Swedish public administration has for the last few decades undergone reforms aimed at making it more efficient. A substantial part of these reforms have concerned creating clearer roles for politicians versus officials in the public sector, i.e. giving politicians a responsibility for setting goals and steering activities and public officials the role of implementing them.This study aims to examine one reform following this path that is under implementation in a Swedish public authority; Försäkringskassan, the Social Insurance Agency. The purpose of the reform is to increase the organization?s effectiveness and the rule of law.

Abstract:Background: Socialstyrelsen statistics show that breastfeeding continues to decline. Previous research some mother experiencing breastfeeding difficulties and their lack of knowledge and understanding of breastfeeding. Support to mothers varies depending on their individual needs. Factors affecting the choice are the support of health care nurses and the social network. Aim: The aim of this study was to describe health care nurse experiences of giving support to mother who are breastfeeding.

An increasing number of health problems in the population and an uneven distribution of health between different groups in the society, have been identified as a problems and has therefore been put on the political agenda in Sweden. Thus, the purpose of this thesis is to estimate and discuss the significance an individual?s behaviour, in a number of areas, has on his/her level of health.The empirical material for this thesis is taken from a nationwide inquiry conducted in 2004,which was called ?Hälsa på lika villkor?? (Health on equal terms?) The material used consists of the answers and records from individuals living in the administrative district of Kronoberg. 9972 individuals were included in the sample and the answering frequency was 63,2%. To map and analyse the material, which was done mainly through crosstabs, chi-square tests and logistic regressions, the statistics software SPSS 11.5 was used.The parameter used to measure the health level is the individual?s own perception of his or her general health.

A range of public health and animal welfare problems has been shown to be associated with free-roaming dogs. With a high density of free-roaming dogs and with a major tourism industry, Samoan tourists are likely to be influenced by the presence of the dogs. The tourists are mainly from the Oceanic region; with New Zealand and Australia as the biggest contributors. The aim of this study was to examine the potential impacts of dogs on visitors to Samoa. A questionnaire was handed out to 281 visitors all over Samoa, collecting opinions and information on visitors? experiences and behaviour regarding the Samoan dogs.

Several reports and scientific research have shown that unemployment affectshealth negatively and that it is the young unemployed who suffer the most. Despitethis, there were not many evaluated labour market programs for young peoplefocusing both on how the labour market programs affect the job status and health,most of them were only focused on job status. Since there were not manycompilations in that direction, the essay is intended to describe the variousprograms and their impact on both job status and health. A literature-based studyhas been conducted and 15 articles have been reviewed and compiled into variouscategories using a content analysis. It turned out that the majority of the mostcommon labour market programs were represented in the scientific literature.There was also a new genre that is not mentioned in previous reports, cognitivebehavioral therapy (CBT), which proved to be one of the most successful programs.Michigan Prevention Research Center (MPRC) job search programs also showedsome positive results.

The aim of this study is to enhance the knowledge of target and performance management?s effects on the judiciary. In the past decades there have been a number of reforms in the general public sector of many countries. The management philosophy often used to describe these public sector reforms is called New Public Management (NPM). One main theme has been an increased focus on the management control systems, for example a greater emphasis on target and performance management.

The purpose of this study is to investigate whether an increasing amount of elderly immigrants will set new demands upon the public eldercare. The focus is on the officials whithin the public care of elderly in Västra Götaland district, and their experiences. A second purpose of this study is to add the experiences of the officials to former research treating the topic of elderly immigrants and their experiences of the public eldercare in Sweden.The survey has been carried out through interviewing all together seven officials working within the public care of elder in varying districts of Västra Götaland. The interviews have later been summoned under four different themes such as, ?Culture, customs and tradition?, ?Interaction and communication?, ?Information? and ?The future of the public eldercare?.The study indicates that our result based on the interviews, is in several references corresponding to former research on the topic.

This study is based on interviews with four managers in public elderly care and four managers in private elderly care. The aim of this paper is to examine how these managers are experiencing their leadership in relation to conflict management, and if the managers leadership differs depending on private or public elderly care. Leadership and conflict management are theories that have been used in order to analyze the empirical findings. Previous research that has been used in the study concerns ?leadership/leadership styles?, ?conflict management?, ?to be active in the private/public elderly care?.

Earlier psychological research on stress and its complex of problems has identified several factors which have shown a relation with the occurrence of a poorer mental ill-health. In this study some of these factors have been examined in 69 police officers from Stockholm, Lund and Helsingborg. In the study, police officers with high and low self reported ill-health were compared considering trait anxiety, alexithymia and posttraumatic stress symptoms.The results showed that police officers with poorer mental ill health had a significant higher degree of trait anxiety, the dimension of alexithymia difficulty identifying feelings and the PTSD-dimension avoidance and hyperarousal. The results also showed several positive relations among the variables that divided the groups. On account of the last-mentioned the results will above all be discussed in an integrating perspective..

The purpose with this master´s thesis is to examine how helth and unhelthy in the Swedish magazines Topphälsa, Fitnez Magazine, hälsa and I Form. The study is made from a discourse analytical approach and text and pictures are analysed together. The governmentality-perspective is also used as a theoretical frame. Power and govern are two inportant conceptions for this paper. Some of the main characteristics of the material are the double messages, the division in the categories "we" and "them" and the personal address to the reader.

Sustainability and the traffics impact on the environment have become increasingly central within spatial planning. For many years, planning has been focusing on building new roads - this has resulted in increased use of automobiles, which many believe is unsustainable in the longer term. Therefore, authorities at national, regional and local level want to increase the use of alternative transport modes ? such as walking, cycling and traveling by bus.The thesis intends to study if the Municipality of Umeå?s policies for sustainable development have led to an increased use of public transportation. The use of public transport in Umeå is also compared with developments at national level, in order to see if there are differences in the level and trend.

This essay focus on work related stress and psychosocial enviroment in working life. The purpose of this study is to present a detailed description of regulation of the the Occupational Safety and Health Act and investigate how well employees are being protected by the law.I will also explain with the help of statistic which employees that most often suffer from work related stress and the results is discussed from a gender perspective.Work related phycosocial health is a big issue in todays workplaces, and people who suffers from stress are supposed to be protecteded by the the Occupational Safety and Health Act, but is that really the truth? The Occupational Safety and Health Act is a frame law, meaning the law is general and needs binding regulations to define the rules, and there is no such act about work related stress at the moment. No employer has ever been convicted for work related stress. At the same time the Occupational Safety and Health Act explains that the employer has a responsibility to take arrangement to prevent mental illness in working life.It?s mostly women who suffer from work related stress.

Environmental management officers ? leadership and employeeship in local environmental health authorityThe purpose of this study was to illustrate the working situation of municipal environmental health management officers. This is a qualitative study where I have interviewed ten environmental officers in ten municipalities in Sweden. The interviews were based on a half structured interview guide with questions. I have interpreted the interviews through different leadership theories.

The aim of this investigation was to determine if, and in that case how, the resources of personne1 in what in this essay will be referred to as the department of students' health in four industrial municipalities had changed from 1999 until 2004. The establishment of the department of students' health could be discussed and analys ed in regard of a few concepts from new institutionaI organizational theory and studies on implementation. The investigation answers the following questions:What differences were there between the municipalities regarding the children's accessibility to the department of students' health?What differences were there between pre-school, compulsory school and upper secondary school within the municipalities regarding the children's accessibility to the department of student's health?The municipalities were commissioned by the government to combine school health service, student welfare and the field of remediaI teaching in order to establish a new section, the department of students' health. The study was carried out quantitatively.

   Officially, Sweden has a very low level of corruption and in 2008 topped Transparency International?s list in terms of the perception of a lack of corruption. However, on closer examination it would appear that the Swedish public sector is not as clean as the Transparency International list suggests. What appears to be relatively common and quite widely accepted in Sweden, especially in local government, are conflict of interest situations in which public officials use their position to obtain advantages for themselves, their friends and their colleagues, in particular with respect to public procurement. According to the Swedish constitution, the public administration shall be governed by the principles on legality and objectivity. Grave violations of these principles are deemed illegal and contrary to the penal code provisions relating to bribery, public misconduct and breach of confidentiality.