Dagens arbetskraft präglas allt mer av en ökad mångfald, vilket ställer krav på företags hantering av heterogena grupper. Tidigare forskning tyder på att inställningen till mångfald får en större betydelse för att attrahera talanger. Syftet blir således att undersöka hur de mest attraktiva arbetsplatserna för ekonomistudenter förmedlar sitt arbete med mångfald, samt hur ekonomistudenter upplever och värderar arbetsgivarnas arbete med mångfald. En kvalitativ granskning av årsredovisningar och hemsidor har genomförts. Delar av datan kvantifierades enligt ett förutbestämt index.

High technology companies in Sweden spend a huge amount of money on research and product development in proportion to what they get back in earnings from their inventions. Product development has traditionally been regarded as much more important than business development. This thesis aims to point out the critical factors behind successful business development processes for high technology companies. We have chosen to make a case study of Hexagon, a highly successful and innovative company within the measurement technology business. Internal and external actors that are important for business development have been identified and interviewed in order to understand how ideas are developed and executed.

The result of this master thesis report describes the advantages and the drawbacks that will arise when implementing an Ethernet based intercommunication system in military vehicles. The report presents a possible solution and describes how different sound applications will be implemented into the suggested solution. The report show that IP LAN in vehicles leads to more advantages than drawbacks. The main advantages are that all kind of media can share the same LAN and that there is a lot of knowledge of this technique in the civil area. The main drawback is about delay.

The purpose of this study was to explore how interpersonal relationship can be affected by groing up in a New Religoius Movement such as Jehovah?s Withnesses and how it has affected them both in their youth and today. The aim was also to explore if there were people in the respondents' environment that was significant to them during their childhood and which support our respondents have received if they were in need of it.We have not found any previous research on children's social relationships within the Jehovah's Witnesses. We therefore believe that this study is of high relevance to both society and also for all the professionals who come into contact with these children. To discover a child in need, knowledge about how their social environment looks like is crucial.

A clean and affordable energy source for cooking is deficient in developing countries. People rely on fuels that contribute to environmental, social and health problems.Biogas is an alternative energy source and an increased investment in small-scale biogas production can in several developing countries be found. Several projects have started to use the technology in developing countries because of the benefits with biogas. Some cases in the establishment of biogas plants have succeeded and some have not. The study is a literature review supplemented by two field studies.

During the last 20 years, the Swedish health care system has faced major changes. One of them is the increasing pressure to generate economic profit due to private businesses entering the market. Health care units are forced to make some structural changes in order to become effective and efficient. As a result merger and acquisitions has become a part of the health care sector, and seems to be an increasing phenomenon. Mergers and acquisitions have mainly been studied in the industry.

The aim of this study is to analyze and describe the research front within information science. To reach this purpose we ask the following research question: Which research themes can be identified within the subject field of information science by using bibliographic coupling in combination with cluster analysis.The data for our study consists of articles from the journals Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology and Journal of Documentation throughout the years 2004-2006. The bibliographic information from the articles was analyzed with the combined methods of bibliographic coupling and cluster analysis. This gave fifteen clusters within which we identified research themes. When analyzing these results we found four main fields of research within the research front of information science: Information retrieval, bibliometrics, knowledge organization and information science as research discipline.

My intention was to explore the childhood of children and adolescents within the religious organization of Jehovah´s Witnesses, in Sweden. I used a technique where I interviewed three active witnesses and four former members. The former members either had left the religion freely or had been excluded by the movement. I wanted to know more from those two different perspectives, because they often seem to conflict. First of all, I wanted to learn about the persons own upbringing.

In many of the world's countries, there is a national organization responsible for marketingthat country as a tourist destination. Through their offices, these organizations work towardsthe creation of effective strategies and a deeper understanding of local markets. Usingqualitative methods such as interviews, observations, and thematic analysis, we managed toinvestigate how the Czech and the German national tourist offices operate, and whatstrategies they are implementing to increase the volume of tourism. The study focused on theanalysis and comparison of the organizations' goals and communication channels.The results show that the investigated tourist boards operate in a similar manner with smalldifferences concerning choice of strategies and communication channels. These discrepanciescan be partly explained by differences in the organization's ownership forms and theconsequences that follow that fact.

The National Property Board (SFV) has been appointed by the Swedish government to administer all property of cultural value owned by the Swedes collectively. The commission includes maintaining the soul and character of each individual building, to adapt these buildings to present needs and requirements, and furthermore making them available to the public. The return on equity demanded by the government is based on the CAPM used within the real estate industry. The theoretical assumption that organizations are either function-driven or pay-driven will serve as a starting point, after which SFV will be defined as a function-driven organization with a pay-formed management control system. This paper aims to examine how applying a pay-formed management control system will affect a function-driven organization.

Brands are the instruments corporates use to create and communicate brands reputation. Within the different industries for consumer products intangible assets such as brands are known to have great importance for corporate prosperities. When consumers experiences a specific brand symbolizes best possible value for money, the corporate behind it has managed to create a unique competitive advantage that should be to its full potential. Strong brands can pose the difference between winning or loosing on the market. Due to this brands should be considered as cost-effective instruments since they help create financial advantages such as consumer loyalty.

The aim of this study is to examine and analyze how management control mechanisms evolve within an organization when a requirement of return on equity is imposed, as well as why the mechanisms evolve the way they do. A case study was performed on Samhall, a Swedish state-owned company, which has the aim to help people with disabilities develop by providing meaningful work. The framework provided by Samuelsson, defining five means of control in organizations was used to structure the study. Further, theories within New Public Management have been used to provide the reader with a proper background to the research area. Theories from the institutional field of organizational research have also been used to provide further depth to our analysis.

The purpose of this study was to investigate how the social services and the police co-operate with each other when they come into contact with an individual within their realms of influence. It has been shown in a report by Fridolf (2008) that co-operation is not the aim itself but used as a mean to reach for better processes and better results. We have used qualitative interviews in the study, where three social workers and three policemen have participated from the same municipality to answer our questions. To analyze our result we have used system theory and organization theory. The result of our study shows that within this specific municipality the two agencies co-operate very well.

By understanding which factors that affect individuals´ will to share knowledge with others within an organization, companies can successfully develop a knowledge-based culture by influencing individuals´ attitudes and behaviour concerning knowledge sharing. Several researchers claim that intrinsic motivational factors can consistently facilitate knowledge sharing between individuals within an organization. Other researchers also assert that extrinsic motivational factors, such as reward systems, might affect individuals? motivation to share knowledge. However, extrinsic motivational factors´ impact on knowledge sharing is a relatively unexplored field and more empirical studies are sought after.

Executive summary This master thesis was originally based on a specific assignment given to the authors from ABB Full Service, a unit specializing in providing maintenance outsourcing: ?How can ABB Full Service expand its offering of providing fundamental maintenance by seamlessly incorporating the business concept with competencies and solutions from other ABB divisions?? The academic issue was developed throughout the thesis, resulting in the following formulation: ?From an organizational perspective; how can service providers bring continuous added value to intra-organizational outsourcing partnerships?? Many of the key findings of this thesis are reflected in the issue. The term intra-organizational outsourcing is a proposed addition to the terminology in the academic discourse on outsourcing. The definition of the term is: ? Where an organization outsources a business process interlinked with the physical operations, requiring the service provider to take over a preexisting unit and its employees.This is an accurate description of the form of outsourcing that ABB Full Service is engaged in.