The Swedish bank Handelsbanken has, according to their own way of measuring, been more successful than a weighted average of their competitors during the last 38 years. They have also handled the recent financial crisis, as well as the one in the 1990´s, better than most other banks. This paper studies their management control system at branch level in order to identify the controls which have been enforced to ensure that a low risk level is retained in the lending. The controls that have been identified are; (1) A decentralized organization with the offices as profit centers where the manager has restrictions regarding risk level and the results are measured as K/I (cost/revenue). (2) The absence of bonuses and individual follow-up regarding performance measurement.

The purpose of this study was to examine how modern information and communication technology influence collective action within the framework of social movements. By studying the protests in the Arab World 2011, and focusing on the social movements in Suleimanya in northern Iraq, by observation taken on place, the essay discusses that collective action is closely related to the use of technology, for example cell phones and Internet.Result shows that modern communication technology has enabled immeasurable access andconnection between individuals throughout the world, which seems to be different from previouscollective action. The new communication channels in the form of social media, has been used for the dissemination of information and news, documentation, organization and membership recruitment in the social movements in the Arab World and Suleimanya. The new social movements have the tendency to be decentralized and flattened organized, they are now self-organizing and that they only do a whole as global patterns, as evidenced by the social movements in the Arab World andSuleimanya..

Different forms of organization in the field of social work, creates different conditions of the individual social workers occupation. This affects not only the people who carry out this work, but also the clients who come in contact with social services.   This survey was based on six interviews executed during spring in the year 2010. The respondents were social workers within economic aid and their nearest executive manager at two municipalities in Kalmar County. The overall aim for this survey was to examine how these social workers were influenced by various ways to organize the municipal work activity. This through following questions:How was respective social service in the municipalities organized?How were the social worker effected in their daily work by the organization?Where there any specific up- or downsides in the way that economic aid was organized in the aspect of the social workers daily work?  The result of this survey was synonymous with a lot of the previously executed research in the area in the sense that the larger municipalities were more specialized in its organization than the smaller.

Nature?s Best is a quality-label for Swedish Eco-tourism. It is one of very few active ecotourism labels and the only one that claims quality as its main focus. The objective of this thesis is to evaluate the certification scheme Nature?s Best with regards to the values the certification creates for the companies that certify their products.

Social control in different forms has existed in all known societies. This control has taken different shapes and expressions. In older smaller communities there was a collective control among the citizens. In modern societies the state is trying to control the lives of the citizens. These control mechanisms can be seen as both freedom-reducing and freedom inducing depending on which concept of freedom one upholds.

Processing information in complex everyday life recruites different abilities than limited storage capacity. Working memory, the central executive and inhibition are constructs that have been used to describe this ability of adaptation. This paper investigates the connection between working memory capacity and performances in tasks closely associated to real life situations, i. e. verbal fluency tasks.

Personlighetstester är en urvalsmetod som blivit vanligt förekommande vid re-krytering av ny personal inom ett flertal yrkeskategorier och branscher i Sveri-ge. Det är därför intressant att studera människors upplevelse av personlighets-test vid rekryteringssammanhang. Studiens syfte var att undersöka individers upplevelse av och förhållningssätt till personlighetstester under en rekryterings-process. Åtta deltagare valdes ut utifrån bekvämlighet och tre kriterier. Delta-garna skulle ha olika yrken, gjort ett personlighetstest under de senaste två åren och blivit anställda.

Emotional Intelligence (EI) is a highly used concept in contemporary organizations, especially in the recruitment process or education of employees and managers. The aim of this study was to examine the discursive production of the concept emotional intelligence and how it, linked to an organizational context, is expressed in web-based articles and course homepages. In total 11 texts related to emotional intelligence and organizational contexts were used as the object of study. A three-stage model was used as a method for analysis. The model included a content analysis, argument analysis and a deconstruction analysis in order to expose what was said about emotional intelligence and how it was said.

The purpose of this essay is to examine if there is any difference in the style of conversation between a municipal politician and a politician in parliament? In order to answer this question I have created two sub-questions that are more precise. The first question is: Are the municipal politicians more open to cooperate with politicians from other parties than the politicians from parliament? And the second question is: Is the rhetoric between the politicians in parliament different than the rhetoric between the municipal politicians?My study is a comparative case study with two different groups of politicians. With the help of a survey I have tried to examine if there are differences in the use of language in the daily work for the politicians.

Swedish healthcare is in continuous need of cost savings and efficiency improvements in order to meet the increased demand for care. The theories of lean, developed from the industry, are applied more frequently on healthcare systems to increase effectiveness and reduce waiting times in patient processes. However, some processes seem to be more successful in their lean implementation than others. In this thesis, factors influencing flow efficiency in lean healthcare are examined. Through interviews with the top executive board at Capio St Göran's hospital, data is collected in order to analyze reasons for success.

This case study, ?The sense of place in a courtyard in Gothenburg?, examines whether the city planners? vision correspond to the residents? perception regarding the sense of place and the physical environment in a courtyard in Gothenburg. By carrying out a questionnaire survey, the inhabitants? perception has been explicated, which we have then compared to the total vision for the design of the courtyard that we have gathered from doing interviews with the planning executive, the developer and the landscape architect as well as reviewing the development plan. The study has shown that the vision coincides relatively well with the residents? perception, but it differenciates when it comes to social aspects.

Due to globalization, decentralization and the capitalist system's need to physical location cities have become increasingly important economic spheres during thee last decades. City mayors are seen as increasingly important actors, who can shape the future economic development of their cities through networking with businesses and strategic policy development. Therefore several European countries have introduced mayor reforms to enable mayors to take a bigger responsibility for the local development. These reforms raise interesting questions concerning what leadership changes they produce at the local level and if there is a difference between local leaders and leadership in different countries. This paper further explores the connection between the local leader and the locality since this relationship often has been neglect in studies concerning mayor reforms.

How does IT-consultants reason in their consulting process regarding the development of a clients IT-based internal recruitment system? The purpose with this paper is to investigate how an IT-consultant is reasoning in a consulting process and investigate whether consultants are using established models and methods in their work. We have chosen to work with a qualitative examination to attain our purpose. In our work gathering the empirical facts we have been working with a case study, an observation and a simulation exercise. The combination of these has made it possible to carry out the paper and produce the most correct data possible.

AbstractIn this bachelor thesis I discuss and analyse the current situation of the Venezuelan democracy. By using a theoretical framework based on the theory of horizontal accountability, I focus on the interaction between different institutions and branches within the state of Venezuela. The analysis focuses on the strenghts and flaws of the newly accepted constitution, and to what extent the institutions of checks and balances remain true to the laws and the constitution of 1999. My conclusions are that in terms of vertical accountability, the Chávez-regime acknowledges a wide popular support for their governmental actions. In contrast, the incumbent administration shows almost no respect for horizontal accountability.

With an IT outsourcing project there are many factors affecting how efficiency andquality develop in the outsourced activity. The Purpose of this study is to identifythese factors through a case study in a global company that is dissatisfied with theefficiency and quality of their outsourced helpdesk. For data collection methodsinterviews and observations were used. Interviews were conducted with people fromdifferent parts of the company in three different countries, all somehow involved inthe outsourced system. The observations were made with the outsourced company tosee how the employees work and fill information gaps that the interviews could notcover.