Many design agencies and designers like to see design as a longtime strategic investment for any company. However, knowledge of design as a strategic resource depends on ones professional background and ones knowledge of design as such. It is common today that clients meet design agencies and therefore design with a certain skepticism concerning its role in the company. Within the prodctdevelopment-process the company?s different functions meet.

The aim of this thesis is to ascertain if women are discriminated in the European Parliament, and if so, how it is expressed. Our hypothesis is that female members of the parliament suffer a kind of double discrimination. The European Parliament consists of roughly one third women, but nevertheless the discrimination does not end there. According to our hypothesis women do not have the same opportunity to influence as their male colleagues, hence the double discrimination.The results of this thesis show that women are discriminated, mainly by not gaining access to the European Union's important issues, whilst the female dominated issues are scheduled on late evening and at the end of a session week. Another unsatisfactory issue was that even though half of the reports were given by women, they only received one third of the references to their reports while men received two thirds of the references.

En viktig del till att bli en framgångsrik chef är att finna en balans mellan arbete ochfritid. Går det att finna balans mellan arbete och fritid. I det långa loppet handlar detom att orka hantera hög arbetsbelastning och krav som stundtals tenderar att spillaöver på ens fria tid. Genom teknikutvecklingen är inte längre tillgängligheten ettproblem utan problematiken ligger snarare hos individen att sätta sina egna gränser.Den här studien innefattar nio chefer från olika branscher verkade iGöteborgsområdet. Respondenterna har intervjuats där egna tankar och reflektionerkring deras balans har varit i fokus.

Intelligent IT-based solutions, often called Smart Grids, are considered to be the future balancers of renewable energy sources. One area within the Smart Grid concept is called demand response, which is focused on making customers more consumption flexible by making them more active in their consumption. In this thesis the aim is to analyze a business model by investigating the income potential for a demand response solution as well as its market potential. This has been done through literature studies, interviews and development of a computational model.The use of 5000 households with flexible consumption can provide a cost reduction of 17.2% or 2.4 million SEK for a balance responsible party during an average year. If the solution is used to make strategic bids on the regulation markets the study indicates that the largest potential for revenues lies within this strategy.

In this paper we have chosen to focus on social workers and their experiences of interacting with clients with neuropsychiatric disabilities, in example persons with ADHD (Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder), Asperger syndrome, autism and/or Tourette syndrome. The main purpose was to look into three areas: What knowledge do social workers mean that they need about neuropsychiatric disabilities and how can their needs of knowledge can be met? How do they experience the meeting with a person with neuropsychiatric disabilities? How does the cooperation function between authorities regarding persons with neuropsychiatric disabilities?Definition of the concept of disability and function from a historical perspective points out that the approach has changed over time. Previous research studies of the interaction in meeting between the client and the social worker shows that the social worker carries two faces, so called aspects. The first aspect is about help and care and the second aspect is about administrative functions.

BACKGROUND & During the last century, the Swedish chemical industry has developedPROBLEM: considerably in regard to respecting the environment. Following various discharges and pollutions during the first half of the 20th century, environmental concepts such as CSR, Responsible Care and REACH have developed in order to improve the situation. Today, environmental issues play a central role in the society, but what are the reasons behind this increased environmental commitment? PURPOSE & The purpose of this thesis paper is to study the driving forces behindDELIMITATIONS: the increased environmental awareness in companies. Is this mainly due to stricter legislations, or do factors like pressure from the general public, the industry or customers play a more vital role? Furthermore, do economic incentives exist, that make it interesting for companies to invest in environmental awareness? Since the chemical industry spans over a wide spectrum in regard to environmental issues, this paper will focus on a specific area of the industry.

Den nya globala försvarsmakten ställer nya krav, inte minst på logistikkedjan där avstånden ökar och förutsättningarna för insats inte är lika klara som under det kalla kriget. Syftet med uppsatsen är att undersöka vilka krav ur en doktrinär synvinkel som kan komma att ställas på logistikkedjan på strategisk nivå kopplat till en strategisk rörlighet vid en framtida Svensk insats. Som empiri i uppsatsen används de doktriner och reglementen som finns i Sverige och i NATO som avhandlar logistikkedjan på strategisk nivå och strategisk rörlighet. Samt en fallstudie från Operation Iraqi freedom för att exemplifiera de krav som kan komma att ställas på logistikkedjan på strategisk nivå. Uppsatsens metod är deskription och fallstudie där fallstudien exemplifierar de problem som kan komma att uppstå.

This thesis will explore how swedish Talang 2010 used their strategic communication in Kalmar and Stockholm and how the effect of this work was shown in the two cities. With a focus on how the sender was working with the external communication in the two cities, the heart of the research was studying Talang 2010?s communication strategy in these two contexts. The research was made with surveys during two audition days in Kalmar and two days in Stockholm. The competitors, the audience and the general public were answering different surveys but with the same base to study the effect.

Corporate Social Responsibility is a concept whereby companies integrate social and environmental concerns into their core business and in their interaction with stakeholders on a voluntarily basis. The purpose with our thesis is to study how Swedish insurance companies work with Corporate Social Responsibility and to analyse the underlying strategies of the companies? social, environmental and economical activities. We will analyse where, how and for whom value can be created with CSR. Where does the value creation take place, how can it be created through these activities and who will benefit from Corporate Social Responsibility? Theories point out that companies need to assemble and value the total package of benefits to be able to create successful corporate initiatives.

During the past few years an increased attention has been paid to environmental issues in the construction and property sector in Sweden. In order to simplify the work with these issues a Swedish environmental certification system for buildings called Miljöbyggnad has been developed. This thesis aims to investigate the opinion of a selected number of selected property owners of Miljöbyggnad. From that basis recommendations and actions for the future work with the system will be presented.The investigation has been conducted through personal interviews with five property owners. The main issues that the interviews have been based on are their purpose, experiences, perceived complications and future prospects in terms of certification using Miljöbyggnad.The system intends to be cost-effective, simple and to offer a relevant environmental assessment of buildings and the result from the report indicates that this is largely fulfilled.

This thesis discusses how companies work with internal marketing to increase personnel motivation and comfort, and how internal marketing and employee rewards are valued by companies? management. Issues addressed include: the link between employee satisfaction and the success of companies: how to work successfully with internal marketing: the value of different kinds of rewards for personnel: the importance of communication and information. By studying literature and theories about these issues and also interviewing personnel managers in two different companies we have learnt that companies use internal marketing with awareness and thought. We also learnt that company leaders value employee rewards very high, although there is a different in what sort of rewards they value the most..

The hypothesis of this study is that the local government act in Sweden 1862 was an instrument for the state to keep its´ political influence on the local level. It did not open for local self-government. The swedish historians Dahlkvist and Strandberg description of the Swedish local government act support this hypothesis, as does the analysis of political scientists Pettersson and Söderlind. The general opinion that the local government act opened for local self-government does still exist among many swedish historians.This study had two aims. The first was to investigate the actual extent of self-government in Borgvik, a small municipality in Sweden during the period 1861-1924.

International negotiation is the link between international planning and implementation. The ability to negotiate successfully may very well depend on the efforts being put into preparatory activities, leading to the purpose of this research, to gain a better understanding of pre-negotiation in an international context, by exploring, describing and partly explaining the process. Personal interviews were conducted with two Swedish international companies to obtain thorough information within the area. The collected data from these two cases are discussed, compared and then finally used to draw general conclusions. The study indicates the different issues that either occur or should be considered prior to the first formal meeting in an international negotiation.

During the past decade environmental challenges have been intensified and given increased attention. This implies that businesses in all sectors strategically need to manage these challenges. The service sector is often considered as a sector with a low environmental impact if the direct environmental aspects are assessed. Still, it has been argued that the environmental impact that the sector gives rise to can create severe indirect environmental impacts. The products and services that are produced by this sector have a relatively limited use of physical resources which may make the environmental impact challenging to visualize. Banks belong to the service sector and it is partly banks that make the development of societies possible.

The aim of this masters thesis is to investigate how childrens librarians deal with gender issues in their work when acquiring and mediating books to children, and how reviews in Bibliotekstjänsts Sambindning can be of help in this aspect. The thesis focuses on children between 6 and 12 years of age and their reading of fiction. Four interviews with childrens librarians and an examination of reviews in Sambindningen have been carried out. The reviews were examined both by finding out with what frequency gender issues are dealt with and by studying 20 childrens books from a gender perspective, comparing my judgement with the one they got in the reviews. The examination of Sambindningen showed that the reviews therein only sporadically bring up gender issues.