The executives of a firm possess considerable influence over a company's financial reports. The numbers can be adjusted in a favorable direction by engaging in Earnings Management, which harms the reliability of the financial reporting. Previous research suggests that Earnings Management can differ between genders. In recent years the debate about a woman's role in the business world has received generous attention in media. Moreover, the presence of women in leading positions has become a relevant issue for firms.

The purpose of this study was to examine earnings quality and earnings management in U.S. ex-post failed firms. A quantitative study was made, using the Modified Jones Model, to identify abnormal accruals up to six years before bankruptcy. 9 003 continuing firms and 187 bankrupt firms, active sometime between 1990 and 2010, were examined. The study concludes that U.S.

This thesis presents a new way of providing library users with reference services, namely chat (text based digital reference service in real time). Our research questions focus on the role of reference service, a comparison of chat reference to other reference forms, and the interest for real-time, digital reference. Our literature review covered the areas of digital reference and reference theory, the results of which showed that an ongoing debate hardly exists among Swedish librarians on the topic of reference work. We interviewed librarians from the three different Swedish chat reference projects existing at the time of our study. Most interviewees were very positive about chat reference.

The purpose of this study was to investigate how social workers who worked with financial assistance perceived their work situation and the impact work-related stress had on their health and quality of work. Further, the study intended to find out if they felt that they received support from their employer that could prevent stress-related sick leave. The following two research questions were to be answered: In what way does work-related stress affect social workers? health and job quality according to their own experience? What kind of support and help experienced social workers were available within their organization? To receive answers to the questions semi-structured interviews with five social workers were conducted, analyzed and interpreted. The results showed that when social workers have a heavy case burden, high stress and a risk of deteriorated job quality occurred.

The main subject with this master thesis is to take a closer look on how some of the university libraries of Gothenburg have evaluated their electronic services (such as search-systems, Internet-based services, CD-ROM etc.). The information technology has made its way into the library field during the past century and needs to be evaluated and quality measured to ensure the best possible service to the users. Since evaluation of electronic services is a new area in the evaluation field, some problems has arisen in terms of choosing evaluation strategies and finding the appropriate performance indicators for the evaluation process. The main questions asked in the thesis are; - Which are the most common theoretical strategies for evaluation? - How do some of the university libraries of Gothenburg perform evaluation in practice? - How does the various strategies for evaluation apply to the context of this thesis? The results show that specific strategies for evaluation aren't used in the reports discussed in this thesis.

The purpose of this study was to understand what the care recipients considering as care quality in their long-term eldercare. Our intention has been to contribute a bit to the development of the care work. Previous studies show that user surveys are carried out regularly but there is very few studies that are based on care recipients own opinions and experiences. The main questions in the study have been to examine what is considered as good elder care from a user perspective. Even to understand the characteristics of a good meeting with the care staff and also examine how the elder care in Nybro municipality can improve.

The study reported has been conducted in care service guided by the Swedish law LSS( LSS- act concerning support and service for the disabled). The aim of this study is to examine the experiences of the personnel who have attended the Taktipro introductory course with special focus on how they describe the possible effects this may have had on their daily attendance to their special needs users.The method used is a qualitative method of enquiry, based on interview questions sent by mail to all the participants of the Taktipro introductory course. The result shows that the personnel have a positive view on skills in progress and that this program has facilitated the contact between personnel and their special needs users. An awareness about the importance of physical contact has also been revealed as well as an awareness of their own impact on situations at work. The result also indicates that the personnel feel that they have been able to improve the well being for the special needs users. .

Denna uppsats har sin utgångspunkt i den tekniska evolution som har skett i affärssystemens värld. Syftet var att undersöka och beskriva implementat-ionsfasen av ett Enterprise Resource Planning System som tillhandahålls som en tjänst via internet. Fokus var att identifiera framgångsfaktorer för implementationen med hjälp av ett fallstudiebaserat tillvägagångssätt där tonvikt legat på intervjuer och andrahandsmaterial. Undersökningen visade att bland annat valet av ett för organisationen passande system, en omfattande verksamhetsanalys, implementeringshjälp av konsulter samt anpassning av affärsprocesser är viktiga faktorer för en framgångsrik implementation. Därtill såg vi att en tydlig projektplan, en Project Champion och dedikerade resurser också var viktiga faktorer för framgång..

Forestry is an important industry in Sweden, with clear-cut as the most commonly used method for harvesting. Here the long-term impact of clear-cut on lake water quality (dissolved organic carbon (DOC), nitrogen, phosphorus and pH) has been investigated, based on 23 lakes sampled during autumn. Data for additional 15 lakes sampled for the Swedish monitoring program were also used. Lakes were classified as 5, 25, 40 and 60 year based on data of the forest age in the catchment, gathered from the Swedish national forest inventory. Clear-cut lakes were classified as 5 years (>20% of the catchment clear-cut during the last 10 years).

The aim of this study was to describe how adolescents experiences their quality of life, and tocompare if there are any differences in how they experiences their QOL depending on wherethey live, big town or smaller town. The aim was also to examine how adolescentsexperienced their schooling. The study is empirically, quantitative with a descriptive andcomparative design. To measure quality of life a tried and tested instrument ? LifeSatisfaction Questionnaire (LSQ) was used.

This report presents the results of a thesis in which the department PL Hus at Grontmij AB isstudied. The study has been done in order to locate problem areas in order to streamline andimprove the quality of working. The study was done by an engineering student from theDepartment of Industrial Management at KTH on behalf of Grontmij AB. The project extendedover a period of 20 weeks during spring 2011.In addition to the Department itself has two project managers in two different projects beenfollowed. The method used has been participant observation and was used to be able to comeclose to reality and thus find problem areas where there are opportunities for development.Validation was made through comments and opinions from workers at Grontmij AB, afterreading the reports analysis.Based on a system and holistic approach has parallels been drawn to the production systems suchas TPS (Toyota Production System) and lean production.

Companies in the western world can no longer compete by using traditional means such as product and price since the commerce of services continually grows. To avoid similarity and increase competitive advantages modern companies have to be more specified. The competition between companies has increased and customers are harder to reach. Customers of today can afford luxury but trend indicates that originality, identity, and status are more important than factual needs. Products created and consumed at the same time within the service market are often very homogenous (similar).

On a highly competitive market, quality is an important aspect to take into account, both in terms of goods and services. The Swedish timber market is very competitive and to achieve long-term success focus on the customer, in this case private forest owners, is a prerequisite. SCA Skog AB Jämtlands forest management administration is dependent on the acquisition of timber from private forest owners to fulfil their mission to the supply of SCA's paper and sawmills in Sweden with raw material. To be able to develop the cooperation with private forest owners, the administration investigates their quality management by measuring the customer satisfaction index (CSI). The purpose of the study was to identify a practical and systematic method to handle deviations and suggestions for improvements to achieve a higher customer satisfaction.

The aim of our study is to explore which norms that exists in the home care service, who is sending those norms, how are they maintained and how do they affect the interactions between staff and manager? We want to deep en our knowledge about home care service as an organization and increase our understanding for the psychosocial work environment and also the importance of leadership. We mean to read the organizational culture that exists which allows us to deal with the values that influence the behavior in the organization.The study is based on a qualitative method. The data consists of two focus group interviews, one with managers from the home care service - organization and one with staff from the same organization. T he interview with the managers consisted of five participants and the corresponding figure for the second interview with the staff was eight participants.The theoretical viewpoints have been communication - theory, organizational theory and Foucault´s th eory of power.Our result indicate that norms are something that unconsciously controls us and that we have learned that there are consequences when you step out of what is normative for the group.

Denna rapport handlar om utveckling av administratörsfunktioner för applikationen QuickPick som är ett värdesystem för ett lager. I dagsläget finns det inga funktioner för användaren att sortera, gruppera eller filtrera vyinställningar i applikationen. De som använder systemet får kontakta Qsys Sverige AB, där detta uppdrag är utfört, för att ändra vyinställningar manuellt. Rapporten behandlar teori om hur ett lager är uppbyggt, hur man programmerar på ett generellt sätt så att det blir enklare att fortsätta utveckla funktionen. Teorin behandlar också hur man på ett användarvänligt sätt skapar ett system för en administratör.Funktionerna kommer att finnas i en webbportal tillgänglig för administratören och är utvecklat i C# och ASP.NET.