The purpose of this thesis has been to explore the topic of business simulation from a theoretical foundation in social constructivism and theories concerning leadership as the management of meaning. The most important findings are that business simulation can be used for strategical leadership by management to create a common vision in the organisation members, which affects their perception of the business and the decisions and actions they make, which in turn can lead to a more efficient organisation that becomes better at meeting set goals. This can be viewed in different ways from different theoretical viewpoints: as inducing targeted changes in mental models to create changes in decision making and actions; as a secondary socialization process where the vision of management is externalized as a business simulation that is in turn internalized by the organisation members that participate in the business simulation, or as a way to frame and define the reality of the organisational members which creates a shared reference point against which a feeling of organisation and direction can emerge. In the future, business simulations may become increasingly used by organizations to create a common vision or to communicate a new decision to the organization members..

This masters thesis aims to explore the branch libraries in Kalmar municipality and their relation to the Information and communication technology ICTsociety. How do they adapt to and assimilate with, the ICT-society? What are their roles in local social networks and do they make a difference there? To answer these questions, critical discourse analysis, CDA, as founded by Norman Fairclough is applied to four interwievs with branch library managers. Other theorists used are Michel Foucault, Chaïm Perelman and Ludwig Wittgenstein. A solid description of todays society on different levels is also given.

The purpose of our study is to describe and understand whether, and if so, how social workers in school and in social services construct computer gaming adolescents as a social problem. We chose social workers who encounter adolescents with different problems. We have conducted qualitative interviews with vignettes to capture the social workers' reasoning about computer gaming adolescents and how they handle this in their work. The study shows that all social workers we interviewed had encountered adolescents with troubling computer gaming habits. In the study, all agree that computer gaming becomes a problem when it leads to deviant behaviour such as not going to school, staying up all night and so on.

Reklamen tar allt större plats i samhället, så även läkemedelsreklam för receptfria produkter. Allmänheten har dock inte alltid tillräcklig bakgrundskunskap för att tillgodogöra sig informationen. Detta har visat sig kunna resultera i missförstånd av reklam med konsekvenser som felaktiga val, liksom felaktig läkemedelsanvändning. Syftet med examensarbetet var att utläsa i vilken omfattning läkemedelsreklam kan vara en källa till läkemedelsrelaterade problem, utröna var missförstånden uppkommer, vilken typ av problem som är vanligast samt hur man bäst kan förebygga missförstånden. Undersökningen genomfördes under februari-mars 2005, genom en kundenkät respektive en personalenkät.

Homeless adolescents are in Sweden rather invisible, as a group. There is no established definition or description of the problem, nor any uniform terms regarding it. The purpose of this study is to investigate how four different organizations, based on their basic principles, describe the group homeless adolescents. We discuss why the organizations reason as they do, and what it leads to. In order to do so we have performed qualitative interviews with representatives from each organization.

Background: Having chosen to take a degree in international business, we have had many opportunities to meet people from different cultures. These encounters have, we believe, made our lives richer, but they have not always been problem-free. When different cultures come together, the differences inevitably become apparent. Being among friends, one can maybe laugh at these differences or it may be a good opportunity to get people to talk to each other, taking the time to explain why they do things a certain way. Being at work and experience these differences might not at all have the same ice-breaking effect - rather the opposite sometimes.

Abstract: The purpose of this study is to examine how the Swedish policy of neutrality has changed between the years 1990-2008. The research method used for this essay has been comparative case study, which strives to answer four research questions. Two of these questions are: Which specific occurrences have been fundamental in changing the Swedish policy of neutrality? How have the Swedish policy of neutrality and the policy of non-alignment changed between the years 1990-2008? The theoretical frame work of this study consists of Europeanization as a comprehensive theoretical perspective. In order to explain the Swedish act regarding the policy of neutrality, Logic of Consequences and Logic of appropriateness are used.

The purpose of this Master Thesis is to investigate the quality of the library service at the City Library of Uddevalla. In particular this thesis will examine the quality of the library service to people who are disabled. This applies particularly to the service to people with reduced ability to move or to see, which also includes people with infirmities due to old age. We also have investigated how well the library itself is adapted to the disabled. In order to get more information about the library service to people who are disabled, we have studied literature on this subject and the Master Thesis contains a summary of those documents.

Swedish students' knowledge of both mathematics and reading comprehension has deteriorated in recent years. Scientists are discussing whether there is a connection between these areas and that the pupils deteriorating math skills may have something to do with their increasingly lower results in terms of reading comprehension. To investigate this possible connection, I conducted a survey among students in ninth grade and have come to the conclusion that the scientists are right: this connection absolutely exist. Students who received a high score on tasks designed to test students' mathematical problem-solving skills, also received high results on the reading comprehension test. And students who received a poor performance on the problem-solving tasks, were also low performers in the reading comprehension test.

The purpose of this Master?s thesis is to describe how Swedish public libraries use Web 2.0-tools and their experiences of using the tools. Focus of the study lies in the contact between public libraries and their patrons on the Web 2.0-tools. For the purposes of the study, the use of weblogs and MySpace were chosen for examination. The methodology used for this study was qualitative interviews.

Syftet med denna rapport är att undersöka om modern teknik kan åtgärda de problem som idag finns vid integration av nätverksresurser. En av grundtankarna i detta arbete är att nätverken i framtiden kommer att behöva anpassas till en mer flexibel och heterogen miljö. Anledningen till detta är att det i framtiden kommer utvecklas en rad nya produkter som ska kopplas in i nätverken.Rapporten är uppdelad i tre delar. I första delen undersöks vilka problem som finns idag vid resurshantering i nätverk. Denna undersökning gjordes med hjälp av intervjuer med ett antal systemadministratörer som har praktisk erfarenhet av sådana typer av problem.

När problem med materielsystem upptäcks efter att de har levererats till Försvarsmakten så är detden vidmakthållande organisationen som tar hand om det. Den arbetar för att det aktuella problemetåtgärdas och även förebygger liknande problem. Många instanser runt om i Försvarsmakten är inblandadei arbetet; ibland kan samordning och kommunikation vara ett problem för verksamheten.Uppsatsen undersöker hur ett datorbaserat samarbetssystem kan bidra till att förbättra den vidmakthållandeprocessen inom Försvarsmakten.Undersökningen visar att ett datorbaserat samarbetssystem kan underlätta arbetet för en idag redanfungerande vidmakthållandeorganisation..

Bachelor thesis in business administration with emphasis in accounting and auditing. Spring term 2011, Mälardalens Högskola.Authors:Jim Hansson, Filip Sahl and Pererik Sewerin.Advisor:Lennart Bogg.Key words:Abolition of mandatory auditing, optional audit, auditor, audit.Title:The role of audit in a credit review - impact from the creditor's perspectiveBackground:As of November 1st2010, auditing became optional for micro companies in Sweden. This leads to an opportunity for about 70 % of the joint-stock companies to choose whether or not to keep their auditors. Creditors are affected by this as they may receive a less trustworthy base to make a good credit review if many companies choose to proceed their accountings without the control of an auditor. Creditors have the option to require that companies are to be reviewed by auditors, while authorized accounting consultants may be a possible substitute as a quality control for the accountings.Purpose:The purpose of this thesis is to examine what impact optional audit has had in credit processes so far and look into alternative forms of reviews for businesses.Problem definition:? Does auditing simplify for the creditors in a credit review? ? Is there some kind of accounting that could be a substitute for the audit?Method:The study is qualitative in character through six interviews.

The purpose of this study is to investigate librarian?s opinions concerning literature with state supported distribution and how to mediate and market these in the library. The types of mediation and marketing that have been studied are positioning, labeling and oral mediation.The study is qualitative with interviews at seven main public libraries in central Sweden. The respondents of the study were responsible for the literature with state supported distribution within the library.The study is based on a theoretical frame of reference containing theories from Jofrid Karner Smidt, regarding librarian?s mediation in libraries, and François Colbert?s theory on marketing planning for arts and culture.The results of our study showed that librarians have both positive and negative opinions when it comes to the literature with state supported distribution.

The increasing administration in IT-systems is the target of much debate today. It is viewed as taking time from what is considered to be managers? real tasks as well as resulting in an ineffective and stressful work environment. This view of IT-systems as problematic and time consuming can also been found among unit managers in a municipality in the north of Sweden. To be able to understand why IT-systems are perceived in this way this study?s aim has been to find what leads to this view.