When the Tsunami occurred on Boxing Day 2004 it caused a major stress upon the governmental agencies in not only the affected areas but also in states that had a large number of citizens in the affected area. The governmental agencies were not prepared for the demands from the citizenry in these countries to deal with rescue and crisis management in areas situated halfway around the globe. This thesis main purpose is to research what the causal mechanisms of Sweden?s and Finland?s crisis management were through the method of process tracing. Taking its theoretical stance in Allison?s & Zelikow?s three models of decision making, the thesis compares the course of events of the first two critical days in Sweden and Finland to establish what mistakes were made during this critical period.

Att det idag finns flera metoder och modeller för att fatta beslut är inte konstigt då beslutsfattande sker varje dag och i vissa sammanhang kan ge ödesdigra konsekvenser om det blir fel. Denna kandidatuppsats kan ses som en förstudie för hur naturligt beslutsfattande skulle kunna stödjas genom en förbättrad utbildning till beslutsfattare. Uppsatsen ämnar behandla naturligt beslutsfattande och intuition hos experter inom räddningstjänsten, närmare bestämt om de använder intuition och i så fall vad som ligger till grund för denna intuition. Intervjuer utfördes på räddningstjänsten i Motala efter critical decision method som är framtagen för cognitive task analysis. Inom räddningstjänsten använder sig befälen av intuition när de tar det flesta av sina beslut i fält.

According to the Conventions on the Rights of the Child, children have the right to make their voices heard and express their opinion in situations concerning them. With this paper the authors have chosen to explore social worker?s view?s on children?s participation and influence, and how these are manifested through the entire case process. The focus in this study has also been the positive and negative effects the children?s influence may have.To investigate this, a qualitative study using semi-structured interviews has been conducted.

The purpose of this thesis has been to explore the topic of business simulation from a theoretical foundation in social constructivism and theories concerning leadership as the management of meaning. The most important findings are that business simulation can be used for strategical leadership by management to create a common vision in the organisation members, which affects their perception of the business and the decisions and actions they make, which in turn can lead to a more efficient organisation that becomes better at meeting set goals. This can be viewed in different ways from different theoretical viewpoints: as inducing targeted changes in mental models to create changes in decision making and actions; as a secondary socialization process where the vision of management is externalized as a business simulation that is in turn internalized by the organisation members that participate in the business simulation, or as a way to frame and define the reality of the organisational members which creates a shared reference point against which a feeling of organisation and direction can emerge. In the future, business simulations may become increasingly used by organizations to create a common vision or to communicate a new decision to the organization members..

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 was to enlighten social workers experiences of social networks direct influence in Swedish social services, and in which ways those influences are manifested. Some of the issues that are being explored in this study are: The separation of the private sphere and professional duties; boundaries and dual relationships that occurs inside social networks; the use of social networks as a control-instrument in authority exercise towards clients; and social networks arising impact on social work. The empirical material was collected with nine qualitative interviews with social workers stationed at different social service departments in a Swedish municipality. Also one qualitative e-survey was sent out to, and answered by four social workers with a managerial position in the same municipality.The results reveal that several informants have experienced different problematic situations involving clients within the social networks. This study shows that the informants are very restrictive with what information (text and pictures) they publish on their facebook-profiles, because of their position of authority and the awareness of the possibility of always being watched.

Municipalities are steered organizations with a democratic decision-making. They are responsible for an extensive activity. The local municipal audit is the municipal council?s tool to control that the activity operates. The local municipal audit will in the beginning of every audit period plan for what they will review.

This paper examines, through questionnaire, how young students in upper secondary school in Malmo experience social integration. It also contain what they think should be done in order to improve the integration between youth that are ethnic Swedish and youth that have a foreign background. To understand the subject we started with a review over Swedish integration politic and its influence over Malmo and social integration in the country. We have used such theoretical starting points as identity and ethnicity in relations to the social surroundings, social affinity theory and flexible mindedness, making of groups among youth and factors to promote social integration. Our conclusion is that the experience of social integration between the two groups depends on how you experience yourself.

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Title Becoming involved in the planning process - from the construction workers perspective.University/Institution Halmstad UniversityKeywordsEmpowerment through participation, construction workers involvement in decision making in the planning process, knowledge management and communication in the planning process, partnering, human resource managementAimThe aim of this bachelor thesis is to provide knowledge and examine how construction workers perceive involvement in the planning process of partnering projects, what they can contribute and what they get out of the planning process.Methodology The study was conducted with a qualitative approach in the form of semi-structured interviews.          The interview studie consist of 10 interviews with construction workers who are specially educated in participating in the planning process at the company ByggDialog AB.ConclusionAll respondents are positive to be involved in the planning process. The main advantages they can see is that they are able to influence technical solutions and methods that will be used later on in the production. Therefore it is important to consider when construction workers should be involved in the planning process so that they get the chance to influence in this decisions.When it comes to the decision making the construction workers should be involved in the decisions that are related to their tasks in the production such as technical solutions, choice of methods and materials. Their main duties and working hours should be in the production.Involvement in planning does not automatically mean that the construction workers are involved in the decision making, it is up to them how much they participate.

AbstractTitle: Equalis quality assures the communication. A qualitative study of superiors and co-workers view on the internal communication.Number of pages: 39 (42 including enclosures)Author: Ia AppelbergTutor: Else NygrenCourse: Media and Communication Studies CPeriod: Autumn term 2010University: Division of Media and Communication, Department of Information Science, Uppsala UniversityPurpose: Superiors and co-workers view on the internal communication is studied with the purpose to identify whether their opinions correspond with one another, and what differences and similarities there might be.Method: This study is based on qualitative interviews with superiors and co-workers, and complements with the use of observations.Main results: The results indicate that superiors and co-workers agree on several aspects of the communication, such as the fact that the organizational communication is disorderly and lack clear rules and guidelines. Superiors believe that the organization has a corresponding view on the internal communication, while co-workers are convinced this is not the case. This despite the fact that the results in the end show that both groups overall have very similar opinions on several of the elements in question. Another mutual opinion is that both groups wish to receive more information about current events and such.

The concept of sustainable development is a challenge that demands cooperation from all levels of society for it to be successful. The focus for this thesis is how politicians within the local councils understand the concept of sustainable development and how they implement it in political decision-making.The basis for the study is a questionnaire that was distributed to 303 local politicians in three municipalities of varying size in Southern Sweden. The study concentrates on departments within the local councils that are directly connected to the Swedish environmental law and the Swedish planning and construction law. One of the primary goals with the aforementioned laws is the achievement of sustainable development within one generation.The outcome of the study was that over half of the local politicians could correctly define sustainable development according to the World Commission on Environment and Development?s (WCED) definition.

Problems:How would a decision model that takes into account more aspects and dimensions than just the financial aspect look for smaller service compa-nies? What aspects are important to consider in such a decision model?Purpose:The purpose of this master thesis is to develop a decision model based on previous research, to improve decision making in smaller service com-panies ? by considering perspectives that traditional investment calcula-tions ignore.Method:The study was qualitative and was based on both primary and secondary data. As data collection method for the development of the model we used literature search on previous research. The study?s primary data consisted of responses from five smaller service companies.

A current debate is going on in Sweden about the health-care organization, how it is structured today and how it should be structured in the future. Despite major changes in the county council structures, they still got problems with for instance economy and the providing of staff. As an answer to these problems new solutions are being developed.In this thesis I examine such a solution consisting of cooperation between county councils. The aim of the thesis is to examine how and why the county councils in Sörmland and Västmanland have made a decision regarding cooperation over the administrative border.My contribution is to construct a model over change and decision processes that can be used in other cases as well. The conclusion is partly that the decision to cooperate is built on changing structural factors, such as economy, demography and medical development.

The purpose of this study is to examine how risk is perceived by the urban architect's in the region Dalarna, as well as how this is reflected in their everyday work with risk and decision- making according to urban planning. The ambition is also to show how their risk awareness could be improved. The study is written in cooperation with Länsstyrelsen Dalarna as a part of their regional long-term goal to improve the region's proactive risk' and crisis management. The study is based upon 12 semi-structured interviews with local urban architects conducted during the summer and autumn 2007. The result shows that some architects are motivated for working with risk and think that risk awareness should be integrated in their everyday work, while others are not motivated and think that risk is more of a passing trend.