Master Thesis in Managing People, Knowledge and Change (BUSM18)..

The aim of this study was to examine the knowledge and the experience that school counsellors have about tics and Tourette syndrome. This study is based on a qualitative research which we conducted with semi-structured interviews. We have done five interviews with different school counsellors in a small municipality in southern Sweden. The theoretical approach that was used in this study was theory of knowledge as a comprehensive theory and professional competence which includes formal knowledge and tacit knowledge. Some of the study?s conclusions are that the School Counsellors had different professional competence about tics and Tourette syndrome.

The aim of this study was to get knowledge of the communicationprocess between the branch head and the co-worker in communal geriatric care. To narrow it down we focused on how the branch head experience the communicationprocess in conflictsituations between co-workers and what she or he usually do to resolve the conflict. We made qualitative interviews with ten of the branch heads in communal geriatric care, in four communes. The questions we had in mind throughout the study was based on four keywords (communication, leadership, conflict and conflict management) of which we created a narrative story from every interviewing person to get hold of the experience and knowledge behind their interviews. In our analysis as theoretical perspectives we used system theory, communication theory, attribution theory and the philosophy of Dialogue by Martin Buber.

Knowledge is of great importance for organizations and it is seen as an important competitive advantage to effectively preserve knowledge within an organisation. The upcoming retirement of employees born in the 1940s poses a threat because it is believed to result in a knowledge drain. The problem of preserving knowledge within the organization lies in the fact that it is partly tacit, and therefore not possible to write down or communicate in words. The purpose of this thesis is to investigate how tacit knowledge is created in the Swedish Ministry for Foreign Affairs and the implications thereof. We examine the following research questions: Of what significance is the creation and reproduction of tacit knowledge for the Swedish Foreign Ministry? Which factors influence the creation and reproduction of tacit knowledge and why? A case study of the Swedish Ministry for Foreign Affairs has been conducted.

The purpose of this study was to examine how the authorities in Sweden collaborate when it comes to discourage trafficking for sexual purposes. More specifically the aim was to find which directives and problems the work of the individual authorities constitute in and how does it affect collaboration with other authorities. The study was based on interviews with six respondents, which have experience working within this field. Three themes were identified: what is collaboration, different perspectives, regulatory frameworks and different fundamental values within the organisations. The study concluded that collaboration is affected by several factors such as the absence of knowledge about trafficking for sexual purposes and the laws which regulate confidentiality, difficulties in defining collaboration as a concept and the authorities different ideas about what have to be done in the context of discouraging trafficking for sexual purposes.

This essay reflects on the thoughts and experiences of social workers in child protection agencies when it comes to talking about sexuality with teenagers, age 13-20, who is being subjected to inquiry. The research is qualitative and based on five semi-structured interviews. It has a phenomenological position and has been analyzed hermeneutically through cognitive and gender theory. Previous research shows that youths who get in contact with child protection often have issues about their sexuality. This study show that social workers in the agencies lack knowledge about this issue and that they seldom talks about it with the teenagers or their own colleagues.

The purpose of this essay was to study which arguments social workers used in the basis of their estimation concerning young people of the age 13-18 given an aid, a contact person (swe. kontaktperson). The purpose was also to describe how the legal paragraph, regarding contact person, is regulated and then compare the arguments made by the social worker with the intentions expressed by the legislator. To answer our purposes we studied the law and the intentions expressed by the legislator, which is the foundation for the legal paragraph that regulates contact person, 3 chap. 6 §.

Background: To be better able to meet the new competition, companies are seeking new competitive advantages, wich is forcing them to review and, in time, change both working methods and corporate structures. This has led to an increased interest in the development of strategies within the field of Knowledge Management. Objective: The objective of this thesis is to improve understanding of how learning in a company occurs over internal boundaries and to investigate whether individuals need to be motivated in this regard. We also aim to give recommendations as to how this can be developed. Furthermore, we will work out a model that explains the learning process.

Companies learn through their employees. In this paper I make research into how knowledge transfer and learning occur at Metso Paper Karlstad AB, which is a partly project based organization.The result is that there are many factors that affect the knowledge transfer in a company. Knowledge transfer occurs mainly between individuals within the company, but also between departments and other actors outside the company. In the gaps between these actors, there is a risk that knowledge is not transferred, which is an obstacle to learning. A great deal of the knowledge transfer and the learning is carried out through individual?s own drive and motivation.

The purpose of this study is to identify the points-of-difference that should form the basis for Bryggarsalen?s future marketing efforts. Bryggarsalen is a newly established conference business in Stockholm. To be able to identify these points-of-difference, Bryggarsalen?s marketing problems have been studied from the resource-based view, claiming that the source of sustained competitive advantage derive from a firm?s unique bundle of resources.

AbstractThe aim for this study is to establish how teachers and supervisors at the Child and Recreation Programme interpret the concept ?vocational knowledge?. It is also about how they substantially can see that the pupils are developing vocational knowledge, during their work placement training. The aim of this thesis is to create a base for teachers to work with continuing development in teaching practice. The empirical part of this study is based on interviews. Interviews were analyzed in three categories: definition of vocational knowledge, substantially developing in vocational knowledge and success factors. The result shows that knowing how and knowing why is salient in vocational knowledge.

In recent years, the demands for effectiveness and evidence in social work have increased in all work areas, including that of healthcare. This has sparked the discussion on concepts such as practical- and theoretical knowledge and their respective roles in social work. In the light of this, the purpose of this candidate thesis is to investigate healthcare social workers understanding of practical- and theoretical knowledge in the working process as well as their respective influence and importance. This candidate thesis is based on three interviews with social workers from different departments in Norrlands Universitetssjukhus in Umeå, Sweden. To provide range to the thesis, the interviewees were chosen from a purposeful sampling.

This paper aims to provide a description of how knowledge can occur in Apoteket AB, anorganization that is operating on the Swedish pharmacy market. The purpose of this paper isalso to describe how the organizational learning occurs in the organization, and how theoutcome of this learning can be stored in the organizational memory. This subject is ofinterest since Apoteket AB experience changes in their external environment in that they nolonger have monopoly to sell pharmaceuticals on the Swedish pharmacy market. Earlierresearch claims that organizations need to develop new knowledge in order to take action, andthis development needs to be supported by the management within the organization.The collection of primary data was done by two qualitative interviews with employees withinthe organization of Apoteket AB.Our conclusions are that knowledge can occur in many forms, such as tacit and explicitknowledge. The vast majority of the knowledge within the organization is the information thatcan be found in the electronic database Aponet within Apoteket AB, and that is useful for theemployees in their daily work, and therefore is known as explicit knowledge.

AbstractThe aim is to find out the teachers´ different point of views regarding what and why it´s important to teach children about the human body and in what way educationists can teach this knowledge. Seven teachers are asked, through qualitative interviews, about their point of views on teaching the human body in pre-school.The teachers don`t seem to reflect upon the subject, which shows that a development of knowledge needs within the area.Fist of all the children´s spontaneous questions direct what the educationists talk about with the children. The most frequently mentioned questions are about the circulation of the blood and the digestion organs. The teachers think it´s important that the children get knowledge about the human body in order to get a better opinion of their own bodies and themselves. It´s also important because this is the basis of other kind of knowledge, for instance the knowledge about animals..

The purpose of this essay was to investigate the experience of being young and living in Herrgården in Rosengård, Malmö, from the aspects of six adolescents, two police officers, one social worker and one youth leader; and also what the cause is according to them, of disturbances arousing like those in the spring of 2007. At this moment there were antagonisms between adolescents and policemen. The research was performed with a qualitative method based on partly structured interviews. Four kinds of main themes were notable from the interview results. Those were: Growing up in Herrgården, Other peoples' view of Herrgården, Identity and Causes of the disturbances.