This thesis examines why working time preferences differ between workers and Nations, and explains the effect of working time regulation and working time flexibility on negotiating work-life balance. In five separate sections the following working time issues are examined: the number of hours worked by workers in Europe; factors affecting individual working time preferences; how working time preferences are negotiated in the national industrial relations systems of Sweden, France and the United Kingdom; how the institutions of the European Union have influenced working time negotiations through the Working Time Directive; and the benefits and practices available to organisations implementing working time flexibility. Broadly this paper views working time preferences as being a highly personal and influenced by factors such as wages, taxation, culture (national and workplace) and non-work responsibilities. It is argued that negotiating a preferred working time pattern is essential to achieving work-life balance and when such a balance is achieved, workers are more healthy, motivated and committed to their employer. Essentially this provides an incentive for businesses to voluntarily implement working time flexibility beyond the regulatory standards..

The amount of mergers and acquisitions between international and Swedish actors increased due to the Swedish entry in the European Union. In many cases, conflicts between manage-ment and employees made visible the cultural differences between Nations and organisations. As a result of these conflicts many companies experience difficulties in operating on the Swedish market and in some cases they have even been forced to leave it.The starting point of this study is analysing how the management at a foreign company in Sweden, that has undergone a merger, has been affected in the meeting with the Swedish business culture. The analyse has got three different perspectives as a base; management, market knowledge and culture.This study is accomplished on the basis of a deductive approach. It is a case study where the empirical foundation derives from five interviews.

This paper aims to explore the relationship between financial risk and ESG scores in order to assist investors in making investment decisions. We investigate the hypothesis that there is a relationship between the ESG score of a company, and the financial risk in terms of volatility in the relevant company?s share price. The paper is grounded in sustainability reporting and financial risk. With the world facing significant changes and natural disasters, there is an urgent need for action to mitigate environmental impacts to avoid devastating consequences.

AbstractEssay in political science, C-level, by Ellen Linde, spring semester 2007. Tutor: Susan Marton.?HIV and gender inequalities; a lethal combination? A study of the patriarchal dominance in the international discussion on HIV/AIDS?The purpose of this essay is to study to what extent a patriarchal discourse is present in the international discussion on how to best fight the spread of HIV/AIDS. To determine if a patriarchal discourse is present or not I have used a feminist theory on patriarchal dominance. I have concentrated on the United Nations resolutions about HIV/AIDS.

Syftet med uppsatsen är att undersöka bakomliggande faktorer som sätter käppar i hjulen för demokratiseringsprocessen i Azerbaijan. Med hjälp av rapporter från olika internationella organisationer, såsom Freedom House ser jag landets demokratiska utveckling och fungerande. Jag använt mig av den teoribekräftande fallstudien där jag applicerar demokratiseringsteorin på fallet i Azerbaijan. Freedom House rapport ? Nations in Transit? i Azerbaijan 2011 kan man förknipa med Robert Dahls polyarki begrepp. Polyarkibegreppet bygger på två grundelement: medverkan och tävlan eller konkurrens.

Fleets have the ability to affect an adversary?s use of the seas for transportation. Nations have in numerous occasions exercised this power in order to ravage their opponent?s trade in times of conflict with the purpose of diminishing their military might. Great naval thinkers like Mahan and Corbett have described this use of seapower during conflicts in great depth but theories regarding the use of seapower to affect a nation?s peacetime economy in order to achieve limited political goals is lacking.

The Security Council?s resolution 1325 addressed the major negative impact that armed conflict has on women and children. This in turn complicates the Council?s work on maintaining international peace and security. The resolution therefore highlights women?s rights as participants in peace- and conflict processes.

This essay focuses on how trafficking in human beings for sexual exploitation is defined and dealt with in the Nordic countries. Agreements on how trafficking for sexual exploitations should be dealt with is presented in reports and Action plans from the European Union and United Nations amongst others. In this essay we will compare four national Action plans made by governments by Denmark, Finland, Sweden and Norway between 2005- 2011 to each other. Mainly we have been looking at similarities and differences in the different Action plans. The essay is based on Discourse theory and discursive struggle and we have been looking at similarities and differences in how trafficking is dealt with through language.

The aim of this paper is to map out the purposes of the United Nations Peacekeeping Operations. This is done in order to see if humanitarian tendencies have been an increasingly cause for the UN to initiate an intervention with military means. This paper uses the time period from the end of the cold war until today, since that historic occurrence increased the U.N.?s involvement in peacekeeping. By using this time span it enables the survey to indicate changes in the mapping of humanitarian interventions.

The purpose of this paper is to study how the TV program Border Security: Australia?s FrontLine (Gränsbevakarna Australien) can be seen to reproduce networks of human and non-human actors. The aim is thus to investigate how boundaries between Nations are upheld and how people, as a consequence, are discoursively categorized and what preconditions this create for people?sidentity- and meaning-making practices.The theoretical and methodical framework is built upon Bruno Latour?s work on Actor-Network-Theory, and discourse analysis inspired by Michel Foucault. The empirical material consists of two episodes of the TV program.

Studentorganisationen Värmlands nation i Uppsala genomdrev under våren och sommaren 2006 ett konceptbyte på sin dansklubb. Initiativet togs av Nationsledningen, men genomförandet skedde i form av ett självständigt projekt drivet av projektanställda Nationsmedlemmar. Den här uppsatsen studerar hur nationens ideella organisationsstruktur har påverkat projektarbetet. Detta görs främst genom intervjuer med berörda individer inom både nationen och projektet. Uppsatsen utgår från organisationsteori av Henry Mintzberg och projektteori av Anders Marttala, Kjell Nordberg och Anders Blomé.Värmlands Nations organisationsform kännetecknas av ideella drivkrafter, informell kommunikation och att många olika individers diversifierade insatser resulterar i en mångfasetterad och stundtals svåröverblickbar helhet.

The globalization today has led to increased global competition. As companies seek out foreign markets in order to internationalize their operations, it is common that they encounter many cultural problems. Bribery and corruption is a common problem in international trade. Corruption is strongly linked to the national culture which means that corruption is accepted in differing degrees within different Nations. This can be a problem when companies establish their operations in foreign markets.The purpose of this essay is to examine and analyze how companies act in a corrupt market without participating in corrupt activities.The authors have performed both a qualitative and a quantitative study.

This bachelor thesis examines the relation between countries? degree of economic freedom and their economic performance. Economic freedom as a concept is defined as the degree of market economy within a nation.The variable of measure that is used is the Frasier institute Economic freedom of the world index (EFI). The paper is built upon the Solow growth model and is extended by incorporation of additional variables; among which of course economic freedom. The study is performed through regression analysis, based on the neoclassical model both on rich countries, poor countries and on all investigated countries.Two investigations are performed: i) the impact from economic freedom on countries level of GDP per capita and ii) the impact from economic freedom on the growth rate in GDP per capita.The finding is that economic freedom can be seen as a relevant determinant of differences in GDP per capita growth rates between Nations.

This is a paper about the process of creating meaning in speeches held by president Bush after the terrorist attacks on September 11th 2001. People need tools to orient and understand the surrounding world. They need to create a meaningful orientation in a chaotic world. Some meaning is favoured due to the prevailing social structures. Thru language discourses are produced that helps us understand how the world is constructed.

Authors: Lars Johansson & Johan PetterssonTitle: ?There is way to much sports in the athletics? ? A study of Swedish sportsFootball has gone from being a hobby and a popular pastime into a billion-dollar industry, and clubs around Europe are therefore operated more and more like regular companies. Sweden's position in the UEFA rankings is a modest 23 rd place, behind Nations such as Austria, Switzerland and Belarus. The economic climate in Sweden is often highlighted as a strong factor. When we started our study we agreed that this could be a major contributing factor to this relatively modest rank, but believed that there were also other factors that played a big role.