The aim of this Master's thesis is to examine the information use among Swedish backpackers, both prior to departure and while travelling. The questions posed in this study are; which artefacts did the backpackers use, in what way were those used as tools of mediation within their social practice and how does a presumptive interaction between backpackers and information sources appear? The empirical material consists of interviews, held with eight backpackers, concerning their information use. The interviews reveal that a number of information sources are being consulted. The most commonly used sources identified in the empirical material are guide books, advice from other backpackers, fiction, TV programmes and periodicals.

The aim of this study is to describe how a theme about vitamins and analytical chemistry can be planed and implemented in a summer research school managed by AstraZeneca. The description of the theme is intended to be used as an instructor?s guide to upcoming summers-research-schools with the same theme. The students, which participated in the summer school of 2007, went to upper secondary school. During the summer school they were going to investigate the content of vitamin C in different fruits and vegetables.

This study of leadership is comprised of two parts. The first part presented in this study is a theoretical study of leadership and the second part is an empirical study. The empirical study is comprised of six qualitative interviews that examine the perception of leadership among educators working at a school in the inner city.The work is based on the following issues; Do educators think that there is a link between educational work and leadership? Do educators see a link between leadership and goals, and guidelines that are written in Lgr11 and the Education Act? Does the perception of leadership depend on what training the educators have?In this study I use a hermeneutical approach where I try to create an understanding of the interviewees by interpreting their responses, actions and opinions during the interviews.The material gained from the empirical study has been analyzed and interpreted and then related to the theoretical study. The results show that leadership is something that everyone in the school system is in need of whatever their education.

Destination branding is becoming increasingly acknowledged by regions working with tourism. Underlying is the fragmented web of actors in the supply chain of which the tourism product consists of. The main purpose of our thesis was, from a management perspective, to gain an understanding and describing how a network and the actors within it can build a consistent brand. We therefore chose to make a case study research on The Kingdom of Chrystal, or Glasriket, which is one of the most famous tourist destinations in Sweden. Our research is based on theoretical and empirical data.

Issuing convertible bonds for financing purposes has never become widespread practice amongst Swedish companies, in spite of the instrument being common in international markets. Economic theory based on efficient markets suggests that companies should gain no financial benefits from using convertibles and the Swedish situation could be interpreted as in line with this reasoning. However, there are Swedish companies that have chosen to issue convertibles and the Swedish market therefore seems both supportive and contradictory to the existence of benefits of convertible bond financing. Little research concerning the Swedish market has been conducted and the purpose of this explorative thesis is thus to enhance the understanding of the Swedish market for convertibles. This is achieved by conducting in-depth interviews with six listed Swedish companies that have recently issued convertible bonds.

The aim of this essay is to examine three separate Swedish public libraries and their respective websites on the grounds of the usability sciences. I firstly had to summarize the main properties of the usability-field in order to gain an extended knowledge of its purposes and possible usage for today?s library systems. I was then able to apply the extended knowledge in the examination of the three library websites and the purpose of determining whether or not they were designed according to the standards set by the usability-sciences.Usability is a rather new science that deals with the dissection and examination of computer-based systems, in order to find the key components that make systems user-friendlier. With user needs being the main focus of its research, usability tries to meet all the different needs of the modern user and construct systems that are less system-centered and more user-centered.

Cittaslow is an international organization founded in Italy in 1999 by a few towns in Northern Italy, in order to stop the trend of people moving to bigger cities. The aim was to show the advantages of small towns and to strengthen their identities. Falköping is, since the certification in the summer 2008, the first Cittaslow in Sweden. Cittaslow is an international organization founded in Italy in 1999 by a few towns in Northern Italy, in order to stop the trend of people moving to bigger cities. The aim was to show the advantages of small towns and to strengthen their identities.

This is a thesis on D-level. In a previous course, at our program Computer Science, we came up with an idea of how to improve/complement training for new employees who are situated in a stressful workplace at companies who are in a constant need of rehiring. We developed this concept and came up with an idea for a simulator that could train staff as well as relieve stress and tension for new employees. The idea matured and became a Serious Game simulator based on a dual-wield Wii-controlled PC-based simulator with Bluetooth support.The purpose of this paper is to produce a design concept for a simulator as well as conducting research on the topics: mental and physical learning abilities, psychomotor abilities, visual perception, hand-eye coordination, confidence, simulators and Serious Games. The conducted research will be the foundation for the design concept which will be implemented in our co-workers', Henrik Djerf & Daniel Gomez-Ortega, prototype.

During twelve weeks of practice experience at the company Sydved AB, I received the mission to develop a structure for the company?s internal communication. A part of this mission was to find out what the company?s employees thought of Sydveds internal communication and the most important; Sydveds intranet called ?Outlook?. Due to Sydveds plans of developing the intranet I designed and accomplished an inquiry-study to find out about the employee?s opinions on the company´s internal communication and in particular their intranet.The answers I want from this study are if I shaped the inquiry-study correctly the first time.

The purpose of this study is to analyze how special education is done in relation to what is considered "normal". The aim is to discuss how the normalization discourse appears in a pre-school for all and, by extension, how the need of special education is articulated in relation to the normalization discourse. This study also intends to discuss how the perception of what is normal affects special education in pre-schools. The study draws upon previous research within the special education area through which we make our position. Since there is only a few studies in this chosen field which are based on empirical data, our study indicates the importance of more research in this field.

The bulk of the research within the field of media and communication is concentrated at theforefront of development, studies focus on modern companies and modern communication.However, many people work in the industry, where the conditions for communication are partly different. The aim of this study is to explore the possibilities for internal communication that the employees have at the base industrial company of Billerud Gruvön, Sweden. How important do they feel that communication is? Can the internal communication within Gruvön be described as modern, where dialogue between the staff is possible, or as orders from the top down to the bottom of the hierarchal structure?These are our research questions:Which channels are used for communication within Gruvön, and how are they used?How important do the employees deem the internal communication to be?Can the communication within a hierarchal industrial company such as Gruvön be described as modern, where dialogue is at the center, or does the communication consist basically on orders from the top down to the bottom of the chain?Our research is based on the following theories: Communication, Organizational communication, Internal communication and Organizational culture. We have looked to earlier research such as the doctorates of Simonsson (2002) and Johansson (2003) to further our understanding.The methods used are interviews with operators, middle management and the informationofficer at Gruvön.

The purpose of this research was to examine what motivates and influences an individual to invest in a project or company through equity-based crowdfunding. The intention was therefore to identify internal and external motivation factors and examine how external social factors such as the Internet, other individuals? investment decisions and interaction in social groups affect an individual when he or she invests through equity-based crowdfunding. The results showed that both internal and external motivation factors are important components of an investment through equity-based crowdfunding. External motivators proved to be for example yields and helping entrepreneurs.

AimThe aim of this study is to through managers in eldercares deskriptions of the systematic qualityleadingsystem examine the implementation process of this system in the eldercare in the municipality of Halmstad.  BackgroundIn this paper the background explains elderly care and social work context, leadership in change and implementation processes. The theoretical frame illustrates Vedungs implementation theory and Webers model of bureaucracy MethodTo collect empirical data for this study, a qualitative research design was used in which eleven managers within Halmstads municipality home care management stood as respondents. ResultThe respondents highlighted a variety in the use of the systematic quality management system tool. The result describes that several obstacles were experienced in the use of the systematic quality system. ConclusionBased on the descriptions the respondents gives of the implementation process of the systematic quality management of Halmstad municipality home care management, the conclusion can be drawn that the implementation process has not resulted in the employees making use of systematic quality management in practice. The systematic quality management system that will ensure the quality of the care work is thus used to a limited extent..

Abstract______________________________________________________________________Title:A study about creating understanding for different kinds of empowermentLevel:Bachelors thesis in Business Administration, 15 creditsAuthor:Fredrik LegovicSupervisor:Tomas KällquistDate:2014 - JuneAim:The main purpose of this study is to increase the understanding for different kinds of empowerment and how it affects the staff in the public sector.Method:The choice of method was based on the research aim. The method used to meet the objective was qualitative. The qualitative study was conducted with a hermeneutic basis, where individuals were asked to describe their experience of empowerment and how they feel affected of it. This thesis has a deductive approach, where existing theories dealing empowerment formed the basis for the design of interview substrate, which is then paired with the empirical evidence, based on this the conclusions was drawn.Result & Conclusion:What separates the different kinds of empowerment and how it affect the staff depends most of all on how the management chooses to communicate and share information with their staff.Suggestions for future research:A study regarding managers that works with different kinds of empowerment, and how that affects them, could be regarded as an interesting future research.Contribution of thesis:It shows that different kinds of empowerment affect the staff in different ways, which I made clear to the readers.Keywords:empowerment, thinking skills, relations and organizational - structure and theory.

The purpose of this paper is to explore how masculinity and femininity are constructed in the magazine Veckorevyn, through a critical discourse analysis of 18 articles from six issues in 2011. This is done by using a variety of theories and previous research results, which is gender theory, the theory of late-modern society and media theory. The analysis shows that Veckorevyn depicts virility and feminine differently. Furthermore, pointing the results from the analysis that a change of manhood and womanhood takes place in the social practice. The selection of articles from the magazine also shows that Veckorevyn seems to promote gender equality. .