Abstract: The world in which companies are acting today offers challenges in the sense that it is rapidly changing and that a vast amount of information is available. In order to ensure the competitiveness and survival of the company, an effective and efficient environmental scanning is essential to the company. Our aim with this Master's thesis is to investigate what factors constitutes important and basic conditions in a well functioning environmental scanning and how companies strategically can go about to achieve this. In order to highlight and specify how these factors can be applied on a specific company Thule has been our focal point. Thule.

With the globalization, companies in the West chose to shift production to developing countries to cut down costs. This had a major impact when child labor and very poor working conditions in these factories were discovered and led many companies to take responsibility for their suppliers and the employees by adopting voluntary so-called Codes of Conduct.There is a subtle balance to enforce improvement of working conditions for employees at suppliers´ factories and to keep costs down. On the one hand, companies would like to conduct extensive audits at their suppliers to ensure code of conduct compliance and thus protect their legitimacy. On the other hand, audits are expensive so companies would like to minimize audits to keep costs down. Companies thus have to strike a delicate balance in relation to how many and what suppliers they choose to audit.

Title:A study of ?Situational followership?.Level:Final assignment for Bachelor Degree in Business AdministrationAuthor:Lykke SilfwerbrandSupervisor:Jonas KågströmDate:2011 ? JanuaryAim:This study looks at the new concept: ?situational followership?. It discusses howfollowership and leadership are connected and takes the approach of the follower. The studymainly looks into the following questions:·How can situational followership can be described?·What is the most important parameter for a follower?·Does the choice of leader differ according to the situation?·How is situational leadership and situational followership connected?Method:This is a qualitative study with ten respondents.

The aim of the Master?s Thesis work is to study and develop algorithms for autonomous travel of a UGV (Unmanned Ground Vehicle). A vehicle for the mounting of sensors has been constructed in order to perform the work. Since the UGV is to be used outdoor in urban areas, GPS can be used. To improve precision and robustness, inertial navigation is used in addition to GPS, since GPS reception is likely to be diminished in such areas.

This study examines counselors understanding of body fixation (alt: body image fixation) as a social problem among young women aged 15-25 years. Earlier research on this subject highlights the standards and ideals placed on the female body where happiness is associated with a slim body figure. Research has shown that young women that compare their own bodies with others are at higher risk at developing an unhealthy relationship with their body, which can lead to eating disorders. The data for this study was collected through semi-structured interviews with nine counselors from youth clinics, schools and primary healthcare. The results were interpreted and analysed in the light of social constructionist perspective as developed by Berger & Luckmann and Loseke's social constructionist definition of social problems.

Launching and marketing a health food product is associated with larger problems than a launch of a traditional food product. There are several sales channels that can be used for a health food product, for example the product can be sold as a traditional food product, natural health food product or as a prescription drug. A smaller company can however experience problems while launching its product as a prescription drug because of the large costs associated with this particular sales channel. There is often no other alternative than to launch the product as a traditional food product, this can however create other problems because of the existing regulations on what can and cannot be mentioned in the marketing of a health food product. The limited amount of information about the product that can be enclosed together with it makes it hard for a company to differentiate and position it on the market.

Crossfit is a recently developed form of training which is based on a number of functional resistance exercises performed at high intensity, often to the point of muscular failure. Crossfit has since its introduction 30 years ago, reached vast popularity all around the world, including Sweden. Its practitioners considers Crossfit to be an effective training method for achieving a functional and total trained physique thru improvements in VO2max, muscle strength, endurance, balance and speed. Few scientific studies has been published in the subject which is why this study sets out to examine the effect of Crossfit on VO2max (measured with Åstrands submaximal cyclingtest), maximal strength capacity in lower- and upper body muscles (measured with 1 RM tests in bench press and leg press), rapid strength capacity and strength endurance capacity in upper body muscles (measured with push-up test in 30 seconds) and explosive strength capacity in lower body muscles (measured with sergeant jump test). Five women with an average of 33(±5) years of age all new to Crossfit, performed these tests at two separate occasions with a training period of four weeks consisting of 12(±3,67) Crossfit sessions in between.The result showed a significant improvement in the maximal strength capacity of the leg extension muscles (p=0,025).

MSB stands for Swedish Civil Contingencies Agency. It?s a government organization that deals with emergencies and crises. MSB has developed a software package where the newest software version is called RIB 2012. The package includes the program RIB Karta.

This thesis aims to explore the use of costumed interpreters at museums. Firstly the thesis examines how extensivethe use of historical costumes is in Sweden, along with some international comparisons. Later on the differentways that the clothes are used is examined, and the costume as a resource for learning is discussed. In the lastpart of the thesis the ?function? of the costume is examined.

This master?s thesis attends to a debate in the Swedish daily press concerning the public library which arose after the Swedish Moderate Party?s publication of their cultural political document Kulturen 2.0. This document contains a number of standpoints, of which three directly concern the public library: charges on book loans, libraries on contract and politically balanced purchase policy. In all, 28 articles are examined by means of an idea and ideological analysis. The purpose is to find out what is behind the conflicts surrounding attitudes about the public library's mission and activity in an era of needs for change.

To read and understand are essential competences for everyone in our society; at the same time reading comprehension among Swedish pupils is on the decline. The Swedish school must therefore try to improve their instructions to increase the students' reading comprehension. The aim of the study was to describe how three reading comprehension strategies, if possible, could improve the reading comprehension for the students, including children with learning disabilities, when reading texts of natural science in a third-grade class. The three strategies that were introduced were: to activate prior knowledge, to structure information and to record contents. The questions of the study were: How are the three strategies introduced in the classroom? Can the children with learning disabilities see any benefits for their reading comprehension when working with the strategies? How do the children with learning disabilities experience working with the strategies? Can the teacher see any benefits when working with the strategies? Is it possible to see any differences among the students' results, before and after completed intervention? Method: The results have been collected through observations and qualitative interviews, which make this a qualitative study.

This master thesis concerns the occupational safetyenvironment at Outokompu Stainless, Avesta Work.The study is of a sociotechnical approach wherehumans are involved and interconnected in the samesystem with technology and organisation. In order toreach the corporation?s goal of zero accidents with losttime injury, the work of improving and maintainoccupational safety and health has to regard behaviourand cultural aspects. The aim of this study is todescribe the safety culture at a specific production unitand research what work which has to be done in orderto change and improve the safety culture at AvestaWork.There are several opportunities for improvementpointed out in this paper and here are some mainresults presented. First and foremost, the concern ofsafety among blue-collar is often secondary due toproduction.

Background: The parent has a natural presence in today?s child health care and hospital treatment. The transition from home to a care institution has an impact on the parent. Previous research shows that over time the conditions and the parent?s role in child and youth health care have changed extensively.

Psykologisk forskning visar på att unga medarbetare, den så kallade Millennialgenerationen, efterfrågar en annan typ av ledarskap än deras äldre föregångare. Syftet med studien var att undersöka unga medarbetares föreställningar om transformativt ledarskap samt i vilken utsträckning dessa föreställningar motiverar dem i arbetet. Hypotes: Transformativt ledarskap är gynnsamt för unga vuxnas motivation på arbetsplatsen jämfört med andra ledarstilar så som laissez-faire och transaktionellt ledarskap. Undersökningsmetoden som använts var en webbaserad enkätdesign med 28 deltagare i åldrarna 20-38. Resultatet stödjer studiens syfte och hypotes, det transformativa ledarskapet var det som motiverade unga vuxna mest på arbetsplatser.

The essay shows that temporary agency employees work in a complex business. Both labor and management differs from other businesses in the Swedish labor market. Regarding the unemployment insurance, they have previously been separated from other businesses through legislation. Based on the essay question regarding workers protection has the statutory rights for employees been strengthened. This by the implementation of the directive on manning into Swedish law and now covers all workers in the business.