This thesis examines the effects of the Swedish school reforms that took place in the early 1990?s. Theories such as Principal-Agent, Stewardship and Lipsky?s street-level bureaucracy are discussed as well as New Public Management (NPM). These reforms were heavily influenced by NPM, causing an increased level of street-level bureaucracy, and according to Principal-Agent theory some outcomes could have been predicted.

In our paper we chose to study care management in the old age care. According to the law for the social services the needs of elderly should govern the assistance they are granted. But research has shown that municipal guidelines govern the assistance and that the elderly have to adjust their needs to them. Thus there is a discrepancy between law and practice. The aim of this study was to understand how care managers relate to municipal guidelines, laws and the requests of elderly when the application for assistance is established.

Sustainable Development is often described as a balance between ecological, economical and social aspects. Between these exists a complicated interaction that creates conflicts in the planning of the landscape. We see a growing need for a functional interaction between values and interest and an understanding for different perspectives. Cooperation and dialogue are key ideas with the focus on cooperation rather than the goal. There is a lack of forum for dialogue and cooperation within municipalities where a great knowledge and competence are gathered.

Neighbourhood offices were established in the municipal of Lund by a decision in the municipal council 1999. During following years four offices opened in the surrounding villages; Veberöd, Genarp, Södra Sandby and Dalby. By using a goal oriented model and making interviews I study whether the offices reaches the goals of more effective service, developed IT-support, a stronger local democracy and a better feeling for service. The offices has improved the information to the citizens and efforts have been made to strengthen the local democracy but more complex matters can not be handled at the offices today, which is a disappointment for many involved.To explain the result of the evaluation I use Vedungs ?A general theory of public efforts result?.

The purpose of this study is to examine the usage of IT technology within preschool and study how IT tools are used by preschool staff for administrative as well as pedagogical assignments. Several aspects affects the work preschool staff do with IT which concerns availability to technology, how technology is used and how technology is made available for the children. There are a number of questions linked to these aspects where some examples this study examines are which advantages, disadvantages, obstacles or other limitations that comes with introducing IT? This study also examines how, when and in what contexts IT is being used? Other questions examined are the pedagogue?s general views of IT, competence development and eventual needs of investment? Further on this study examines to some part how children interact with IT during pedagogical activities? The overall objective is to shed light on problems that preschool staff encounter  in their daily work and on the basis of identifying important questions at issue that could constitute a basis for further research. The results of this study are based on both a literature review and a field study.

The elderly care is an area of great importance to women. Women are more often in need of elderly care; they work with the service and provide a majority of the informal service. Research shows that managers? work-related prerequisites are significantly different between the male dominated technical administration and the female dominated care and educational administration. Studies also show that what the highest managerial organisation gives priority to, often permeate the whole organisation.

The intention with this study is to investigate how schools are affected by state and municipal documents when they organize the education for children with special needs. The study is based on following questions.How do decisions on state and municipal level of politics affect the decisions that the principals make concerning organization, and do the school leaders think that the decisions are made on the right level of liability?What is the relationship between economic decisions and pedagogical decisions?What decides whether the schools have children with special needs integrated in their ordinary classes, or if they receive segregated remedial courses, and what are the views on an equivalent education?The study is conducted through interviews with principals of three schools, one politician on municipal level and one special education teacher. The interviews are linked to an historic background as well as current studies and discourses. The study shows that there are contradictions between state, municipality and school goals.

Invasive alien plant species have historically caused major damage to ecosystems and are considered to be amongst the greatest threats to biodiversity globally. The lurking threat of harm to well functioning ecosystems has led to the development of global and regional goals and regulations which seek to stop the spread of invasive species. The Swedish Environmental Protection Agency has proposed a list of species that are specifically harmful to the Swedish flora and fauna, which includes (amongst others) garden lupin. The management of invasive species is however largely dependent on local actions, making municipal public servants key players. This qualitative study uses interviews to investigate how municipal public servants who are responsible for managing invasive alien species view this work.

This essay studies the relationship between politicians and municipal chief officers from the point of view of the bureaucracy and its role in democracy and the substance of the chief position. I conducted interviews and observations with politicians and senior officials from the local public administration in Bromölla. The roles of the chief officer and politicians have certain common characteristics which makes it difficult to separate them. Senior officials working full time in contrast to part time politicians give them an advantage in the political process. Budget cut backs both enhance the role of politicians and chief officers in the administrative organisation.

There are problems with poor quality, poor scheduling and poor working climate in the Swedish construction industry. Many parts have been involved, trying to solve the problem.This spring a new planning and building-law becomes final. In this law, the requirements set on the controls are greater. Hopefully this will lead to fewer construction errors. The requirements set on the working environment have also increased, forcing consultants and contractors to focus on safe workplaces.For each project requiring a building permit, an inspection plan has to been drawn.

AbstractThe purpose of this study was to describe and compare the degree of selfreporting succession to the basal hygienic routines of emplyees working in municipal old peoples care versus hospital care. It is also to describe the access of material available in prevention of cross infections. The study was also carried out with a comparative and quantitative run up design. The study is based on a questionnaire in the district of Gävleborg in the spring of 2009. Nurses, auxiliaries and carers whom were in close contact with patients were asked to join the study.

The purpose of this study has been to compare teachers' differing methods of teaching mathematics and their perspectives on the learning process in a municipal school to a Waldorf school. The study has examined which approach best promotes student engagement and learning in mathematics in the first three years of schooling. The study is based on four interviews. The informants? accounts are interpreted using theories from previous research.

The purpose of this study is to see how adolescent students in high school formulate their thoughts of death and if a belief in transcendent existence affects their thoughts. The study was done on two separate schools, one municipal school and one private religious school, in minor cities in Sweden. The method used was qualitative inquiries and the amount of participants was four from each school, eight in total. The result of the study showed that six out of eight participants had a belief of a transcendent existence, three from the municipal school and three from the religious private school. The result also showed that the participants from the municipal school that had a belief in an transcendent existence also had a belief in a form of ?afterlife?, this was however not reflected on the students in the religious private school where result showed that one out of four had a belief in a form of ?afterlife? and three view death as the final stage of existence..

Large retirement numbers and fierce competition of available labour, results in municipalities have to be more attractive as an employer. One way for the municipalities to fulfil their staffing requirement is partly to increase their recruitment efforts, and partly to educate their existing employees. Discussions about the supply of competence are therefore pressing within municipal activity. The aim of the study was to investigate how the concept of competence is used within a municipal administration. The method that has been used is Norman Fairclough?s critical discourse analysis, a method that allows multi dimensional analysis.

Many organizations utilize decision support systems in order to handle different tasks and tosupport the decision-making process. Decision support system is a broad term used to referto several different types of systems. These types of systems can handle a wide range ofoperations within the organization. Consequently this will have an impact on differentoperations within the organization. The main aim of this study was to create a betterunderstanding regarding the impact of decision support systems on the various operationswithin the City Council's procurement units which in turn will increase effectiveness.