The office is the working environment in which an increasing proportion of the population spends their days . One type of office are open plan offices which are characterized by several people sitting together in the same room without spatial boundaries . The general discourse of this kind of offices is that they constitute an advantageous design that allows organizational changes without the need for redevelopment . From a work perspective, this office design is both criticized and acclaimed . Problems with noise is frequently reported in research which can lead to ill health.

AbstractIn the fall of 2003 a project was started in the Swedish building sector that is called BASTA (the building sectors’ termination of especially harmful substances). The project is operated by the building companies NCC, Skanska, PEAB and JM, the Swedish Building Industry and the Swedish Environmental Institute IVL. The purpose of the project is to create a common environmental assessment system for the entire building industry and with the help of this system phase out the use of especially harmful properties from building products.In a large sense BASTA works like this; On the BASTA web site there is a database, to which a supplier can register the company and the company’s products. Only those products with a substance content that fulfil the demands of the BASTA system, is to be registered. As it is the supplier himself that carries out the registration of the company and the company’s products to the system, the BASTA-organisation annually controls that the companies that are registered in the database, fulfils BASTA’s demands.Since NCC is one of the companies that operates BASTA, BASTA is probably going to be the environmental assessment system that is recommended for the company in the future.

Abstract The purpose of this study is to identify how Swedish clothing companies strategically communicate CSR ? the issue being that CSR communication is frequently scrutinized and criticized. This is examined using semi-structured interviews with six company representatives. The result is presented thematically, dealing with (1) conditions for CSR and CSR communication, (2) how to manage the issue with criticism and (3) which communication strategies companies use. Following conclusions are drawn: the companies can be divided into Mirvis and Googins phases integrated or engaged/innovative, with conditions characterizing these phases.

Statistics Sweden is an administrative agency that delimits built-up areas and produces statistics regarding them. The statistics provide information about the area of the built-up areas, their population number, number of gainfully employees working in the built-up areas, and of buildings. Now Statistics Sweden wishes to extend such statistics by producing a measure regarding how well developed the service is in each built-up area.This study is a contribution to this statistical improvement work and the purpose is to ? by employing geographical information systems and cluster analysis ? classify the Swedish built-up areas according to 1) service width and 2) service degree. A particular built-up area has a high service width if it has many different service functions, such as pharmacies, schools and grocery stores.

AbstractThis essay is about what rights that a consumer has, after it?s been to a beauty-shop getting a treatment somewhere on her body. We were interested to see what kind of regulations that could be useful if a problem occurred after or during treatment. There are several risks with these treatments.The last decade these kinds of treatments have increased, due to people being vain and so aware about there looks. We started to investigate what type of rights the consumer generally has when it?s about a service.

Cloud Computing has taken the IT world by storm and has created new opportunities for usersto seamlessly access different services. The cloud offers a variety of different services thatsuit both large and small organizations. Cloud computing is still in development and manyorganizations are beginning to consider or have implemented a form of cloud service. Thisalso leads to a series of questions and problems, both new and old. The IT industry hashighlighted a problem in organizations confidence in cloud services, because a third party willbe handling a part of the organization that the company has previously handled themselves.This papers main focus is how to increase organizations trust in cloud service providers.

In the early 1990?s more and more companies of the Swedish public sector were exposed to competition, and this started the debate on how such actions might affect the business and even society.The first chapter examines how the public sector and especially health care, is financed and managed. We also explore what it means to be exposed to competition and find that there are many different ways of exposing the public sector to competition. The study examines dental care as an example of a market with both publicly and privately owned companies. The purpose of this paper is to explore how publicly and privately owned health care companies view their relationship with their consumers.

The construction and real estate industry represents a significant part of Sweden's total impact on the environment and mainly affects the following national environmental objectives: reduced climate impact, a good built environment and a non-toxic environment. By establishing internal rules, companies within the industry can reduce their environmental impact. SMT (AB Sandvik Materials Technology), a part of the industrial group Sandvik AB, has set a target that during 2014 develop a guiding document with special consider to the environmental impact during construction of office buildings, that they establish at the Swedish regional capital Sandviken, for both internal and external tenants. This study therefore aims to clarify which environmental aspects that the construction and real estate sector mainly are responsible for, and therefore should be part of a guiding document for a company for establishing office buildings, and to present arguments regarding the use of such a document. The study is based on literature studies and personal contact with other companies, in the form of e-mail conversations and a telephone interview.

This thesis investigates whether it is accordance between the different profit measures in the financial market. The first aim of the thesis is to examine if it exists a difference between the profit measures that companies publish in their fourth quarter interim report and the measures that they state in their annual report, issued some months later. The second aim is to examine whether there is a divergence in definitions and the assumption regarding the risk of bankruptcy between profit measures published by companies and analysts. The study focuses on Swedish companies listed on the OMX Stockholm Large Cap and concerns the years of 2006 and 2007. The analysts interviewed are working in Sweden with listed Swedish companies.

The purpose of this study was to look at how clients, in the Swedish criminal justice, experience their involvement in treatment programs. The spotlight in the study was to examine which helpful and unhelpful factors are involved in a treatment process, in the view of individual experiences. The study is based on a qualitative method, with interviews as an instrument for collection of data.The result is summarized in three fields; is it possible to show vulnerable, the therapist and the meaning of the program. The result is based on interviews with six informants; five of them have been partaking in treatment programs in prison and one in the probation office. The study shows that partaking in treatment programs in prison is combined with problems in aspect of the different roles criminals play in prison.

The need for auditing originates from the agency problem that arises due to the separation of ownership and control in companies. The purpose of the audit is to increase credibility of the financial statements that management uses to communicate with owners and other stakeholders. In order for the audit to fulfill its purpose a certain level of quality needs to be obtained. The auditor can also be seen as a provider of a commercial service in which service quality is important. Audit quality can thus be separated into technical quality, which is defined as the probability that the auditor both discovers and reports a breach in the client?s accounting system, and service quality, which relates to the provision of services in general.

The Swedish armed forces are facing a change, a change in both organization and profession. From a conscript military service system, the Swedish Armed Forces has changed to having full-time contracted soldiers. Conscript military service has a history of over a hundred years; it was introduced in 1901 and has survived two world wars and the Cold War.The Swedish armed forces have changed to have contracted soldiers. My reflection is whether the armed forces really have had time for this changes that the new professionalization has meant. Today the Swedish armed forces consists of contracted soldiers, soldiers who are employed full time and costs the armed forces a lot of money.

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.

The international requirement of Swedish healthcare today is high and due to a good reputation and a long history of reliable methods through extended experience. For those Swedish companies within this business, the process of internationalization is often a attractive option.This study aims to describe, analyze and translate how minor Swedish companies within the care keeping section establish their business on the international market.The study is based upon a qualitative approach and is an empirical study carried out through semi-structured interviews.The result presented in the study shows that internationalization of companies within this business does often require a lot of time and money, is based upon establishments through networks and were learning-by-doing often is used as a strategic approach for the companies penetrating a new market.The study also accounts for major entry barriers, which declares for being to some part of political nature, but mostly of cultural nature.Differences in language and culture are shown in the study to be a major entry barrier and host-countries different cultural levels are very conclusive for the success of internationalization. .

Today many industrial companies invest a lot of resources on research and development to resist the tough competition on the global market. This leads to a high risk game when the companies start many development projects, with uncertain outcome where some of the projects have to be terminated prematurely. The main purpose with this study is to identify factors, both internal and external, that influence the decision to terminate projects prematurely in Swedish development projects. Factors mentioned in the literature will be compared with case studies on three Swedish industrial companies to demonstrate the most important ones when taking such decisions. First a literature study was made to identify basic terms, a general project model and factors affecting the decision.