Title: A study about conditions for leadership in knowledge-intensive firms.Authors: Cecilia Ekström and Niklas SandbergKeywords: Leadership, knowledge-intensive firm, hierarchies, followers.Background: Leadership is becoming one of our greatest social myths and is considered a total solution for many problems that occur in an organization. The view of leadership is usually from a top-down perspective, which contributes to an often underestimated view of the follower. Just as it is important to understand the leader's view of leadership, it is important to understand how employees view the structure from which the leader derives its legitimacy. The existing conditions in knowledge-intensive firms, such as autonomy, place special demands on the formal leadership.Purpose: The purpose of this study takes an employee perspective, to understand what the conditions are for formal leadership in knowledge-intensive firms.Method: A qualitative research method was used and empirical material was collected through interviews with employees in knowledge-intensive firms. The empirical material was analyzed by the respondents? mental images which were set against the theoretical framework of the thesis.Conclusions: The conditions for formal leadership in knowledge-intensive firms make it advantageous to have a leader with a withdrawn role.

This investigation is about how teachers in school can motivate and create interest for science among younger children. Teachers were interviewed about attitudes to their subject and how this affects their lessons.I have also tried to find out, both by interviewes but also by studying litterature, what the most important thing is to teach in science, which knowledge is necessarry in the future and why.My result indicates that teachers find science both interesting and important but at the same time they also think it is a difficult subject to teach even if they are educated. Both the litterature and the teachers in my study agree that knowledge in science gives us a chance to ask questions, take stands and solve problems and that this knowledge is important for us in our future..

Background: The main purpose of our study is to try to give an idea of what a multicultural school is and what difficulties girls find with Swedish as a second language. We are at the end of our teacher education, which means that in a few months, we will be responsible for creating environments that are conducive to the students and to ensure that opportunities that allow the students to develop exist. We are aware that in a multicultural school that we no have in Sweden there has been some discussion regarding the Swedish language, which can be interpreted as the Swedish language being at a disadvantage with the students because of all the integration that occurs in schools and the lack of knowledge regarding the different cultural backgrounds. To get this knowledge we had to seek more knowledge on the subject.

The ambition with this study is to look into and create an understanding for how an intranet can work as a support system in work processes in capacity as a source of knowledge. We want to enhance the understanding for which kind of knowledge that can be coded in and transmitted by an intranet, and which that is lost in this process. We also want to clarify what it takes to get this knowledge, in collaboration with the intranet, to support the work in an organization. It is a qualitative case study at a Swedish bank. It consisted of semi standardized, half structured interviews with five people in one of the bank?s local offices.

The main purpose of this Master Thesis is to describe students experiences of learning with Webquest för barnmorskor (Webquest for midwifes) at the University Library of Karolinska Institutet (KI), Stockholm. To investigate the possibilities of acquiring information literacy in higher education with the webquest model a qualitative case study is carried out, based on five interviews with students. The students? perceptions of the webquest course and their ideas on information seeking and information literacy are being analyzed in relation to a framework of learning theory and information literacy expressed by documents and librarians of KI. A descriptive presentation is structured from the main themes that emerged in analysis within the frames of my research questions.

The purpose of this ideology critical study is to investigate the hidden content in the reform Gy11 and compare it with the concept new public management. After the clarification of the hidden content, we compare the structure of the organization in Swedish high schools with the structure in public sector called new public management. The main questions of this study are the following: Is it possible to see the foundation of new public management in the Swedish high schools when it comes to the views of knowledge and the formation of goals? Which similarities can we find when we look at the organization new public management and the Swedish high school?The result showed many similarities, both regarding the views of knowledge and the formations of goals. The structure of new public management has been largely implemented in the Swedish high schools and the schools now focus more on instrumental knowledge rather than universal knowledge based on understanding.This is not surprising due to the social progress.

The aims were to investigate the public awareness of aphasia in a Swedish sample and examine if knowledge of aphasia relates to gender, education or age. Participant?s sources of knowledge of aphasia were examined. A total of 153 individuals, aged 18-90, were surveyed. Participants were categorized into three groups; heard of, knowledge of and not heard of aphasia.

The e-commerce in Sweden has increased each year for the past several years, but still just over half of all the consumers feels worry about payment security. This could be the reason why over half of the consumers just shopped about one time on the Internet during the whole year of 2009. Another reason could be that the many consumers have a lack of trust to the different payment methods that are available during payment on the Internet, because they might don't possess enough knowledge regarding the payment methods and their security. If the consumers were to gain more knowledge about the payment methods and their security, it may lead to that the they would feel more comfortable when shopping online, and do it more frequently. It is this that will be investigated in this paper.The purpose of the paper  is to research if consumers believed knowledge concerning the different payment methods available on the web and their security influence the consumers trust in the payment methods.

On March 1, 2012, Google introduced its new privacy policy which is applicable to all Google services. This means that search history may be saved by Google indefinitely and may also be associated with the specific account during the first 18 months. We assume that few people read this policy and we have hypotheses that a deeper knowledge of the contents of the privacy policy affects how users perceive Google as a company and/or the usage of Google services. In this study, we have conducted surveys at the IT University of Gothenburg, to investigate how many participants that have read or possess some knowledge of the privacy policy. We have found that very few participants claim to have read the privacy policy.

This essay examines pull-out strength of threaded rods fixed into glulam timber. The technology is intended to be used in hidden joints between glulam components. The work began with a study of literature focusing on current research within the topic, mainly to create a base of knowledge before the testing was initiated. Studies of scientific articles reveals a lack of research within this area, which makes it difficult to develop standards and calculation models for these joints. The drill holes in the tests have a diameter of 7 mm.

The purpose of this thesis is to examine how social workers perceive the concept of knowledge within social services, particularly within children and youth services. Our goal is also to study the employer's expectations and demands on graduate social workers. The main questions we address in this thesis are; What knowledge is seen as useful by employers and graduate social workers working in social welfare offices? To what extent does university education bring useful knowledge to the work being done by social workers? What practical knowledge is there in the workplace for social workers to learn? When recruiting, what expectations does the employer have of graduate social workers? What challenges are there with recruiting a graduate social worker?We have interviewed six social workers and four employers in the social childcare division in different municipalities in Skåne region, Sweden. We have used epistemology in our analysis.

Background: Many authors consider knowledge to be a significant source for competitive advantage. Replicating companies found their competitiveness on an ability to leverage its knowledge base by replicating its business model in new contexts, a process often referred to as the McDonalds approach. Several authors emphasize that an efficient method for knowledge transfer may increase the risk for imitation. Purpose: The purpose of this study is to examine in an explorative manner how strategies for replicating complex knowledge systems are employed and developed. Furthermore, our ambition is to explore the notion of replication strategy.

 There is a lack of research in the field of quality improvement efforts based on profound knowledge in social services. The current situation is therefore a significant knowledge gap in terms of studies of this type of systematic quality work and how it is applied in practice. This study therefore intends to describe Pilbackens quality work and further examine if the profound knowledge is consistent with quality work in microsystems by an analysis of Pilbackens work. The present study has been performed by a qualitative method and the material is collected through semi-structured interviews. In order to analyze the study?s result have profound knowledge and the model microsystems been used.

Befintlig forskning pa? omra?det har dragit slutsatsen att Knowledge Sharing a?r av stor vikt fo?r ett fo?retags framtida o?verlevnad och att sma? och medelstora fo?retag i ma?nga fall inte tagit de a?tga?rder som beho?vs fo?r att fra?mja en o?kad kunskapsdelning mellan medarbetarna. Studien belyste da?rfo?r Knowledge Sharing inom sma? och medelstora, projektbaserade fo?retag. Syftet med studien var att o?ka fo?rsta?elsen och bidra med kunskap ga?llande hur medarbetarna inom sma? och medelstora fo?retag arbetar med och kan stimulera Knowledge Sharing.

The purpose of this paper is to try to understand which negative effects grading and judging in art class can have on the students. The emphasise lies on how the media specific parts of the subject is affected. The goal is to get knowledge how students experience getting judged and graded and how this affects them, hence understanding which factors affects them in a positive or negative way in this process. The literature study starts with a historical survey of the swedish grading system and the art subject in Swedish schools. It countinues to explain the current curriculum with an emphasise on art.