In today?s business environment, cost-cutting Practices such as downsizing and layoffs remains a widespread phenomenon. Although, the understanding of the effects that these Practices has on the remaining individuals, defined as the survivors, is poor. The focus in this paper is therefore to examine how survivors of layoffs can be affected on an individual level, and by what causes.The study was conducted using open-ended, qualitative interviews with three individuals with different experiences of layoffs. The empirical data was analyzed by extracting quotations from the interviews.The study found that layoffs affected the morale and attitude towards management of the individual, and that perceived justice and uncertainty are two causes of negative effects from layoffs..

Employee turnover can cost an organization a significant amount of money. In addition, retention of employees can beneficial towards to an organization as it e.g. allows to save costs related torecruitment and training of new employees. The fast food industry is recognized as an industry which employs low-skilled employees and is especially in the United States known to be prone to high employee turnover. With regards to Europe, only little information is available in the field of low-skilled employee retention in the fast food industry.

The aim of this study is to point out variations of Practices in the relationship between professionals of service occupations and their clients. The material consists of four openly conducted thematic interviews with male professionals who work in the environment of their clients' homes.The main theoretical approach of this analysisis undertaken with ethnicity in mind.The Practices identified aim to throw light on the boundaries between the differing cultures of professionals and their clients.The analytical termsboundary reduction and boundary maintenanceare used in this research.The two-stage analysis points out different Practicesused, in chronological order, during contact between professionals and their clients. This is followed by a statement of the themes which connect, primarily fromthe professional perspective. The results indicate an intimate connection between intercultural and transcultural aspects through the use of cultural transparancy, which is a strategy connecting different roles, aswell as use of loophole tacticsthat afford the possibility of definingspace, place and relationship.It's illustrated how the professionals operate from "within the structures and worldview" of the client, and this analysis also reveals a glimpse of the potential for cultural changein the meeting between different cultures..

This paper deals with the difficulties of applying user-centered design Practices as an independent developer, based on the visualization of a game concept in the form of a prototype. The aim is to evaluate the usability of user-centered design Practices, specifically in the field of games development. Throughout this paper, I will give an account of the methods used for testing, as well as a review of previous research done in this field of study. Finally, I will end with a discussion regarding the pros and cons of user-centered design, as well as some thoughts about its importance in similar projects..

A new curriculum, entailing news for teachers as well as students, was implemented in 2011. Among other things History has been given a more prominent position in that every student will now study the subject. Can this decision lead to history being used more in the future?The aim of this thesis is to study the new curriculum, Gy11, as well the Lpf94 and Lgy70, based on Klas-Göran Karlsson´s typology where the use of history is divided into seven different categories. I will analyze the curricula, looking at what different uses of history that can be discerned as well as what changes have been made over time.

AbstractInformation and information seeking have always been important parts of society. How behavioural patterns of information seeking manifest themselves are partly due to individual prerequisites and partly due to the practice where the seeking of information is conducted.The aim of this study is to investigate a group of newly examined physicians? experiences of information seeking behaviour in their educational practice and in their professional practice. The two Practices are related to each other but still very different. This makes it interesting to study whether individuals? information seeking behaviour changes when they move from the educational practice to the professional.The theoretical framework for the current study is a socio-cultural one.

A new curriculum, entailing news for teachers as well as students, was implemented in 2011. Among other things History has been given a more prominent position in that every student will now study the subject. Can this decision lead to history being used more in the future?The aim of this thesis is to study the new curriculum, Gy11, as well the Lpf94 and Lgy70, based on Klas-Göran Karlsson´s typology where the use of history is divided into seven different categories. I will analyze the curricula, looking at what different uses of history that can be discerned as well as what changes have been made over time.

Fish-head pendants are one of the characteristic Gotlandic Late Iron Age artefacts. This object has been rather neglected and mainly considered as an insignificant embellishment, normally worn as a neck-collar and seen as an artefact include in the typical Gotlandic set of female jewellery.The fact that the fish-head pendant has a very long life span, which stretches from grave-finds in the Early Vendel Age to hoards in Viking Age as well as secondary usage as brooches in the Early Middle Ages, makes the artefact an excellent starting point for discussions on social Practices and change through material culture. It's shown in this study that, contrary to previous beliefs, the normal usages for fish-head pendants is as solitary pendants and not as neck-collars. Neck-collars is shown to have an intricate relation to inhumations for young individuals, whereas solitary pendants are found in cremation deposits for adult individuals, something that relates to a fixed social practice mainly in the period 700-900 AD and that develops from the cremation funeral practice. This particular social practice relates to aspects of attraction and protection and continues in to the 10th century outside of funeral structures, which is shown by the composition of hoard-finds from the 10th century, but is totally absent when the pendants is given a secondary usage as brooches in the end of the 11th and beginning of the 12th century.

During a major part of modernity the concept of identity was something that in many ways was predetermined for the individual. People in general remained in the same social spheres as the generations before, shared common religions and beliefs and where more or less bound to a geographic area. Identity and lifestyle was something that was adapted quite unreflected from habit and tradition. Though, during the cultural modernisation process that took place in the twentieth century, previous shared patterns of interpretation vanished and became individual.  Finding references, constructing an identity and establishing a self became individual.

The purpose of this study is to examine how employees in an organization using flexible work Practices, experience that passive face time influences the evaluated of them. Further, the study aims to understand to what extent that perception of passive face time motivates the employees to spend more time at the office than is necessary for their work situations. The study concludes that employees in general perceive that passive face time does influence how they are evaluated and that this perception motivates employees that are relatively newly employed by the company to spend more time at office..

In the history of scientific visualization techniques there is a lack of social science Practices and methodologies. The advent of modern computer graphics brought the use of visualizations into a whole new era, but even though the tools by which such modern visualizations are created become easier to access and use, the lack of social science researchers harvesting the benefits of such tools still remain. This ease of use, increase in power and accessibility plus the ever growing need within the natural sciences to augment the human senses has further complicated the relationship between scientific methodologies, validity, reliability and the use of visualization techniques. This relationship must be explored, demystified and understood in order to fully grasp the impact of visualization Practices when incorporated into any given scientific method. Within the social sciences there is one example of a tradition that has since its conception carried within it a graphical notion and a visualization practice.

A survey was undertaken to understand sheep management, breeding Practices and selection criteria for Red Maasai sheep in Maasai pastoralist communities in Kajiado District, Kenya. Differences between North and South Kajiado District were investigated to gain knowledge about farmers having different prerequisites and how it can affect the sheep production. The reason for keeping sheep and the specific breeds show the multiple objectives of the Maasai farmers. Adaptive traits, such as resistance to diseases and droughts, and productive traits, such as increased growth and carcass weight, were both ranked highly. In addition to this, the sheep has a social and traditional value in Maasai culture.

The aim of this master thesis is to examine information seeking andinformation use among high school pupils in two Norwegian highschools. The main research question focuses on different kinds ofinteraction or lack of interaction in the pupils? information seeking andinformation use.The theoretical framework of the thesis is based on a socioculturalperspective which allows for a specific focus of various forms ofinteraction. I investigate interaction in relation to concepts such associal Practices, previous experiences and meaning making. Theempirical material consists of data from a large scale questionnaire (n=217) and in-depth interviews with six pupils.The results show that these pupils are used to interact with digital tools.The pupils trust printed sources more than digital ones, but at the sametime they prefer digital sources since these are easier to handle, it isquicker to locate information and this is easier to understand.

The purpose of this study is to examine web-based recruitment to short term summer jobs at the SocialServices Department in Luleå municipality in Sweden. Recruitment goals, selection options on therecruitment homepage Offentliga Jobb and recruitment Practices were analysed in order to reach a deeperunderstanding of the interactions between these three levels in the selection process. Pre-selection throughOffentliga Jobb was a special concern of the study. Different consciousness levels in the selection process areemphasised according to Anthony Giddens' structuration theory. Ten recruiters from different parts of thedepartment were interviewed.

Collaboration is a form of organization on the rise in Sweden. For health care, it is ofinterest to collaborate with industry to ensure that needs for specialist education andtraining are met and that products developed meet the relevant requirements.Conversely, industry actors have an interest to have a close collaboration with healthcare in order to gain insight into customer needs, provide information about theirproducts and to test products in development.The starting point of this study is an agreement and regulatory framework for formsof collaboration between public health care in Sweden in general and thepharmaceutical industry, the medical device industry and the laboratory technologyindustry. The research questions concerns how this agreement has evolved and theprocess surrounding its emergence may contribute to knowledge about collaborationas a form of organization and the relationship to concepts such as legitimacy,corruption and institutional theory.By tracking the emergence of the current regulatory framework genealogicalthroughout history, the study uncovers how the agreements have played a role in andcontributed to the legitimization and institutionalization of collaboration Practices andhow crises have changed the shape of the Practices. A theoretical treatment ofrelevant concepts such as legitimacy, institutionalization of Practices, corruption andstigmatization of organizations form the basis for an interpretation and analysis of theprocess.The conclusions of the examination of the historical process that led to the currentagreements contribute to empirical knowledge of how crises and stigma affect thelegitimacy of collaboration Practices and how the repair of legitimacy can be donesuccessfully after a crisis. The treatment of the empirical material is also a historicalsource for the development of ethics agreements between public health care andpharmaceutical industry and the medical industry in Sweden..