gender, age, education, type of employment, time of employment, employer, income and ethnic background. The thesis is based on a questionnaire study with a total of 97 participants. The questionnaire was constructed with the help of prior similar studies conducted in the USA and Malaysia over a sixty-year time period. These studies are then used to analyze the results. The participants in our thesis were given ten motivational factors to rank according to what they believed motivated them the most.

Denna studie avser förklara varför inga politiska åtgärder vidtas för att minskaköttkonsumtionen när det finns tydliga belägg för dess bidragande effekter påklimatuppvärmningen. Genom en motivanalys iakttar jag aktörsbaserade och strukturellafaktorer som förklarar varför förslaget om en skatt på kött får dåligt gehör. Genom att jämföraden politiska hanteringen av köttkonsumtionen med bilismen åskådliggör jag ytterligarefaktorer som bidrar till att styrmedel finns i det ena fallet men inte i det andra.Jag har tolkat mitt material utifrån ett teoretiskt perspektiv som kan benämnas institutionalrational choice. Enligt detta är individen en allmänt rationell aktör som gör ställningstagandeni osäkra situationer tillsammans med andra. Klimatet utgör en gemensam resurs som ärtillgänglig för alla och närmast omöjlig att kontrollera.

A plant's defensive ability against herbivore attack can be influenced by many different factors, one of them being domestication. During human selection to improve the yield of plants, the resistance against herbivore attack can have been lowered, due to a trade-off for use of resources between these traits in the plants. In this thesis I investigated the effect of domestication on resistance against herbivorous insects in cotton plants. I used different varieties and species of wild and domesticated cotton in three different experiments. A feeding assay was conducted, the mortality, development time and pupal weight of larvae of the Egyptian cotton leaf worm Spodoptera littoralis was studied. In a second experiment the preference of the root-feeding beetle Agriotes spp.

Syftet med uppsatsen är att utifrån det psykologiska kontraktet och tre hypoteserundersöka dimensioner av relationen mellan chefer och medarbetare och belysaskillnader. Undersökningen bygger på enkätsvar från 81 medarbetare och 18 cheferfrån två organisationer. Vi behandlar i uppsatsen fem dimensioner av relationenmellan chefer och medarbetare, dessa är uppförande, rättvisa, trygghet, förtroendeoch kommunikation. Två av dimensionerna skiljer sig mellan grupperna när vi testarom det finns skillnader beroende på vilket företag en respondent tillhör och endimension skiljer sig när vi undersöker om det finns skillnader i uppfattningenmellan chefer och medarbetare. När vi jämför ett internationellt företag med ettmindre, lokalt, företag får vi resultat som motsäger vårt antagande att skillnaderi uppfattning om relationens dimensioner är större i det internationella företaget.Vi drar slutsatsen att relationens dimensioner inte är beroende av varandra utanpåverkas av olika faktorer.

The strategy when you change the visual part of the brand identity is often referred to as Corporate rebranding and is seen as a good way to show that a company has undergone a change. Despite high risks and high costs, this strategy has become more common and there are companies today who make the choice to change an already well-known graphic profile. This phenomenon is what underlies this essay?s problem statement: Why does a company with an already well-known graphic profile choose to change it and how does the process behind the change occur? In what way have the company?s customers recognized the change and how has the company?s image changed in this context? The purpose of this essay is therefore to explore the process that occurs when a company in the sport and fashion industry changes its visual identity and to explore how the company?s customers have perceived the change.To fulfil the purpose of the essay a case study was carried out on a company?s Corporate rebranding process. The company that was chosen was the Swedish sports retail chain Stadium Sweden AB who decided to change its graphic profile even though their logo was one of the two most recognized in their field.

Syfte: Att studera vilka faktorer kunder tycker är viktiga vid val av bank och försäkringsbolag. Att se hur väl företagen känner till kundernas preferenser vid val av respektive tjänsteföretag samt att se vilka likheter och skillnader det finns vid val av 2 tjänsteföretag inom den finansiella sektorn.  Metod: Undersökningen gentemot kunderna genomfördes med hjälp av en enkätundersökning och personliga intervjuer vid respektive tjänsteföretag. Enkätundersökningen har redovisats i form av diagram och tabeller medan intervjuerna har redovisats i löpande text. Resultat & slutsats: Kunderna ansåg pris, räntor, ett bra bemötande och engagemang samt personalens kompetens vara viktigast vid val av både bank och försäkringsbolag. Bankkunderna ansåg att närhet till banken och att ha en bra relation till banken var viktigare än vad försäkringskunderna tyckte.

AbstractBusiness, or business decisions always involves an endangerment from the company?s aspect, but when it comes to business with foreign countries the risk profile looks quite different from the profile the company has when its doing business inside the country. Therefore, it is extremely important for an export company or import company to carefully consider the risks that are enclosed with the deal, before he makes the decision to enter a deal. One of the most important risks a company have to considerate when doing business with foreign countries is the currency risk. A company is exposed to currency risk when either long-term or short-term changes in the exchange rate may affect the result of the company, competitive position and growth.

The study analyses the planning of the Edsvik Konsthall in Sollentuna and the first 14 years after the opening 1996 until late 2010. The study focused on the cultural discourses that have influenced the Edsvik as result of the choice of managers, the public figures and actions taken by different actors around the art gallery.The influence by different actors is analyzed in the art field terminology defined by Pierre Bourdieu.I have demonstrated how the head of Edsvik Konsthall, because of different social capital and habitus, raised different types of conflicts on the local art field.  .

Detta är en kvalitativ studie som behandlar relationen mellan sociala medier och rekrytering, så kallad social rekrytering. Vi har genomfört intervjuer med personer från företag och offentliga organisationer kring deras användande av social rekrytering. Vi har även intervjuat fyra professionella aktörer som arbetar med sociala medier, kommunikation och human resources, med avsikten att få en djupare inblick i hur sociala medier bör och kan användas i rekryteringssammanhang. Vi kopplade våra intervjuresultat till teorier kring bland annat rekrytering, sociala medier och employer branding.Studiens frågeställningar berörde hur företagen och de offentliga organisationerna möter social rekrytering samt hur de använder social rekrytering idag. De professionella aktörerna besvarade frågor kring hur de ser på samspelet mellan rekrytering och sociala medier.

In order to evaluate different afforestation methods for exposed heath lands a field experiment was established in Mosfell on southern Iceland in 1989. The trial comprised six different site preparation methods (control, herbicide application, tree shelters, patch scarification, TTS trenching and mounding). In total 960 container seedlings (1+0) and 960 Nisula roll transplants (2+1) of lodgepole pine were planted. Various planting positions (furrow, hinge, no site preparation (control) and on top of mounds) were tested within the site preparation treatments. This study involves renewed measurements and analyses of the trial.After 19 years the overall survival was 51,7 %.

The purpose of this study was to investigate produced laser data from the new national height model's airborne laser scanning in Sweden, what quality it has and whether it can be used for forest management planning. From airborne laser scanning one can obtain information on forest variables such as tree species, height, diameter and basal area. Norra skogsägarna is the principal employer of this project and they wanted know to the quality of the laser data which needs to cope with their standards. If the laser data the quality required it can replace some of the operations performed by field planners. To examine the quality of the produced laser data a control tax assessment has been performed in 30 forest departments. This was done in an objective manner.