Bakgrund och problem: Corporate Social Responsibilty (CSR) består i huvudsak av tre delar: etiskt ansvar, miljöansvar och socialt/samhälleligt ansvar. Företagens ansvar och värderingar har blivit viktiga konkurrensmedel på marknaden då det inte längre räcker att bara ha den bästa produkten eftersom kunderna har fått upp ögonen för både orättvisor och miljöproblem. Många företag väljer därför att redovisa sitt CSR-arbete i en hållbarhetsrapport. Vår frågeställning är följande: Vad redovisas i hållbarhetsrapporten? Hur har CSR-redovisningen utvecklats under 2000-talet? Hur skiljer sig redovisningen av CSR åt mellan olika branscher?Syfte: Att studera förändringen av CSR-redovisning hos ett företag inom finansbranschen och ett inom fordonsindustrin samt redogöra för likheter och skillnader dem emellan.

Rapporten beskriver förslag på framtidens ?Rear Seat Entertainment? som baseras på användning av pekskärm, istället för de DVD-baserade TV-skärmar som finns i t ex Volvo S80 i dagsläget. Projektet utfördes som ett examensarbete inom integrerad produktutveckling vid Högskolan i Skövde. Syftet med arbetet var att hitta lösningar som möjliggör användning av ?touchteknik? som kräver armavstånd till displayen.

Through geopolitical theory this thesis explores how conflicts within states can be read and understood according to an analytical model determining one or several possible causes for the conflict.  The model is created by the author and reflects geopolitical theory by giving three possible explanations to an intrastate conflict: culture, economy or territorial construction. The aim of the thesis is testing this model on two selectively chosen case studies ? i.e. two intrastate conflicts ? namely: the upcoming referendum in Scotland and the terror attack at Tiananmen Square in China.

This study sets out to investigate how the roll of the teacher is constructed in the Swedish Teachers? Unions trade publication. Based on the theory of social constructionism we have used the method of critical discourse analysis to establish dominant trends and patterns in how the roll of teacher is constructed in editorials in Swedish Lärarnas Tidning. We have established that the conflict between a modernist school tradition and a postmodern society has resulted in a dominant, traditional teacher discourse which is being simultaneously challenged by both a market-orientated discourse and a professionalization discourse. Furthermore, we attempt to highlight how these ?ideal? constructions can create problems in terms of identity construction for teachers.

Due to a constantly increasing competitive pressure it is of great importance to constantly strive for improvements in order to gain competitive advantages. Lean Production is a concept that has been introduced with the aim to minimize waste and increase profitability. The purpose of this report is therefore to investigate how to perform effective planning according to the principles of Lean Production, in companys with customer exclusive products, through a case study at Sandvik Mining and Construction (SMC), and to investigate how SMC kan improve their planning of drifting rods at the production unit in Sandviken.The study started by creating a theoretical framework, to describe the subject planning and planning based on Lean Production. This frame work constituted the base for the case study which took place at Sandvik Mining and Construction, and also for the model and planning tool that has been introduced.The result of the study is partly a general model with factors that contribute to a more effective planning. These factors has beed identifed as SMED, which focuses on reducing set up times and in the end to facilitate the planning.

The construction business is one of the most accident prone businesses in Sweden. In order to make it safer it?s vital that all employees of a company report all accidents and incidents that occur. This report intends through qualitative interviews, to analyze the knowledge and attitude towards incident reporting among the employees of the Swedish construction contractor JM.The goal of the thesis work is to hopefully contribute to an increase of employees? awareness on those issues.

This qualitative study treats the construction and maintenance of balance between work and private life and how flexibility in the workplace is perceived. The study was conducted using semi-structured interviews and these have been conducted in five large companies around Gothenburg. The analysis and results are based on the phenomenographic method approach and the final results were four themes: Balance, Flexibility, Combining family and work and lifelong learning with related subcategories. The result shows that the construction and maintenance of balance between work and personal life is something that is tied to the indi-viduals and the current situation in life. Two of the most common strategies to maintain a dis-tinction proved to be planning as well as other activities, in order to move the focus away from the work.

Organisationer måste kunna hantera förändringar eftersom de hela tiden påverkas av förändringar av både intern och extern karaktär. Det är viktigt att organisationer kontinuerligt utvecklar sitt förändringsarbete med hjälp av erfarenheter och lärdomar från sina tidigare genomförda förändringar. Tidigare forskning kring förändringsarbete visar på att kontinuerliga uppföljningar och kommunikation är viktiga faktorer för att uppnå effektiva förändringar. En brist på forskning inom detta område har också uppmärksammats varför vi har valt att studera detta närmare. Syftet med denna studie är därför att utveckla en metod för hur en organisation kan gå tillväga med kontinuerliga uppföljningar av förändringsarbeten.

VSEM project and the need for a more efficient way of handling requirements andinformation are highly apparent.The overall objective of this thesis is divided into two parts:1. To identify criteria/factors leading to a successful introduction of an informationmanagement system.2. To develop an implementation process for a requirement management system ?the first step towards a PLM system in EE development at VCC.This will be done through interviews with employees, a literature review and an analysisof studies of three earlier projects within VCC.The conclusion of this study shows the great need for change in work methods fordesigners handling information and requirements. An implementation process has beenidentified with guidelines on how to handle different phases of the process.

Construction accounts for about 35 percent of the total Swedish energy consumption and most of the energy is used by the large housing stock from the so-called ?Million program?. In the national action plan the government has put forward in energy efficiency. It is mentioned that existing buildings account for more than 90 percent of what is expected to be the housing stock within the coming 50 years. In order to meet environmental objectives its required that the existing stock be reviewed for energy efficiency. The goverment is now initiating a national framework with a budget of SEK 300 million Swedish crowns per year for five years, starting in 2010 to achieve the goal on energy efficient buildings. Energy efficiency of buildings in both new construction and above all within the existing stock are addressed.

The construction and use of buildings in the EU accounts for half of the EU?s extracted materials and energy consumptions, and a third of greenhouse gas emissions. In the past decade, the construction sector has responded to such concerns by focusing on post production energy efficiency. However, new findings indicate that upstream construction processes influence emissions significantly ? necessitating a shift in focus to include material choices and building processes.

This thesis has evaluated environmental classifications of projects and the lessons learned to explore what the possible ramifications of implementing this in the construction and infrastructure are. Companies today are looking to develop methods to demonstrate their environmental commitments, but there is an uncertainty regarding the contribution of environmental classifications in this aspect.The literature review presents the theory of environmental classification, which provides a general knowledge of its function. The empirical data is based on an analysis of existing classification methods and qualitative interviews. The analysis shows specific environmental classification system for the area of construction and infrastructure. CEEQUAL is currently the only environmental classification applicable to Swedish projects and therefore serves as the basis for the continued analysis.

Automatic rumination measuring can be applied as a health indicator in dairy farming but is also highly desirable for research purposes. This study aimed to validate the technical functionality of the product RuminActTM, which employ acoustics to monitor rumination duration. The time budget of high yielding cows was studied and possible differences in rumination time between 13 rations were interpreted. Further the study examined what affects daily rumination and rumination efficiency. The validation was performed with direct observations that were compared to the automatically recorded rumination durations.

Rapid Granulator is one of the world's largest producers of granulators, which is a kind of grinderwho grinds discarded plastics to granules which later can be reused when pressure molding plastics.The company wanted help in developing a new, or alternatively extending their previous,measurement equipment. The old equipment was hard to use, required changes in the code fordifferent measurement scenarios and had a limited array of measuring quantities. Rapid had an ideaof a similar concept only with a greater number of input ports, better range of applicable sensors andan advanced yet easy to use interface. The system is supposed to be placed at Rapid's test departmentwhere it will be used as a tool for finding faults and provide data which can be used for furtherdevelopment of the granulators.The project's members accepted the task and immediately began searching for suitable componentsfor the system. After the search was completed a list of costs, limitations, sensors, I/O's anddevelopment environment was presented to Rapid's staff.

Detta examensarbete utreder frågeställningen om den såkallade "olyckskorpen" ? alltså yrkesarbetaren som är inblandad i flertalet arbetsplatsolyckor ? verkligen existerar. Frågan är lite av kontroversiell typ och har diskuterats sedan 1940-talet, utan något avsevärt utslag eller dokumenterat alster.Samarbetspartner blev NCC Construction och två av deras stora arbetsplatser i Stockholmsområdet valdes som mätfält; Söderby samt Frösunda.Undersökningen baserades på datainhämtning genom enkätformular till yrkesarbetare och ledning på de utvalda arbetsplatserna, genom erfarenhetsinhämtning från platschefer och lagbasar inom NCCs organisation samt från YTH-studenter på byggprogrammet. Författarnas egen erfarenhet från branschen har också vägts in i bearbetningen.Resultatet gav ingen olyckskorp att sätta fingret på, men en indikation från samtliga håll att egenskaper som kan knytas till olyckskorpen förekommer i branschen. Detta gav upphov till en teoretisk modell att användas för att ringa in olyckskorpar på individuell nivå i en vidare undersökning..