Ever since Lipsky wrote about street-level bureaucrats in 1980 the main belief has been that certain characteristics of their jobs make it exceptionally difficult to severely reduce their discretion. However, discretion comes at a price and if public servants abuse their power the legitimacy of government is at risk and ultimately even the democracy.This thesis address this question by analysing the Swedish employment service which in the beginning of 2001 started a project called ?Af Sverige? trying to improve internal rule of law. By comparing two local and fairly equal jobcentres and how the street-level bureaucrats within use their discretion, I seek to find support for my hypotheses that organizing local jobcentres according to the principles of machine bureaucracy plays a significant part in reducing discretion.My findings show that a jobcentre characterised by strict rules, few units, good communications and a forthright manager who delegates formal power to the employees results in a stricter and more uniform application of regulations among the street-level bureaucrats. My conclusion is therefore unambiguous.

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.

Sweden has one of the best elderly cares in Europe and the Swedish care work is also one of the best in terms of quality, compared to other European countries. In recent years, higher demands have been set on the care work and the number of privatizations of public services has increased. In 2009 a new law came into force, the Act on System of Choice (LOV) which increased individual?s right to a greater participation and a free choice in the selection of health and social care providers. This paper aims to highlight the impact of the law, system of choice.

VBG Produkter AB is a process-orientated company that develops, manufactures and markets trailer couplings with belonging coupling equipment, protection equipment against skidding and stands for wagon-bridge for heavy vehicles. The company feels that their set-up time in production for couplings is not at an acceptable level. Due to high demands of customer oriented production the intermediate stock level of included products within the assembly of couplings has gradually increased which has resulted in high inventory holding costs. VBG Produkter applies Kanban in their production, therefore it is important to produce exactly the necessary amount and avoid overproduction. The objective of this project is to suggest appropriate solutions so that VBG Produkter is able to reduce their set-up time in assembly of couplings, by identifying internal and external set-up time for the chosen process bushing cell.

Civil disobedience constitutes an interesting ethical phenomena in the democraticstate since the people performing it consciously brakes laws and norms in societyfor purposes they themselves judge to be morally good and just. This thesisexamines whether the phenomena of civil disobedience is justifiable in ademocratic society.In this study civil disobedience is analyzed on two levels. First the problem isanalyzed on a theoretical level in relative to the three, by us established, values:respect for the law, the will of the majority and equality. Second, civildisobedience is analyzed on a more practical level where we test our theoreticalline of argument with the help of two example groups who engages in civildisobedience. The justification of civil disobedience is also analyzed through twoethical perspectives on acting, deontology and consequentialism.Our conclusion is that civil disobedience is justifiable on a theoretical level inrelative to the values we discuss.

The study examines how social media can be used in a business-to-business context. To understand the communication conditions, factors has been identified that affects the choice of communication channels for different types of information transferred between parts. Furthermore, the study investigates the underlying reasons for why certain communication channels are chosen before others, in different situations. The study results are based on qualitative semi-structured interviews with employees in a small engineering consulting company. The investigation has focused on employee communication and choice of communication tools primarily in relation to the business relationship.

The overall aim of the study was to give an insight into the life of a girl attending a program for preparation for further studies. More explicitly it is the aim of this study to examine what line the girls take to and how they experience support in school and if the offered support is adjusted to the needs of the girls?.To capture the complexity of the girls? experiences a world view approach was used. To be able to take part of the girls? experiences, a qualitative survey method was chosen, built upon individual half structured interviews with six girls attending the last year of upper secondary school.

Aid effectiveness is a reoccuring theme in the social sciences. Maybe rightfully so, as development is slow in many parts of the developing world. Core literature on the matter seems to suggest that aid effectiveness is contingent on recipients? level of corruption. Assuming this to be true, I examine the EU?s disbursements of Official Development Assistance over the past decade by running regressions: is there a relationship between the level of aid received, and a country?s level of corruption? As the EU is one of the largest donors of foreign aid globally, and has the power to shape the global foreign aid agenda, this question puts to the test whether the EU is leading the way, or rather is an obstacle in front.

This thesis examines the verification of the terms and conditions stated in contracts based on the Public Procurement Act. In March 2013 the Swedish state procurement commission released " Good Business - A Strategy for Sustainable Public Procurement " (SOU 2013:12), which found that the proportion of control and verification is relatively low. The thesis examine how verification is carried out and looks for an explanation to why verification is not more oftenly performed. To answer these questions two care studies, based on seven semi-structured interviews, is presented as the empirical material. Network theory has been used to analyse the empirical results, and aspects of commonly used theories such as contract management and "Markets and Hierarchies" by Williamson has also been taken into account.

It is well proven that physical exercise has an impact on our bodies as well as our minds. The aim of this study is to examine if this impact also affects economic behaviour. Three hypotheses regarding the impact of acute exercise on overconfidence, risk enhancement and well-being have been tested by collecting questionnaires from 364 participants at Friskis & Svettis, Kungsholmen who all were asked to answer the questions either before or after exercising. The differences between the before and after group were analysed, indicating small increases in all three test areas after exercising. These increases were, however, not large enough to reject any of the null-hypotheses of zero effect on the given five per cent significance level.

Forensic psyhiatric care protects the society by giving patients care to diminish risks of serious crimes. In their work the nurses use different care methods to help and support the patient in managing his or her life situation. To clarify how a group of nurses describe the nursing process in forensic psychiatric care. A qualitative study based on interviews. Six nurses were interviewed about their work in four different forensic psychiatric care units.

Through an examination on a Telemarketing company this paper aim to investigate which relations there is between the level of motivation and performance and how these are related to the factors that are included in Herzbergs two-factor-theory.In this essay we have been using a questionnaire and interview. We have also been able to collect statistics on employees from the Telemarketing company we examine. On the basis of these data we have analyzed which relations there is.The examination shows on relations who mean that the factors Performance and Acknowledgement are the ones that affect the motivation the most, and therefore the level of Performance. The rest of the Motivation factors don?t show any clear relations.

Vår studie, som omfattar sex intervjuer, fokuserar på genusmedvetenhet hos vägledare. På vilket sätt de arbetar med genus i mötet med elever för att vidga perspektiv och på vilket sätt de kan tänka sig att arbeta med att skapa en genusmedvetenhet hos elever i år 4-6. Vårt resultat visar att genusmedvetenhet är ett svårt begrepp som har olika betydelse för vägledarna. Vägledarna menar att de inte arbetar på ett planerat genusmedvetet arbetssätt idag men vi ser att de omedvetet arbetar med genusperspektivet genom olika aktiviteter. I arbetet med elever i år 4-6, vill vägledarna bidra på olika sätt med att vidga elevernas perspektiv gällande självuppfattning, yrken och arbetsmarknad.

The aim of this master's thesis is to investigate how adults and especially children's librarians and intermediate level teachers experience children's literature. The aim is also to examine how children at the age of nine to twelve experience the literature that is written for them, according to a few master's theses written at Bibliotekshögskolan in Boras. Which criteria in children's books do the different groups consider as the most important, that the children can learn something when reading or is it the experience of the literature itself that is the most important? To fulfil the aim of this master's thesis I have interviewed three intermediate level teachers and three children's librarians and the result has been analysed using a model created by Maria Nikolajeva that shows four ways to get close to children's literature. My study is too small to be counted as a general result but it shows that both the children's librarians and the intermediate level teachers mainly ends up in the field that concerns the reading experience one can have when reading fiction.

During the last years, the importance of sourcing in firms has increased. Globalization, fierce competition and an increased level of outsourcing are common explanations to why firms have highlighted the potential to realize savings and the value creation that the Purchasing department can generate. One trend that follows in parallel with globalization is an increased pressure from society on firms to take responsibility for the impact that its products and services have on the environment. This responsibility creates even more attention as outsourcing involves trade with suppliers in low wage countries, where the level of environmental and social responsibility is not always satisfying. The Purchasing department, the firm?s interface with suppliers should therefore, together with the firm?s Environmental department, play a key role in the firm?s contribution towards sustainable development.