Increased competition in the IT industry has sparked a need for developing faster innovation processes with more predictable output. One of the biggest issues when it comes to achieving a faster flow through the innovation process lies in managing its high degree of variation. Proposing a solution to this problem, Lean Software Development (LSD), was developed to provide a framework for how IT companies should organize its software development process to achieve increased speed and quality. This study examines to which extent LSD, as a set of values, principles, methods and tools, can be used to improve flow efficiency in the innovation process. A case study of a multinational IT company was made by conducting ten semi-structured interviews with current employees.

ABSTRACT Background: Health and ill-health are multifaceted concepts. Previous research has shown that physical activity and the level of cardio respiratory are important parts of leading a healthy lifestyle. Possibly, it?s so important that the Occupational Health Service should focus even more on this.Aim: The aim was to investigate if there was a relationship between the level of cardio respiratory fitness and self-rated health, and between the level of cardio respiratory fitness and physical and mental ill-health.Method: The study was conducted using a quantitative method in the form of a cross sectional study. Data was collected from an Occupational Health Service, containing answers to a questionnaire on work environment and health and test values ??from completed cycle fitness tests.

The invisible entrepreneurship is a study of owners of businesses with foreign heritage. It describes the unexplored relationship between ethnicity and class within this group of entrepreneurs.The result of the study is a model which I have found to be suitable to use when depicting the relationship between the ethnic profile and class. The model indicates that the importance of ethnicity decreases as both the owner of, and the business reach a more prominent class. The method of collecting data has been interviews with owners of businesses and Grounded theory has been used to analyse this data. Theories on ethnicity, owners of businesses with foreign heritage, and class in relation to ethnicity have been discussed on the basis of social constructivism.

The globalisation of the world is believed by some to homogenise individuals from different national cultures. However, the values and norms of an individual are deeply rooted in their national culture and are therefore difficult to change. Since birth these values and norms are learnt through interaction with others within a specific national culture. The differences in values of a national culture are shown in the cornerstones of the nation. These cornerstones are language, aesthetics, religion and social institutions.

The aim of our study is to explore the empowerment process among micro-business owners in Kayamandi, a black township of Stellenbosch in South Africa. What are the positive and negative implications for the empowerment process? Another aim is to find out the role of local and international support in this process. The theoretical framework of this study revolves around the concepts of gender, power and empowerment. Our methods are qualitative interviews and observations.

Fifty employees at a local industrial company answered a questionnaire about coping strategies and personality traits. One purpose of the study was to investigate if officials and public employees used different coping strategies in stressful work situations. Another purpose of the study was to investigate if there was a relationship between the personality traits of the officials and the public employees and their chosen coping strategies. Ten Item Personality Inventory and Brief COPE were used to examine personality traits and coping strategies respectively. The results showed a difference in exhibited personality traits where conscientiousness was higher among the official employees than the public employees.

Domestic weekly magazines in Sweden are characterized by an emphasis on practical editorial material such as cooking recipes and knitting patterns, and also contain a comparatively large share of reader material. This makes it possible to study the readers through texts produced by themselves. The aim of this study of columns of readers' tips on domestic work is to analyze how readers embody a specific femininity centered around the woman as responsible for the home, in the sense of everyday maintenance as well as aesthetic development. The author defines this femininity as "home maker". The theoretical framework for the analysis is the sociological theory of Pierre Bourdieu, and Jonathan Potter's and Margaret Wetherell's model of interpretive repertoire is also used where modality is discussed.

The aim of this master?s thesis is to study the discourses on culture as developed by EU Commission. The method applied is a discoursebased historical analysis, where analysis of arguments and metaphors are functional to the enlightening of the construction of discourses within EU cultural policy. EU official documents constitute the empirical material studied. The theoretical framework of the thesis draws upon cultural public sphere theory as well instrumentalist cultural policy research.

This study was conducted on a property with a thinning machine team. The purpose was to investigate in which machine, the harvester or the forwarder, that caused most damage to the trees in six different stands. Different factors, related to the damage frequency in the stands, were checked out. For example: basal area per hectare, thinning strength, tree diameter and the rate of production. The harvester drivers were also interviewed about how, when and why stem damages occur and how to minimize them. The study stated that 4.3 percent of the trees were damaged. Out of these 88 percent was caused by the harvester and the rest, 12 percent, by the forwarder..

The purpose of this essay is to examine whether and how labor consultants, job coaches, guidance counselors promote the possibility of self-realization of the clients they encounter in their work. By analyzing, based on the theoretical framework, six semi-structured interviews of people having the chosen professions answer the questions "Do counselors promote client's opportunities for self-realization in their work?" and "If so: how is this practiced?". In the theoretical framework three important concepts are addressed: "identity", "recognition" and "self-realization". These are explained with the help of works by including Emma Engdahl, Anthony Giddens, Axel Honneth and Allison Weir.

Det här arbetet studerar med hjälp av en attitydundersökning förhållandet mellan anställdasoldater och Försvarsmakten i syfte att utveckla förståelsen för soldaters commitment till sinarbetsgivare. Frågeställningen lyder Hur ser soldaters relationer ut till arbetsgivarenFörsvarsmakten? Arbetets teoretiska grund hämtas i begreppet relationship commitment och närmare bestämtden del som benämns attitudinal commitment. Den begreppsdefinition som nyttjas bygger ihuvudsak på Meyer och Allens (1991) tre komponenter av relationship commitment, det villsäga affective commitment (känslomässig), continuance commitment (kalkylativ) ochnormative commitment (normativ). Begreppsdefinitionen inkluderar även åtta påverkansfaktorer som var och en ges en tydlig knytning till respektive komponent avrelationship commitment.

AbstractTurkey has emerged as a major actor in the Middle East over the last decade, since the ruling party AKP came to power in 2002. Turkey is now playing a mediation role in regional conflicts and has been speaking out loudly on sensitive issues such as the Iranian nuclear program and the Palestinian- Israeli conflict. Furthermore, Turkey has established close ties with the Arab world which has suffered the relationship with its long-time ally Israel. This new presence in Middle East has been criticized by Turkey's allies in west. Critics argue that the country is about to abandon its former western relationship and strengthen their ties with the Arab world instead.This thesis has two main purposes.

The purpose of this essay is to examine how administrative officers at the Swedish social insurance agency experience and deal with the goal conflicts they may experience. Furthermore, the purpose is to gain a greater understanding on how they perceive their role in the implementation process, and their position as the link between the citizens and the state. Two potential conflicts are examined; between quantitative goals and performance measures and those more qualitative and hard to measure; between economic values such as cost efficiency and productivity and democratic values such as the rule of law. The other conflict examined is that between implementing and following the laws set forth, take into account the individual needs and interests of the citizen. The theoretical framework consists of Lundquist?s theory on public officers as the guardians of democracy, which means that they should not only implement laws and rules according to political intentions, but also make sure that the democratic values and principles are followed in the relationship between state and citizen.

Trade Unions are finding it increasingly challenging to appeal to employees and all trade unions alike are encountering new challenges to attract and retain members. Additionally a more diversified and educated labor market is creating demands for trade unions to better meet individual needs. The purpose of this study was to explore and analyze the role of branding in Unionen, the largest white-collar trade union in Sweden, and how branding efforts help in attracting and retaining trade union members. The theoretical foundation of this thesis is based on theories related to corporate branding and relationship marketing. Furthermore, the study develops and introduces the concept of member branding in the context of trade unions.

The aim of this thesis is to explore how a bookstore chain and a public library meet the needs of their customers through environmental scanning. The empirical material is derived from six semi-structured interviews with six informants, three from each organization, together with an analysis of internal documents. The method used is a case study and the theoretical framework is based on models used in the process of environmental scanning, as described by Choo, Hamrefors and Hedin & Sandström among others, and which facilitate a comparison of the environmental scanning of the two organizations. The results of the study indicate that the library, as a public organization with a mission in society, perceives the environment as society as a whole and all its members as their users, whereas the bookstore concentrates on the sectors of the environment that affect their sales. The consequences of these different views are that the library is more active in the environment and uses surveys as a basic source of information, while the bookstore is more passive, and relies on statistics for information.