It has become popular for political scientists to discuss the transformation from government to governance and the networks? greater influence on public policymaking. However, this debate lacks methodological, empirical and theoretical research about the relationship between governance networks and representative democracy. The main objective of this essay is to understand the relationship between governance networks and representative democracy through a case study of the governance network Leader Linné. The theoretical framework includes four analysis models about the relationship between governance networks and representative democracy that are analysed by five factors connected to representative democracy.

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The conditions for formal leadership in knowledge-intensive firms make it advantageous to have a leader with a withdrawn role.

The transformational leadership and the Swedish Armed Forces? basic outlook on pedagogy are two factors that affect a Swedish military officer. The author has identified a need of understanding the process of personal development. An understanding that couldn?t be supplied by the transformational leadership but that was found in the Swedish Armed Forces? basic outlook on pedagogy.

The work place is becoming more flexible and an increasing number of employees report to a leader in another location or country. The borders between different countries, work places and cultures are diminished to a greater extent than before. Working from a distance means new opportunities in terms of competence development, flexibility in working hours, tasks and resources, a larger platform for various career opportunities and an expanded network. The purpose with this study is to examine how leaders can create a successful virtual team and motivate remotely. The qualitative study is carried out through interviews with leaders and employees within Nielsen Nordic.

This is a qualitative study designed to investigate how professional support group leaders talk about their role as supervisor of support groups for children and adolescents with problematic home situations. We also examine how these supervisors talk about the method they use and how they talk about the individual child. We have chosen critical discourse analysis to help us explore if there are different ways to talk about these territories. Our questions are:How does the support group leader talk about his role?How does the support group leader talk about the method?How does the support group leader talk about the individual child?The theories we have chosen to use in the analysis of our material is Aaron Antonovsky's Sense of Coherence and social constructivism.

This essay studies the practice of both the political and the administrative leadership at the municipal level from the point of view of the politicians and the chief officers leadership role, and the relationship between politicians and administrators. I discuss and analyse how politicians and senior officials practice leadership, differences or similarities and if their practice of leadership raises any challenges in a democratic framework at the municipal level. I conducted interviews with the municipal political leader and the head of administration at the municipal level in Karlshamn and Sölvesborg. In the analysis I discuss communication as a leadership process which highlights ?enabling elements? and potentials of the leadership process.

The aim of this paper is to investigate to what degree the groups in our inquiry work independently. It is a qualitative research, which points to a well?functioning unit, that by definition is not self-governing, but has many traits of self- government. We have reached to the conclusion, that complete self?government does not have to be the best solution, if you want both quality and efficiency.

Detta arbete bygger på en utvärdering av Leaderverksamheten i södra Sverige, som min kollega, Annika Jönsson, och jag genomförde under hösten 2013. Utvärderingen beställdes av Leaderområdena i Region Syd, som ville få fram hur metoden fungerat under programperioden 2007-2013. Syftet var att rapporten skulle ligga till grund inför det fortsatta arbetet med att utforma Leaders roll i framtiden. Leader är en av många metoder som bidrar till samhällsutvecklingen på landsbygden inom EU. Metoden har fungerat bra i Region Syd och bidragit till att många nya projekt förverkligats. Leader bidrar bland annat till att gemenskapen i bygden stärks, innovativa idéer föds och att samarbeten över sektorer inleds. Trots sina framgångar skulle metoden kunna förbättras och utvecklas inom vissa områden. Svårigheterna med den offentliga medfinansieringen och likviditetsproblemen hos en del av projekten gör att genomförandet försvåras och projekt läggs ner i förtid.

 Performance appraisals- a study of the performance appraisals significance as a tool for development in the public sector.Anders Larsson and Åsalill OlssonPerformance appraisals have been given a central role in leading businesses in the public sector and are seen as a tool to create development opportunities and achieve better results. This has resulted that performance appraisal in many organizations takes up capacity and time. This was the starting point of our interest to study whether the time spent on performance appraisals effectively pays for itself in the organization, in other words whether the effects expected actually are achieved. The paper examines first line managers` views on staff appraisal purposes and effects of a function within the Landstinget. The survey design, methodology and transaction are of qualitative and quantitative method with three different sources: literature review of previous research, interviews with first line managers in Landstinget Västmanland and the results from an employee satisfaction survey conducted on behalf of Landstinget Västmanland.

Denna uppsats bygger på en utvärdering av leaderverksamheten i Blekinge, Halland och Skåne län, som jag genomförde tillsammans med Lina Brinte under hösten 2013. Utvärderingen var beställd av leaderområdena i Region Syd, som ville ta fram underlag för hur metoden fungerat under programperioden 2007-2013 i syfte att använda resultatet till strategiframtagandet inför kommande leaderperiod. Leader är ett av EU:s verktyg för att skapa landsbygdsutveckling, där underifrånperspektivet beaktas. Leader, som metod, fungerar bra i Region Syd och projektägarna är överlag mycket nöjda med arbetssättet som Leader innebär. Leaders viktigaste resultat är kvalitativa mervärden av typen engagemang, stärkt socialt kapital, ökad stolthet och samverkan som skapas genom projekten. Dessa värden är svåra att sätta ett ekonomiskt värde på och det behövs därför nya system för att hävda dessa värden i slutrapporterna, likväl som ekonomiska värden. Genom att belysa dessa värden och framhålla den nytta dessa gör, som till exempel sänka ohälsotalet bland befolkningen, öka den lokala nyttan och effektiviseringen samt skapa samverkan inom och utanför leaderområdet, skulle värdena få högre ställning när man beräknar vad leaderarbetet tillfört.

I dagens samhälle möter vi ständigt ledares behov av att öka sin kompetens när det gäller att hantera kritiska situationer inom den offentliga sektorn. Bristande kompetens hos ledarna drabbar inte bara dem själva utan även medarbetarna. Många uttalar sig om att det bristfälliga ledarskapet i den offentliga sektorn ger upphov till rekryteringssvårigheter, hög sjukfrånvaro, ineffektivitet, kvalitetsproblem, resursbrist och brist på kompetens. Även forskningsartiklar visar att det är högre sjukfrånvaro pga. dåliga ledare och det illustreras dagligen i dagspress och nyhetsförmedlingar.I vår kultur saknar vi metoder att hantera problemet med dåligt ledarskap.

AbstractTitle: When the cat is away? A study of pedagogical leadership at a distanceLevel: Final assignment for Degree of Master of science (one year) in Educational ManagementAuthor: Evelyn JoelssonSupervisor: Ulla SebrantDate: 2013 mayLeadership is a subject that has been discussed for many generations. Today?s leadership is something completely different than what has been practiced before, in the more hierarchical companies, when leadership was something you were born to do and the workers had no choice but to follow. In the globalised world that we live in today there are demands of a different kind than before and physical distance between leaders and their followers gets more and more common.

This masters degree was a study of some social workers in Gothenburg Community and their expectations of leaders in general, their opinions of work and the leaders influence. The city of Gothenburg will within a few years recruit about 500 leaders. Depending on large pensions among leaders. It is important to have knowledge of the social workers expectations of leaders, their opinions of work and the leaders influence. It is also interesting to see if different generations have similarities or if they have different opinions.

Over the past thirty years the political parties in Sweden have lost five out of six members. In order to retain existing members leadership in these organizations has become increasingly important. The aim of this paper is to identify what group leaders for party groups within the municipal council believe are the driving forces that underlie the councillors' voluntary commitment, identify the group leaders' leadership style and identify whether there exist a relationship between these driving forces and the leadership style. The approach applied is qualitative consisting of twelve interviews with twelve group leaders from six different municipalities in Stockholm county. The theoretical framework of this paper includes the Volunteer Functions Inventory and the Full Range Leadership Theory.

Purpose: The purpose of this thesis is to give a contribution to the studies of what strategies those are of importance for challengers in consumer technological markets aiming for the market leader position. To be able to investigate this phenomenon we have chosen to study Microsoft?s second position in the video game console industry. In addition, we want to illuminate Microsoft?s competitive advantages, how Microsoft can take advantage from Sony?s setbacks and what strategies those are of importance for Microsoft in the battle of becoming the market leader.