Purpose: The purpose of this thesis is to investigate whether abnormal stock returns could be identified as a result of a layoff announcement during weak economy.Method: An event study methodology.Theory: Efficient market hypothesis, signal theory.Empirical results: Quantitative data from observations of stock prices in thirty two companies listed on the Nasdaq OMX Stockholm, in the period 2008 -2012.Conclusion: The results indicate that the market reaction was negative because there were negative abnormal returns on the Stockholm Stock Exchange during the period 2008-2012 in connection with the layoff announcements. The market reaction was milder when staff reductions were carried out as a result of a restructuring and stronger when staff reductions were carried out as part of a cost reduction program.The layoff announcements elicited different market reactions depending on the company's industry affiliation. The most negative reaction was in the Healthcare industry. Negative abnormal returns were lower in industries Industrials, Consumer Services and Consumer Goods. There were no abnormal returns for shares of companies in the industry Financials.

Positive action is measures that usually constitute discrimination but which are justified when achieving the purpose of an effective equality between people of the society. Positive action regarding gender is regulated in primary law, secondary law and case law of the EU whereas positive action regarding other discrimination groups is regulated in secondary law and negligible regulated in case law.There is a boundary between positive action and discrimination. Primary law gives little guidance on determine that boundary. Secondary law provides more advanced guidelines of how to determining were the boundary is.When determining were the boundaries lays between positive action and discrimination the guidelines given by the European court of justice in case law can be used. The majority of these guidelines are focused on positive action regarding gender.

Studies among parents of children with disabilities have shown that they experience a higher level of parenting stress as well as a lower degree of wellbeing, compared to parents of children without disabilities. However, there is a need to further explore parents? experience on this matter within a Swedish context. The aim of the current study was to examine how parents of preschool children, with and without disabilities, in Västerbotten, experience the impact of their child. A sample of 67 parents of children with disabilities and 134 parents of children without disabilities took part in the questionnaire study.

The number of HIV- positive is increasing all over the world and it's very likely to meet these patients as a nurse. The interaction between the nurse and the patient is characterized by experience and knowledge and at the same time the nurse is expected to act professionally. The purpose of this literature review is to investigate the nurse's complex of problems regarding the treatment of the HIV- positive patient by exploring the attitudes against HIV among nurses and how the nurse can maintain the integrity of the HIV- positive patient. Antonovsky's salutoqenic model, sense of coherence, has been used as theoretical frame. From 14 articles five topics have been found that influence the nurse's attitudes against HIV-positive patients.

 ABSTRACT  Nature of essay:                C-level, 15 pointsPage count:                        47Title:                                   The last way out?-A qualitative study of psychiatric staff and service users attitude to electroconvulsive therapy (ECT).Author:                              Hanna Nilsson Purpose: The purpose of this study is to investigate attitudes to electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) of professionals and service users within a user organization ? Riksförbundet för social och mental hälsa. (RSMH)Questions: Does the psychiatric staff believe that there are preconceptions about electroconvulsive therapy? What motivates service user?s choice of electroconvulsive therapy? Do the psychiatric staff and the service users think that the positive effects of ECT can outweigh the possible negative side effects?Method: Qualitative study. The study is based on interviews with psychiatric staffthat works with electroconvulsive therapy (ECT), and with services users who have received electroconvulsive therapy (ECT).Results: The result showed that the psychiatric staff feels that preconceived ideas occur about the treatment of ECT, and that it is affecting their approach to work.Service users motivate their choice by how bad they felt under the depression, and that ECT was their only choice left, that´s why psychiatric staff suggested the treatment.The positive effects of ECT outweighed the possible negative side effects because life is something you value higher than any memory loss and when there is currently no treatment having a similar efficiency.Keywords: Electroconvulsive therapy, Attitudes, Side effects, Experience, Patients, Professionals.

A challenge faced by marketers is to make their products stand out in today's cluttered marketplace. Recently, a new approach to attract attention has been observed - brands communicating their products by making fun of other brands. This way of parodying a competitor, or even an unrelated brand, is a risky but potentially effective way to increase attention. Brand parodies walk a fine line between being humorous and clever, or coming off as offensive. Furthermore, parodying another trademark poses legal considerations.

Human-animal interaction is suggested to be a main feature within livestock production. The quality of handling, for instance, appears to be greatly depending on the attitudes and behaviour of the stock people. Various studies have been conducted on relationships between human and animals, but few have looked upon differences in human-animal interaction and attitudes between countries. Two countries often discussed in livestock production are The Netherlands and Sweden. It would be of interest to compare these two countries to find out whether (assumed) differences are reflected in the attitudes between animal handlers.

Objective: The study will investigate whether cash liquidity have a negative affect on profitability and share value of companies, listed on Nasdaq OMX Stockholm 2008-2011. Part of the purpose is also to show if the industry risk is of importance for treasury management of these companies.Method: The methodology for the study is key analysis through hypothesis testing and regression analysisConclusion: The liquidity ratio affects profitability in a negative direction on the entire sample. No other conclusion can be drawn..

Background: Today, the tourism sector is one of the economically fastest growing sectors in the world. Volunteer travel is a type of service that is gaining in popularity and a number of tour operators organize these trips. Few aid agencies engaged in volunteer activities and therefore the interest in volunteer travel is caught by tour operators. These tourists travel in small groups and interact with locals. Today fifty million children in Africa are orphaned and Africans struggling with the care of these children by founding orphanages.Research questions:What does volunteers contribute with during their stay at orpahanges?What view does volunteers and orphanages have on volunteer tourism?Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to examine the positive and the negative effects that volunteer tourism contributes to orphanages.Method: The study is based on a qualitative approach with semi-and unstructured interviews, observations, and email interviews.

The purpose of this essay is to examine the importance of personal election for candidates of foreign background. I made this, first, by map and comparing the candidates of foreign background in the recent Swedish and Finnish parliamentary election. Second, I analyze what conceptions candidates of foreign background, who was nominated in the 2006 municipal election in Örebro, have about the personal election. The result from the first study shows that personal election had a negative impact on candidates of foreign background in both the Swedish and Finnish parliamentary elections. The result from the second study shows that candidates of foreign background have both positive and negative conceptions about the personal election.

The purpose of this qualitative interview study was to examine which approach experienced pre-school teachers have on children that seek negative attention. The study contains five informants in a city in the middle of Sweden and they all have at least 10 years of experience after their diploma from a pre-school teachers? program. The questions I aimed to answer were the following: How did the pre-school teachers define the expression ?negative attention?? What approach did they have on children that seek negative attention? What effects do the childrens? seeking of negative attention generate on their self-esteem and sense of security? How possible do the pre-school teachers feel it is to achieve the goals of the pre-schools? curricula that every child should get their needs respected and met, when they work with children that seek negative attention? The results showed that the teachers think of them as resources in the group and that they need to think of the environment around these children both at home and at the pre-school to better meet their needs.

Purpose: The main objective of this study is to research whether an announcement of an acquisition generates positive/negative abnormal short-term return towards the buying company?s shareholders. The secondary purpose is to research whether any differences could be due to selected factors: firm size and industry.Method: The study is quantitative in nature where the research aims at the stock price movement around the announcement of an acquisition. The sample size includes 30 companies between the years 2000-2010. The abnormal return is investigated by an Event Study.Conclusion: Our study shows that the publication gives a positive abnormal return in comparison to the respective sector indexes.

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 purpose of this article is to examine how social workers may experience fear in their profession, how they and their organizations handle the fear and how the fear may affect their practice. To obtain the purpose, in-depth interviews were carried out with seven social workers from the southeastern part of Sweden. The experiences of fear were many and are summarized in four categories. Fear of treats and violence, fear of the responsibility in complicated situations and without optimal solution, fear of being regarded and judged as worthless and fear of being scrutinized with the risk of being stigmatized. Five strategies were identified to handle the fear: Safety strategies (e.g.

Background: Every day patient´s get isolated in hospitals as a consequense of infection control purposes. Physical isolation can result in lack of human contact and a new unknown environment for the patient. Those two factors can easily cause stress within the patient and create anxiety for the future. Aim: The aim of the study was to describe patient´s experience of being nursed in an isolation room. Method: The method that was used was a literature research, where earlier research findings were read and put together.