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.

This study elucidates the perceptions of twelve people at an age between 35 and 50 years, on what influence intoxication and drunkenness in the bar environment. The purpose of this study is to create an understanding of the effect the intoxication has on the visitor in the bar environment and this is done through qualitative method interviews. The theoretical frame we use to analyse the empirical data, is divided in to four parts: set and setting, environment and its regions, social behaviour and genus perspective. The theoretical material, together with the empirical data in the form of the results of the interviews, forms the platform for this paper. It is on the basis of these results that our questions finally will be answered.

The purpose of the study was to increase the understanding of, and extend the knowledge about realization of mediations and its consequences on family law divisions and family centres. Within this area, organisational, methodical, relational and social preventative aspects of mediations were illustrated. This scope was judged to be of major importance, as recent studies show that children often suffer psychologically due to parents? lack of cooperation. Mediations are considered as a way of getting parents to agree.

North Korea is considered to be the most autocratic dictatorship in the world today. Its citizens are denied their most basic human rights and North Koreas ambition to pursue nuclear weapons is looked upon with great fear from the international community and the US in particular. Some experts say that the threat from North Korea is far greater than the one possessed by Saddam Hussein. Although North Korea seems to inhabit all the necessary criteria for an US military intervention the United States has openly declared its diplomatic ambitions with the state. Why?With the use of realist and social construction theory this study will bring clarity to why the United States prefers diplomacy instead of a military intervention.

Social hållbarhet är ett högaktuellt ämne. Delegationen för hållbara städer presenterade år 2012 sin slutrapport och bara ett år senare presenterade Malmökommissionen sin slutrapport för ett social hållbart Malmö. Syftet med uppsatsen är att bredda kunskapen om social konsekvensbeskrivning samt att undersöka dess potentiella effekt på social hållbarhet, eftersom det är av största vikt att hitta konkreta arbetssätt för att uppnå ökad social hållbarhet. Genom en litteraturstudie undersöks i uppsatsens första del vad begreppet social konsekvensbeskrivning har för bakgrund, varför det förespråkas, hur en metod för genomförande skulle kunna se ut samt vilka utmaningar som finns. I uppsatsens andra del studeras tre artiklar som utvärderat effekten av att utföra social konsekvensbeskrivning. Litteraturstudiet resulterar i slutsatsen att social konsekvensbeskrivning har stor effekt på social hållbarhet, på flera olika sätt. Trots att metoden medför en hel del komplexa frågor att förhålla sig till finns det därmed god anledning att utveckla arbetet med social konsekvensbeskrivning, för att vi tillsammans ska nå en mer socialt hållbar framtid..

Research in international trade situations has mainly focused on understanding the exporter?s actions and has showed ways on how these can be optimized. Although the importer in most cases, until this day, has been left outside this focus, it has been showed that the importer often is the active participant in an international dyad. It is the importer who is actively seeking suppliers for its production or distribution. Based on previous research in the area, the following study identifies the factors that are vital to the importer for satisfactory relations.

In the Swedish governing document for the mandatory school (Lpo94) it is laid down that The school shall strive for being a living social community that gives safety and the will and desire to learn. The social community and the social relations in the school everyday existence are thereby without hesitation very important for the students' learning. The teacher always wants to engage the students and create order, comfort and a good work environment. In this essay, the relationship between students' work climates, matter interests and average grades is studied. This gives understanding and awareness in these important parts of the schools´ daily activity.

This study has been executed at the Public Employment Office, an institution that has beensubject for much debate during the last couple of years. The government has instructed theLabour Market Board to change the Public Employment Office toward a more effectiveorganization. This study examines one of the Public Employment Offices that are included in apilot project that aims to improve and develop work methods with the objective to become amore service minded organization. From this starting point we have investigated which effect thisorganizational change has had on the employee within this organization and within the pilotproject. In addition we investigate whether attitudes of the unemployed has an effect on thestaff´s work situation.

Previous research has found an increased transmission of stock movements in Europe, partly caused by the establishment of institutions as the EU and the EMU. The purpose of this paper is to find the possible impact from the EU and the EMU concerning the evolution of international transmission of stock market movements, on four Scandinavian markets, Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden. The research is based on primary data, existing theories and earlier studies regarding international transmission of stock market movements. The examined method is a VAR (Vector autoregressive model) including a 10x1 vector of variables. Furthermore the tests considered are correlation, granger-causality, variance decomposition and impulse response.

The intention of this essay is to study the Swedish General Staff as a learning organisation during the period of 1914-1918 based on the theoretical work developed by the philosopher Bertil Rolf. Previous international research on the Prussian/German General Staff has shown that it is considered to be the first learning organisation in history. The Swedish General Staff was based on the German General Staff model and the focus of this study is to compare the development the tactics in Germany and Sweden regarding defence and attack in trench warfare. The questions are: How were the possibilities for gathering and analysing informa-tion affected by the war? Which conclusions were made for trench warfare in Swedish conditions? What experiences from the war and exercises in Swedish army were implemented in manuals and training?The conclusion of the study is that the Swedish General Staff was functioning as a learning organisation during the WWI through the ability to follow the international development, mainly in the Central Powers, and by modifying the experiences to the prevailing Swedish strategic and tactical conditions.

The purpose of this study is to examine in what way a strong corporate culture can have an effect on the ways that individuals perceive their own identity based on different social aspects, thereby meaning the influence of personalities in relation to the environment. In this essay I have used the theory of employer branding in an analysis of the corporate culture at Ikea Barkarby, with the purpose to answer the following questions: How does the relation between the employee and the corporate culture appear from an identity perspective, i.e can an individual?s identity be affected by the influence of a strong corporate culture? If the corporate culture has an influence on the individual?s identity, what rhetorical tools are part of this? How can the surrounding corporate cultures possibly influence the employee?s process of becoming a part of the corporate culture? The method of research that was used in this study is a framing analysis and a semistructured interview method. In the discussion of the influence of social environment on identity I have used the rhetorical term doxa. The material that was examined was an advertisement for employment from the Ikea Barkarby website as well as the response from my interviews of some of the employees.The result of the analysis shows that it is possible for an individual to negotiate with himself about his identity in relation to the actual situation and environment, meaning a possible transformation of the individual?s behavior in different social contexts, in this example the corporate culture at work.

Since 2005 all companies listed on a regulated stock exchange within the European Union are required to present their financial reports in accordance with International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) and International Accounting Standards (IAS). The purposes of these standards are to accomplish international harmonization of accounting rules to make financial reports more comparable. However, recent research has shown that some firms tend to use goodwill strategically in a business combination by manipulating the acquired assets and consciously allocate the intangible assets to goodwill to reduce the depreciation in the income and decrease costs. This phenomenon may reduce the comparability between financial reports and thus has an opposite effect on the purpose of IFRS and IAS.The aim of this study is to show how the companies involved in this study allocate goodwill strategically. Furthermore, the introduction of the new standards has contributed to that goodwill now is a subject for impairment test, therefore we want to show whether this affected the comparability of the companies in this study.An empirical study was conducted, based on interviews with four Swedish managers.

The aim of this study was to examine how individuals with disability pension reason about a return to work. Action theory, as presented by Berglind, was used as theoretical approach. Qualitative interviews were conducted with five individuals who have disability pension due to mental illness. The respondents describe how they weigh benefits and disadvantages against each other. The main reason for a return to work is economical.

The purpose of this essay is to understand meeting between hidden refugees and health professionals through interviews with refugee in hiding and health professionals. The implantation of the essay has been made by social science research methods which I have used as a qualitative survey. The material that I have used in this paper is to interview with hidden refugee and health care workers. I have used the different sources such as literature, internet and different laws which relates to the topic of this easy. I am using the power of theories to analyze the work.

Sustainable development has become more and more important over the past years. The term Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) is closely connected to sustainable development and focuses on organizations responsibility towards the society and the environment in which it exists. Companies within the mining industry were among the first to initiate CSR-work due to the fact that they have a great impact at the local community, both socially and environmentally. Today they are still in the forefront of the development of CSR-questions in general, and community involvement and development in particular. Earlier studies made on this area have focused on the strategic level of community involvement and development.