The work of the board in owner-managed firms often differ compared to the work of the board in large listed companies. Since the owners are working in different roles, the board in owner-managed firms might discuss topics outside the typical boards agenda, such as questions relating to ownership structure and operational matters. This thesis examines what external board members can contribute with in owner-managed firms, and which the most frequent difficulties are for the owners when deciding to recruit external board members. Through qualitative interviews, three owner-managed firms have been studied, which together with two expert interviews and five seminars, creates the empirics. In the analysis, the empirics are compared to what the earlier theory states.

SammanfattningFör svenska företag blir hållbarhetsfrågor, sustainability, allt viktigare. Idag är det inte längre en fråga om företag ska arbeta med det utan hur. Ett av de viktigaste verktygen för att kunna bedöma ett företags miljöpåverkan är livscykelanalys (Life cycle assessment, LCA). Det är en metod där man studerar miljöpåverkan av en produkt eller process genom hela dess livscykel. Om ett företag gör förbättring hos en produkt eller process med hjälp av LCA finns det ett stort intresse i att kunna kommunicera det till marknaden.

Background: Every year 56 million people die around the world and it is estimated that 60% of these people are in need of palliative care. It has been shown that patients in the palliative care experienced their situation as uncertain. When life no longer was certain, the patients tried to live their life day by day and make the best of it. Problem: When patients were diagnosed with an incurable disease the future became unsure, because their life would come to an end. Therefore patients with a palliative diagnosis could be in need of experiencing feelings of security.

The right to non-discrimination is a fundamental part of human rights. Sweden has enacted legislation which prohibits employers from discriminating or harassing employees and job seekers. Swedish authorities also receive a substantial amount of complaints concerning ethnic discrimination in the workplace every year and there are volumes of research showing structural injustices related to discrimination. Despite these facts few employers have so far been found guilty of discrimination on ethnic grounds in Swedish courts.This thesis aims to shed lights on and analyse how the Swedish anti-discrimination legislation is utilised in the Swedish Labour Court regarding discrimination and harassment on ethnic grounds. On the basis that very few lawsuits brought on behalf of employees/job seekers have been successful it is hypothesized that there are problems either with the form of the legislation or the assessment of the court.

The purpose of this study was to increase the knowledge and understanding of what impact support-groups, such as represented by Qvinnoqulan, can have on women with drug-addiction. The questions at issue for the essay was: How does a selection of women who participate in Qvinnoqulan describe their thoughts, experiences and reflections of the group? What sense has Qvinnoqulan made for the women on a personal level and for contributing to live a life without drugs? To answer the questions a qualitative method was used and five interviews were made with women who participated in the activities of Qvinnoqulan. To analyze the data a social constructionist perspective and an empowerment perspective was used. The result of the study showed that the women were in the process of rebuilding a new life without drugs and reconstructing a new identity.

The aim was to describe the experiences of couples where the male partner had undergone radical prostatectomy due to prostate cancer. Furthermore, the study explored how the operation had affected their sexual life, whether the couples had received enough post surgical support and information concerning these issues, and to describe the kind of support and information these couples desired. Twenty men and ten partners participated. All the men experienced a varying degree of post surgical erectile dysfunction and only five men had received support concerning their sexual life. Eleven men desired professional visiting support activities.

Syftet med denna undersökning är att undersöka vad kvalitativ bedömning av kunskaper och färdigheter innebär för lärare samt att hitta variationer i dessa uppfattningar. För att nå vårt syfte har vi använt intervju som metod med en fenomenografisk ansats. Vi har intervjuat tre lärare i en skola som undervisar i år 8 och år 9. Vi har utgått från aktuell forskning. Utifrån denna forskning har vi format en analysmodell som vi använder som en teoretisk ansats i slutresultatet.

Researchers, planners, and government agencies agree that road safety for children must be a priority and in particular that children should have a safe and secure way to travel to and from school regardless of age or the distance travelled. In Sweden, child traffic safety is a key part of the country?s Nollvision, a long-term traffic policy goal of ?no deaths or serious injuries?. Unfortunately, many countries have recorded increases in child traffic accidents as the percentage of parents who drive their children to school and thus congestion around schools has increased. Common strategies include traffic safety education for children, the redesign and improvement of traffic infrastructure, bicycle training, and carpooling.This thesis assesses the traffic problem around Ludvigsberg School in the district Valbo in Gävle, Sweden.

The aim of this study was to examine if performance-based self-esteem, personality (Type A), perceived stress, age and gender predict the value of own or others life-stress (VLS). The aim was also to examine whether the variables were correlated significantly with each other. The investigation was conducted in a town in the mid-south of Sweden. The instrument consisted of two forms where the first measured Type A personality and the second tapped perform-ance-based self-esteem, perceived stress and the level of life-stress. The results showed that the level of life-stress could explain, on the basis of the predictors, performance-based self-esteem, personality (Type A), perceived stress, age and gender.

Safety and risk management currently have a starting point based on the negative outcome of safety, thus the lack of safety. The starting point for the thesis is to find a way to measure the positive outcome of safety through ergonomic aspects regarding chemical plants that are covered of the Seveso II Directive.Through a literature study of safety and ergonomics fourteen key aspects of safety were found. Safety Performance Indicators (SPI's) are used to assess the fourteen identified proactive indicators of safety. An analysis in three steps - called risk status assessment - is design to give an SPI its value. A pilot study of the risk status assessment was performed at the ethanol producer Lantmännen Agroetanol in Norrköping, Sweden..

The purpose of this essay is to try to understand the relationship between the structures of modern working life and the development of burnout. By using the method of qualitative interviews we wanted to see if the Effort-Reward Imbalance Model could be applied to the data we had collected. Two questions have been highlighted in our research:        ? Is it possible to establish a relationship between the structures of modern working life and the development of burnout among the subjects interviewed?  ? Is it possible to explain the development of burnout among our interviewed subjects through the Effort-Reward Imbalance Model?    Our theoretical frames are the general theories of the modern society and the modern working life as developed by Anthony Giddens, Ulrich Beck and Zygmunt Bauman. We have also used Johannes Siegrist?s medical-sociological Effort-Reward Imbalance Model (ERI-Model).

The aim of our thesis was to gain greater knowledge of how young people relate to religion, religiosity and life, and this behavior might show influences of a gender perspective. Part of the aim was also to have greater awareness of how our education should include a gender perspective. To get to this goal, we have assumed the qualitative investigation method which we discussed with a number of students who read last year of high school. First, the interviews were aimed to let students talk about matters concerning religion and life. The next step was to examine their thoughts with a gender perspective as a starting point.

This case study attempts to examine how students of Religionswissenschaft at Södertörns University reflect about their philosophy of life and if their studies have some impact on their tendency to reflect. Also what aspects the students tend to reflect over will be investigated. In this study the term ?philosophy of life? includes humans thought and conceptions of the world and their outlook on mankind. To answer these question an interview study with 6 students took place, and the transcriptions produced 5 categories; ?The philosophy of life, to believe or not believe?, ?Development of concepts?, ?Outlook on mankind?, ?The founding of meaning? and ?Understanding and progress?.

The purpose of this essay is to describe and analyse the dilemmas within assessments to establish the parenting ability of mentally handicapped parents, and furthermore to see how these assessments are carried out.To achieve this purpose we have interviewed eight professionals from three different professions who comes into contact with mentally handicapped parents throughout these assessments. These professions we have interviewed people from, are employees from social services, employees from assessment homes and lawyers.We have summarized the results of our interviews into three main themes. The first is focusing on which method/model employees from social services and assessment homes use to help establish the parenting ability of mentally handicapped parents. The second theme describes different dilemmas that can arise in these assessments and the last theme describes the knowledge that people we interviewed have regarding mentally handicapped parents.Professions which carry out assessments of mentally handicapped parents often come across a variety of different dilemmas, one of the clearest is how to enable these parents to understand the necessity behind the assessment and to give them an understanding of what kind of help and support they need in order to give their children a "good enough" childhood..

The aim of the study is to show how a selected part of the European Language Portfolio, ELP, can support the assessment process for teachers. All the checklists at level A1 and My Language Goals from the Language Biography, a part of the ELP, are implemented and communicated in teaching in a 4th grade class of students. Two teachers are interviewed and both of their classes are compared in the study. One group worked for two weeks with the selected part of the Language Portfolio and the second group followed the regular curriculum for the same period of time. The teachers are interviewed before and after the ELP through support of mind maps.Results show that by using checklists at level A1 and My Language Goals students become aware of their own learning process.