Human capital is professional service firms' most valuable resource and its quality is closely linked to the quality of its services. The purpose of this study is to investigate how professional service firms appraise their employees. A comparative study between an architecture firm and a management consulting firm is conducted with the aim to identify and explain similarities and differences in performance appraisal. Two qualitative case studies are performed and interviews as well as documents are used to explore the area. The thesis builds on a critical perspective and it has an explorative approach.

Background The aim of palliative care is to improve the quality of life for both the patient and her next of kin during the patient?s end of life. Palliative care rests on the four cornerstones managing symptoms, communication and relationship, teamwork and relative support. The nurses? task is to assess the patients? physical, mental and spiritual needs according to these four cornerstones.Aim To assess nurses? experiences of treating patients at the end of life.Method Eleven academic journals that respond to the aim has been analyzed and synthesized in a literature review in order to summarize current research on the subject.

Aim: The aim of this study was to describe the nurse?s work at an emergency department trough a perspective of caring.Method: A literature review has been made of twelve studies published between the years of 2002 ? 2012. The focus of all the studies was on Swedish emergency departments.  Results: The researchers found four themes that they choose to use as a way of describing the nurses work in the emergency room as detailed as possible. These themes were: ?The emergency room?, ?the nurse?s job assignments at an emergency department?, ?the patient?s experiences? and ?lifeworld and communication?.

The aim of this study was to examine how newly qualified social workers from Linnaeus University in Kalmar feel that the school has prepared them with the professional skills to meet the demands that exist within social work. Social work education is a generalist training that will result in a professional qualification. With a qualitative approach eight newly qualified social workers were interviewed.We used the sociology of knowledge as an overall theoretical approach. We also used experience- based knowledge as a theoretical approach. One of the study's conclusion was that the graduates had difficulty linking theory to practice.

On the first of October 2012 the media reported that the women in the Ikea cataloguehad been airbrushed in the Saudi edition. Initially the blame was put on either theSaudi government the Islamic culture or the Saudi franchise. In the end it wasrevealed that the Swedish company Inter Ikea Systems had the full responsibility forIkeas actions and therefore was the culprit behind the airbrushing. On whoseinitiative or why the airbrushing was done the media never found out. These areanswers only Ikea has, although they remain unresponsive to these questionsthroughout the news portrayal.This study methodology uses a qualitative content analysis as framework to furtherinvestigate the news media with support of theoretical perspectives such as mediatheory, power relations and cultural differences.

This paper examines the professional role of the music journalist and how it has been affected by the expansion of the Internet. The study aims to examine  the profession's outlook and how professional music journalists are working to reach the public with interesting information, despite the fact that the audience of today often can be first to deliver the news. Through qualitative research interviews with three current music journalists the professional role and its development is examined. Based on theories and previous research on journalism, how the media communicates and its importance to society, what it is to be a music journalist and the spread of digitization and the impact of file sharing the results are analyzed. The conclusions of the study are that it isn?t a profession that is disappearing but rather a profession that is working towards a new future.

Suicid är ett samhällsproblem i Sverige. Det är idag den största dödsorsaken bland unga mellan 15-29 års ålder. Vårdpersonalen anser att det är psykiskt påfrestande och svårt att tala om. Syftet med denna litteraturstudie var därav att belysa hur sjuksköterskan kan förmedla tröst och hopp genom kommunikation och relation med den suicidnära patienten. Riskfaktorer för suicidnära patienter är bland andra hopplöshet, depression, relationsförlust, suicidplan och tidigare suicidförsök.

This study finds that the Swedish Government has a process for purchasing financial advisory services that is more transaction-oriented than the corresponding process at a Swedish private equity firm. The conclusion is supported by previous research comparing public and private sector purchasing processes. However, the differences between the two purchasing processes are not as significant as one might believe given the fact that the Government, unlike the private equity firm, has to operate under the Public Procurement Act (LOU). The tendency of the Swedish Government to apply a more relationoriented purchasing approach than expected is most likely driven by the fact that this represents the established professional norm for purchasing of professional services in the private sector. As LOU and the professional norm impose contradictory influences on the Swedish Government?s purchasing of financial advisory services, the final outcome depends on which of the two forces that dominate..

This report is the result of several interviews of employees within the field of pedagogy. The background behind this report is my period as a trainee in one of the daily activities in Malmo. In daily activities the employers gets training, education and guidance in Marte meo, which is funded by public finances. The method, which this study focuses upon is called Marte meo. It is a method of communicating and developing the means for the participants to evolve their skills in communicating and increase self esteem.

Arbetet handlar om hur man som höft och knäopererad patient känner sig bemött på en ortopedisk vårdavdelning efter att ha fått en protes inopererad. Dessa operationer kan i efterförloppet vara mycket smärtsamma och behöver i regel lång rehabilitering, vilket ställer stora krav på personalens sätt att vårda och bemöta patienter i postoperativt skede.Syftet är att beskriva hur patienter efter höft och knäprotesoperationer upplever personalens bemötande på ortopedisk vårdavdelning.En litteraturstudie är gjord utifrån kvalitativa artiklar som har bearbetats och analyserats enligt Evans metod som utgångspunkt för ett deskriptivt resultat.Resultatet presenteras utifrån tre teman; Att känna sig bemött som en unik individ: som skildrar patienters upplevelser av hur personalen tillgodoser varje enskild patients behov. Att känna sig professionellt omhändertagen: beskriver hur patienter känner när de blir väl omhändertagna under sin postoperativa tid på avdelningen. Att känna sig förbisedd: beskriver att patienter känner sig försummade och negligerade under sin postoperativa tid på vårdavdelningen. För att patienter med höft och knäproteser skall uppleva vården som positiv diskuteras vikten av att sjuksköterskan ger god information till patienten, att hon får fortlöpande utbildning och att vårdpersonalen arbetar med etiska reflektioner..

The purpose of the study was to examine what possibilities and obstacles, according to the personnel and patients in a methadone treatment, exist in the patient's social rehabilitation. How does the methadone treatment encourage the patient's social rehabilitation, what possibilities/obstacles are there according to personnel and patients? What does the patient see as important aspects of his/her social rehabilitation and what importance does the methadone have on the treatment? The results show that there are difficulties for patients to rebuild their life, find employment, start new social networks and get by with everyday tasks. The support from friends and family will simplify the patient's social rehabilitation, otherwise they get isolated and alone. Patients feel that they are fighting for a successful treatment so that they can have a relationship with friends and families again.

Sweden currently has no legislated regulation of lobbying, but the professional lobbyist can voluntarily subscribe to, among others, the professional code of standars created by the trade association of Public Relations, Precis. There is an ongoing discussion in Sweden to regulate lobbying, both in mass media and in politics. This study examines this debate and focus on which arguments there are for and against lobbying regulation in Sweden. It also attempts to identify the differences, if there are any, between left and rights parties with regards to their views on regulation of lobbying.Tha main method used was document analysis of parliamentary bills which have been raised concerning a lobbying regulation in Sweden. In the theory section, I include four different types of requirements placed on democratic lobbying (se for example Jaatinen 1998, Kitchen 1999, Larsson 2005, Möller 2009 and Naurin 2001).

BackgroundWhen women have breast pain this usually is not associated with myocardial infarction, which results in that they get less attention and wrong treatment. The nurse has an important role in informing and educating patients and families during hospitalization, which is usually short. Continuous training, written information and repetition for patient and family throughout the hospital stay are of considerable importance to clarify that the patient understands and to reduce the anxiety of being discharged.AimThe aim is to describe nurses' experiences of caring for older women with myocardial infarction.MethodsA qualitative method was used. The collection of data was done by six interviews with nurses in geriatric care and elderly care. Dataset has been processed based on a content analysis and divided into subcategories and main categories using meaningful units.ResultsNot having knowledge of older women with myocardial infarction was expressed as frustrating and nurses described how they were afraid to ask their colleagues.

The study is based on a new approach on how Swedish healthcare is supposed to be controlled and organized. There is a renowned administration problem within Swedish healthcare, which seems to be an obstacle to exploit the resources to the fullest. The latest venture within the healthcare system is patient involvement, where the patients become co-producers of their own care, which aims to both improve and make healthcare more efficient. A few wards in Sweden have implemented this new approach whereupon the study intends to discuss the effectiveness and efficiency in some of these.The study is restricted to three wards, whereof two of these are inpatient wards and the other one is an outpatient ward, within the medical clinic in Jönköping County Council, which has implemented the patient involvement approach in their daily work. The methodology for this study is qualitative in its nature where a time study of personnel time allocation and supplementary interviews with managing nurses on the wards have been conducted.

Syftet med min studie är att genom att studera frånvarostatistik, betygstatistik, nationella prov åk 5 och intervju med elever och skolpersonal försöka hitta ett mönster i orsakerna till skolk samt metoder för att motverka skolk..