This study examines how management consulting firms work with business- and functional strategy and how these strategies are interrelated. More specifically we focus on business strategy (business unit level) and knowledge strategy (functional level) and whether these are aligned or not, i.e. whether strategic congruence exists.A number of recent studies have examined the importance of business strategy and knowledge strategy in management consulting firms separately, but few have pointed out the importance of the alignment between them. With this study we contribute to the strategic field of research with a model that describes how management consulting firms should work with their knowledge strategy given their business strategy. The model is developed through a synthesis between theories in the field of strategic congruence, business- and functional strategies and thereafter tested by an empirical case study of six management consulting firms.

The changed role of IT continuously influences organisational development, the individual and his role in the organization, different kinds of structures, management processes and strategies. One of the big concerns for IT firms is the need for IT consultants with enough experience to effectively and rapidly understand the business procedures of the firm in or-der to become a resource. In the classic IT-consultant role in the early days of IT, quite dif-ferent features were expected from them in their work procedures. The structure of how and which tasks they were expected to handle has undergone an indisputable transforma-tion. Today?s IT consultants are expected to know how to think in business strategic man-ners as well as the IT strategic manners.

The contribution of biofuels to the total consumption of energy in Sweden must increase to 49 % in order to meet the goals for the year 2020 set by the European Union. In order to do so, improved information systems are needed to support the business processes within delivery scheduling between customers and suppliers.Enterprise Architecture (EA) is a concept to enable the alignment of Business processes and Information Systems. EA is the framework for the architectures of business, information and applications. With a comprehensive view of the architectures, an Information System aligned with the Business processes can be enabled. The first step in the development of an Information System is documenting the business processes.The goal of this study is to clarify a generic sequence of activities performed within the delivery scheduling process and the information needed to perform the activities.Data for the study was collected through qualitative interviews, first through a meeting with the respondent and after that a following telephone interview with in total 5 suppliers and 6 customers of biofuels.

This study was made with the incentive to find out the view on advertorials in Swedish press today. Our exploration of advertorials refers not only to adverts that look like editorial texts, as per the definition in the oxford dictionaries, but also to ways that editorial texts use an advertorial style or language similar to adverts. We explored both these sides because we recognized that the existence of advertorials in press today has to do with material which is indistinctive in several ways, and to find out the views on this, we interviewed chief editors and publishers on six local daily newspapers in Västra Götaland, Sweden.Our theories were based in the fact that the press finds itself working in a commercialized landscape, at the same time as journalism has a democratic role to uphold in society.We also considered that there used to be a committee against advertorials in Sweden called Textreklamkommittén, which was disbanded in 2005. That committee had a mandate to govern and try cases of advertorials in the press, but today, the only thing that journalists have to consider is a guideline of publishing matters. The central part of our study was therefore to find out what actual issues journalists have to consider in their daily work, as they are exposed to various forms of advertorials.After conducting the interviews, we asked four analytical questions to our material using the ECA-method of analysis.

Uppsatsen syftar till att utreda två skatterättsliga frågor som uppkommit i samband med ett avvisat avgörande från Högsta förvaltningsdomstolen avseende terminsavtal i ett incitamentsprogram. Frågorna är om terminer och terminsavtal utgör värdepapper och om eventuella förfoganderättsinskränkningar i dessa avtal har betydelse för förmånsbeskattningen. Utgångspunkten i uppsatsen är beslutet från Högsta förvaltningsdomstolen som avvisades och det därtill hörande förhandsbeskedet från Skatterättsnämnden.Utifrån de diskussioner som förts i uppsatsen kan författaren konstatera att terminer och terminsavtal kan klassificeras som värdepapper. Begreppet värdepapper är inte definierat i lagtext men utifrån praxis och doktrin samt viss EU-lagstiftning kan det utläsas att terminsavtal uppfyller de krav som ställs på en klassificering som värdepapper. När det gäller beskattning av en förmån krävs det att den anställde förvärvar ett värdepapper, annars utgör rättigheten en personaloption.Författaren anser att då ett terminsavtal ingår i ett incitamentsprogram så representerar det ett ekonomiskt värde för den anställde som ska förmånsbeskattas.

Problem discussion: That empowerment and autonomy can lead to desirable effects on employees is clear. Previous research has found correlations between empowerment and e.g. motivation, job satisfaction, productivity, loyalty and commitment. However, a control problem arises when employees have more freedom in decision-making which could potentially lead to undesirable outcomes. It thus becomes a type of dilemma for management and managers where you have to try to balance a restrictive use of the control system (to maintain control) and an enabling use (to promote empowerment).Purpose: The purpose of this study is therefore to identify how a company can use its control system in order to achieve empowerment while maintaining acceptable levels of control.

This paper describes and analyzes how individuals and organizations that operate in careers in communications and marketing deal with the search for employees / employers, and how recruiting managers and recruitment consultants are working to create a match between the parties. The study was conducted on behalf of a recruitment agency that offers services in recruiting and staffing for organizations in communication and marketing. The empirical material consists of ten qualitative interviews from three different perspectives on the labor market, recruitment consultants, managers and employees. The interviews were analyzed from sociological and social psychological theories of organizations and individuals opportunities and strategies in today's western labor market. Conclusions that emerged are that organizations need for decreased amount of tied assets provides increased need for temporary employments.

During the past 10 years Sweden has updated its penal code for sexual crimes twice. Despite this few are convicted for the crime of rape in Sweden. As the majority of perpetrators being male, this is a problem concerning women?s rights to respect for their bodies and personal integrity. A possible explanation, and this study?s point of departure is a potential discrepancy between the intention of the law and the interpretation of the same as the Swedish legal system rests on a foundation of legal positivism.

AbstractPresentation of the problem: The goal with this graduation project is to produce a new visual concept for the student newspaper Campus, this will be expressed in the form of page templates. The page templates will have a visual concept that appears through graphical elements. The client's wishes were that the student newspaper should be audience appropriate, attractive, inviting, reliable, modern and functional to work with.Theory: In order to implement the wishes and in a good way produce a consistent visual concept, we took a starting point in theory of graphic design. This theory has taken many of its principles from aesthetic theory, and therefore have we also used aesthetics to provide a deeper theoretical aspect. The principles we used in graphic design is; how to create a unity in the layout by using basic elements such as text, images, and white space.

The purpose of this thesis is to discuss how an instrument originally developed for measuring changes toward lean thinking inservice organizations in general should be adjusted in order to be of use in service organizations within the healthcare sector, andin hospital organizations in specific. The adjustments are suggested based on difficulties specifically arising when implementinglean within the healthcare sector.Thesis starting point is a pre-existing lean assessment instrument developed for service organizations in general. The thesis appliesa qualitative method and integrates literature from the health care sector and lean production movement with the expertise of tenacademics and practitioners in order to find difficulties associated with the implementation of lean within the healthcare sector.These difficulties then lie as the substratum for the adjustments suggested to be made on the instrument.The thesis finds that lean, as a philosophy, does not differ between service organizations in general and service organizationswithin healthcare settings. However, due to deficits in the general understanding of lean some adaptions on the instrument mustbe made. First, some words associated with production must be changed to words associated with healthcare.

This thesis was conducted at Mälardalen University in Västerås and Härjeåns Nät AB, mainly in Sveg. Härjeåns Nät AB is a network company that delivers electricity in Härjedalen municipality, Ånge Municipality, Ragunda and Bräcke municipality. The maintenance and dismantling of electricity and broadband networks generates a lot of waste. The purpose of this work is to present proposals on the management of the waste. The goal is that all of Härjeåns offices should have equal management for the waste and an overview of how to manage the various wastes.

The world around us is shrinking and globalization and capitalism are processes affecting the world. Global trends, like outsourcing and relocation of firms to low-cost countries, have become more common. This creates a huge vulnerability in the municipalities that today are concentrated around a single large company. One of these is Olofström which today is one of the most vulnerable municipalities in Sweden and whose survival today lies in the hand of the company ?Volvo Cars Corporation?.

Syfte: Syftet med vår studie är att utreda och analysera hur två kommunala bostadsföretag arbetar med kundorientering idag jämfört med för tio år sedan. Vårt mål är att utifrån en uppföljande studie redogöra för hur kundorienteringstankarna har utvecklats under den senaste tioårsperioden. Arbetar de kommunala bostadsföretagen mer kundorienterat idag jämfört med för tio år sedan? Vi vill även öka kunskapen kring kundorientering och belysa vilka fördelar som finns att vinna hos de kommunala bostadsföretag som väljer att arbeta kundorienterat. Metod: För att genomföra studien har vi samlat information från litteratur och från två intervjuer. Intervjuerna har utförts personligt på respektive respondents kontor.

Diskussionen om den svenska vården är ständigt aktuell, särskilt den som rör de tio till tolv procent som utgör privat verksamhet. De ekonomiska drivkrafter som finns i ett företag med vinstintresse kan anses vara oförenliga med vård av god kvalitet. Det är viktigt att kunna balansera incitamenten kvalitet och vinstintresse för att undvika att patienter eller brukare blir missgynnade. Den privata vården och omsorgen tampas med dagens rådande organisationskultur som säger att det är fult att tjäna pengar på vård. Den offentliga sektorn i sin tur arbetar mot kvalitetsmål vare sig de är företagsekonomiskt effektiva eller ej, samtidigt som de brottas med svårigheter gällande krav på ökad ekonomisk effektivitet, åtstramningar och problem med att mäta graden av framgång baserat på prestationer.

Due to poorly functioning local and regional markets, the smallholders in San Francisco, Petén, were dependent on intermediaries that took advantage of the smallholder?s distance to markets. In an attempt to secure income and strengthen their bargaining position, 189 smallholders joined forces through the creation of a social smallholder network, held together by a community based enterprise. This enterprise was initiated in 2011 with the help of government incentive programmes and NGOs that within a few years will leave the enterprise to auto regime. This study treats the sustainability of a community forest based enterprise, Chachaklum, in northern Guatemala. The study identifies factors that enable smallholders to organize themselves in order to obtain business practices that support an improved standard of living.