The purpose of this Master Thesis was to study the reader in the informal reading group. To fulfil our purpose we have used the following questions: how did the reader become a reader and what does her reading look like, why do people choose to participate in a reading group, how may the group influence the individual member in her reading and interpretation of a book, does the reading group have a therapeutic function, how does the informant find the group dynamics and different roles in the reading group, and finally how does the informant experience the discussion in the reading group. We have used two studies about reading groups, one by Elizabeth Long and one by Jenny Hartley. Our theory is divided into reading and group psychology. We have interviewed seven women belonging to different reading groups.

Background: How do leaders act during organisational changes which involve downsizing? The leader often ends up in focus during these processes. These issues are by no means recently developed. Already the medieval author Machiavelli wrote about leaders? problems with leading changes.

This qualitative study is aimed to explore the leaders? experiences of difficult conversations in their work. We have examined if they take on a different role during the difficult conversations and how communication can affect their leadership during the conversation. We have also examined the importance of the leaders? ability to distance themselves from the sensitive subject and situation, to maintain their role as leaders.

The forgotten group: A study of support for relatives of incarcerated individuals. The daily lives of relatives of an incarcerated individual are affected and changed by the fact that their kin has become incarcerated. This made us want to research what kind of support these individuals are in need of and what kind of support the society is offering them today. Because of their kins behaviour, these individuals are also often exposed to feelings of shame and stigma. Therefore we have, with Goffmans theory of stigma in mind, looked into how this affects the relatives daily lives.

Continuous improvement is one of five principles in General Motors ? Global Manufacturing System (GM-GMS). GM-GMS has been used by Saab Automobile AB since 2003 and is a central component for realisation of GM?s vision. Internal audits have discovered problems with one of the tools, practical problem solving (PPS), which needs to be improved.

Support group activities for children with mentally ill parent´s, without a parallel parent group, is by far the most common form in Sweden. The activities have primarily focused on increasing the frequency of the protective factors around children. Of course, parents and the families are also influenced of children´s participating in these activities. Most studies examining support group activities for children from the child's perspective. The experiences of parent?s perspective have not been well studied.

This study aims to highlight the activities and needs of students in order to explain how mobile services can provide support and facilitate students on a daily basis. The empirical data is based on discussions with a focus group combined with already existing research concerning the areas of mobile service development, contextual-awareness and ubiquitous computing. The results from the focus group show that students have a need for mobile services to help and support them in their ordinary tasks and activities. In the discussion of this report we bring up aspects of development and what to think of when dealing with students..

Few generations have gotten as much media attention as Generation Y. Growing up in the digital age Generation Y has become very different from previous generations. An interesting topic is if this is reflected in the way Generation Y act as leaders. The purpose of this study is to describe what kind of leadership Generation Y prefers, to explore how individuals belonging to Generation Y act as leaders and finally to investigate if there is a discrepancy between these two perspectives and if so try to understand it. By reviewing existing research and conducting depth interviews with employees and managers at a Swedish bank we recognize preferences in a number of categories, which Generation Y require from leaders.

This study will examine if caregivers, working with people with dementia problems, is in need of support and in what way they see how the support should be designed. Previous research shows that there are many factors in elderly care that affect all of the caregivers. Working with people in this sort if dependence, requires a lot of the caregivers, both mentally and physically. To study if the caregivers consider themselves to be in need of support, and in what way they see how the support should be designed, the study employs a qualitative approach using to types of interviews, one focus group with four assistant nurses, and two individual in-depth interviews with the administrative personnel and one nurse. The results show that the need for support for the caregivers exists. Caregivers working with people with dementia problems, daily face difficulties, some more difficult to handle than others.

My study was conducted to provide a deeper understanding of the identity of employee soldiers in the armed forces and their experience of their role in the military context. To describe and identify the soldier's identity formation, values and norms working in group processes are taken into account. As the individual identifies her or himself whit the group, the various phenomena as hostility to other military groups arise. The individuals weld together with other group members to form strong normative relationships within the group. Through a qualitative research approach eight soldiers in a regiment in western Sweden were interviewed, four of them were group executives or deputy group leaders and others were ordinary soldiers.

Much of the everyday work of teachers in pre-schools, schools and youth centers is based on experience. This study is a qualitative interview study intended to make visible the experiences of pre-school teachers in situations when children are considered to be in need of special support. I have looked at pre-school teachers? descriptions of the kinds of situations in which a child is estimated to be in need of special support, what teachers look for in a child to identify it as a child in need of special support in a specific situation, and how the teachers define special support. Both this study and previous research show that children?s estimated need of support depends on the situation and context the child is in. The pre-school teachers in this study identify common situations where children are estimated to be in need of special support, namely: in interaction with others, in structured situations, during changes of activities and during free play.

Studies have shown that politicians are significantly more likely to become victims of violent crime than other citizens in Sweden. In fact increasing political rank and engagement are directly proportionate to increased risk for violence. Threat towards politicians is not only dangerous to the individuals involved but also to the democratic system as a whole.Political scientists the world over have done a lot of research on democracy, but I have been unable to find a single method or theory that examines how violence, threat and harassment affect political leaders and democratic systems.The aim of this study is to expand the existing model made by Tommy Möller, professor in political science. In his model he presents 11 factors that affect political leaders ability to act. My aim is to develop his model by adding a 12 th factor ?violence, threat and harassment?.

Many organizations strive to be transnational. This means that individuals with different cultural background will work together. Countries around the world have their own culture, which mark the way individual?s think and act. Different values between leaders and their subordinates are often a key factor to misunderstandings and conflicts in transnational organisations.

People with Aspergers syndrome (AS) have proven difficulties maintaining jobs according to previous research. This is a quality study. Four women with AS were interviewed about their experience of employment. What difficulties and contributions have they experience at work? What is the self experienced need of support within the research group? The result has been analyzed with different types of ?support?.

The aim of this thesis was to study the view on workplace health promotion among leaders in elderly care, to see how their views can influence employee health. The research questions of this study were: How do leaders in elderly care define the term health? What conditions do leaders in elderly care experience that they need to maintain or improve employee health? How do leaders in elderly care experience their role in workplace health promotion?The thesis is done with a qualitative approach and is based on six partly structured interviews with leaders of care homes within Stockholm municipality. The results from the interviews were analysed against Aaron Antonovskys theories about the salutogenic model and sense of coherence as well as with previous research. The result from the study showed that the leaders´ had an awareness of the meaning with health promotion, however, they had not reached the stage where they implemented the health promoting thoughts in their actual work with health.