The role of the quality manager has evolved from being a quality controller to work with a more global business. Within many organizations in Sweden, however, the traditional role of the quality manager's remains and the tasks categorized as quality control still takes up most of the quality manager's time. The survey conducted as part of this master thesis shows that the quality manager in most businesses has multiple roles in addition to the role of quality manager, which can create a role conflict. One consequence of this is that each improvement is not given priority due to time constraints. Although the importance of a clear and committed leadership is the key for succeeding as the quality manager.

Introduction: The work process of a consultant can be divided into five different stages, where the entry stage is the most important when linking the subject to legitimacy. A great deal of research regarding legitimacy exists, although within areas outside of consulting. Through examining consultant's and potential client's perception of what legitimacy is and how it is created we can determine the importance of the phenomena in building a business relationship between these parties. Research question: How does legitimacy arise between a consultant and a client in the entry stage of a work relationship? Purpose: The purpose of this study is to develop a deeper understanding of how legitimacy is created in the initial stage of a new consultant/client relationship. We also intend to examine the qualities and circumstances which lead to a consultant to acquire an assignment. Method: We have, from an inductive approach of research, collected empirical data in order to gain a deeper understanding of legitimacy in the initial stage of a consultant/client relationship.

Denna uppsats handlar om ledarskap och hur ledarskap bedrivs på distans.Studien fokuserar på det ledarskap som sker i bemanningsbranschen där konsultchefen leder bemanningskonsulter på distans. I det ledarskap som utövas finns även en påverkan utav en tredje part som går att finna i det kundföretag som hyr in konsulterna. Syftet med uppsatsen är att öka förståelsen för det ledarskap som uppkommer och utövas i bemanningsbranschen och att identifiera de problem som kan uppstå när ledarskapet sker på distans. Vi jämför också distansledarskapet med ett traditionellt ledarskap för att förstå på vilket sätt de skiljer sig i ledarskapets utövande. Slutligen är vårt syfte att få en inblick i hur ett distansledarskap i bemanningsbranschen påverkas när det även är en tredje part involverad..

The purpose of this thesis is to understand the reasons to why management consultants choose to leave their positions at large and established management consultant companies. The empirical data are made up of eleven interviews with men and women, both management consultants that have left their previous positions as well as a consultant who has chosen to stay with her first company and a representative from one of the large companies active within the management consultant industry. We have used the Job Embeddedness Theory combined with theories about identity, legitimacy, institutional norms and gender in order to understand the thoughts and reasoning behind the management consultants´ resignation. We have found that issues with the work itself and characteristics of the industry prevent the management consultants from being embedded within the management consultant company. Rather, some of the characteristics of the industry such as ?up or out? and the need to constantly perform work as a ?pushing-out mechanism?.

The aim of this research was to examine how the relationship between consultants and their customers can increase the value for the customer and to see how consultants can act to gain closer relationships with the customers. An empirical study has been performed through case studies with a consultant and six customers to the consultant. The theoretical areas for the analysis are customer value and relationship development between seller and buyer. Our conclusions of the research were that values for the customers are increases with closer relationships. The increased value lays in lesser uncertainty when repurchasing.

Background and discussion of the problem: In the staffing company business a unique situation exists because of the three part relation between the staffing company, the users of the staffing companies? services, and the consultants employed by the staffing company. To over bridge the conflicting objectives of the staffing company and the consultant incentive systems are designed. Research question: What effects on the consultants? effort direction do the staffing managers expect of the formal or informal incentive system? Method: The authors have found that a suitable method for the thesis is a survey study.

The purpose with this thesis is to illustrate companies? way of using Key Account Management in the organization. We developed the four following research questions: Why do companies choose to use Key Account Management? How do companies identify and choose their key customers? How does a key account manager work? How do the skills needed by a key account manager look like? The results showed that KAM offered several important benefits, mainly of economical characteristics. Identification of the key accounts was mainly conducted through certain economical criteria the customers had to fulfil.

Title: What´s the problem? - A study of revenue recognition in IT-consultant     companiesProblem: How do the chosen IT-consultant companies recognize their revenues? What difficulties do the interviewed companies experience in connection with the revenue recognition?Purpose: The purpose of this empirical study is to study how companies in the IT-consultant industry recognize revenues, and to investigate if the companies perceive any difficulties in connection with the revenue recognition. The aim of the study is to give useful advice and guidelines to companies in the IT-consultant business based on the extracted result. Method: The survey took place in Vasteras and started with a preliminary interview with a certified accountant, who had great knowledge of the subject revenue recognition. Then seven companies from the IT-consultant industry were selected, whereof two took part in semi constructed interviews.  Study of the other five companies? ways to recognize revenue was made through their annual reports.   Conclusion: One of the studied companies recognizes their revenues according to the rules in IAS 18, which is because it is listed on the stock exchange.

The main objective of this thesis is to study the brand manager?s role within a global business to business (B2B) company. In order to meet the main objective we have chosen to study and analyse one global B2B company, Alfa Laval AB, Alfa Laval DK, Alfa Laval PL and its co-partners such as an advertising agency. We have also studied three global business to customer (B2C) companies, Mars, Unilever and Nestlé, to get a picture of brand managers? role and responsibilities within the B2C environment which is already quite far ahead in the development of the brand management thinking..

Environmental management officers ? leadership and employeeship in local environmental health authorityThe purpose of this study was to illustrate the working situation of municipal environmental health management officers. This is a qualitative study where I have interviewed ten environmental officers in ten municipalities in Sweden. The interviews were based on a half structured interview guide with questions. I have interpreted the interviews through different leadership theories.

This report is written in cooperation with Skanska Sverige Hus Väst and it is discussing the role of site managers within the company. The report will bring up the demands that is put upon site managers and will also discuss stress related problems and how to change and develop the role as a site manager.We came up with three conclusions in this report. We believe that Skanska could develop VSAA to make it easier to use for site managers. We also believe that a further development of the project engineer is of great value, to give him or her greater responsibilities. The last conclusion is to change the responsibilities between the site manager and the production manager, to give the production manager a greater responsibility in the production..

The purpose of this study has been to examine the unit manager?s perspective on making Lex Sarah-notifications. The study has been carries out by six semi structured interviews with persons in leading positions of the elderly from three different municipalities. They were asked about different circumstances that affects the problems with Lex Sarah. The results indicates that the unit manager?s act on elder abuse from the complex mechanisms that exist within the organization.

More than half of the implemented IT-projects go over budget, deadline or simply fail. The processes in an IT-project requires technical competence to be present among the project participants to ensure the achievement of business goals and to make organisations competitive. The success of an IT-project largely depends on the project manager which makes it interesting to further investigate what impact the project manager?s technical competence has on the project. Previous research shows differing opinions whether technical competence is considered important for the project manager to be successful or not.

The aim of this qualitative study is to examine the experience of participation among first line managers within community home care. The study is based on eight interviews with first line managers operating in a metropolitan area in Sweden. A majority of the interviewees worked in private companies.We have used two theories to interpret our empiri: Lean Production and Human Resource Management. The analysis resulted in seven themes: economy, leadership, participation, view on the organization, first line manager, private or municipally operated organization and expectations on the manager. Our results showed that all the interviewees experienced that they were participant in the organization.

A consultant is an external expert that exists within all types of organizations. The consulting service can be divided into individual practitioners and large companies whose sole task is to hire out consultants to clients. The need for consultants has grown due to the restructuring of Swedish businesses during the past decades. They have put parts of their business on contract. This has led to a market with other player that have been able to focus on these parts.