This bachelor?s thesis is a study that examines cactus groups in Sweden from a heritage conservation perspective. Through interviews and an analysis of both historical and modern literature, the research explores why cactus groups became popular and what is required to preserve those still in existence today. A recurring challenge has been the lack of comprehensive source material, leaving some questions open for further research. The study focuses on four cities?Norrk?ping, Skellefte?, Varberg, and V?xj??that have maintained their cactus groups for nearly a century.

This thesis discusses the concept of Corporate Social Responsibility, which means that companies are taking a voluntary accountability towards the society with a view to improve it. Today's stakeholders and people in general have higher demands and expectations on businesses and its products or services than before. This is driving more and more companies to consider questions like voluntary responsibility so that they can maintain public confidence. Confidence towards the banking sector is particularly important to avoid financial crises. Our study focuses on leadership impact on CSR.

In this paper Swedish hedge funds and strategies are discussed and analysed. These new financial forms seem to draw recently a huge attention both in media, press and the academic world. The fact is that hedge funds have existed already for a long time but it is still known too little about them. After the introduction of hedge funds, different asset pricing models are discussed including the most basic of all ? CAPM and further Fama and French three factor model as well as the expanding model with conditioning approach.

As the environmental awarenesshas increasedin recent decadessohas the society?s demand forenvironmentalresponsible companies(Ammenberg, 2004).One way for companies to take responsibility and work with environmental issues is to implement anenvironmental management system(EMS). EMSserves as a tool for companies to systematically work with environmental issues and develop the company's environmental efforts. ISO 14001 is theEMSaccording to whichthat the majority of companies today choose to get certified(Brorson & Almgren, 2007). The introduction and operation of the ISO 14001 requires significant financial and human resources and it can therefore be questioned whether the environmental managementsystem is adaptable forall companysizes.The purpose of this studyis to examine whether EMScan provide environmental and economic benefits for companies of all sizes and ifthe conditions to get certifiedaccordingto ISO 14001 is the same for large and smallcompanies.A literature study was made to collect information on company'simplementation of ISO 14001.

During the last decades the importance of IT has increased for businesses all over the world. It has transferred from only being used in administrative purposes to become more integrated to the core business. Due to the financial crisis in 2009 and increasing globalization, IT is facing the challenge of lower costs and increased efficiency. This requires IT-departments to embrace new strategies in order to fulfill these new tougher demands.Lean is a business development concept that aims to lower costs through more effective processes by removing all activities that does not create any value from the end customer?s perspective.

The aim of this study is to try to explain the process using both an actor driven perspective as well as a structural perspective examining the reasons why the County Council of Värmland wants to merge with Region Västra Götaland. The answers to the following research questions are sought to shed light on the problem: What constrained the discretion of  the political actors in the choice of region to merge with? Which role did  different political actors play? Does the study provide Game Theory, from Rational Choice theory,  and Path Dependency, from Historic Institutionalism, a new perspective and strength especially  when bringing them together? The study is limited to two policy areas, health care and regional development policy. The structural background is drawn upon the Annual Report 2008 of the County Council Värmland, the Regional Development Program and Regional Transport Infrastructure Plan 2010-2021 by Region Värmland. The chronological order of decisions and events is drawn upon protocols from various regional political organs all linked to the municipal of Värmland and the correspondence between the officials of Värmland?s municipal and the Legal, Financial and Administrative Services Agency of the State.

ABSTRACT Title:                                   Leadership within property managementCourse:                              Bachelor Dissertation - LeadershipAuthors:                            Isabell Andersson och Marlene LundqvistAdvisor:                             Ingemar WictorKeywords:                         Leadership, property managementProblem formulation:   How can managers within property management lead their employees to achieve company goals?Purpose:                           Our purpose was to identify similarities and differences between different property managers? way to lead their employees.Theoretical framework:    In our study, we have chosen to use the four basic theories which we found most relevant to the subject after studying literature in the field of leadership and leadership within property management. In the theoretical framework we discuss theories such as practical leadership, motivation and commitment, service quality and communication which are all important components for succeeding with an effective leadership according to O'Reilly et al. (2010).Methodology:                   We have conducted a qualitative study with an intensive format and a deductive approach. The empirical data were collected through six interviews in which we interviewed three managers and a member of each managers? staff within property management companies.Results:                             In our research we have reached the conclusion that all our respondent managers are working to motivate their employees and communicate with them in order to guide them towards the company goals.

Social media has made it possible to have a conversation in real time through audio, images and text, with anyone worldwide. The easy availability of social media has created a new society. Companies and organizations have the opportunity to interact with their audiences and their target in a way not previously possible. Welcome to the Web 2.0 world!Social media is a collective name for the communication channels that allow users to communicate directly with each other in real time through text, image or sound. Examples of social media are blogs, SMS, Skype, Facebook, Flickr, Youtube, Linkedin and Myspace.The purpose of this essay is to explore social media's role and opportunities in terms of being able to influence companies and organizations marketing communication. We have used a qualitative approach and our thesis is based on a qualitative text analysis study where we have analyzed 13 articles (the articles are from scholarly journals, magazines and trade/professional) from 2007 to 2009.

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.

The working capital describes the short-term financial position and focus on cash flow and the actual inflow and outflow of money in the company. Working capital is part of the company's financing and consists of the company's current assets and current liabilities. There are resources that are used in the daily activity and can be optimized. The more effective they are in circulation, the higher value they create. The control of working capital is called Working Capital Management and has its basis in the company?s Working Capital Policy.

The society today, reflects a high welfare, where the human being has a better financial position than before. This has generate that more money is spend on pleasure and events. A result of that can be the development of a new line of business; The industry of experience.This kind of branch is fast growing in the Swedish labour market. The characteristics of this branch are, depending of trends, continuous variations and integrated education.A new phenomenon within this branch is ?Centre of experience?.

The position of middle-management is a role where the manager is at risk of being caught between its management and its employees. Elderly care is an industry that has been discussed a lot, to a large extent on how businesses should be managed and by whom it should be conducted. Middle-management in the business of elderly care thereby possess a vulnerable position in a controversial industry. In this study the aim is to investigate the managers' roles and tasks in both the public sector and the private sector in elderly care. It also aims to examine whether there are differences between the roles and how they in such cases is manifested.

Background and problem: There is a continuous debate regarding incentive programs in public companies. Since the global financial crisis and the subsequent recession in 2008, the criticism has reached even higher levels. Various regulatory authorities as well as influential external actors require stronger regulations and limitation of the monetary compensation in publicly held companies. Share-based payments are based on the development of the market value of the company. This means there is an existing relation between the owners? and the managers? interests.

In this pilot study, we have investigated what the two biggest newspapers Aftonbladet and Dagens Nyheter, and the two largest union affiliated journals Lärartidningen/Lärarnastidning and Skolvärlden has written about teachers in their professional roles, and investigated if and whether their reporting has changed over time. In the study, we have also examined what the newspapers and the union affiliated journals emphasize as status enhancing and status lowering factors for the Swedish teaching staff. We have furthermore analyzed our material through Leif Mathiassons theoretical framework in the anthology Uppdrag Lärare ?En antologi om status, yrkesskicklighet och framtidsdrömmar, in which he describes the creation of the image of the school as a medial and political construction. To reinforce Mathiassons theoretical framework we have also presented and used the agenda theory, the gestalt theory and the priming theory in our concluding discussion.

The voluntary none-financial sustainability report has become a trend within accounting. The environmental issues used to be driven by activists only, but lately it has moved in to the general agenda in many companies. Investors are starting to put more attention to the sustainability reporting as it is considered to add value to the company. There are several standard guidelines to be used when producing a sustainability report, one example is the GRI´s Guidelines that takes the following three dimensions in consideration: economy, environment and social. This Guideline is from an international perspective considered to be of good accounting practice (Ljungdahl 2008).