Quality Assurance in Service Procurement --- Total Quality and Total Quality Management refer to popular management philosophies in organizations these days. The purchasing department has an important part in the strive for organizational quality as several studies show corporate spend is significant and increasing. In this master thesis I study the actions companies take to ensure quality in service procurement. I argue that managing quality when sourcing services is particularly tricky, because of the special characteristics that belong to services. The purpose of the study is to examine whether different actions are taken to ensure the quality of different kinds of services.

Denna uppsats tar sin utgångspunkt i intervjuer med fem ungdomar som besöker en fritidsgård. Syftet är att få en uppfattning om vilka konsekvenser Jürgen Habermas teori om det kommunikativa handlandet kan ha för fritidsgårdens verksamhet i förhållande till fritidsledarens arbete som pedagog.Författaren har metodologiskt utgått från de intervjuer som analyserats med en meningskonstitutionsanalys. De teoretiska perspektiven som presenteras utgår från Jürgen Habermas och det kommunikativa handlandet, samt Edmund Husserl och fenomenologin. Ett viktigt teoretiskt begrepp som diskuteras är begreppet livsvärld som både Husserl och Habermas talar om.Resultatet som presenteras i uppsatsen har i diskussionen, först och främst, delats in i punkterna livsvärldsarenan, livsvärldspedagogen och livskunskapen. Resultaten synliggör fritidsgården som en livsvärldsarena, där lärande leder fram till vad författaren kallar livskunskap.

Mot bakgrund av den ökade rörlighet som idag kan skönjas på arbetsmarknaden och de följder det får i form av tillfälliga behov att hyra in personal syftar föreliggande uppsats att ge svar på frågan om vilka organisatoriska konsekvenser integrationen av inhyrd personal kan få för kompetens och lärande.Centrala är frågorna om hur inhyrd personal integreras med organisationen, hur individens kompetens tas tillvara och hur möjligheterna till lärande ser ut. För att uppnå syftet genomfördes intervjuer med låg grad av standardisering och strukturering mot bakgrund av kvalitativa och induktiva utgångspunkter.Resultatet visade att i de fall integrationen av inhyrd personal leder till att konstruktiva relationer skapas och att man bibehåller en nödvändig stabilitet i dessa relationer kan det ge konstruktiva följder i form av att kompetens bärs, upprätthålls och utvecklas mellan individer och grupper. Detta kräver att organisationen skapar förutsättningar för ett sådant samspel och att den organiserar för lärande annars riskerar arbetsplatsens relationik att slitas sönder vilket kan ledat till att lärprocesser och individuell konstruktion av kompetens utarmas..

As artificial intelligence (AI) has gained more influence in recruitment, both recruitment processes and the role of the recruiter are changing. This study aims to describe and analyze how recruiters translate, use, and relate to AI in their work. Through a qualitative method based on semi-structured interviews and document analysis, the study explores recruiters? experiences, attitudes, as well as perceived obstacles and opportunities regarding the use of AI in recruitment. With a theoretical foundation in translation theory, fashion, and imitation, the study examines how AI is not only followed as a trend, but also shaped and adapted locally through translation, depending on organizational identity and needs.

This essay is about power, democracy, solidarity and equality in preschool. I examine three different situations to determine if I could have acted more sensibly in my interactions with the children. I portray: a ?children?s choice meeting? where children select an activity, a so-called emotional gathering and a dialogue at the lunch table about a popular movie that we plan to watch together afterwards. The purpose of this essay is to examine which norms and values form the basis of my actions, and if so, how these lead me to use my power to shape the children.I have chosen to use hermeneutic and norm-critical perspectives where I investigate and examine my norms and values and how I react and act, both consciously and unconsciously.

It exists today a widespread interest for employee satisfaction, much effort are used in companies to achieve job satisfaction within their employees. One theory that has received a great deal of publicity is Hackman & Oldhams Job characteristics model which addresses the question of how companies can provide job satisfaction through organizational change. The foundation of the theory is that five core job characteristics are responsible for creating job satisfaction. The purpose of this paper is to study these characteristics through the employees and their boss and to determine how they believe these characteristics to affect employee satisfaction. The paper focuses on a company located in a branch widely known for low employee satisfaction.

Graphic profiles are a part of companies? brand expressions. The graphical values reflect the brand values the business wants to convey. They consist of different graphic elements such as logo, company sign, colour schemes, templates, rules, fonts, pictograms, formats and references to how different graphic elements should look, for example, business cards, signs and materials for websites. This thesis aims to examine why firms choose to replace their graphic profiles by studying their underlying motivations.

The purpose of this study is to find out what preschool teachers think about antisocial children's literature. Based on five qualitative interviews with teachers at a preschool that works with a standard critical approach. In order to fulfill my purpose with this study, I focused on how these teachers felt that it was important to use the standard critical children's literature in preschool. I wanted to find out what the teachers' thoughts were on the concept of standard critical children's literature and how and whether they use it in their daily activities. When I analyzed the results of my interviews I used the queer theories that include standard critical pedagogy and literature in preschool.

This essay is a case study of how two non-profit organizations, in the same line of business work with external communication and new media such as Internet and social media (Facebook and Twitter).Both these organizations are located in different countries and the purpose of the case study is also to find out if the differences in their work methods in communication depend on organizational or cultural differences. The case study was conducted in the organizations Sverige Amerika Centret in Karlstad, Sweden and The Swedish Council of America in Minneapolis, US. A qualitative approach executed through interviews and a qualitative content analysis of the organizations annual report from 2010. The result of the interviews and the document content analysis shows that there are differences in the way these organizations handle their work with external communications and new media. One of the organizations uses new media more actively in their work with communication and through that channel creates a relationship with its external audiences. The theories that has been used for this case study is Organization communication, Intercultural communication, Public Relations and Organization culture. Keywords: external communication, new media, culture and employees..

I mitten av 1990-talet ersattes den svenska skolans direktiv om hur undervisningen skulle gå till med en beskrivning av vilka resultat och mål som skulle uppnås.Syftet med denna uppsats var att öka förståelsen för hur några lärare upplevde hur skolarbetet hade påverkats av att den svenska barn- och ungdomsskolan övergått från att vara regelstyrd till att vara målstyrd. Sex lärare med lång erfarenhet intervjuades. De timslånga intervjuerna spelades in på band och transkriberades sedan. Resultaten från dessa intervjuer analyseras sedan hermeneutiskt utifrån Webers rationalitetsteori och Foucaults maktbegrepp regementalitet.Lärarna tyckte inte att målstyrningen hade lett till en effektivare skola där eleverna lär sig mer. Lärarna trodde inte heller att lärandet hade blivit mer lustfyllt, att skolarbetet blivit roligare för eleverna.

AbstractThe purpose of this essay is to investigate the views Swedish elementary school teachers produce on the subject of ethics. The teachers? thoughts on selection among ethical notions is described and also how these notions are assessed. The essay proceeds from the central content and the knowledge requirement in the syllabus of religious knowledge.The empirical survey is based on qualitative scientific interviews with four teachers employed in grades 4-6 at different schools.The teachers find ethics in its current state of the syllabus hard to define and they find encounters with parents and pupils difficult in their tasks. The selection of ethics is decided by previously planned basic values education or from conflicts erupting during schools hours.

The profit a company makes is dependant of its employees which means that their competence is important for the company to perform well. The middle manager has a central position in the organization and is expected to take on different roles. This probably puts a lot of demands on the middle managers and their competence. We want to contribute with a comprehension of how learning, competence and needs for competence can look at a middle management level. Furthermore we also want to find out what kind of strategy for competence development the middle managers want the company to use so their competence development can be facilitated.

"Empowerment" är ett omskrivet fenomen som utlovar många positiva effekter som motivation, ökat initiativtagande, ansvar, kreativitet, lärande, arbetsoptimism samt självförtroende för att klara sina arbetsuppgifter. "Empowerment" främjar organisationer genom att minska rädsla för förändringar samt underlättar samarbete, under förutsättning att "empowerment" används effektivt. "Empowerment" har dock även enligt litteraturen sidoeffekter. Denna uppsats ämnar ge inblick i hur "empowerment" kan fungera i en organisation. Min frågeställning är hur "empowerment" kan fungera ute i organisationer för att dra lärdom av både vad som är positiv och negativt.

During 2004 to 2008, The United States Marine Corps (USMC) executed counterinsurgency operations in Anbar Province with the purpose to stabilize one of the most violent areas in Iraq. The Marine Corps successfully managed to suppress the insurgency as violence dropped dramatically in late 2007. What did the marines do in order to suppress the insurgency? Why did violence drop in the province? The Marine Corps approach and procedures have been examined earlier through theories of organizational learning and adaptation. However, there is an absence of studies aiming to analyse the Marine Corps? counterinsurgency approach through the analytical lens of counterinsurgency theory.

Studien syftar till att få en insyn i hur två grundskolor i västra Sverige väljer att hantera ämnet musik. För att undersöka detta har fyra kvalitativa intervjuer med en musiklärare och en rektor på vardera skola genomförts. Studien utgår från teorier som handlar om de kulturella förändringarna i skolan och hur skolan styrs politiskt. I resultatet visas lärarnas och rektorernas syn på hur musikämnet kan legitimeras; hur de tycker att ämnets status är på skolan och hur de organisatoriska och ekonomiska villkoren ser ut för ämnet. Musikämnet legitimeras bland annat utifrån dess betydande roll för hela skolans sammanhållning och att ämnet kan ha en terapeutisk funktion och stärka elevernas självkänsla.