Abstract The Act of Education outlines that good quality in schools and preschools, focusing on continuous improvement, promote children?s learning and this in turn is on of the most important factors for child and youth welfare.This thesis was based on the authors´ pre-understanding that there are opportunities to improvement in the quality of preschools. The focus was on studying how analyses can provide a base for quality work, and the purpose of this study was to identify and describe the analytical methods that can be used in the process of continual improvement for quality development in preschools.A qualitative study was conducted in two preschools that have received quality awards. It was conducted through interviews with the preschool principals and through studies of various documents.In the comparative analysis of theory and empirical data, it was made clear that there was a regular analysing process going on at the investigated preschools and an emphasize of reflection could also be identified. Keywords: Quality development, preschool, analytical methods, processes, reflection .

There is consensus in research, policy, business and many other areas around the benefits of creativity. Previous research shows that creativity is only spurred under certain conditions. Usually creativity is not associated with concepts such as control, deadline or cost effectiveness. Companies, by contrast, have the need for control and management of their operations, which implies that the two processes can be difficult to reconcile. A company that wants a high creativity while maintaining control and management is forced into a series of organizational compromises.

In today's globalized world it is essential to achieve goal congruence within a multinational corporation despite the distances between the headquarters and subsidiaries. A case study has been performed to examine how control of sales units within a Swedish multinational corporation is achieved. Otley's framework has been used in the study to provide an overall picture of the control system where the analysis is based on five areas: key objectives and goal evaluation, strategies and plans, target setting process, incentives and motivation as well as information flows. To complement this framework, theories of convergence and divergence by Busco et al. have been used as well as theories of hierarchical control and self-control by Holmström.

The aim of this study has been to examine the role of control mechanisms when it comes to building relationships in a small business network. In order to reach this goal, we have performed a case study of a Swedish supplier of machines to the engineering industry, which acts as the exclusive representative of a foreign manufacturer on the Swedish market. Main results: A number of control mechanisms, both formal and informal, could be identified in the network. Their specific use, as well as relative importance differ between different actors in the network. In general, the importance of formal control mechanisms decreases as the relationship evolves over time and the importance of informal ones, mainly trust, increases in a corresponding manner..

The function of budgetary controls is to control the resource allocation within companies. It can also be an instrument for measure and control subordinates and/or business units? performance (Van der Stede 2001). This paper concerns the latter; when the budgetary control function is used to measure and control subordinates performance based on budget. Previous research in this area has not yet accomplished to explain the effects of tight budgetary control which Hartman (2000) considers as the main issue to be concerned about in management accounting research.Previous research has presented contradictory findings regarding tight budgetary control explained by positive effects as well as negative effects during the last decades.

Electromyography (EMG) is a technique that measures muscle activity, whichmeans detecting the electrical signals that travel through the muscle in connectionwith muscle contraction. This project deals with how EMG can be used tocontrol a computer game.The project is centered around the game 'EMG Track Game' which has beenconstructed as part of this work. 'EMG Track Game' is controlled by twoelectrodes fastened on the player. These are attached to two selected musclesand control the motion in one direction each, one up and the other one down.The game is constructed in the purpose of being used in several elds of application.Among these are as entertainment, training equipment and a tool inresearch related to EMG and muscles.To highlight a possible application a study concerning muscle control has beenconducted. It answers the question of whether players score better with theirdominant arm in comparison with their non-dominant one.

This essay is about the question if there is any difference in quality at the homes for the elderly in Skåne, depending on however the home is run by a public organization or private counterpart. The quality of the homes is meet with the help of numbers in ?the guide for the elderly? the facts in the guide are collected and judged by the ?Swedish National Board of Health. The result from the guide is divided into seven areas of quality, and then compared in a statistic test between the different types of organizations. And finally the result of the statistics is put in the context of the theory of New Public Management.

In the present thesis, we have studied the management control system in Enskede-Årsta-Vantör, one of Stockholm?s municipal districts, with focus on theories about New Public Management (NPM). When NPM was introduced, a number of complications arose. Some of these, along with the district?s solutions of the complications, are described and analyzed using e.g.

The purpose with this study is that examine if the contingency factors as sort of market and competition can affect the companies, which means of control they apply..

In theory, the management control of maintenance functions is described as problematic due to the nature of the work performed in the unit. The purpose of this thesis is to examine these predicted problems in practice. Further,the thesis aims at identifying how these control problems may affect the relationships between the maintenance department and its internal customers. A case study has been conducted in one of Sweden?s largest industrial companies to investigate the said control problems in practice.

With a changing climate, we can expect higher temperatures and more precipitation in Sweden.As the temperature increases, new weed species are expected to migrate in from more southerlylatitudes, resulting in requests for new techniques for weed control. In addition, we might see agreater number of weed species and higher biomass production due to increased concentrationof CO2 in the atmosphere.Increased understanding of the biology of specific weed species will become more importantin future weed control. This will help to control the weeds more efficiently. Higher prices onpesticides and a public demand for reduced use of pesticides make growers more inclined to usemechanical weed control on a larger scale and to a greater extent prevent weed establishmentbefore sowing. A well-planned crop rotation is the most important preventive measure, whichmight also include delayed sowing, and dark harrowing and sowing.Research takes place on many levels within the weed area and several alternative methodsare being developed.

By the year of 2007, 97 % of all listed companies in Europe had a CSR strategy described on their website. As the concept of CSR during the last decades has increased rapidly in popularity, a need to understand how such a strategy can be implemented has followed. While working with CSR in an integrated manner shows similarities to other popular management ideas, such as Lean and TQM, companies applying to a CSR strategy has been shown to be under higher scrutiny from media and NGO:s. Through a case study this thesis examines how these special circumstances of a CSR strategy makes The Body Shop use organizational control to avoid being subject to scandals due to not fulfilling the promises made to its customers. The results show that The Body Shop's commitment to CSR creates a need for a stringent bureaucratic control system that highly restricts the freedom of action for its employees.

This study titled When the spaces dominate A study of the school as disciplinary rooms is a study where the emphasis is on quality and where the results are based on observations. The purpose of the research was to analyse rooms and other artefacts in the school as seen from Foucault?s analysis of power. He emphasised that power is expressed in human relationships. To understand how that power is used one can study the techniques adopted and resistance offered.

This study is based on interviews with heads of unit, care staff and senior representatives from a total of six people. We have in this study directed our focus on care quality in the elderly as a concept in development. It appears, when the elderly do not have any dependents, it is even more important that staff supports some extra where no relatives are involved.Quality of life is the broader concept of good quality care and where a good quality of care is a necessary condition for a good quality of life. According to the social services care is the target that older people will live a good life and be allowed to live in a safe environment, which we intend to investigate in this study. Opportunity for greater influence should now be given to older people and their families on how interventions should be designed and implemented.

Open source software has recently been discussed, not least in media as a revolution in IT. A number of advantages have been listed in changing proprietary software into open source software. Examples of such pros are no expenses for license fees and improved efficiency. In spite of this, few users have made this change. One of the reasons is a distrust of the quality in open source software.