Actors deliberately change their Preferences, contrary to the assumptions of rational decision models. This study shows why, and to some extent how. Preferences are necessarily ambiguous and unstable. Rationality is a regulating myth which has had a profound influence on Western conceptions of what an actor is.The aim of this study is to help individual actors understand the theoretical grounds of their actions. The analysis provides tools for examining decision methods and preference changes.

Music has always been an important form of communication and it can be found in many different contexts including aesthetical, cultural and emotional forms. In the globalized society of today music can be distributed fast through radio, TV, CD: s and the Internet. For many people consumption of music is an important part of the daily life and it can contribute to shape an individual?s attitudes and personality.The main purpose of this study is to find out whether there are any differences between men and women?s musical Preferences. I will apply an explorative approach using qualitative interviews to describe what causes the differences.

The purpose of the present study is to explore differences in the musical opinions and Preferences and the quality of written language between pupils of two age groups (12 and 17 resp). Two classes were chosen, one from each age level. Each class/group was also divided by gender. The pupils asked to write an essay on their musical opinions and Preferences. The essays were analyzed with respect to musical content and linguistic form.

This thesis examines why working time Preferences differ between workers and nations, and explains the effect of working time regulation and working time flexibility on negotiating work-life balance. In five separate sections the following working time issues are examined: the number of hours worked by workers in Europe; factors affecting individual working time Preferences; how working time Preferences are negotiated in the national industrial relations systems of Sweden, France and the United Kingdom; how the institutions of the European Union have influenced working time negotiations through the Working Time Directive; and the benefits and practices available to organisations implementing working time flexibility. Broadly this paper views working time Preferences as being a highly personal and influenced by factors such as wages, taxation, culture (national and workplace) and non-work responsibilities. It is argued that negotiating a preferred working time pattern is essential to achieving work-life balance and when such a balance is achieved, workers are more healthy, motivated and committed to their employer. Essentially this provides an incentive for businesses to voluntarily implement working time flexibility beyond the regulatory standards..

This thesis deals with the supranational organization of European trade unions. The European trade union movement is, via its umbrella organization the ETUC, an institutionalized social partner within the European Union. The ETUC is a very diverse organization with great potential of conflicting interest among its members. This thesis therefore seeks to explore the dynamics and interest heterogeneity of the ETUC. Drawing on previous research and literature it formulates a number of hypothesises to test what variables that influence the member organizations policy Preferences (i.e.

Some theorist, like George Ritzer and Max Weber, claim that everything has its optimal process and that all companies therefore will strive towards standardization. Researchers like Paco Underhill and Pine & Gilmore on the other hand, claim that an increasingly global competition forces businesses to focus more on consumer demands, experiences and differentiation. This thesis challenges these statements with empirical data by looking at shopping malls and their strategies as well as consumer Preferences. It arrives at the conclusion that output is primarily driven by customer demand, and that consumers value a certain part of predictability..

This paper analyses the pricing on spare parts. Empirical studies have showed that manufacturers of durable goods make an unproportional large profit on its spare parts in relation to the revenue it generates. It is first showed that according to the standard economic model the price on spare part ought to be zero since the producer include an insurance in the price of the main good. Further it is showed that moral hazard alone do not explain the pricing found in the studies. Finally an analysis of whether consumers with present-biased Preferences could be a possible explanation is made.

One trend that can be seen in the EU countries is that employees want to exit from the workforce before they turn 60 years. A Dutch study of some EU countries has noticed that an early retirement from labor in many countries is considered as a social right. This has created an ?early exit-culture?. Large early outflows of the labor have created an institutionalization, the right to cease work early.

Titel: Rockmusic Preferences in the rock programme. Popular culture, music Preferences and repertoire inside a teaching institution. This paper raises some questions about the popular music that exists outside as well as inside institutions. From the example of popular music and rockmusic the students of a music teacher education programme based on rock music are asked for their taste for music in a brief questionnaire. The answers are compared to those concerning the music they used to like before they entered the education as well as the music played on the ensemble lessons at the programme.

An employee that informs on illegal or unethical behavior in the workplace is what has been called a whistleblower. Employees that have become whistleblowers have often faced tragic consequences, like threats from the organization, unemployment, bankruptcy and divorce. The purpose of this paper is, on the basis of different ethical perspectives to describe the justification of the whistleblowing phenomenon and apply this to the Swedish whistleblower Ingvar Bratt who ?blew the whistle? when he found out that Bofors AB, the company he worked for, were smuggling arms to the countries Dubai and Bahrein. The method that has been used in this paper is what Björn Badersten call a normative ?givet att?- analysis.

Objective: In recent years there has been an increasing interest within the clinical (medical) science in measuring people?s health. When estimating quality of life, present practise is to use the EQ-5D questionnaire and an index which weighs the different questions. The question is what happens if the individuals estimate there own health, would it differ from the public Preferences? The aim is to make a new prediction model based on the opinion of patients and compare it to the present model based on public Preferences.Method: A sample of 362 patients with unstable coronary artery disease from the Frisc II trial, valued their quality of life in the acute phase and after 3, 6 and 12 months.

The purposes of this thesis is study the European Court of Justice from a non legal perspective and investigate the courts possibility to advance its own preferred goals rather that of the member states in cases of non-compliance. Drawing on general principal-agent theory I construct a model from which I derive certain hypothesis mainly about under what circumstances we should expect the Court to be more sensitive to member states Preferences and under what circumstances we should expect the Court to be less sensitive. These hypotheses are then tested empirically against all cases of non-compliance initiated by the European Commission against member states between 1953-2000. The results from the study are rather positive. The most important result is that when the threat of sanctions against the Court increases so does the Courts sensitiveness to member states Preferences and when it decreases so does the Courts sensitiveness..

Larvae of Lepidopteran Manduca sexta and Spodoptera littoralis are pests of economical importance in several horticultural and agricultural crops. Knowledge of insect feeding Preferences and behavior is crucial in order to find economically and ecologically sustainable solutions to the problems caused by these herbivores. The aim of this thesis was to study the behavior and the induced feeding Preferences in larvae of M. sexta and S. littoralis when reared on certain host plants. The hypothesis was that larvae of M. sexta would have an innate preference for plants of the Solanaceae family and therefore discriminate the previously experienced nonhost when faced with the choice between a true host and the previous food source.

Objective: In recent years there has been an increasing interest within the clinical (medical) science in measuring people?s health. When estimating quality of life, present practise is to use the EQ-5D questionnaire and an index which weighs the different questions. The question is what happens if the individuals estimate there own health, would it differ from the public Preferences? The aim is to make a new prediction model based on the opinion of patients and compare it to the present model based on public Preferences.Method: A sample of 362 patients with unstable coronary artery disease from the Frisc II trial, valued their quality of life in the acute phase and after 3, 6 and 12 months.

This study aims to investigate the origin and the development of a certain type of decision phenomena, namely political decision chains. A political decision chain is defined as a seemingly rational decision being made, that is reverted through a new decision and this for other reasons than the original decision being regarded as having fulfilled its intended purpose. The essay attempts to explain the occurrence of these decision chains through a case study in order to thoroughly examine the complexities that surround political decisions overall. The essay concludes that uncontrollable factors and chance to a large extent affect the origin of these chains, allowing actors to change the political agenda according to their Preferences. The relative weighting of these factors that is made by the actors, which exist within the decision chain, makes them underestimate the relative power of other actors that may have different Preferences.