This paper investigates the level of consciousness regarding to the diversity work in the municipalities of Malmö, Lund and Landskrona. The study focuses on persons in a middle management position connected to various spheres of activities in each municipality. A survey concerning each municipality's diversity plan, diversity work, recruiting process, education and knowledge was used to investigate the participants' consciousness. The survey poses similar questions regarding equality between the sexes to compare the results from each field. The paper presents an overview of the development of Sweden's labour market and society, and gives an account for the differences between immigrants and natives positions in the labour market.

Recent years there has been discussed how the critical situation in the housing market threatens the Stockholm region's growth. The thesis objective is to examine whether there is a scientific link between the lack of housing supply and growth. The thesis also intends to identify solutions for increased housing construction, for instance by examining the conditions for a greater regional perspective and influence on the region's housing supply. The thesis empirical study is based on semi-structured interviews with representatives from the Government, municipalities and the housing industry.In Sweden, research on the relationship between housing shortages and growth has not been conducted to that extent it can be said to exist scientific evidence regarding the growth threat. However, in Britain and the U.S, empirical studies show that a lack of housing supply has hindered growth through negative impact on countries' gross domestic product.

The means to political participation at the local level in Sweden are changing and this change is analyzed through a case study. The first aim is to explore the forms of public political participation in Swedish municipal Älvkarleby, namely public question time in local government, citizen motions and open meetings. A part of this is also to analyze he every day contact between citizens and representatives. The second aim concerns the reasons why politicians decide to support these means to participationThe empirical material consists mainly of semi structured interviews with local politicians, civil servants, participating citizens and local press. Official documents such as public minutes are also used in the process of creating an image of local participation.Local political participation is found to be limited but yet having the potential to strengthen democracy, provided that public decision-makers are open to a dialogue with the participants.Using Kjell Arne Røvik's theories of organisational change, the changes in local democracy can be explained as being partly rational, partly symbolic and partly identity shaping political decisions..

The purpose of this master?s thesis is to investigate children?s access to specific children?s activities at Swedish public libraries 2005. The thesis is based on literature studies and qualitative interviews with children?s librarians, library directors and local politicians at two demographically different libraries in Gothenburg.The sub questions are: What measures exist to promote children?s access to public libraries and children?s activities when it comes to: law and other political statements: different efforts on the state level and different efforts on the municipal level in the direct activity with children at public libraries? What driving forces and needs justify activities for children at public libraries? How will the responsible persons judge that the efforts are sufficient? The result of the study shows that children?s access to library activity has increased in the last couple of years due to reorganization, economic savings with closing down of library affiliates and because libraries have given priority to other things, like IT and new media. Children?s librarians have got new assignments and less time for children?s activity.The conclusion of our investigation is that children?s librarians are ambitious in their work, but unfortunately don?t give children?s library activity adequate resources.

Our purpose with this research is to highlight that there is a scope for increased value creation in the experience room during concerts, and how value-enhancing strategies can be a competitive advantage for different venues. In our investigation of this we have worded the following research question: How is the perceived customer value affected during a concert in the experience room and its physical environment? With the background in this question we have identified three key concepts that we believe are the influence of the total concert experience which are; sensory experiences, interaction and identity. From these concepts we have drafted a number of propositions to test the reality by our empirical data collection. .

This study deals with branding at an individual level and aims to explore what a personal brand means, what benefits that?s obtained by actively working with a personal brand, as well as the strategies and methods used in the development of it. It has also meant a restriction in choice of interviewees made to informants who are familiar with and active in the personal branding process in their daily life. The essay is based on a qualitative research approach; six people working in various occupations were interviewed by a desire to generate information from different perspectives. The result shows that a personal brand is all about credibility, authenticity, and the image you present to others.

To understand the modern leadership you have to gain a lot of experience to attain the right competence through which you are able to know what kind of leadership is most suitable to use in the current situation. Leaders agree that every kind of leadership is more or less successful depending on the situation and different organizational factors, for example the co-workers and the environment. Every leader should have a strong willpower and driving force to bring motivation to the organization and to make it more efficient. Another quality that represents a modern leader is the ability to lead and divide the co-workers and the organizations different strengths. The organizational communication is an important factor of how you, as a leader, answer to your co-workers and also how you will be received.

AbstractThe purpose of the study was to examine if manual signs used as support to spoken and written language can be a god mnemonic for learning of word-pictures. I performed my study as an experiment in which I made a Memory game with word-pictures. I played the game with the children twice. The first time, we played without manual signs and the second time I used sign as a support. I observed the children and noted the words they learned to read with and without the support of manual signs.

This essay deals with Swedish unemployment politics during the period 1918-1932, and can be seen as a contribution to earlier research of how the policies, established by the State Unemployment Commission, was carried out at a local level. This study bears upon  Uddevalla municipality, a town in the southwestern part of Sweden, which had about 13,700 inhabitants in 1920.The research was conducted in Uddevalla municipality archives, and the sources used are above all municipal records and documents from the local unemployment committee. The measures taken by the local committee to reduce the effects of unemployment have then been compared with the directives of the State Unemployment Commission.The survey shows that the local unemployment committee, at least during the first half of the 1920s, was very keen to follow the directives of the State Unemployment Commission, and they also tried to charge the municipality's economy as little as possible. The local policy was often even more restrictive than the demands from the State Unemployment Commission. During a few years in the middle of the 1920s, when the unemployment was relatively low, most of the unemployed did not recieve any help at all.The restrictive policy, however, led to an increasing distress among the unemployed, and the poor relief had to give financial help to a lot of unemployed and their families.

Malmö, like many other bigger cities in Europe, faces a double undertaking when facing the challenges the future. Not only must the municipal be able to provide its citizens with welfare and a high standard of living, it must also establish a level of economic growth that allows the city to act as catalyst for the surrounding area. In order to provide the population with welfare and the economy with a qualified working force, these two challenges have been combined into one plan for the future called Welfare for Everybody. As part of this plan, new organisations have been created with the purpose collaborating with the social services office and support people in their transaction from welfare recipients to self-providing workers. The purpose of our thesis is to build on Michael Lipsky's classic work "Street-level Bureaucracy" and by conducting interviews with a number of front line workers study how they view their role, the client group and how they motivate the working line.

Today older people?s health and life quality are current topics of conversation in society. The number of old people is increasing and their health is deteriorating, that is why there is a need of new ways of meeting their necessities. In this study we have tried to illustrate heads of districts reasoning concerning pets? significance for old people in special housing.

The purpose of this master?s thesis is to examine what needs and expectations the patrons have on the local public library services for adult students. With increased knowledge of these matters the library will be able to support and improve the service for users. The focus is on adult students with immigrant background who study Swedish as second language in a municipal adult education school. The main questions are: How do adult students use the library at present? What do they consider to be most important when using the public library for their studies? How do these expectations correspond to their experience of the library services? Two focusgroups and one in-depth interview were carried out.

This study investigates the relationship strategies the group Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) certification holder has with the forest owners. The (FSC) standard enables an organization to manage a group of forest management units under a single certificate, a process referred to as group certification. Some certificate holders want a close relationship with the forest owner before they are offered to become part of their certificate. Other certificate holders have less strict demands on a close relationship with the forest owner before they are offered to become part of their certificate. The study shows that it is in many ways desirable to have a close relationship between forest owner and group certification holder..

The aim of this study was to examine care managers and how they understand and use their discretion. We used a qualitative method and the data was gathered by semi-structured interviews. We interviewed eight care managers in four different municipalities in southern Sweden. The theoretical approach we used was Michael Lipsky?s theory about street-level bureaucracy.

The DuPont formula is one of the most well known and basic tools used for financial statement analysis and is highly useful for understanding firms strategies and operating environment. Previous studies on American listed companies have also shown that analysis of the changes in the DuPont components is useful in forecasting contexts. In this thesis we test whether disaggregating the change in return on net operating assets provides incremental information about future performance for Swedish listed and not listed companies. We find that the change in asset turnover is a leading indicator of increased profitability for both listed and private companies, regardless of size. We also find evidence that the usefulness of the disaggregation for understanding future performance is greater in capital intense industries and lesser in service industries..