The profit a company makes is dependant of its employees which means that their competence is important for the company to perform well. The middle manager has a central position in the organization and is expected to take on different roles. This probably puts a lot of demands on the middle managers and their competence. We want to contribute with a comprehension of how learning, competence and needs for competence can look at a middle management level. Furthermore we also want to find out what kind of strategy for competence development the middle managers want the company to use so their competence development can be facilitated.

This study takes place within a publicly owned art producing organization and dwells on the problems of a change process that the organization was involved in. Both leaders and staff were disappointed by the way the change process had developed. The management team explained the outcome by referring to the uniqueness of working with artists who constantly put their own personal objectives before the benefit of the whole. The aim of this study is to find a complementary explanation to the one the management team provided us with; an explanation that can help in the understanding of the dynamics of a change process. Can perhaps theories on information, communication and change processes give an alternative explanation to why the change process faltered? To investigate this, we have used a qualitative single case study.

Background: The fierce competetivness that characterize todays market force the companies to differentiate their offerings to a greater extent. The customers do no longer choose their supplier on the attributes of the products alone. Their purchase decisions also depend on the relationship the customers have with their supplier. With new customer channels like the Internet and advanced computer systems companies can increase the value for their customers through a better understanding of the customers needs and preferences. In this way companies can create longterm relationships with their customers.

Samhällets resurser är begränsade och en prioritering av olika verksamheter nödvändig. Cost-utility-analysen är en typ av ekonomisk utvärdering som syftar till att utgöra en del av beslutsunderlaget vid prioriteringsbeslut. Uppsatsen gör en cost-utitlity-analys av den ickefarmokologiska hypertonibehandling som genomförts vid Vindelns hälsocenter på individer där traditionell behandling inte haft önskvärd effekt på blodtrycket. Det sänkta blodtryck deltagarna på internatet erhöll minskar riskerna att drabbas av hjärtinfarkt eller stroke. Cost-utitlity-analysen inkluderar både till behandlingen relaterade kostnader och inbesparingar samt framtida till behandlingen orelaterade kostnader, som en följd av att individiden lever längre när riskerna minskar.

The purpose with this paper is that trough a description of the management control at Jitech AB find out if traditional management control have been abandoned for benefit for modern management control and in which extent the transition have happened. Further is the second purpose with this paper to find out which decisions that lies behind the design of the management control and how these are in opposition to with the theory..

The main purpose of this Master Thesis has been to evaluate whether active fund management is profitable on Emerging Markets. The material used to examine this consists of 106 actively managed funds, with varying length during the period 1988-2006 and who uses MSCI Emerging Markets (MSCI EM) as benchmark index. The thesis has been written under the supervision of the Asset Management Department of Länsförsäkringar AB (LFAB) and the Department of Production Economics, Linköping Institute of Technology. Apart from the main purpose, the methodology used is also meant to form a template for in-depth or similar studies, preferably by the assigner of this survey, LFAB.The results shows that the median manager underperforms the MSCI EM throughout the whole period, which leads to the conclusion is that active management on Emerging Markets is not profitable. A grouping of the funds based on tracking error still shows that a majority of the managers in all of the groups underperforms against the benchmark.

This report describes work on the thesis ?IT systems and organizational development?. The work is carried out on Stocksbro Energi AB, during spring 2009. The company wanted better flow in their production but also review if the inventory management function located in Visma SPCS Administration 2000, could be used in the organization. Under the first part of this report the system were tested to ensure if the system would work together with the organization.

The aim of this thesis is to examine the existence and prevalence of earnings management in Swedish companies. Theoretical frameworks often suggest that there are strong incentives to practice earnings management. The research area of earnings management has, to date, mainly focused on detecting earnings management. However, to our knowledge, no such studies have been conducted on Swedish companies. This thesis provides evidence of the existence and prevalence of earnings management in Swedish companies.

The purpose of this study was to examine how SOS Children's Villages as an organization in Swaziland is affected by, and takes into account, the cultural, organizational and societal context in which it acts. Material was gathered through a field study during one month in one of the three SOS Children's Villages in Swaziland. The study has a qualitative approach and is based on the result from 12 semi-structured interviews with village mothers and other representatives from the organization. The other representatives were: social worker, program director, child and youth development coordinator, board member and educational manager. Since this study is both characterized by a specific historical, cultural and organizational context, we decided to connect the postcolonial perspective with an organization theory with focus on the concepts of culture, power and a children?s right perspective.

Uppsatsen är baserad på en fallstudie gjord på Tetra Pak. Syftet med fallstudien var att utforma en lista med faktorer att som bör beaktas för att ett införande av ett Competence Management-system ska bli framgångsrikt. Tillvägagångssättet i fallstudien har varit en dokumentstudie och ett antal intervjuer. Använda teorier är hämtade från områdena Change Management, Knowledge Management, Competence Management och Human Resource Management. Undersökning resulterade i ett antal intressanta faktorer som bör beaktas.

Syftet med uppsatsen är att undersöka frekvensen av krisstrategier inom livsmedelsbranschen och hur pass sofistikerade dessa strategier är. Vidare vill vi se närmare på en del av de moment som crisis management-teorierna behandlar. Förekomsten av krisstrategier är stor, men endast ett fåtal av företagens strategier uppfyller våra kriterier för att anses såsom mycket sofistikerade. Företagen anser själva att det är viktigt med crisis management, medan de i verkligheten inte i lika hög utsträckning har de element som författarna till den crisis management-teori, vi använt oss utav, menar ska finnas med. Företag som varit i en kris har mer sofistikerade krisstrategier än de som inte har upplevt en kris under de senaste 20 åren..

This essay is a qualitative study whose aim is to see how to find a good balance between family life and managership. The result could give concrete proposals on how help can be designed to prospective female managers. The study is based on interviews with eight female managers. The interviews have been inspired by the narrative approach with the focus on how these women have tried to find a balance between management and family life and which obstacles they faced and the support they have had. The results of the study has shown that the support that the woman has been given by their spouse / partner has been one of the best and most important support for her to full fill her mission as being a manager as well as a mother.

Vi lever i en föränderlig värld där aktiemarknaden är en komplex miljö. Att fatta välgrundande beslut på aktiemarknaden är svårt för investerare, som  därmed samlar in all den information som finns tillgänglig. Den redovisning och information som företag lämnar ifrån sig är utformad genom en avvägning mellan kostnader och nytta, som kallas Cost Constraint. Ytterligare en avvägning som företag använder sig av gällande upprättandet av redovisning är att inte ge ut för mycket information och därmed ?skydda? sig från konkurrenter.Studiens huvudsakliga syfte är att kartlägga och jämföra hur investerare och banker tar beslut baserat på den redovisning som företag publicerar, som kan vara påverkad av Cost Constraint.

In recent years, the Swedish railway track system has been neglected in terms of capacity and maintenance. To adapt the existing system to current traffic load there is a great need for extensive improvement and maintenance. Shortcomings are especially occurring on older embankments running over soft subgrades. To select the most suitable method for reinforcement of the embankment, it is important to evaluate different solutions from a life cycle cost perspective. In long-term perspective, it is often shown that a method with low investment cost causes a higher maintenance cost and a shorter technical lifetime.

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.