The main purpose of this Master?s thesis is to do a benchmarking study of the marketing activities at the public library of Valdemarsvik. The purpose is also to describe and get a deeper understanding of benchmarking as a method for improving library activity. Four major problem areas are addressed: How can one use benchmarking as a tool to achieve change? How can one learn with benchmarking? What similarities and differences are there between benchmarking and other similar methods for competence development? Is benchmarking better than other similar methods for competence development? The empirical approach was qualitative and the method chosen was action research.

This master thesis concerns the subject of a reference service named Book-a-librarian. The service makes it possible for the library-user to indulge in a subject with the help of a librarian after having made an appointment in advance. The main purpose of this thesis is to study the function of it. The methods used are a mix of literature and empirical studies to be able to comprehend and explain the practical nature of the service as well as placing the service in a theoretical framework. The empirical study is performed by a questionnaire, where librarians working with the service are asked to participate.

The thesis is aiming to investigate what happens in the customer-service worker interaction when the service worker is wearing religious attributes. In order to operationalize this the Muslim head scarf, hijab, is chosen as stimuli. Reviewing previous research and theory in this field, it is clear that people have a preference for people that they perceive to be like themselves, this is referred to as homophily. Further on, the study investigates the ethnicity dimension of the service worker customer interaction. Theoretical areas of attractiveness and color are also investigated.

In this study we have examined the possible quality standards and methods for applications with service workshops in the forest industry. The purpose of the methods presented here was to start the work of standarardising the maintenance service in the industry and be of use for service providers in their quality effort.The methods we used to accomplish the study were interviews and field visits together with a comprehensive literature research. Our results are presented in the form of four solution proposals: a standard based on existing SIS standards for terminology and key indicators, checklists that are filled in by mechanics with customer participation, the construction of a instructions database, and the implementation of the method 5s.We believe our suggestions can help the service providers in the four problem areas that we have identified: long term strategy, documentation, recruitment of competent technicians, and standard procedures in their operations. These improvements will be beneficial for both the service provider and the customer..

Uppsatsen skrevs i samband med Konsumentverket och undersöker hurKarlstadsbuss använder sig av service recovery i sitt dagliga arbete.Service recovery innebär att så fort en kund upplevt något negativt i samband med ett företagsmöte så ska denne få återkoppling i form av en ursäkt, pengar tillbaka eller någon annan typ av förmån. Lyckas företaget ge kunden detta så fort som möjligt så förhindrar det att kunden får en negativ bild av företaget som den sprider vidare till personer i sin omgivning.För att få djupare kunskap i ämnet har tidigare teorier om klagomålshantering, service recovery och hur företag kan motivera sina anställda till att vara mer serviceinriktade studerats.Syftet med den här uppsatsen är att studera hur service recovery används i ett kollektivtrafikföretag och hur det tillämpas i hela organisationen.Först studerades teorier inom ämnet och sedan gjordes en empirisk undersökning, uppsatsen är med andra ord uppbyggd enligt den deduktiva strategin..

This study examined if individuals act in a less discriminating way and in a more fair way when they receive instructions about justice and not being discriminating while recruiting. 96 randomly assigned students at the University of Lund participated in this study. The participants were informed that they would act as a recruiter. They would then choose and place three of the best personal record in order of preference. There were three different kinds of company policies/instructions.

My aim is to examine the special form of interaction between users of the shut-in service and the responsible librarians. My purpose is to examine how mediating of literature can be pictured in correlation with shut-in services. How do librarians describe their experiences of the shut-in service? What roles of mediating can be perceived? How can interaction interpreted in the context of the shut-in service?The material was acquired by doing qualitative interviews of five librarians who works with shut-in service. This study is based on the theory of Åse Kristine Tveit.

There are several methods avaliable to find areas of interest, but most fail at detecting such areas in cluttered scenes. In this paper two methods will be presented and tested in a qualitative perspective. The first is the darg operator, which is used to detect three dimensional convex or concave objects by calculating the derivative of the argument of the gradient in one direction of four rotated versions. The four versions are thereafter added together in their original orientation. A multi scale version is recommended to avoid the problem that the standard deviation of the Gaussians, combined with the derivatives, controls the scale of the object, which is detected.

The aim for this study was to find out what strategies women use to not react against inequality and sexist prejudice. In the study I used a critical realistic approach through, primary, the social ontology presented by Margaret S. Archer. The study focus on both the women?s construction of femininity and their construction of masculinity and what directions it constitutes for the women?s social orientation.

Service Design is a relatively new, unexplored and exciting phenomenon that through an interdisciplinary work methodology designs services. A discussion has been going on for a long time regarding whether there is a difference between products and services. Services are often classified as immaterial, heterogeneous, non-storable and inseparable in relation to products. A question that arises is if something specific characterises the work methodology used regarding service design. The aim with this paper is thus to explain the work methodology when working with service design.

The purpose of this essay was to find out how leaders in micro service firms practice HRM and identify which HRM related problems they experience in their leadership. A case study consisting two cases was carried out. The study has shown that leaders in micro service firms use a highly personalised, informal management and involve their employees in the firm?s development. The findings were that leaders of micro service firms do not have any theoretical knowledge of HRM practises because of lack of education.

The debate about women and equality is a very burning issue in the Swedish society today. There are a lot of articles, TV-programs, books and web sites treating the position of female leaders today. There are also a lot of myths strongly attached to our minds hindering the equalization process between men and women.The main purpose of our study was to look at women as leaders and identify potential tendencies in businesses sectors dominated by mainly men or women. We also wanted to find out whether leadership behavior is more or less oriented towards relations- or task in any of the chosen sectors. It was even in our interest to see if our chosen respondents supported the myths in our society about male and female qualities.We interviewed 20 women in four different sectors, two dominated by men (Computer/It, Transport) and two dominated by women (School, Healthcare).

Studien processinriktat och resultatinriktat motivationsklimat på svenska och spanska högstadieskolor undersöker skillnader och likheter inom processinriktat och resultatinriktat klimat. I denna studie undersöks det hur dessa två klimat ser ut på svenska och spanska skolor och detta ur svenska och spanska idrottslärares perspektiv. I studien används Nicholls (1989) teori om de två motivationsklimaten. Empirin är inhämtad via semistrukturerade intervjuer med idrottslärare på tre svenska och tre spanska högstadieskolor. Detta i kombination med Nicholls (1989) teori och andra modeller, ligger till grund för den senare gjorda analysen.

The aim of this essey was to find out what kind of help problem gamblers can get at social service offices in the region Västra Götaland in Sweden. We also examined the knowledge regarding gambling problems at social sevice offices and who the head of the social service offices regarded having the responsibility for the question of helping problem gamblers. As a last question we wanted to know if the size of the population in the community had an impact on these questions. Central questions in our essey asked are:How much help does the social service offices in the region Väsra Götaland offer problem gamblers? Who has the responsabilety to help problem gamblers according to social service offices?What knowledge does the social service offices have concerning problem gambling?Does the population of the community have an impact on theese questions?This is a quantitative study made as a webbservey to the head of the social service offices in the region Västra Götaland.

Syftet med studien var att ta reda på om ungdomar vet skillnaden mellan public service och kommersiella kanaler. Vi ville även ta reda på vad det är som skiljer public service och kommersiella kanaler åt i medvetandet hos ungdomarna, som speglas ireceptionen av olika typer av serier?I studien har vi tillämpat kvalitativ metod i form av receptionsforskning, där intervjuer och observationer har utförts.Resultatet av studien visar att 20 av 25 respondenter tillhörde kategorierna: respondent medveten samt respondent något medveten. Resultaten visar att ungdomar är medvetna om vad skillnaden mellan public service och kommersiella kanaler är. De diskuterar ledigt och öppet kring de olika kanalernas programutbud.