In 2007 a project began in the Uppsala region, which aimed to help municipalities implement BBIC (Barns behov i centrum). BBIC is a system that helps social workers increase children?s participation in investigations relating to social work. This study follows up on BBIC?s implementation process in Enköping, a municipality in the Uppsala region.

The purpose of this essay is to examine how four Swedish retail companies describe their information management in connection to ethical trade. My purpose is also to examine how this information management relates to organizational learning. My questions at issue are ? ?Which activities related to information management in connection to ethical trade is described by the companies?? and ?How can these activities and statements be related to organizational learning?? My method of investigation is to perform qualitative interviews with representatives from the retail companies and relate the results to theories on information management and organizational learning, mainly theories of double-loop- and single-loop learning. The information management literature address issues such as information needs, information sources and information seeking.

A multivariate cross-sectional model is used in this thesis to proxy for expected earnings and to estimate return on equity for 214 companies over the period 2009-2013, using Swedish data. The model, which has never been tested on Swedish data before, is first confirmed to function as a forecasting model for expected return. Furthermore, the model is evaluated through a comparison with two univariate models based on the assumption that return on equity follows a mean reversion process. Forecast accuracy is calculated as the difference of estimated returns and actual returns. The results show that the univariate models' forecasts are superior to the multivariate model's..

This paper describes the development of a simulation model for the ambulance flow in the Västra Götalands-region of Sweden, and an analysis tool for the output of the simulation model. The aim of the simulation model was to be able to evaluate the outcome from changes in the ambulance operations, such as a reorganization of ambulances or an increase in intensity of the ambulance calls. This evaluation is meant to serve as decision support for the strategic planning of the ambulance operations. The analysis tool was developed to visualize the abundant geographical data produced by the simulation model in a meaningful way. The simulation model was validated against historical data which showed that the dispatch time for the highest prioritized ambulance calls corresponds well with historical data.

The reindeer planning system (Renbruksplanen, RBP) is a communication and planning tool designed for Sami groups. A key purpose of this is that it will act as a tool in consultation with other market players, including forestry. Sami groups have asked for a model of how this can be used in a flexible manner. With the Swedish Forest Agency as a project manager, a communication model for how to use the RBP has been designed. It consists of a number of points divided into ?before?, ?during? and ?after? the consultation.

In 2009, the Swedish Basketball Federation started a Region U15 development project in order to change the structure of the regional organization to get into a more transparent and similar operations throughout the country. My purpose is to study the attitudes to the change among the region leaders in the regional operations and evaluate the change from an organizational perspective. The study is primarily based on the following questions: What are the experiences of the change process among the region leaders in the regional organization? How involved have region leaders been in the changing process? Which are the positive and negative aspects with the regional operation today? What can be done further to develop the regional operation and to what extent do the organizational change follow general organizational theories? In my study, a qualitative method was used in terms of interviews with 8 regional leaders to understand their attitude to the project and the changing process. To analyze the results of the region leaders ?responses, a transcription have been made.

The purpose of this study is to search and analyze different logics that operators use in the work of helping juvenile delinquents to break their criminal behavior. New institutional theory is used in this study to analyze the results. The study was conducted through qualitative interviews of six professionals in two municipalities which work with juvenile delinquency. There are two questions that we want to address in this study. The first one is what methods the social workers are using in two middle large municipalities to help youth to brake there criminal behavior.

The aim of this Master?s thesis is to examine how gender is described in some of the most popular children?s picture books in year 2007 and 2008. The theory used is based on Berger?s and Luckmann?s theory about Social construction, Bjerrum Nielsen?s and Rudberg?s theory about Gender socialization, Gens? theory How girls becomes women and boys becomes men and Hirdman?s theory about Gender contracts. The method used is an analysis of ideal types.

Following study is about the anorexic behavior and the pro-ana movement, which is a web-based subculture where the followers of this, stands for anorexia as an identity position and lifestyle, rather than a disease. The purpose of this study was that, from a sociological perspective give possible interpretations of the anorexic behavior, and interpret why some anorexics choose to be a part of and identify oneself with the pro-ana movement. The reason has been to conduce more knowledge and understanding of the topics, but also to contribute with a deeper perspective and sociological approach to the former research that is already available.To conduct the study, qualitative research has been used, and the chosen methodology was document analysis/text analysis. The collected empirical data consisted material from two pro-ana forums, four blogs and six twitter accounts, where all the users of those claimed to be supporters of the pro-ana. The empirical data has been interpreted by Howard S.

Organizational democracy has been a popular research area in recent decades but the implementation in real organizations is slow (Kokkinidis, 2012; Verdorfer, Weber, Unter Rainer & Seyr, 2013). Several researchers (Schön Jansson, 2012; Falkheimer, Heide & Johansson, 2013) argue that communication practitioners have a key role in democratic processes and that because their job role is under constant change there are only a few modern studies regarding the subject. The purpose of this study is to illustrate how communication practitioners in private and public organizations experience their role in the process of internal communication and to what extent they are aware of, and work with internal organizational democracy.The practitioners we interviewed had a strong feeling that they were a support function for the business and the organizational management. As a result of the study it is clear that communication practitioners are very loyal to their employers and to the organization they work for. They are, therefore, not neutral in their professional role and argue that their task is to represent the management's interests.

As a result of globalization, multinational teams are being more frequently used in today´s businesses. This specific type of team can be described as heterogeneous when it comes to nationality and linguistics. The aim of this study was to explore the concept of multinational teams. This was made using culture as a main concept, and nationality, linguistics, and organizational culture in order to describe it. We intended to say something about how this type of team´s efficiency; when it comes to satisfaction and performance; was affected by national and linguistic heterogeneity within the team.

How effective is consumer power? Can consumers regulate corporate behavior?And if so is the case, could the mechanisms where consumers regulate corporatebehavior have any democratic value to contribute with? These are the questionsthat this master's thesis comprehends with. The purpose of this writing is toconstruct a theory of consumer power that is compatible with democratic theory,this in order to contribute to the ongoing discussion within the discipline ofpolitical science about the third democratic transformation. A discussion that hasbeen actualized due to the democratic deficit created by the growing corporatepower and the shift of power from state to private enterprises. Besides showingfor a parallel between the democratic mechanisms that exists in the relationbetween citizens and state on the one hand, and the consumers and corporationson the other hand, this paper argues that consumers do have a great potential inregulating corporate behavior towards a higher social responsibility andawareness.

This paper describes the development of a simulation model for the ambulance flow in the Västra Götalands-region of Sweden, and an analysis tool for the output of the simulation model. The aim of the simulation model was to be able to evaluate the outcome from changes in the ambulance operations, such as a reorganization of ambulances or an increase in intensity of the ambulance calls. This evaluation is meant to serve as decision support for the strategic planning of the ambulance operations. The analysis tool was developed to visualize the abundant geographical data produced by the simulation model in a meaningful way. The simulation model was validated against historical data which showed that the dispatch time for the highest prioritized ambulance calls corresponds well with historical data.

The purposeof this study was to investigate whether preschool staff who participated in a previous health project retains the good behavior change, and to explore their perceived barriers and opportunities for this. The study was conducted on a "feel good" preschool and the selected population was preschool teachers and/or child minders. The selected method was qualitative, descriptive, and through the interviews the respondents got questions about their behavior changes and their experiences of this. The result of the survey showed that nearly all of the participants in the study had maintained the good behavior changes and most of them had implemented them in their lives. The obstacles that individuals perceived were mainly time constraints and the opportunities they saw were planning, motivation and positive experience.

This thesis is examining if the management, the managers and the employees have a differentpoint of view regarding the purpose and the expectations of a performance review. Additionally it is an assignment from the Swedish company Flexlink AB with the purpose of constructing a new template for their performance reviews. The assumption is that if you manage to create one template for performance reviews that meets the expectations at all levels of the organization, it will contribute to create a meaningful performance review.We decided to study this from an organizational cultural perspective, since the organizational culture plays a significant part in performance reviews. Performance reviews are systematic conversations between employees and managers related to planning, information exchange and developing the relationship. Previous research indicates that if employees are satisfied with their performance reviews, they prone to be more satisfied with their work situation and have a higher organizational commitment.