Sweden's school voucher reform has made the Swedish school system into one of the world's most liberalized. The debate concerning the ownership of Swedish schools is intense and the Swedish Minister of Education is open to restricting private equity owned companies from running schools. Interestingly, fewer calls are heard for restricting smaller profit-driven companies from owning schools. This essay aims to examine whether or not the quality of education provided by an individual school changes if it is acquired by a large private equity owned school group. This is done by conducting a comparative study on four independent schools recently acquired by AcadeMedia, Sweden's biggest private equity owned school group.

Uppsatsens huvudsakliga syfte är att undersöka hur två olika organisationer skiljer och liknar varandra i önskan om ledarskapsegenskaper, detta utifrån de tre olika arenorna rekrytering, utbildning och ledarskap. I denna rapport kommer vi att studera organisationerna Försvarsmakten samt Sony Ericsson, där Försvarsmakten kommer representerar en strukturerad organisation och Sony Ericsson en projektorganisation. Med hjälp av intervjuer både på Försvarsmakten i Halmstad och Sony Ericsson i Lund har vi fått svar på frågor kring rekrytering, utbildning och ledarskap. Det som gör jämförelsen intressant är skillnaden i organisationsformerna på de två olika företagen Försvarsmakten samt Sony Ericsson. Vi har efter granskning av data fått fram att de båda organisationerna strävar efter liknande egenskaper med på skilda sätt. På grund av organisationernas olika strukturer och organisatoriska uppbyggnad går man olika vägar för att hitta en ledare men i slutändan kan man se att processerna liknar varandra.

Escherichia (E) coli is one of the most common udder pathogens associated with acute clinical mastitis in Swedish dairy cows. The aim of this study is to review some of the existing literature on E coli mastitis from a Swedish perspective. The bacteria, its most important characteristics, and diagnostics under field conditions is covered, as well as what happens during infection, how E coli affects the cow and which consequences this have. Clinical symptoms associated with E coli mastitis are described and information on when these cases of mastitis usually occurs is given. Risk factors in the cow?s enviroment are described as well as the importance of the cow?s immune defence.

It is now increasingly common for organisations to work actively with HR issues. Furthermore, it is a constant top priority for organisations to remain profitable. The purpose of this study was to investigate whether so called soft HR values, as manager?s communication skills, has an actual impact on hard values in terms of costs for the organisation. Leadership is largely characterised by emotional communication, which together with personnel costs were the main focus of the research.

AbstractAim: The aim of this essay has been to study how the Swedish church has created the image of their religious activity through media. This has been by studying the three commercial campaigns launched by the Swedish church during the years 2000, 2001 and 2003. Questions asked are: How has the Swedish church chosen to profile it self? Which discourses can be recognized in the campaigns? Which messages has been communicated through the campaigns? How has these discourses created the image of the Swedish church?Method: The methodological framework is critical discourse analysis inspired by Norman Faircloughs? three-dimensional model. Thirteen images all part of the campaigns are analysed using a semiotic method.

The aim of this paper is to examine why Swedish teachers and multilingual secondary   school pupils think it is important to read fiction, how Swedish teachers work with fiction in the multicultural classroom and how they motivate their multilingual pupils to read more by adapting fiction to their capabilities and experiences. We have done interviews with four Swedish teachers and 12 multilingual pupils. The following questions are the starting point of this essay:Why do Swedish teachers and multilingual pupils think that it is important to read fiction?  ?How can the Swedish teachers in the multicultural classroom motivate their multilingual pupils to read more fiction?The result of this paper showed that both the Swedish teachers and the multilingual pupils thought it was important to read fiction because it partly gives themselves the opportunity to acquaint with other cultures and it helps them to improve their language. The teachers motivate their multilingual pupils by reading out loud, reading in groups and by minimizing language difficulties that may occur in the fiction.

The thesis examines the crisis that the Swedish-flagged merchant marine underwent in the 1990s, that resulted in a narrow market for the Swedish-flagged fleet. In order to save the industry, the TAP- agreement was created, consisting of three parties, government- market and interest organizations.  Purpose in this thesis, is to exam how the TAP-agreement was carried out in relation to the parties, and how it correlates in relation to how the global political economy affected the Swedish maritime politics. Two questions are presented. Is the TAP agreement an expression of Swedish corporatism?  Which aspect of Global Political Economy is characteristic for the TAP agreement? A case study is preformed in three steps. The different parties of the TAP-agreement have been interviewed.  A comparative study of two Swedish crises has been performed, in order to establish the correlation between them, in regards to corporatism.  A survey, with the aim to pinpoint which aspect of Global Political Economy is characteristic of the TAP agreement. Findings in this thesis are that the TAP-agreement was designed through corporatism, and that the most important aspect of all, the Swedish flag was worth saving, for all parties. .

The purpose of this master's thesis is to find out what support students of Swedish for Immigrants (sfi) think they get from the public library during their study of the Swedish language. One important aspect in this essay is to examine whether the library can meet the need of Swedish-speaking meeting places where the sfi-students can practise their new language. The method used in this study is qualitative interviews. Nine sfi-students, one sfiteacher and one librarian have been interviewed. A sociocultural perspective on learning has served as a theoretical starting point.

The society today is full of new changes within the companies and their middle chiefs. Middle chief?s visions have changed during recent years. The female chiefs have grown in numbers, and because of that people have started to focus on whether there are any similarities or differences between the female and male leadership behaviors. The essay is about similarities and differences between female and male middle chief?s idea about effective leadership behavior.Our analysis is based on a qualitative study, where we have made four interviews with four chiefs in industrial companies.

This essay is a qualitative study about Swedish fire-fighters´ ideas of women and people from other ethnic backgrounds than Swedish. The problem in focus is why there are difficulties for those groups of people to be employed in the Swedish fire service. Can there be ideas of these groups which are not favourable for them? And if this is the case, can those ideas be explained by gender theory about construction of masculinity? The purpose is to investigate whether the absence of women and people from other ethnic backgrounds can be explained by the fire-fighters´ ideas of those groups. The study consisted of a one day observation and four one hour long interviews with fire-fighters from different positions within the Swedish fire service.

Vi hade en föreställning om att det ibland kan vara svårt att som ledare i en arbetsgrupp skapa tillit samt effektivitet. Detta fångade vårt intresse och gjorde att vi närmare ville studera två arbetsledare och deras respektive arbetsgrupper gällande effektivitet, tillit samt ledarskap. Vårt syfte med undersökningen var att undersöka vilka ledarskapsfaktorer som kan inverka för att stärka tilliten och effektiviteten i en arbetsgrupp. För att besvara syftet med undersökningen togs följande problemformulering fram:Vilka ledarskapsfaktorer kan stärka tilliten och effektiviteten i en arbetsgrupp?Utifrån uppsatsens syfte och problemformulering genomfördes två kvalitativa intervjuer med de två utvalda arbetsledarna, samt att en kvantitativ enkätundersökning genomfördes i de två arbetsledarnas respektive arbetsgrupper.Vårt resultat visar i huvudsak att det är anpassning efter situation och kontext, förmågan att frångå personliga intressen och istället se till det kollektiva intresset, flexibilitet och uppmärksamhet på arbetsgruppens behov och önskemål, samt stöd genom tillgänglighet som är de ledarskapsfaktorer som kan stärka tilliten och effektiviteten i en arbetsgrupp..

With the starting point in UN peacekeeping operations, this essay investigates the participation of the Swedish armed forces and how the Swedish soldiers perceive their role in those operations. The aim of the study was to explore different perceptions about the Swedish soldiers in international operations. Partly from the Swedish soldiers perspective and how they perceived their own role as soldiers. Partly from the perspective of civilians, like Swedish aid workers, and how they perceive the Swedish soldiers. The third perspective was from a person with mixed experiences from both the military and the civilian work.

[Abstract: This study examines the observed difference between Swedish and foreign owners when it comes to nominating committee participation. The background to the study is that foreign owners seem to participate in Swedish nominating committees to a lesser extent than their Swedish counterparts. The focus is on institutional owners and the companies studied are all listed companies who follow the Swedish code of corporate governance. Particular attention is paid to perceived differences in behavior that can be explained using the common corporate governance related theories of Exit, Voice and Loyalty as well as Agency Theory. These explanations are chiefly related to differences in attitudes regarding insider information, different knowledge levels regarding the purpose and workings of nominating committees of the Swedish kind as well as differences due to home market biases.].

The establishment of loan-based structures within a group of associated enterprises with the purpose of lowering the group's taxes by using deductible interest payments to transfer money has become increasingly popular in Sweden during the past few years. The legislator has therefore implemented new laws which restrict the amount of interest payments that are deductible within a group of associated enterprises. As a consequence the definition of associated enterprises has become of high importance. The definition has been criticized and is perceived by many as vague and difficult to interpret. The purpose of this thesis is to examine the definition of associated enterprises in Swedish tax law with the aim of clarifying its scope and meaning.

Aim: The purpose of this paper is to see if there has been a change over time in the performance and in the spoken word of the Swedish cooking programs. By testing the theory of intimization on the cooking programs I get the opportunity to see if the border between the private and the public have become clearer or more difficult to notice, and if the new language, the informal language as intimization entails, has been used in Swedish cooking programs since the 70s until today, or if there´s ever been a formal language in Swedish programs? Method/Material: I'm using a rhetorical approach that includes a three-step analysis. Analysing the context, means to persuade and performance. The empirical material I intend to analyze is Swedish cooking programs from the 70s until today, 2010.