Human capital is professional service firms' most valuable resource and its quality is closely linked to the quality of its services. The purpose of this study is to investigate how professional service firms appraise their employees. A comparative study between an architecture firm and a management consulting firm is conducted with the aim to identify and explain similarities and differences in performance appraisal. Two qualitative case studies are performed and interviews as well as documents are used to explore the area. The thesis builds on a critical perspective and it has an explorative approach.

AbstractOutsourcing is a business strategy that has developed over the last 40 years. Outsourcing means to let another company do some activity within the company, for example production.The thesis for this paper is: How is outsourcing used in a manufacturing company today and how is the resource efficiency affected by it? The research is divided into two parts, a theoretical part and an empirical part. The theoretical part consists of a study of literature. The works in this study is books, text books, bachelor thesis paper and scientific articles.

Problem: Which factors affect customer satisfaction in a non-physical bank relation? Purpose: The purpose with this thesis is to study what creates customer satisfaction in a non-physical bank relation. We look at this by conducting a case study in which we studied the opinion of customers who uses the e-bank at FöreningsSparbanken. Method: We have used a qualitative data method through which we have received answers from our respondents, these we have interpreted to form information, which we have used in our analysis. In our empirical study we have used a case study in which we have chosen to interview both customers and co-workers to get an answer to our problem.

Forest biomass is becoming an increasingly important source of renewable energy, and thereby the demand is increasing. There is currently 213 000 km of forest roads in Sweden that could be suitable for biomass harvesting. Harvest of biomass along forest roads both provides biomass and maintains the quality of the roads. Currently, the volume of biomass along roads can only be assessed post harvest, chipping and industry deliverance. As the decision of whether or not to harvest should preferably be based on more than experience, the TJ-method has been proposed. The TJ-method is a subjective method to quickly determine the dry matter quantity with the assessment being conducted from the roadside.

In Sweden, the most common way to castrate a bitch is by midline approach. In this study, flank and midline approaches are compared in order to evaluate incision by the flank as an alternative technique for ovariohysterectomy in the bitch. The study was performed on straydogs in the central part of Thailand under field conditions. 32 bitches were included in the study. The castration technique was by flank and midline approach, alternating with every other bitch.

A valid arbitration agreement constitutes a bar to court proceedings as well as a prerequisite for arbitral proceedings. In NJA 2008 p. 406 and NJA 2012 p. 183, the Swedish Supreme Court applied the so-called doctrine of assertion with respect to the issue of whether a dispute should be settled by arbitration or litigation. Prior to these judgments, it was uncertain if the doctrine of assertion was applicable regarding this issue.

Different techniques for precision agriculture have been available during the last decade. Some of them are more widely used than others. The main purpose of this thesis was to investigate the different attitudes to precision agriculture that exists among farmers and advisors in Sweden. Eight advisors and sixteen farmers were asked for their opinion of a number of specific techniques for precision agriculture, such as yield-mapping, precision liming, the Yara Nitrogen Sensor and site-specific fertilization with phosphorous and potassium. They were also asked to describe the way in which the counselling in Swedish agriculture is used and also about it's importance for the adaptation of new techniques. The high costs are mentioned to be one of the most important reasons why precision agriculture hasn't been more widely spread. Several farmers refer to their farms as too small to bear the costs that come with the techniques. The individual interest for technique among the potential users plays an important role.

The purpose of this study is to investigate how the legal protection against sexual harassment at work functions, and where to draw the line. The study is limited to focus on the sexual harassment directed at women from men, because it usually occurs that way even though only a few report the incidents. The results are discussed from a gender perspective on how the distribution of power is between men and women as a way to explain sexual harassment.Sexual harassment is currently protected by the discrimination law and the EU principle of equal treatment for men and women. For a behavior to be considered as sexual harassment it has to be unwanted by the receiving party and the person practicing the harassments must be aware that the behavior is perceived as offensive. The behavior shall be of a sexual nature and contribute to a disadvantage for the victim in the form of a violation of that persons integrity.It is the victim that determines whether the behavior is perceived as sexual harassment or not, what one person believes is a friendly behavior may be perceived as offensive by another.

Delirium är ett vanligt tillstånd på intensivvårdsavdelningen (IVA) och forskning visar attpatienter som drabbas av delirium har högre mortalitet, längre vårdtider på sjukhus och sänktlivskvalitet lång tid efter vårdtiden. Det finns olika former av delirium: hyperaktivt,hypoaktivt och blandformer. Den vanligaste formen, hypoaktivt delirium, är lätt att feltolkasom översedering eller depression. Att använda sig av bedömningsinstrument kan göra attdelirium upptäcks tidigare och att patienten snabbare får adekvat vård, vilket kan lindraförloppet. Det har utvecklats olika instrument för att bedöma om patienterna har delirium.Syftet med denna studie var att undersöka om användandet av CAM-ICU (ConfusionAssessment Method for Intensive Care Unit - ett bedömningsinstrument av delirium) är ettanvändbart mätinstrument för sjuksköterskan att upptäcka delirium hos patienter som vårdaspå IVA.

The purpose of this study was to look into the work of care organizers for elderly care, in three municipalities in southern Sweden, and how they use the law and local guidelines to evaluate the need for home care. The intention was to determine if presence of relatives makes a difference in the needs assessment and if the care organizers practice harmonize with the guidelines. To do this, we did a qualitative study alongside with analyzing each of the local guidelines. By interviewing five care organizers, we were able to see their side of elderly care and how they combine the law and local guidelines in their daily work with elderly care. Our main themes are, in short, the law and local guidelines, the view of care organizing and needs and also closeness to relatives.

Regardless of what discipline nurses work in, wound care is one of the tasks. Caring for wounds involves early detection of signs of infection, in order to avoid complication. Wound infection extends suffering for the patient and causes unnecessary costs for society. The aim was to describe how nurses can identify infection in wounds. Method: The design of the study was a literature review, where13 scientific articles were examined and analyzed.

The Third International Assessment of Educational Progress (TIMMS) and the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) during the last decades regarding the results of mathematics teaching shows that China have a better performance than Sweden?s.Swedish teacher-guidelines focus on developing student?s individual interest and confidence for mathematics. In the Chinese teaching-guidelines for Mathematics Curriculum Standards, Ordninary Senior Secondary, the focus is given on: Elevate their mathematics literacy necessary for future citizenship and Development of citizen´s qualities (s.3).Teachers are the primary factors that impact teaching and learning of mathematics. Two teachers from Sweden and two from China were interviewed and their methods were compared in my study. The aim of my study was to understand mathematics teaching in China and Sweden.

The present project is a first step towards a new Swedish assessment tool to examine phonological ability in preschool-aged children. The work consisted of developing a word list with words that was considered to reveal a child?s phonological ability and to try out the word list on pre-school children. The reason was to make sure that the words existed in the vocabulary of the children in the chosen ages. A word list consisting of 109 words, which convey relevant phonological information, was created.

I följande studie kommer rekryterings- och utvecklingsmetoden Assessment Center (AC) attstuderas. Syftet med studien är att utifrån verksamma organisationers erfarenhet av AC skapa en ökad förståelse för; metodens innebörd, vilka argument som ligger till grund förorganisationers användande av metoden samt dess värde för organisationer. Studien är avkvalitativ karaktär och fokus fästs vid tolkning och förståelse av AC baserat pårespondenternas subjektiva uppfattningar och upplevelser. Studiens teoretiska referensrambehandlar; Human Resource Management, rekrytering, personalekonomi, Talent Management och Assessment Center. Empiri har samlats från sex verksamma organisationer, varav fem organisationer vilka arbetar med AC samt en organisation som har påvisat ett eventuellt intresse av att utveckla ett AC.

The real estate industry is a sector where the companies generally have a capital structure which is high leveraged. The financing? with the related terms ? is therefore specifically of high importance for the companies in the sector. Traditionally, the way of obtain financing is by borrowing from the bank. Lately, due to new bank regulations, the banks have become more restrictive in their lending which have lead to a growth of other financing alternatives.