The position of middle-management is a role where the manager is at risk of being caught between its management and its employees. Elderly care is an industry that has been discussed a lot, to a large extent on how businesses should be managed and by whom it should be conducted. Middle-management in the business of elderly care thereby possess a vulnerable position in a controversial industry. In this study the aim is to investigate the managers' roles and tasks in both the public sector and the private sector in elderly care. It also aims to examine whether there are differences between the roles and how they in such cases is manifested.

This essay begins with a literature study of the different propagation methods for roses, and a survey of the factors affecting the rooting of cuttings in general and rose cuttings in particular. The main part of the essay consists of a practical study of the rooting of rose cuttings. I have chosen to examine how the time of year when the cuttings are taken, and the position of the cuttings influence the rooting. Three different cultivars were used as mother plants; ?Maria Lisa? and two Burnet roses; ?King of Scots? and ?Poppius?. The mother plants were container grown ?King of Scots? and ?Maria Lisa?, and outdoor grown ?Poppius? and ?Maria Lisa?.

The society today is full of new changes within the companies and their middle chiefs. Middle chief?s visions have changed during recent years. The female chiefs have grown in numbers, and because of that people have started to focus on whether there are any similarities or differences between the female and male leadership behaviors. The essay is about similarities and differences between female and male middle chief?s idea about effective leadership behavior.Our analysis is based on a qualitative study, where we have made four interviews with four chiefs in industrial companies.

This thesis investigates the reception of middle literature novels among critics in Swedish newspapers and at Swedish libraries. Works by three authors were chosen as representatives for middle literature: Helen Fielding, Nick Hornby and Tony Parsons. The investigation is based on interviews with librarians at the Gothenburg City Library, the total purchased number of books at public libraries in Sweden and analysis of Swedish newspaper reviews. The result is compared with theories by literary sociologists as Jofrid Karner Smidt, Janice Radway, Erland Munch-Petersen and Staffan Bergsten among others. It was found out that literary scientists and critics had a different way of looking at middle literature.

Quality can be defined as the ability of a business to satisfy their customers? needs and expectations. Total Quality Management is defined as the way to prevent, appraise and improve the entire organization to increase the product quality. In order to systematically increase quality in an organization, there are different quality systems in use. One example is process management, which is to divide the activities of processes.

Trough the contact with the HR (Human Resources) department of home care management in Halmstad municipality, emerged from the management a wish for a documentation for what should be included in leadership at middle management level in the future. People in middle management positions have a large impact on the operation staff and are also in charge of the individual corporate performance and its success. As we have previously been active in the management of multiple role configurations, including middle-management positions, we have some prior understanding of the complexity of this position. The study was conducted with the aim to investigate different aspects of what leadership for middle managers in home care management in Halmstad municipality may mean to them. With the help of different theories and models various aspects were analyzed due to the impact of leadership.Due to the studies purpose and questions, two focus groups was conducted and interviews with respondents from both the lower and superior positions in home care management in Halmstad municipality was done.

This thesis aims to investigate the information effects of fair value accounting in Nordic real estate companies. As a consequence of the mandatory IFRS adoption in the European Union in 2005, listed Nordic companies are allowed to recognize investment property at fair value in accordance with IAS 40. Theory suggests that fair value accounting should lower information asymmetry. Therefore, this study aims to examine correlation between fair value accounting of investment property and information asymmetry on the stock market. To investigate this, we use bid-ask spread as a proxy for information asymmetry and examine Nordic real estate companies before and after the implementation of IFRS.

Early intervention is important on different levels and must be justified as a social and economic long-term investment. There is no doubt about the importance of early detection when helping children/students in need of support. What kind of support that is deemed suitable and who provides the support can be viewed from different perspectives and with different approaches. Seen from a relational perspective the special education process is a long-term process and affects not only the individual but the whole school culture and systems may need changing. This study intends to describe the importance of the learning environment and what efforts are initiated early for students in need of support from the special education point of view.

This study aims to assess the normal inflow of extraterrestrial chromite to Earth. The results from the investigationare compared to earlier studies of middle Ordovician Orthoceratite Limestone in which 1 - 3 extraterrestrial chromitegrains ( >63 ?Êm ) per kilogram limestone were found. These values have been interpreted as evidence of a twoorders of magnitude increase in the flux of extraterrestrial matter to Earth during a part of middle Ordovician.From an early Paleocene marine sedimentary sequence with known sedimentation rate in Zumaia, northernSpain, 90,5 kilogram of condensed limestone, dated to about 63 Ma, was sampled. The limestone was dissolved inhydrochloric- and hydrofluoric acid and the residue was sieved and searched for opaque minerals under the binocularmicroscope.

Purpose and aimThe purpose of this thesis has been to create a deeper understanding about the impact that the digitalization of the music business in the early 2000s and also the latter change, that in this paper is referred to as the sociodigital change, has had on artist brands. We will also analyze the positive and negative effects that this development may have had on the already existing brand environment and lastly also review the true importance of the professional industry?s competence. We have chosen the following research question in relation to the purpose; In what way has the basic conditions for artist brands within the music industry changed since the digitalization of the music industry in the early 2000s? MethodFor this study we initially took an inductive approach as we formed hypotheses based on experiences and previous knowledge which we then corroborated with theories.

Detta projekt är resultatet av ett examensarbete från en Civilingenjör i Teknisk Design med inriktningen Produktutveckling vid Luleå Tekniska Universitet. Projektet har utförts i samarbete med Nordic Sport AB och handlar om att utveckla nya vagnar för kastgrenarna inom friidrotten; spjut, kula, diskus och slägga.De tänkta kundernas behov av funktion och estetiska krav undersöktes genom informationsinsamlig i form av marknadsundersökningar, konkurrentanalyser, enkäter och intervjuer med företaget. Med hjälp av den insamlade informationen sammanställdes en kravspecifikation som stöd under projektets gång.Genom ett systematiskt arbete med problemlösningsmetoder som bland annat brainstorming och en workshop så togs en stor mängd dellösningar fram som kunde uppfylla de krav och önskemål som ställdes på de nya vagnarna. Utifrån dessa dellösningar konstruerades en helhetslösning utifrån viktningar som sedan låg till grund för konceptgenereringen.Designen på vagnarna togs fram genom diskussioner med Nordic Sport och en 3D-modell skapades, denna modell utvecklades sedan vidare i samspråk med Nordic Sport för att få fram ett slutgiltigt koncept.Resultatet blev en materialvagn, uppbyggt i ett modulsystem, som med små förändringar passar till alla fyra materialen som ska transporteras. Färgen och formen följer Nordic Sports nuvarande sortiment och deras varumärke nordicsport.com.Då vagnen har ett mycket modernare utseende och stora förbättringar kring användbarhet och ergonomi jämte konkurrenterna så kan Nordic Sport behålla sitt anseende som leverantör av kvalitetsprodukter och ta ännu fler marknadsandelar..

This paper discusses whether the main argument for European countries to stay out of the euro, i.e. the loss in stability from not having a national monetary policy that can be used for stabilization purposes, is still valid ten years after the introduction of the single currency. We analyse the stabilization performances of four largely comparable Nordic countries that have all chosen different levels of European economic integration. In retrospect, the so-called ?stabilization policy argument? seems surprisingly weak.

The objective of this thesis was to investigate how young adults view their own employabilityand to see if there was a connection between their view and their social background. Themethod used in the thesis is qualitative with a hermeneutic approach. The interviews includedwere of semi-structured kind. The main result is that respondents in the thesis expressed similarviews on their perceived employability regarding commitment and energy at work, networkingand contacts and job discrimination but there were some distinctions noted regardingtheir view on education and working life experience. The respondents from working classbackgrounds tended to focus more on education than the respondents from middle class/uppermiddle class backgrounds.

This paper is an assessment of whether the Nordic countries constitute an optimum currency area (OCA) or not. Hodrick Prescott-­?filtered data of real Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and rate of employment are used to investigate the similarity of business cycles between the target countries through a series of correlation analysis with Sweden as the base reference country and also by using a linear regression model. Additionally there is an evaluation of trade volume and labour mobility between the countries. Our results indicate that Iceland had the least similar business cycles within the Nordic countries and that the area should therefore possibly comprise Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden. .

This essay is about two areas called Hackås and Myrviken, situated in the middle of Sweden around the lake Storsjön. In Hackås we can see traces after an early agrarian settlement, and in Myrviken we find Jämtlands largest concentration of ironmaking sites from around 400 AD. There are no clear evidence of the agrarian settlement in Myrviken, and only two ironmaking sites in Hackås. These two economies functioned at the same time, but were clearly separated. My purpose is to discuss if it was the farmers of Hackås who made iron in Myrviken, or if it was somebody else..