This master thesis concerns whether Swedish non-financial listed firms act in accordance with the optimal capital structure theory and/or pecking order theory. The examined period is 1998-2004 and we discover that Swedish companies neither follow optimal capital structure theory nor pecking order theory. From our results we conclude that there exists no single point of the capital structure which is optimal. Rather it seems as if the optimal point lies in-between an interval from 0 to the industry average, where firms tend to be indifferent to their debt-ratios. Our results show that Swedish companies prefer internal financing followed by equity and as last choice debt issuance..

This is a qualitative study based on two focus group interviews with a total of six social workers who work with assessing financial aid in two municipalities. The study aims to examine how the social workers experience and handle their ambiguous professional role, on the basis that they are expected to support and control the client. The theoretical framework is the theory about discretion and role theory. The results show that social workers find it difficult to combine these different approaches. Two different groups of strategies that social workers use to manage their professional role have been distinguished, the first is used to combine the different approaches (combination strategies), which are: empathy, to be distinct and to "blame" the organization.

Employer branding in public sectorA descriptive case study on Örebro kommuns work with employer brandingProblem: Previous literature on employer branding is normative and highlights what the work with employer branding should contain in order to succeed. Previous literature lack descriptions of how the actual work is carried out in organizations. Previous literature also takes basis in the private sector and there is a lack of studies conducted in the public sector.Purpose: The purpose of this study is to describe how an organization in a public sector works with employer branding and it also aims to increase the understanding of employer branding.Method: The study is a descriptive case study based on a qualitative approach with semi- structured interviews with two employees at Örebro kommun. Throughout the study previous literature on employer branding is used.Results: We have noticed different activities in the organizations work with employees, leadership and communication that contribute to employer branding. The organization has a well-developed approach for the existing employees that contribute to the employee's personal development.

Archives Day is celebrated in Sweden on the second Saturday of November every year since 1998. The aim of this study is to examine how and why Archives Day is celebrated at five archives in the Stockholm region.My empirical material consists mainly of semi-structured interviews with archivists at five archival institutions in the Stockholm region. I have chosen to only interview archivists and not any visitors due to the time con-straints and the scope of the thesis. I have also examined how the goals stated in a government report are carried out in the work with Archives Day.The theoretical framework of the investigation is gathered from educational theory as well as archival theo-ry. For the educational approach I have used John Dewey?s theory of what makes an experience educational to examine whether Archives Day is an educational experience or not.

The aim of this study was to gain a better understanding of resource schools 1 as a human services organization and institution, based on teachers and principals? perspectives. The purpose of resource schools is to provide the students tools and resources to enable them to return to the regular school within two years. The study also aims to examine more closely how this objective applies to the studied resource schools in the studied municipality, as well as highlighting the success factors and barriers that exist to achieve the goal. Previous studies show that this kind of differential practice tends to become a permanent solution.

The overall purpose of this essay was to provide a better understanding of the importance of discretion for social workers in direct social services. To answer the purpose three questions were formulated: (1) How do social workers define and describe their discretion and their ability to independently accomplish their work? (2) How do social workers experience that workplace organization, policies and economic conditions interact with their discretion and (3) How do social workers experience that the interaction with the client can affect how they use their discretion in the individual case? The method used was qualitative interviews. The theoretical framework was Michael Lipskys (1980) Street-level bureaucracy and the four themes organization, professional role, skills and interaction.The results showed that the respondents, although they did not consider themselves to be affected by the economy still adapted to budget restrictions when they said that they were cost conscious in their work. This adjustment to budget framework could possibly be what made them not feel limited in their work.

This text concerns itself with war, the just war theory, and the application of that doctrine on the ?war on terrorism?. I present different views on the theory's place in the discourse, its relevance for unconventional wars followed by the analyses of above mentioned empirical situation.Particular interest is given the criteria concerning proportionality, both ad bellum and in bello, due to in part its difficult nature, and the attention it has received from others. This paper asks the question: Is the just war theory adequate for analysis of modern war?There are few alternatives.

The aim of this qualitative study is to examine the experience of participation among first line managers within community home care. The study is based on eight interviews with first line managers operating in a metropolitan area in Sweden. A majority of the interviewees worked in private companies.We have used two theories to interpret our empiri: Lean Production and Human Resource Management. The analysis resulted in seven themes: economy, leadership, participation, view on the organization, first line manager, private or municipally operated organization and expectations on the manager. Our results showed that all the interviewees experienced that they were participant in the organization.

The focus of our study was to examine personal assistants and group home assistants experiences of stress at work, how they cope with stress and how it affects the relationship with the care recipient. The study is made out of a qualitative frame and based on interviews with two personal assistants and four group home assistants. Our theoretical perspectives consist of Aaron Antonovsky?s SOC theory, Richard Lazarus theory about coping and also sociologist Johan Asplund?s theory about social interaction. The result indicates that the experiences of stress are individual and varied among the participants while the presence of stress at work is a shared apprehension.

This paper investigates the internal product costing system in one of the Swedish banks with the purpose to evaluate the quality of its product costs and possible implications on decision making. The study shows that the current system distorts product costs by, among other things, using relative allocation of costs and time and by allocating all costs to individual units of products. We therefore propose an alternative product costing system, which mainly draws on ABC theory but is also adapted to the specific needs of service companies and of the Bank. This proposal is intended as a solution in this particular case and not to be generalized in other contexts. We hope however to add to the understanding of why more complex costing systems, such as the ones based on ABC theory are, according to previous studies, not widely used in practice.

The purpose of this master thesis is to present a model that illuminates the important factors when deriving technical information from market data within a company. For companies to be able to become and stay competitive in the market, product quality is an important factor. Whilst good product quality leads to customer satisfaction and loyalty, lack of quality brings costs in service and replacements. To improve product quality, the developers need information and knowledge about what quality issues affect existing products. Most companies gather data from market about known issues, but in order eliminate known quality issues in new products; this data has to be transformed into information and knowledge.

This study aims to examine how the interventions for homeless persons in the municipality of Kalmar are organized. The study is based on four half-structured qualitative interviews with both representatives from different instances and also from persons who have experience of being homeless.The theoretical bases we have used to analyze the material are organization theory, specifically the concept of bureaucracy. Our results show that homelessness is not seen as a problem in itself, since the general view is that homeless people often have a complex problem scenario where drug- and alcohol abuse and mental illness are common.It is often the latter that takes priority in the interventions and the housing question is therefore neglected. We also found that social services do not have a satisfactory structure around the organization of the work on homelessness. They do not have any specific device in Kalmar that focus on homelessness issues with the result that the existing units are forced to take care of the work of homelessness.

AbstractTitle: Communicating diversity ? A study about communication and involvement in The National Council of Swedish Youth Organizations.Number of pages: 58Author: Frida SamuelssonTutor: Peder Hård af SegerstadCourse: Media and Communication Studies CPeriod: Autumn 2006University: Division of Media and Communication, Department of Information Science,Uppsala UniversityPurpose/Aim: The general purpose of this essay is to analyse how the member organizations of LSU ? The National Council of Swedish Youth Organizations, see the communication,activities and their influence over the organization. I aim to do an analysis of the target group to find out if the lack of involvement in LSU is caused by communication problems.Material/Method: The method of this essay is quantitative and is based upon a web-survey.The chairmen of the member organizations have been asked to answer a survey about the communication in LSU. To get an idea of how widespread different opinions about LSU are the empirical data has been made into graphs to show the frequencies and also cross tabulations to find out if there are any correlations between the variables.Main result: This study has shown that the problem with involvement in LSU is only partly a communication problem. One important result is that many member organizations feel that LSU doesn?t listen to their opinions and they express a wish to have more influence over the organization.

My purpose with the study is to investigate if it is possible to argue in favor of organizing public libraries according to the client based theory. To create a base to argue from I have studied UFO, a department focused on young adults at the age between 15 and 25 at the public library of Malmö. This case study, performed by investigating the documentation of UFO as well as conducting an interview with the project leader, is the base from which I then can argue for or against the idea of organizing public libraries according to the client based theory. Public libraries should always reflect the communities they serve. This challenges the staff of different libraries in different regions to arrange their organizations accordingly to their local population and to be flexible enough to follow the changes of this population.

The aim of this study is to examine which factors in a traffic wardens? situation at work that promote and which that inhibit satisfaction at work. The aim of this study is also to examine if there are any differences in the work experiences for traffic wardens that work alone versus those who work in a team of two. The following questions are examined in the study:?Which factors promote and which factors inhibit the work situation for traffic wardens??Are there any differences between traffic wardens that work alone and those who work with another colleague?The selection consisted of eight traffic wardens, of which four of them work with another colleague while the other four work by themselves.