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The conditions for formal leadership in knowledge-intensive firms make it advantageous to have a leader with a withdrawn role.

Syftet med denna studie var att undersöka hur genus skapas och upprätthålls hos barn i ung ålder som går i förskolan. Vi har valt att fokusera på två olika förskoleavdelningar för att analysera hur personalen talar med barnen, men även hur barnen kommunicerar i leken. Två avdelningar på samma förskola, som arbetar med barn i åldrarna tre till fem år, observerades och intervjuer utfördes med fyra förskolepersonaler. De centrala delarna i undersökningen är hur det biologiska könet upprätthåller könsrollerna, och den konflikt som då uppstår mellan de olikheter som det biologiska könet bär med sig och arbetet kring könsneutraliseringen. Undersökningen syftar även på hur pojkar och flickor kategoriseras in i olika roller och hur dessa isärhålls och hur ojämlikheten upprätthålls, men också hur den hierarkiska ordningen ser ut samt om dessa stereotypa könsroller går att motverka.

This essay focuses on tourists' information seeking. The main focus was to examine whether there is a connection between how the informants in different tourist styles the different tourist styles are presented by Eva Wolf as the tourist of recreation, action, culture, compromise, and individualism seek information to their forthcoming vacation. The result was reached through a qualitative method, where ten informants with various tourist Roles were interviewed separately. The informants were chosen by personal contacts. In addition to these interviews, three representatives from the tourist industry were contacted and interviewed by e-mail.

For over 40 years, there's been a debate in Sweden of whether it's good or bad with maintenance therapy for heroin addicts. This method is far more acknowledged in other parts of Europe and in USA. The aim of this paper was to explore how public actors manifest their thoughts concerning the subject of the substitution program in Sweden. This approach includes the complex of problems that can be found in statements and the discourses that these operators stand for and support. In my analysis the philosophical thread was principally based on Michael Foucault ideas, but also on other theories related to social constructionism.

This study focuses on the use of animals in social work from the perspective of social workers. The purpose of this study is to examine social workers? experiences of animal assisted social work and how social workers view the integration of animals in various fields of social work. The research is based on a qualitative method and four semi-structured interviews were conducted with social workers. The theories incorporated in the study are Attachment Theory and Sense of Coherence (SOC).The following results are presented: Social workers are considered to have a more comprehensive understanding of clients compared to their associates who do not hold a degree in Social Work.

AbstractA Vindication of the Rights of Woman was written by Mary Wollstonecraft. It was published in 1792 and as the titel reveals it dicusses what kind of rights women ought to have. Several authors, who have argued that women should not have the same rights as men, are mentioned in the book. One of them is Rousseau. His thoughts about different education for girls and boys are shown in Émile.

Elderly couples have a right to live together. On June 1st 2006 the Swedish government extended couples? rights, granting special consideration to elderly partners to enable them to receive care in the same home. But what happens if only one of them is eligible for care? This paper has studied how elderly couples were affected in situations where one partner was unable to continue living at home, and what measures could be taken to improve their situation.

Background: The Waldorf school was founded by Rudolf Steiner during the early nineties in Austria. The pedagogy is established in the antrophosofical sight of humanity, which contains focus on three watchwords when it comes to teaching. These are the will, the feeling and the thought. Purpose: The aim of this study is to investigate how teachers in three Waldorf schools are working during to the curriculum and to bring out the differences and the similarities with the municipal school. This essay is focusing on four themes and theories; artistic learning processes, gender, multimedia and environment.Method: In order to investigate this kind of teaching I choose interviewing as a method, specifically semi structured interviews. Four teachers at three different schools in Stockholm county was interviewed.

The purpose of this essay was first and foremost to find out the problems that exist around user education in a university library and the opportunities that exist for university librarians to improve their work with students. My method of use was qualitative and more precise qualitative interviews. By interviewing five teaching librarians with five different subject specializations, I wanted to get an an-swer to what they teach when they meet the students and how they view their teaching. Responses resulted then in an analysis using Christine Bruce's theory of information literacy and Carol C. Kuhlthaus theory of librarian Roles and her theory of information retrieval process.

This thesis examines what and in which language young people in Sweden with other linguistic backgrounds than Swedish read, as well as if they have access to the literature that they demand, how they use the library and what kind of role the library plays to them. The chosen method was quantitative and it consisted of a questionnaire as this method is useful in quantifying phenomena, which is the purpose of this thesis. The investigation shows that the studied population is bilingual. I hope that the thesis points out the range of the problems and that these issues need to be solved within the society and not the within the family. We need to make use of the resources of the young immigrants, as their cultural competence, in some cases even bi-cultural competence, can be useful for the Swedish society.

In this report female farmers use of technical equipment is investigated. There is little research made on this subject in Sweden, therefore this report can be seen as an explorative study. Research makes it clear that machinery, throughout history and even today, has been seen as a male area. Heavy machines are often associated with the same attributes as masculinity. Force, power, efficiency and control are some examples.

This report will outline a proposal for the improvement of the baggage sorting facility at Arlanda airport. Swedavia is a state owned company group that operates, owns and develops airports in Sweden. One of their main Roles is to create accessibility needed to facilitate and streamline the work at the airport.Swedavia is constantly working to develop new solutions and enhancements that will help to standardize and automate the work at airports without major impact on climate and above all adapt these solutions to work.The project has been aimed to identify and isolate the problem at the check-in counter, investigate the possibility of setting a speed control on the DC motor driving the luggage conveyer belt at the check-in desk so that the luggage does not lose tracking already there, as well as evaluate the new sorting systems planned to be introduce in the upcoming refurbishment of the sorting area.To determine the parameters that are used to regulate the speed of the baggage conveyor belt, information about the inputs and outputs that participated in the process was gathered. Information was collected both practically and theoretically. Process was followed and monitored by the supervisor of the company, and a theoretical study was done separately on my own.

This thesis aims to explain the emergence of the Common Foreign and Security Policy of the European Union, and its institutional shaping, by using elements of Neofunctionalism and Liberal Intergovernmentalism.Using Neofunctionalism, the Common Foreign and Security Policy can be explained both as a side-effect of Europe's economic integration, and as a way to maintain the former and the European Union's position as an economic superpower. The institutional shaping is a result of lack of convergence between important national interests. Therefore it rests on a firm intergovernmental base, with rigorously limited use of supranational decision-making.For Liberal Intergovernmentalism, geopolitics and ideology, and to a certain level log-rolling, have played important Roles. The reunification of Germany convinced France to form an alliance between the two countries. France, determined to achieve an economic and monetary union, thus offered Germany a political union, including a Common Foreign and Security Policy on intergovernmental terms.

The aim of this study is to describe how a theme about vitamins and analytical chemistry can be planed and implemented in a summer research school managed by AstraZeneca. The description of the theme is intended to be used as an instructor?s guide to upcoming summers-research-schools with the same theme. The students, which participated in the summer school of 2007, went to upper secondary school. During the summer school they were going to investigate the content of vitamin C in different fruits and vegetables.

The purpose of this thesis is to form an idea about the qualitative value and meaning of reading fiction in a psychological perspective and over a lifetime. Seven women, 68-79 years old, were interviewed about their reading habits of fiction in their lifetime. The material is presented as life stories. I use an inter-nordic research project called the SKRIN project which looks upon reading habits from an individualistic and psychological perspective. I also refer to an American study which focus on reading development with Roles readers take in different ages of life written by J A Appleyard.