It is now increasingly common for organisations to work actively with HR issues. Furthermore, it is a constant top priority for organisations to remain profitable. The purpose of this study was to investigate whether so called soft HR values, as manager?s communication skills, has an actual impact on hard values in terms of costs for the organisation. Leadership is largely characterised by emotional communication, which together with personnel costs were the main focus of the research.

The pathogenic fungus Rhizoctonia solani causes major economic losses for potato producers in Sweden. The producers, as well as advisors, have reported possible increases in severity of R. solani when free-living plant parasitic nematodes are present and active. There are several examples in the literature of interactions between pathogens where one, or both species, support or increase the damage made by the other organism. These complexes are important to investigate and to be able to forecast, since even low incidences of fungi or nematodes may result in an interaction of significance.

Under 1990-talet kom Kaplan och Norton fram med styrningsfilosofin balanserat styrkort som innebär att managers uppmanas att inte enbart ta hänsyn till finansiella mått utan bör använda sig av både finansiella och icke-finansiella mått för att kunna styra företag. Det här konceptet med balanserat styrkort har sedan det togs fram utvecklas och i början av 2000-talet finns den tredje versionen av balanserat styrkort som tillsammans med avancerad teknologi bildar konceptet business performance management. Det innebär att den information som ligger till grund för de rapporter som består av finansiella och icke-finansiella mått hämtas från en central databas i det verksamhetsöverskridande business performance management systemet. En anledning till det är att business performance management knyter samman balanserat styrkort med avancerad teknologi som möjliggör att managers därmed har möjlighet att få tillgång till en gemensam version av verkligheten, det vill säga en gemensam mental bild hur företaget presterar. Dessutom möjliggör den avancerade teknologin att managers oavsett om beslut tas som är strategiska, taktiska eller operativa att de har tillgång till den information som beslutsunderlagen baseras på i rätt tid.Den information som beslutsunderlagen baseras på måste bestå av en tillfredställande god kvalitet för att möjliggöra att managers tar korrekta och optimala beslut.

This paper is about research carried out at a hospital at which managers had taken a course in gender equality. The aim was to get a deepened understanding of them and their work on gender equality. I wanted to find out if they themselves felt that they had obtained any new knowledge and if they had changed anything at their workplace because of this new knowledge. I also wanted to know if they had experienced any problems in this process. I found that the course has been more or less decisive in order for them to start working with questions concerning gender equality.

The first four AP-funds have a well-diversified Swedish portfolio, which is managed in similar way as the largest Swedish bank funds. Up until today, there has not been any comparable study that focuses specifically on this part of the AP-funds. Our aim is two-folded; First we will look at how well the AP-funds have managed their Swedish assets compared with Swedish funds of the four largest banks in Sweden during 2002-2006. This will be done by looking at some important key ratios and both absolute and active return. Secondly we will present a descriptive analysis of the management structure within the respective organisations, to be able to draw conclusions regarding the possible deviations in investment return.

The aim of this thesis is to create an understanding about how and to what extent a Swedish expatriate manager needs to adapt his/her leadership in accordance with the culture of the host country. Thus shall different managers? perceptions of experienced management overseas be studied. To accomplish our aim, three different problems have been designed. These are as follows: In what way does the manager?s earlier experiences and knowledge about expatriation affect her or his leadership in a new cross-cultural context? How does the culture of the host country affect the expatriate manager?s leadership? How does the expatriate manager handle contradictory demands: that is differences in expectations from subordinates and the higher management? We have chosen to use an abductive approach in order to do a qualitative study and we have therefore conducted eight case studies to create a foundation for distinguishing patterns.The case studies are based on eight Swedish managers with experience from expatriation. The theoretical framework is structured upon three main themes including; knowledge and skills a global leader needs to possess, the relation between the leader and subordinates, and contradictory demands.

Due to the obvious fact that one can never be hundred percent sure of what's hiddenunder the ground surface, construction work is naturally hard to project.However, many of the work methods are executed in the same way on variousprojects. The department of construction work at JM AB region öst describes a lackof follow-ups and feedback between the calculators and production managers.In this thesis we have studied the communication between these groups and alsohow they share experiences and knowledge. In order to get the full pictureof the day-to-day operations we used three methods to gather information. Studyingliterature gave basic knowledge of theories about feedback, and thenecessity of working with giving feedback. In order to understand the process ofconstruction work we made several interviews, both structured and nstructured.

At a manufacturing company, due to the competition the price is reducedtowards the manufacturing cost. Therefore it is important to maintain control ofones costs and keep calculations up-to-date.This thesis deals with cost accounting at a aluminium-processing company. The report focuses on calculating machine cost per hour since the manufacturing costs are the major part of the total product cost.Managers on the company believe that the costs they use in calculations todayneither is up-to-date nor advantageous in a market aspect and due to that their calculations need to be revised. The machines cost per hour is a major part in the manufacturing calculation. The company wants to provide a competitive price that also covers their costs.

AimThe aim of this study is to through managers in eldercares deskriptions of the systematic qualityleadingsystem examine the implementation process of this system in the eldercare in the municipality of Halmstad.  BackgroundIn this paper the background explains elderly care and social work context, leadership in change and implementation processes. The theoretical frame illustrates Vedungs implementation theory and Webers model of bureaucracy MethodTo collect empirical data for this study, a qualitative research design was used in which eleven managers within Halmstads municipality home care management stood as respondents. ResultThe respondents highlighted a variety in the use of the systematic quality management system tool. The result describes that several obstacles were experienced in the use of the systematic quality system. ConclusionBased on the descriptions the respondents gives of the implementation process of the systematic quality management of Halmstad municipality home care management, the conclusion can be drawn that the implementation process has not resulted in the employees making use of systematic quality management in practice. The systematic quality management system that will ensure the quality of the care work is thus used to a limited extent..

Violence and aggression is a common problem for staff in different care units. Caregivers often feel frustrated and unsatisfied in their work with these patients. Even caregivers with long experience finds it valuable to get education in management of violent patients. The aim of this literature study was to illuminate staffs experience in meeting with aggresive and violent patients. The method that was used was a literature research, where earlier research findings were read, analysed and put together.

The structural rationalization of rural firms in Sweden has led to many new creative ways of developing companies. The agriculture sector is characterized by the need of capital in form of buildings, labor and inventory. The rationalization process has led to free capacity in rural firms when new technology make buildings and inventory not longer necessary for the production process. To get a better cost coverage this free capacity can be used to start-up new business areas that help the rural firm to growth.The study aims to identify factors that motives entrepreneurs in rural firms to develop new business areas. The purpose is also to analyze driving forces that lies behind development of rural firms and the forces that support or not support development in rural firms.The study is built upon five cases that all can be categorized as firms with different size and orientation.

Violence and aggression is a common problem for staff in different care units. Caregivers often feel frustrated and unsatisfied in their work with these patients. Even caregivers with long experience finds it valuable to get education in management of violent patients. The aim of this literature study was to illuminate staffs experience in meeting with aggresive and violent patients. The method that was used was a literature research, where earlier research findings were read, analysed and put together.

Virtual teams are teams where team members don?t sit and work in the same place, they canwork in different countries, cities and buildings. It?s not the distance between team members that defines a virtual team, it's the extent to which the team is dependent on information technology to communicate and carry out a task. Virtual teams is becoming more common in organizations, to use virtual teams organizations can reduced time and travel costs and create a larger knowledgebase.A project manager for virtual teams faces many challenges, they have to build trust with and among team members they rarely or never meet, create a common understanding of project objectives and manage the challenges that culture and information technology creates.

The purpose of this essay is to look upon the gender structure in Sweden, during the late Middle Ages. Mainly I focus on how the church viewed men and women, since the material of my research, the miracle stories of three saints, was found credible and was written down by churchmen. The saints, whose miracles I have studied, are Birgitta Birgersdotter and Katarina Ulfsdotter of Vadstena and Niklas Hermansson of Linköping. These miracles have earlier been studied by the historian Anders Fröjmark, who has noticed that there are fewer heeled women than men figuring in the miracles. Because of this, Fröjmark draws the conclusion that women were less able to leave their homes and travel as pilgrims to the holy sites of the saints.

Allocation of funds to public libraries is uneven and this study will try to explain the reasons and clarify why the allocations of funds are distributed like they are and what calculations influenced the financial apportionment. This master thesis accounts for allocation in seven public libraries in Uppsala. The study shows that one reason for uneven allocations is demographic. Another reason is that the library has come into a good or bad circle. There are no models for allocation of funds to public libraries in Uppsala, thats why their allocations are given after a percentage increase of earlier years allocations, and that leads to a good or bad circle.