Benchmarking is an established method of working which is often used in order to develop the quality of the organization. However, almost 70% of the organizations with benchmarking fail due to the lack of planning and structuring of the benchmarking exercise. Maintenance sections in the paper and pulp industry are one of those who have decided to conduct benchmarking. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to gain knowledge of how the maintenance sections in the paper and pulp industry deliberately structure and plan to use benchmarking as a driving force for quality development in the maintenance sections.The study is a hermeneutic case study. Telephone interviews and document analysis have been used as data acquisition methods.The results show that there is a lack of both planning and structuring in the benchmarking process, and lack of management commitment for quality improvements within industrial maintenance.

This thesis investigates the dynamics of the relationship between a leader and the followers within a chosen organization. The research on leadership has generally been focused on the leader, and consequently treating the followers like passive subordinates. We pursue a more multidimensional view of the subject, meaning that leadership descends from an interaction between leaders and followers, which makes it relevant to study the dynamics of the relationship from both perspectives. We chose to do a qualitative case study on a middle- and preschool which has won a price for being an ideal place to work at. This price peaked our interest to investigate why the relationships are highly functional in this particular organization.

The aim of this work is to define the party structure of Feministic Initiative (FI). We want to examine the structure of an organization that doesn?t start out with a hierarchical order. We further intend to examine the party?s leadership; whether or not it is equal, between the three spokespersons.We find it interesting as a topic from a democratic point of view as well as to see if a flat structure could work in practice.

The purpose of this Master?s Thesis is to examine the information use and information behavior of the scientists at the company ?Forskningsbolaget?. For this purpose an Information Audit was carried out using both interviews with six managers and a questionnaire, which was sent out to the entire population of 213 scientists. After finding out what information the scientists use and how they obtain it the aim was to answer the question of to what extent the company?s Information Centre can meet these needs.

Urination is a biological need but the routines surrounding urination are culturally specific and ever changing. This makes the organization of public space an important part in deciding what actions are made possible for the people in it. This paper considers women?s public urination and the possibilities to merge the need to urinate and the construction of the female body as feminine.A number of texts that describe the construction of the female body and identity as both gendered and socially produced are analysed in relation to women?s experiences of incontinence. Incontinence as a medical diagnosis is by this becoming possible to question, and may be seen as one of several strategies used to manage both the organization of the public space and the expectations of the female body to be a docile body.The conclusion is that a woman who wants to enter public space has the following options when it comes to the need to urinate:To strive for the feminine ideal.

The purpose of this master´s thesis was to investigate the role and function of the annual reports of public libraries: for what purpose are they put together and how are they evaluated and utilised. The study presents different views on the structure and content of library annual reports. Focusing on a specific public library and its municipal administration, the authors identify and describe problems and possibilities regarding the library annual reports. The study also provides a general view of their occurrence, their addressees and the importance attached to them.In a review of current literature on accounting and activity reports the authors place the annual reports of public libraries in a wider context. The study also presents two current models of performance measurement - the Intangible Assets Monitor and the Balanced Scorecard - which were developed in the private sector, and the authors discuss their relevance when applied to public libraries.Data were collected both in interviews and by means of a questionnaire.

The veterans in Sweden is a group that is steadily growing, one of the reasons is the new employment agreement that requires the soldiers and officers to commit to Foreign Service. The Swedish Armed Forces have received critique from the government in their investigations concerning the Swedish veteran politics. Since then the Swedish government has introduced a new law that gives the Swedish Armed Forces an utmost responsibility concerning the veteran?s physical and mental health. The purpose of this study is to qualitatively investigate ?The Peace berets?, a non-government organization which have had, and is still having a cooperation with the Swedish Armed Forces as a result of the investigation conducted by the Swedish government.

In the year of 2009 the conditions for managing primary healthcare in the region of Västra Götalandchanged. The decision was taken by the regional assembly and resulted in that the citizens since thenhave had the opportunity to choose which health care provider they preferto stay with. Along with thisdecision a new market for private health careproviders was established, which resulted inincreasedcompetition between the providers.In order to manage the competition, the health care providers arenow forced to be more efficient in their operations andalso to beeven more focused on their patients.Backa Läkarhusgruppen is an example of a private healthcare provider in the region of Västra Götaland.In the same way it is also an example of anorganizationin need of analysing their operations to seehowit can be further optimized to meet patient needs and expectations.The aim of this study is to analyse Backa Läkarhusgruppen?s organization and its operationsin the hopeoffinding suggestions whichwill improve the patient flow.To allocate and solve the problems thatBacka Läkarhus suffer from,an approach inspired by Lean Healthcare is used throughout the report.Some of themost significant problems that were identified within the organization are:?The synchronization of demand and capacity is inadequate.?Absence of standardized routines.?Absence of present leadership.To be able to improve the patient flow Backa Läkarhus needs to handle these identified problem areas.By synchronizing the staffing level in relation to the trends in demand a reduction in the patient?swaiting times and throughput time will be possible. Creating clear responsibilities and routines for thestaff will contribute to a higher degree of patient focus and thus lead to a more efficient patient flow.

Urination is a biological need but the routines surrounding urination are culturally specific and ever changing. This makes the organization of public space an important part in deciding what actions are made possible for the people in it. This paper considers women?s public urination and the possibilities to merge the need to urinate and the construction of the female body as feminine.A number of texts that describe the construction of the female body and identity as both gendered and socially produced are analysed in relation to women?s experiences of incontinence. Incontinence as a medical diagnosis is by this becoming possible to question, and may be seen as one of several strategies used to manage both the organization of the public space and the expectations of the female body to be a docile body.The conclusion is that a woman who wants to enter public space has the following options when it comes to the need to urinate:To strive for the feminine ideal.

AbstractTitle: External communication and brand strategies in Swedish municipalities? Author: Philip Hagne & Einar Svensson? Tutor: Jessica Gustafsson? Purpose: The aim of this thesis was to study and obtain greater understanding on how Swedish municipalities use external communication and branding strategies to gain and attract more residents. The key questions to be answered in this thesis were: What does the external communication look like in the selected municipalities? Are the selected municipalities trying to establish their own brand? What does the work on creating the brand look like??Method/Material: This thesis is based on material collected trough interviews with people working with external communication in eleven swedish municipalities. The selected municipalities where divided into two groups based on their negative or positive population growth between 2005 and 2012.

Since the beginning of the twenty-first century, China has captivated global attention due to its astonishing economic growth. This development has resulted in an enormous growth in foreign direct investments, as well as the country?s new role aseconomic super power. When joining the World Trade Organization in 2001, China agreed to adhere to the minimum requirements of the organization?s several multilateral agreements.

Our essay starts with two self-experienced stories where we describe how we as pedagogues act when children do not behave as we wish. We examine the different perspectives that can influence us pedagogues to act as we do. Our narrative about Kevin, seven years old, shows how he is excluded from his school mates as they perceive him as disruptive. Also the narrative about Pelle six years old is about his dislike of an activity he is forced to attendag ainst his will.The study is based on a hermeneutical method where, through the interpretation of different perspectives, we discuss several aspects that affect us in our actions. The perspectives we have chosen to highlight are treatment of children, organization, power structures, communication and reflection.Our narratives differ from each other in the way that the recreation instructor Ulrika has no mandate over her situation on this particular day she helps as an extra support in a class atschool.

The research within the management control systems-field and more specifically performance management has been rather shallow and not much has happened the last decades besides the balanced scorecard. The researchers see a lack of studies focusing on the effects of an integrated performance management system and also how it affects the different hierarchical levels and the tasks to perform.We decided to perform an essay with case study-characteristics by looking at both the strategic and tactical level at Volvo Group, or more specifically Group Trucks. We performed three different interviews, one at the group level and two at the division level. The aim was to see what effect an integrated performance management system had on the tactical level (i.e. the divisions).Our findings and corresponding analysis suggested that Volvo was a rather centralized company in order to get the performance management system to work by enabling a ?weekly control?.

Date: June 10, 2011Level: Bachelor Thesis in Business Administration, 15 credits.Authors: Erica Halvarsson Caroline Lundberg Moa RydbeckSupervisor: Peter SelegårdTitle: A comparison between a traditional and a new bank ? from a leadership perspectiveProblem: The study focuses how different organizational structures and leadership styles appear in a traditional bank compared to a young bank. The questions we asked ourselves in this study is whether there is any differences?Purpose: The purpose of the study is to from a leadership perspective see if there are any differences between organizational structures, leadership and communication depending on whether it is a traditional or a new bank.Method: In this study, primary and secondary data was used to best obtain comprehensive information, which was analyzed on the basis of a set of question. In order to obtain our raw data, interviews with staff from Swedbank and IKANO bank were conducted.

The difference between the public sector and the private sector in Sweden was once very small. These sectors have been united as well for the people, the organizations as for the finances. During the 1960´s and 1970´s the public sector in Sweden was expanding and after the 1980´s the people started talking more about an expanding private sector instead. The year of 2007 Hökarängen Hemtjänst Ekonomisk Förening submitted a tender to Äldreförvaltningen about a purchase of the home- help service in Hökarängen and they accept there tender.Exposing public organization for competition can be a good way to make sure that most value for the money is created and that it generates the most cost- effective organizations. The motivation factor is used to describewhat makes people perform more than what is expected of them.The purpose of this study is to describe and explain similarities and differences in working- motivation between those how are members of Hökarängen Hemtjänst Ekonomisk Förening and those how are not.