The purpose of this Masters Thesis is to explore the impact of spare time reading fiction on the identity of teenage boys, and what it really means to them. To investigate this, we have focused our investigation on how teenage boys relate to and what they search for in their reading. The data collection is based on 8 interviews with boys in the age between 14 and 15 and on literature on the subject. The theoretical framework focuses on the reading theories of Joseph A. Appleyard, the transactional theory of Louise M.

erspective [80][upps-01.gif] This is a thesis on the Swedish Public Lending Right PLR, from a historical perspective. Some of the questions which are investigated in this thesis are: why did the State decide to introduce a PLR and why did it take about 20 years to make the decision? The question why the PLR was not introduced on a copyright basis is also discussed. The focus of this study is during the period of 1934-1956 and it is a literature-study. Mainly there are four reports made by different committees that have been examined.

Remote work has become increasingly widespread due to advances in digital technology and changing organizational structures, a shift initiated by the COVID-19 pandemic. The purpose of this study is to examine how leadership influences employee motivation in remote work environments. The aim is to deepen the understanding of which leadership styles are most effective in maintaining and enhancing motivation when traditional psychical interaction is absent. To investigate this, a qualitative research approach was applied, consisting of semi-structured interviews with both individuals in leadership positions and employees. The findings indicate that leadership plays a crucial role in shaping employees' motivation in remote contexts.

Due to increasing international competition and new technology IT-consultants has been forced to oversee their business models lately. The main purpose of this study is to investigate the process and consequences of a shift in business model for a consultant by using a methodology based on action research. The empirical foundation consists of a field study with observations, notes, interviews and business related documents. The case describes a consultant?s process of shifting business model from profits based on man-hours to selling a standardized system.

On-call work has increased substantially in the past 20 years in Sweden, not least in the public sector and most notably in health and social care. This thesis argues that the increase has considerable influence on the prospects of on-call workers in the public services to act as guardians of democracy. Based on theories of Lennart Lundquist, the results of this study show that on-call workers suffers from inferior opportunities to act as democratic guardians in particularly two matters. First; they have fewer prospects than standard employees of professionalism due to lack of education and capacitation. Second; on-call workers have inferior opportunities to protest against wrongs, due to no real formalized possibilities to inform and due to transactional psychological contracts.

We have by Statistics Sweden (SCB) been given the task of using different dynamic regression models in order to forecast service price index for sea transport. The aim is to see whether these models provide better forecasts than those previously used. This essay aim to identify, estimate and evaluate the selected prediction models. Through our data material we were given access to 28 sightings of sea transport index during the period of 2004 q1 to 2010 q4. We have chosen to evaluate three different transfer function models, one ARIMA model and one naive forecasting model. The input variables we decided to test in our transfer function models were the price of petroleum products, the port activity in Swedish ports and the lending rate of Swedish Central bank. The results of our study suggest that transfer function models generally provide better models than the ARIMA model and the naive forecast model.

This thesis is written at WSP management and investigates the practice of pre-project planning and feasibility studies at Swedish construction companies, through the study of the ongoing feasibility study of the mall Sturegallerian in Stockholm, and through interviews with experienced project managers in the construction industry. There is currently a big span in the way Swedish construction companies plan the pre-project phase and the aim of this thesis is to present a more generic and standardized way that helps minimize project risks and maximize efficiency and profit. The result is a generic model which can be used in pre-project planning. The model describes the phases in the preproject planning process and the activities that span these phases. Is also describes the categories of professions that need to participate in the preproject planning group and which activities that each profession executes. The other result is a list of factors that need to be considered for a well performed pre-project phase, as found during the interviews. Among others the thesis stresses the importance of involving the client as a key participant in the process.

The purpose of the master thesis was to reflect and analyze music library activities and policies in the public libraries in the area around the city of Borås, in the south-western part of Sweden. With this thesis I also wanted to look at the interaction between the public libraries, the music school and the music associations in the same area. To investigate these matters, qualitative method was used in the form of interviews with seven librarians from seven different libraries and five representatives of different local music organizations. Other methods used were observations and source studies. The literature used discusses the role of the music department of public libraries as well as that of a music librarian working in a public library.

In 2003 the libraries of ten municipalities in the northern part of Sweden were each given 10 000 (SEK) by the BIN-project to purchase books on demand instead of making inter-library loans. This attempt was called Köpa på efterfrågan (Purchasing on demand). The purpose of this master thesis is to evalutate Köpa på efterfrågan. The results of the evaluation show that the books purchased on demand were quite popular. Almost all the purchased books were non-fictional with most books being bought within the field of medicin.

Leadership in organizations plays a crucial role in promoting employee motivation. Different leadership styles have been shown to affect motivation in various ways. The purpose of this report is to establish a deeper understanding of the relationship between different leadership styles and motivation according to Self-Determination Theory. The report also aims to highlight potential similarities and differences in the perceptions of leaders and employees in various industries, regarding motivation as defined by Self-Determination Theory. Based on a case study, it includes interviews with eight leaders and eight employees.

This thesis investigates the 200 year old phenomena of savings banks and if they increase the economic growth (GDP) in the local region they act in. That is being done by testing three hypotheses; the savings banks increase the attractiveness of the region they act in; the savings banks increase the entrepreneurship in the region they act in; and the savings banks increase the economic growth in region they act in. This quantitative cross-sectional study with data from the year 2010, finds that the savings banks increase the attractiveness of the local region, most likely through the efforts and financials they put into different local projects. A positive result is also found for increased entrepreneurship in the regions that have a local savings bank. The result is explained by the savings banks relationship lending, which increase the likeliness for a company to get the credit they need to start and develop.

The purpose of this Master?s thesis is to investigate how public library users consider the knowledge of the librarians and to examine what the users expect from the librarians. To begin with, we contemplate our own view of the librarians, their knowledge and what help we expect at the library. Realising that we do not expect particularly much from librarians, although we have studied to become librarians for two years, we assume that the regular library user does not expect much either. This assumption resulted in our decision to investigate this particular question.

Ett väl utforskat område inom sociologin är hur föräldrar påverkar sina barn. Få studier har dock gjorts på hur barn i sin tur kan påverka sina föräldrar, därmed behandlar denna studie ett outforskat område. Hälsogruppen, som har sin verksamhet i en kommun i södra Sverige, arbetar med att skapa livsstilsförändringar hos överviktiga barn och ungdomar. Förutom att verksamheten har positiva hälsoeffekter på barnet uppger vissa av föräldrarna att även deras hälsa har förbättrats, som ett resultat av deras barns medverkan. Syftet med den här studien är att utforska hur barn indirekt kan påverka sina föräldrars upplevda hälsa positivt genom att vara deltagare i en hälsofrämjande verksamhet.

The aim of this study is to illustrate conceptions held by librarians and library and information scientists about weeding practices of printed books in public libraries. The study has been carried out by performing a series of qualitative interviews with librarians and by study of earlier research relating to the subject of weeding. The results have been analysed by utilizing a textual analysis method called idea and ideology analysis using so called dimensions to analyse and structure the results. The results indicate that weeding at Swedish public libraries is carried out by a mixture of objective and subjective methods, with certain statistical elements. Weeding procedures mainly appears to be legitimized according to what one refers to as knowledge of the local community, although lack of lending are cited from time to time.

The purpose of this thesis is to explore the situation for ebooksin Swedish public libraries. The background is anincreasing lending of e-books in public libraries, with anacquisition model formed when e-books were more of anexperiment in a few libraries. The debate has escalated in therecent years and in this thesis I aim to investigate thelibraries? experience with e-books and the current pricemodel. The empirical material comes from interviews witheight head of public libraries in the Västra Götaland region.As theoretical background, I have used Michael Buckland?sfour roles of collections and price models from Lee andBoyle.My results show ambivalence with the price model.