The aim of this master?s thesis is to examine the virtual reference service Ask the Library [Bibblan svarar] from a postmodern perspective. Ask the Library is a Swedish online reference service that is run by the country?s public libraries. The postmodern theories of Jean-François Lyotard are used to study how information is managed and transmitted within the service.

Business across the Internet has increased in recent years and most companies that are selling trips have increased their sales online. Many companies that are selling trips strive for customers to receive and experience a personal service online. The meeting between the client and a webpage service system on the Internet should work. Service encounters are an essential part of the contact between customer and company and play a big part in how the first impression is perceived by the customer. To understand how a service encounter works, meeting face to face, companies need to understand how customers perceive that meeting.

The original promise behind the Internet Protocol was to deliver data from a sender to the receiver using a best-effort approach. This means that the protocol makes no guarantees except that it will try to deliver the data to the destination. If some problem occurs the packet may be discarded by the network without any notice. No guarantees are made regarding the time it takes to deliver the data, the rate at which data will be delivered or if data is delivered in the same order it was sent. The best-effort approach is arguably the reason behind the success of the Internet Protocol and is what makes IP scalable to networks the size of the Internet.

Nature?s Best is a quality-label for Swedish Eco-tourism. It is one of very few active ecotourism labels and the only one that claims quality as its main focus. The objective of this thesis is to evaluate the certification scheme Nature?s Best with regards to the values the certification creates for the companies that certify their products.

The thesis explores what is meant by multiculturalism in today's Sweden based on burial grounds and funerals in a minor municipality. This is done through an ethnographic case study of the municipality of Vara. The study aims to investigate how multiculturalism looks and is responded to. The study maps which aspects are placed on multiculturalism in a minor municipality and which adaptations and compromises are highlighted. This is done within the framework of theories concerning multiculturalism and social identity, and the result of the empirical case study is presented by applying the theories to the material. From burial places and funerals, social collective and individual identities are analysed based on the social categories of religion/faith/secularity and place belonging, based on the perspectives of rituals and traditions as well as the location of the grave. The study finds that there are several aspects of multiculture in the burial grounds, as multiculture not only includes cultural influences from immigrants but also the different preferences of the local villages, in combination with the development of society, and Sweden in general.

Sustainability Reporting has emerged and transformed over the past decades as a voluntary practice by companies across industries that desire to show proof of good conduct and environmental; social; and economic responsibility. As industrial food production is one of the largest contributors to contemporary environmental problems, it might be expected that reporting within the industry would be both well established and well understood. Unfortunately, it is neither. In light of the food industry?s considerable environmental impact and the growing popularity of plant-based food as a more sustainable alternative to dairy products, this paper assesses and briefly discusses the Sustainability Reporting of two companies in the plant-based food and beverage industry. The research was designed to compare the practices of Europe-based Alpro and US-based SoDelicious, and this study has two major purposes: to describe the reporting of the case companies and to subsequently compare their practices to the other as well as to global reporting standards. The empirical study in this paper was conducted through content analysis.

As IT service departments in organisations are becoming more complex and customised, the indirect costs are increasing in relation to the total costs. The difficulty of fully estimating and identifying the spread of the cost in the IT service department is increasing. As a result, firms tend to budget the business unit as a total cost rather than as a spread of defined costs. In order to deal with this challenge an ABC calculation will be applied. The Time Driven ABC model will be conducted in OMX´s Servicedesk unit within the IT services.

Med den växande internet- och mobilmarknaden harpublic service bolagen inom media följt publiken till att erbjuda sina tjänster via både internet och mobil. För Sveriges Radio har de snabbt växande marknaderna inneburit en problematik för ekonomi- och verksamhetsstyrningen. Problematiken härrör i produktivitetsmåttet, som tidigare tagit hänsyn till sändningstimmar. I och med att Sveriges Radio utöver radiosändningar idag erbjuder tjänster på internet och mobil är det svårt att beräkna företagets totala produktivitet på ett tillfredställande sätt. Syftet med denna uppsats är därför att utreda den problematik som finns med att mäta produktivitet i public service sammanhang och att formulera nya mått för att mäta produktivitet i den internetbaserade verksamheten.

Utöver de varor en modebutik erbjuder kunden är personlig service en viktig del av erbjudandet. En ökad konkurrens mellan företag kräver att de utvecklar sig inom personlig service för att kunna skilja sig från konkurrenterna. Butikens personal bör ha rätt kompetens och vara säljinriktade för att klara av uppgiften att svara på kundens förväntningar gällande personlig service. Genom att fokusera på att leverera rätt servicekvalitet i kundens köpprocess kan lojala kunder skapas. Det är viktigt att all personal är medvetna om företagets servicepolicy då det är en grund för att kunna upprätthålla och utveckla en god servicekvalitet.

This report details the development of an application for personal safety for the Android operating system. Android is a relatively new platform, primarily used on mobile phones.The purpose of the developed application is to give the user the possibility to easily and quickly alert a number of contacts by phone in case of emergencies, and to show the user?s location on a map. This is not only used during emergencies, but for other purposes as well ? for example to monitor a jogging round.The project was carried out in co-operation with the company D-Safety, the developer of the "SoftAlarm" ? the product on which the developed application is based..

The purpose of this study was to examine guidance activities in an employment office and to explain the significance these activities have for the job seekers' way towards an occupation. The method used was literature studies and qualitative interviews with respondents in three categories: a manager, two workingmediators and three job seekers, all at the same employment service office. The results that emerged was that there are different kinds of guidance in the employment service, both in the narrow sense and broad sense. The different categories of respondents describe and define the guidance activities in different ways and have different descriptions of how these activities can help job seekers into employment. The conclusions drawn where that the manager sees everything on the employment service as guidance, workingmediators differ in their roles as advisers and counselors.

The study was conducted on 72nd company at Livgardet in order to find out what motivators makes the soldiers stay. The material in the essay is based on an interview with soldiers from the 72nd company. The motivators are then categorized in the model Employee Motivation: A Powerful New Model. The model is based on human drives and I used as a tool for the analysis to identify lack of motivation in a working place. The study shows that the key motivators that make soldiers stay is: the opportunity to go on a peacekeeping mission and comrade/esprit de corps, the soldiers state that they will quit without these two essential motivators.

Our purpose with this paper has been to analyse and discuss how motivation of the personnel affects the service quality in service companies. This has been done through two studies; a literature study with existing theories and an empirical study on the divisions of Lyckohjul and Shopping at Liseberg. In the introduction of this paper we put the question of research; why is there a need for work of motivation in service companies. When collecting information we used literature briefing, a questionnaire study and depth interviews. The literature briefing focused on the well-tried and most dominating theories on the subject motivation.

The main purpose of this Masters thesis is to examine how Braille users needs are satisfied by The Library of Talking Books and Braille TPB. The other issues are: How do some of the library workers at TPB experience that the needs of Braille users are satisfied? Is it possible to make the service better in the future for Braille users and in that case, how? The study is based upon interviews with five persons, who have defective vision and read Braille. I have also interviewed two employees at TPB who have defective vision. To build up a complete background presentation of the subject I have chosen a book about hermeneutic interpretation to understand how historic facts influence the function of the subject today and in the future.

The aim of this study is to create an increased understanding of shared leadership and how it takes shape in the relationship between first-line managers in human service organizations. Shared leadership is seen as a complement to the traditional one-man leadership and briefly means that two managers share the role that usually is held by a single leader. The study has a qualitative approach based on semi-structured interviews with managers in human service organizations. The interviews mention the mangers thoughts and experiences about shared leadership and gain approval in the hermeneutic science field. The study is analyzed based on symbolic interactionism where perspectives from the theoreticians Mead and Goffman are used.