Stress and burnout are two words that are commonly occurring in many contexts today. More and more people experience that they are stressed and that they does not feel well. The long term sick -leave increases as a consequence of people being burned out. These phenomena prolong over all ages, sexes, classes and professional categories, which probably means that the construction industry would not be spared.  In the construction industry, stress and bad health are no new phenomenon, already during the 1970s and big parts of the 1990 s, the construction sector were exposed to the phenomena.A sector that has a large turnover annually cannot presumably be faultless.

During the last decade executive coaching has become an increasingly popular method of management development. Few studies have been conducted within this area, especially in Sweden, and little has been said about the construction of management in executive coaching. The purpose of this master?s thesis is to study executive coaching from a social constructionist perspective, focusing on the construction of management. The two research questions are: How is management constructed in executive coaching? How can we understand the construction of management in executive coaching? Additionally, we identify gender as a social construction of importance and thus include a gender perspective in our analysis.

This essay examines the visual art of Helena Blomqvist with theory of performativity from Judith Butler among others, with a focus on the potential of visual art to question and dislocate norms. It consists of an analysis of three works of art from three aspects: the work of art, the viewer and the situation, and eventuates in an analysis of how the works relate to representation and norms. The construction of the works is related to Butler's theory of identity construction..

Virtual Design and Construction (VDC) is the definition for using BIM in the construction process to simulate and analyse the building. Resulting use of the technology will according to proponents lead to fewer construction errors, a better understanding between stakeholders for the construction project, less communication problems and a smoother construction process. Although BIM has according to researchers a big potential, few companies have succeeded in broad and continues implementation. The study aims to identify the factors affecting the implementation. More precisely identify what factors influencing the decision to adopt VDC and potential barriers in the diffusion process. The empirical findings are based on a case study of NCC Construction Sweden.

For several years Uppsala University together with several companies has been involved in a WISENET project aimed at improving railway transport security. By placing a sensor system near the wheels of each wagon, the temperature of the bearings can be measured and transmitted to a collector placed centrally on the wagon. This in turn transmits the collected data to RFID receivers placed intermittently along the railway.As the signals are transmitted wirelessly, problems may occur as the antennas get dirty or coated with ice and snow. To determine the effects of these coatings, several tests were performed examining the reflection coefficient S11, the impedance Z11 and the efficiency eta of an antenna, and how they varied when various coatings were placed over the antenna. Examined coatings were ice, snow and water to determine the effects of weather, and various metal-based coatings: powdered iron both pure and partially oxidized, and iron ore granules.

This master thesis investigates the possibilities of using GPS-information from trains to create a model of a railway system, register the routes of the the trains and predict how the trains will travel in the railway system.The thesis work was done at Icomera AB which is a company that specializes in internet connected vehicle solutions.We describe how the GPS-information is sent from the trains in the form of samples and investigate limitations and possibilities with the available information. About three million samples from 83 SJ-trains were analysed and the samples were filtered with the intent of removing erroneous information. We here found that about 30 % of the samples from the trains were unreliable.A solution for how the samples from the trains can be used to create a model of the railway system traveled by the trains is presented. We use a large set of historical samples and use cluster nodes and Hermite curves to generate a graph that represent the railway system with stations, nodes and the railway itself. A fully automatic solution is not presented since it did not fit into the time frame of the thesis; instead we created a simple tool which can be used to manually finish the model of the railway system.Furthermore, we describe how the railway system and the samples from the train can be used to register the routes the trains travel.

Title Becoming involved in the planning process - from the construction workers perspective.University/Institution Halmstad UniversityKeywordsEmpowerment through participation, construction workers involvement in decision making in the planning process, knowledge management and communication in the planning process, partnering, human resource managementAimThe aim of this bachelor thesis is to provide knowledge and examine how construction workers perceive involvement in the planning process of partnering projects, what they can contribute and what they get out of the planning process.Methodology The study was conducted with a qualitative approach in the form of semi-structured interviews.          The interview studie consist of 10 interviews with construction workers who are specially educated in participating in the planning process at the company ByggDialog AB.ConclusionAll respondents are positive to be involved in the planning process. The main advantages they can see is that they are able to influence technical solutions and methods that will be used later on in the production. Therefore it is important to consider when construction workers should be involved in the planning process so that they get the chance to influence in this decisions.When it comes to the decision making the construction workers should be involved in the decisions that are related to their tasks in the production such as technical solutions, choice of methods and materials. Their main duties and working hours should be in the production.Involvement in planning does not automatically mean that the construction workers are involved in the decision making, it is up to them how much they participate.

The purpose of this report is to examine various roof structures that can operate in a warehouse with large spans. The building that is examined in the report is currently under construction, and the roof construction has already been selected. The selected roof system will therefore be compared with some other structures and materials that have been possible. The report will evaluate three different frame materials, two insulating barriers and two overlaying materials. Another important part in major construction projects is the roof safety.

The aim of this study was to gain a comprehension of managers experience of their identity and their construction of identity in the work sphere. 14 semi-structured interviews were performed with managers in the public sector. The interviews were analyzed from a hermeneutic approach. The results showed that the managers´ experience of their identity and their construction of identity were full of nuances and was characterized by a being and a becoming. The managers had several social identities at their disposal, which were brought to the fore due to the situation.

This thesis is written at WSP management and investigates the practice of pre-project planning and feasibility studies at Swedish construction companies, through the study of the ongoing feasibility study of the mall Sturegallerian in Stockholm, and through interviews with experienced project managers in the construction industry. There is currently a big span in the way Swedish construction companies plan the pre-project phase and the aim of this thesis is to present a more generic and standardized way that helps minimize project risks and maximize efficiency and profit. The result is a generic model which can be used in pre-project planning. The model describes the phases in the preproject planning process and the activities that span these phases. Is also describes the categories of professions that need to participate in the preproject planning group and which activities that each profession executes. The other result is a list of factors that need to be considered for a well performed pre-project phase, as found during the interviews. Among others the thesis stresses the importance of involving the client as a key participant in the process.

In April 2010 Vägverket (the Swedish National Road Agency) andBanverket (the Swedish National Railway Agency) will merge intoTrafikverket (the Swedish National Traffic Agency). Trafikverket willassume unified responsibility for the risk management that atpresent is responsibility of Vägverket and Banverket separately. Atpresent, as it will be shown in this thesis, Vägverket and Banverketshare the same theoretical background for risk management but usedifferent implementations often within the same agency. The use ofdifferent implementations results in a reduced transparency of therisk management both within and outside the agencies: this willbecome even more problematic when they will be fused intoTrafikverket.The aim of this thesis is to review the current risk managementmethodologies used at Vägverket and Banverket and to suggest aunified tool for the risk management at Trafikverket. This will bedone by focusing in particular on construction projects, one fromVägverket (Partihallsförbindelsen) and one from Banverket(Nynäsbanan).

The society of today is dependent of secure transports and deliveries of electrical power. Interruptions in different activities because of fallen trees cost a great deal of money in form of reparations and claimed damages for transport companies and electrical suppliers. Fallen trees along some railway sections are a severe problem. For instance, to repair the damages of the storm of week 5 year 2002, costed 2 800 000 SEK for the line region of Hässleholm. Today, the Banverket railroad company has no norms in general for how close to the railway the forest is allowed to grow.

This thesis examines the deregulation reform of the Swedish railroad industry, focusing on passenger transport between 1988 and 2005. The purpose of the thesis is to examine the effects from the deregulation reform on prices, market concentration and to determine whether SJ (the state owned incumbent) has been conducting strategic behaviour in order to prevent new entrants to the market. The chosen method consists of interviews with the MD at SJ between 1988 - 1998 Mr Karl-Erik Strand, the transportation researcher at SSE Mr Gunnar Alexandersson. Statistical sources and companies financial reports have also been used. The results that I have found were besides the fact that the market concentration is still significant high and the profitability among the operators low, is that the prices has increased more than CPI during the period but the competitive tendering has resulted in lower government subsidies after the deregulation.

The projects goal is to construct and program a robot that is controlled from a computer but also have an obstacle handling function that allows the robot to navigate around the object by itself.The robot is a simple construction and the number of components and functions is kept at a minimum. A tricycle construction was chosen because it?s the simplest. Communication between the robot and the computer also kept as simple as possible..

The construction industries are relatively conservative type of business that takes a longtime to adjust for new methods and embrace new ideas. It dose not matter if the newmethod seems to be an improved method as long as it is new and untried. Constructioncompanies are reluctant to change form a longtime working method to a relativelyunknown method.The purpose with our report is to perform an evaluation of BeWi construction method.Our goal are to present the generally opinion about BeWi from the contractors that hasbeen in contact/worked with the method. We also want to know from the contractor?spoint of view if BeWi and the method measure up to the standards that are presented byBeWi and if they believe that improvements need to be done.Our progress up to the final report has consisted of three parts[1]Field studies[2]Interviews[3]Literary studiesWe started out with field studies where we took notes and observed all the includedworking phases on the construction site when using the BeWi method.