Over the past few years the Åland islands have attracted growing internationalattention as an example of how to successfully secure the position of a minorityregion, and in the current situation the government of Åland has an intention toextend the efforts of spreading the example of Åland. The purpose of this essay isto shed light on the political discussion about the example of Åland, andinvestigate the underlying political reasons for emphasizing the example of Ålandinternationally. Through interviews with leading politicians on Åland I analyzeÅland as a norm entrepreneur. The research shows that besides altruism, selfinterestis a factor behind emphasizing the example of Åland. The essay showsthat the theory of norm entrepreneurship also can be applied on an autonomousarea, but instead of influencing international organizations themselves, theautonomous area use norm entrepreneurship as a tool for influencing domesticpolitics..

We have made a suggestion for a map based search tool used with a database containinginformation on natural disasters. The database is being developed by NCO (SwedishCentre for Lessons Learned from Incidents & Accidents).We examined both Swedish and international examples of databases on naturaldisasters. The examples that we found were often hard to get the hang of, due to poorcompilation. The problem, that is typical of the international examples, is that the processof data collection is not standardized, as it is performed by different organizations andcompanies with diverse demands on and needs for the database. Therefore, to keep itsymmetrical, there ought to be only one department with the overall responsibility for anational database on natural disasters in Sweden.The natural disaster we based our study on was the flooding in Arvika in the year 2000.We inspected the availability of data about the flooding, and found it to be satisfying.Through contact with the municipality of Arvika, by mail and telephone, and a visit at theArvika municipality office, we acquired reports on the flooding and the joint rescueoperation that followed, and also GIS layers showing the extension of the flooding..

Ett av de mest omtalade fenomenen de senaste åren har varit den snabba utvecklingen av digitala medier och sociala nätverk. Teknologin har utvecklats från att ha varit något som användes ibland och var till för arbete och underhållning, till att vara en stor del av livet och för vissa en nödvändighet. De nya medierna och sociala nätverken är idag en stor del av mångas vardag och påverkar hur vi tar in information, kommunicerar och utrycker våra tankar och idéer. Under de senaste åren har allt fler organisationer valt att ta in sociala medier i sin marknadsföringsstrategi och organisationerna har företagsprofiler på bland annat Facebook och YouTube för att kommunicera med kunderna. Yngre generationer har växt upp med tekniken och sociala medier vilket är en resa som äldre inte har följt med på och därför är en vanlig uppfattning idag att endast yngre generationer använder sig av de nya mediekanalerna.

Our paper is based on matrixes and the feedback process as tools in the daily work in the higher education system. The main purpose with this paper is to investigate if these tools can enhance the effect of formative assessment and increase students? empowerment in the courses. In do-ing so, we investigate if students experience that their efforts result in increased progression in their courses and if they acquire adequate proficiency in the subject matters native to their pro-grams, along with an increased desire for lifelong learning. Compulsory collection of data for profit is conducted through interviews of students in year one of the IT media program and the IT program.

The purpose of this study is to examine how an organization communicates during a crisis and how a crisis can affect an organization's reputation/credibility in late modernity. The focus is on how the Swedish Red Cross handled crises from summer 2009 until spring 2010, and how the organization's reputation/credibility was affected by the fact that society has changed. The methodology used is a quantitative and qualitative text analysis. The results show that crises affect organizations, how much depends on how open they appear to be and how much credibility they have with them when the crisis begins. Getting to know the late modern society, to understand how it works, can bring benefits to an organization during a crisis.

The aim of this study is to find and highlight the differences and similarities in the strategic communication in two real estate businesses with different proprietaries. In order to achieve the purpose, theories and previous research on public relations, strategic communication, mediatization, framing and new public management has been used. The study was conducted through interviews with two different organizations, Lerstenen who is based in Umeå, and Övikshem who is based in Örnsköldsvik. The analysis and results showed that the key difference between the firms was the spontaneity that influenced the private one, in contrast to the public firm that relied on solid structures to manage their communication. The results also showed that differences in basis conditions both allowed and hindered the possibilities with the communicative efforts that the two firms could do..

Purpose: The purpose of this thesis is to describe the change at Myndigheten and analyze its implementation to identify the employees' attitudes towards the change. The survey of attitudes is important to provide indicators of how they may affect the continued implementation of the process-oriented approach.Research methodology: This thesis is based on both quantitative and qualitative method. Surveys have been implemented on co-workers/employees and an interview has been implemented on a project participant.Theoretical framework: This thesis uses theories of organizations, organizational changes and attitudes.Conclusions: Both positive and negative attitudes are found for the employees and these attitudes are mainly weak. If Myndigheten makes interventions, it can help to minimize the negative consequences that the attitudes may lead to. By doing this the commitment for the change will increase, which is critical for the change to succeed..

The main purpose for this thesis is to investigate why female academics choose to work as temporary workers. Through profound interviews I look at the reasons the women gives to why the have chosen the role as a consultant but also why they choose to stay on in the position. I?m relating their answers to widely spread theories about gender and social structures. I also investigate theories about job satisfaction and how these women?s answers can be interpreted from these theories.

The purpose of this study was to investigate youth?s experiences of what meaning the nonprofit youth project Husby Marathon had on their social capital and self-identity. In order to answer the purpose a qualitative methodology was used based on interviews with four of the participant youths. Two teories were used, Social capital by Robert D. Putnam and Selfidentity by Anthony Giddens.

Over the last decade the conversation on entrepreneurship has been both worldwide and intense. In Sweden, as in many other countries, this conversation has also concerned women?s entrepreneurship. Parallel with this conversation has been the debate on women in leading position in large corporations. This thesis aims to find out why and how women use entrepreneurship to handle existing conditions in life (such as the hardship of combining a traditional career with a traditional family life) and to create new conditions that suit them better.

Earlier this year the Swedish migration board gave a part of their responsibility for the separated children to those municipalities that have signed an agreement with them, so that the children can get the best handling of their matters and also to lift the heavy pressure of the Swedish migration board. Our aim in this paper is to see how this division is made and which areas of responsibility they have. We want to see how this process is being handled in relation to these children?s rights, the Convention on the Rights of the Child and the Swedish law. To get the best information possible we used a qualitative method.

The aim of the thesis was to identify whether, and if so how, aspects of sexual health (reproductive health and cohabitation) are compiled in the National Quality Register and identify reasons for this. A quantitative method has been applied to go through the registers annual reports. In the first part of the thesis, the registers annual reports was mapped with the help of a checklist designed through World Health Organizations (WHO) definition of sexual health. In the second part, a questionnaire was sent to those responsible for each register to find reasons to why and how sexual health is included in the National Quality Registers. The result shows that sexual health is not usually included in the register data, although the survey showed that most registers brought up aspects that could affect the current target group's sexual health.

The care for the elderly in the municipalities has recently seen the need for a formalized system for quality assurance. Under increasing demands for monetary efficiency while bound by law to retain acceptable standards in health care, there is need for efficient and at the same time quality-assured management. The municipalities often solve this puzzle by introducing systems and standards influenced by theory-clusters such as NPM (New Public Management), TQM (Total Quality Management) or other quality management theories.This essay focuses on how the public administration in the municipalities defines quality and designs and implements system for formalized quality assurance. Our basic view of organizations is institutionalist and our theoretical framework includes theories about quality, NPM and TQM..

This study focuses on the booking agencies in Sweden and their point of view on the reality with a focal point from the mass media perspective, which says that they have become rather wealthy because of the changes within the music business. The mass media describes the booking agencies situation as golden because of the economical and technological changes that more or less have paralysed the record industry. The study is performed with a qualitative approach and is based on interviews with relevant individuals from eight different Swedish booking agencies. These individuals have been chosen to match as many different segments in the booking agency business as possible. On account of the qualitative approach it is difficult to generalize the conclusion of the study.

To create multifunctional buffer strips along a watercourse in an economically sustainable way requires consideration of many different factors. In this plan we have selected pollutant reduction as the main purpose of the buffer strip. We have also strived to achieve minimal income loss due to reduced production, increased biological diversity, good game preservation that leads to higher income from hunting, aesthetical satisfaction and possibility to profit from available subsidies. This is done mainly to make landowners/farmers more interested in creating buffer strips along water courses.As sand is the dominant type of soil in the area, the water course is less affected by surface runoff compared to if the soil would be clay or some other finer texture. Game preservation and subsidies have therefore been the main factors when establishing the width of the strip, because these require wider buffer strips in some cases.