This qualitative study involves the implementation of Lean and Kaizen methods in a Swedish service industry. Lean philosophy is based on a method to achieve more with less. In practical terms this means that the use of an organization's resources is improved. The origin of Lean is the Toyota Production System. Now, Kaizen methods give managers and employees a better more efficient system to reach their goals within the organization or company.

In this essay I consider a self-experienced dilemma, and review how I, as a preschool teacher, treat a child with special needs. With the support of literature and theory, I can, with an essay writing approach, reflect and analyze the dilemma. In this way I will examine my practical knowledge and personal experiences of a complex situation. I want to examine whether children with special needs who are included in regular preschool activities, really get the support they need and deserve. Do educators have the conditions and does preschool have sufficient resources to realize this? Do educators have sufficient knowledge of how children with special needs should be responded to? I want to find out how the included children's social development and self-image is shaped by the treatment they receive at the preschool.

Background: Employees acting towards company goals and having a strong desire to remain in the organisation are very important for the success of a company. In order to generate such organisational commitment of the employees, the knowledge about what motivates and satisfies them is essential. Purpose: The purpose of this thesis is to investigate and analyse the factors which motivate employees, under consideration of individual characteristics. Limitation: Age, gender, marital status, work area, position and the years a person has been working in the company represent the individual characteristics examined in this study. Realisation: Literature research as well as a practical survey consisting of mail questionnaires and personal interviews were carried out in order to best serve the purpose of this thesis.

The purpose of this thesis is to compare mass digitization and qualitative digitization, to see how the digitization process and the digitalized material differ. The study emanates from the mass digitization as it is performed at the National Library in Norway, and the qualitative digitization at the Royal Library in Sweden. The method used is document studies combined with mail interviews. The focus is upon the practical operation, to which counts: ?purpose & selection?, ?preparation, image capturing and processing?, ?metadata & text encoding?, ?quality assessment?, ?storage of digital originals and copies? and ?display?.

The study aims to examine some teachers' and students' conceptions of drama in schools and in after-school centers. ?Educator? in this study refers to after-school leaders and drama teachers.  The study is limited to three educators and three students at a public school in the Stockholm area. This study considers the following questions: How do educators use drama in schools and in after-school centers? How do students perceive drama in schools and in after-school centers? What importance do educators think that drama has for students?The study draws on the socio-cultural theory on teamwork and social interaction.

This master thesis has been carried out on behalf of Stoneridge Electronics AB and is an investigation ofhow intelligent switches can replace the traditionally used direct controlled switches. The concept ofintelligent switches is that the switches contain electronic identification components which, by connectingthem to a network, give the same function independent of the location of the switch. This infers anincreased flexibility and configurability which can be a great advantage in development, production andcustomization in the commercial vehicle industry. Especially in the current situation when commercialvehicle manufacturers provides more and more functions and dashboard configurations.LIN (Local Interconnect Network) is a network protocol introduced in 1999. It is a simpler and lower costcomplement to CAN (Controller Area Network) and is adapted for applications where the demands forbandwidth are lower, for example reading sensors and switchers.

In the spring of 2006 a pilot project was initiated by The Rural Economy and Agricultural Societies of Sweden together with The Swedish Ornithological Society in order to increase collaboration between bird watchers and farmers. The project as a whole comprised 11 farms in South-Central Sweden. The aim was to benefit the decreasing populations of bird species related to the agricultural landscape. The purpose of this master thesis was to study how similarities and differences between bird watchers and farmers regarding opinions about nature, landscape, agriculture, birds and nature conservation have influenced the collaboration. Four of the farmers and five of the bird watchers that participated in the project were included in this study.

In this degree project a study of the importance of a graphic identity to companies has been done. A questionnaire among small companies in Dalarna has beenmade. From this, three sets of graphic profile-program have been formed andthese are suitable for new companies. Finally a practical application has been made on Greenfield in Mora, a graphic profile has been designed.To cause an identity is to prove that someone or something exists by individualizingand distinguish. Every individual or company has its qualities or charasteristics.The way to a desirable identity is going by a corporate identity-program that containsthe companies strategies, people, products, buildings, trademarks, graphic design.

Syftet med denna studie var att få en insikt i och kunskaper om vad som gömmer sig bakom uttalanden som att man måste ha en blick och en fallenhet för det. I studien har två manliga lastbilsförare med lång erfarenhet av lastbilsföraryrket intervjuats om deras sätt att se på vilka kunskaper som behövs för att ses som en kompetent och yrkesskicklig lastbilsförare. Kunskaperna som lastbilsförarna lyfter fram är att ha en blick och en fallenhet för yrket.Studien visade att lastbilsförarna hade svårt att sätta ord på vad de menar med att ha en blick och en fallenhet för yrket. Resultatet i studien visade att det som lastbilsförarna pratar om när det gäller att ha en blick och en fallenhet för yrket bottnar i Aristoteles kunskapsbegrepp techne som ses som färdighetskunskap och fronesis som ses som förtrogenhetskunskap.Inom färdighetskunskapen ryms att ha en fallenhet för något, du har förmågan att utföra en handling. Denna förmåga utvecklas genom övning och erfarenhet, och det går inte att förutsäga hur långt en enskild förmåga kan utvecklas.

The purpose of this study was to examine how teachers conduct their teaching to be language developing, and how they in a practical way work with semi-speaking students who have language deficits in the Swedish language and / or their native language. To carry out this study, I used qualitative interviews as a method and I have interviewed six teachers working at a high school.The school that these teachers work at execute a language developing teaching throughout all the courses in the school. All teachers have a similar idea of what language developing work is, however, how they go about and what is emphasized most in the teaching differs. The reason for this is because these teachers have different experiences with the language developing teaching. These professionals agree that this approach is very important and that all teachers, regardless of subject, should work in a language developing way, in parallel with the rest of their subjects.

The aim of the study was to examine prerequisites for the changes that are taking place within working with Intimate Partner Violence in Va?stra Hisingen (a municipal district in Gothenburg, Sweden). My research questions concerned incentives for the new features, their practical consequences and prerequisites for implementation. The study has been performed by three focus group interviews with different parts of the organization represented. The work material has then been analyzed using Implementation Theory, Human Service Organization Theory and theories on breaking up.

The focus of this thesis is the library at the Swedish school in Berlin, Germany. Being a school in a foreign country, and playing a role also as a public library, the conditions for the library are somewhat unusual. Considering those conditions, how should the library be organised and developed to meet the users' needs in the best way possible? To put the library in Berlin into a greater perspective, the first chapters of the thesis are dedicated to the issue of school libraries in Sweden; their historical development, their importance in the school curriculum and their present situation. Swedish research in the field of school libraries is presented and includes descriptions of theoretical analysing models.

Aim: To examine director?s experiences of the process to implement smoke-free working hours and also their need of support to make it feasible in the municipality of Östhammar. Method: A qualitative interview study with a descriptive design was used. Semi-structured interviews were made with six directors who were selected from different levels, localities and administrations in the municipality of Östhammar. A qualitative content analysis was used to analyze the data.Results: Many positive aspects were pointed out regarding the implementation of smoke-free working hours.

 Why is it that we still live in a society where an individual's social background plays such a big part in their chances of reaching a higher education? Despite the numerous educational policy reforms, especially in Sweden, it still seems that an individual's career choices are pretty much related to what kind of social class they grew up in. Sociologist Pierre Bourdieu claimed that social class is reproduced in the school system, and that students from the lower classes are much less likely to reach a further education than students from the middle or upper classes due to injustice in the school system. One thing that plays a big part in this "Catch-22" situation is the concept that Bourdieu calls habitus. Habitus could be explained as an individual's taste, knowledge, ability to master the spoken language, etc. Your habitus is manifested in the choices you make, the music you listen to, how you dress and the way you speak, and it determines your relation to the education system and life in general. As part of my essay, I wanted to interview students from lower or working class at my school, Konstfack, to see if they have had any negative or positive experiences from their encounter with a higher education. And if so, could they be linked directly to their social background? As a reaction to my own and my interviewees? experiences and frustration, I use the concept of habitus in my practical work.

Syftet med denna semistrukturerade intervjustudie var att jämföra upplevelsen av den skolrelaterade stressen hos flickor på ett teoretiskt program och ett praktiskt program inom den kommunala gymnasieskolan. I studien deltog sex flickor från årskurs 2, tre från var inriktning. Som teoretiska utgångspunkter valdes KASAM-begreppet som en hjälp att förstå synen på stress och dess påverkan på hälsan samt systemteorin och den ekologiska systemteorin som förklarar sambandet mellan lärande och utveckling. Enligt SOU 2006:77 tror majoriteten av svenska gymnasieelever att de som går teoretiska program upplever mer stress än de som går praktiska program. Våra resultat visade att skolmiljön kan vara en källa för betydande stressfulla självförväntningar som påverkar elevers psykiska och fysiska hälsa.