Decentralization versus centralization is a discussed subject within the field of management, and it is about where control is allocated in the organization. This thesis aimed to contributewith understanding of these two contrasting structures by a multiple-case study consisting of Swedens’ decentralized, and Norway’s centralized national health care service in the context of the coronavirus pandemic. Opportunities and challenges are studied within each organizational model by studying the handling of the shortage of personal protective equipment (PPE). The empirical findings showed that the allocation of control at regional level in the organization of Sweden’s national health care resulted in opportunities to create new forms of regional collaborations, and challenges of having to change the current organizational model due to the complexity of the problem. In Norway, where control is allocated at the national level, an opportunity was the establishing of a national purchase and distribution system and to handle the problem proactively. For some parts of the local level, implementation of directives given by central authorities turned out to be a challenge.

This research study was designed to help illuminate if there is a relationship between the quality of career and technical education programs from centralized and decentralized-controlled systems in relation to the level of authority exerted by state governing/coordinating boards over the community college system. This study included data from the 50 states that are part of the United States of America. This study used a quasi-experimental, nonequivalent design. This study did not include randomly selected groups and was a nonequivalent control group design. The independent variables included: centralized or decentralized governance, median household income, the percent of community colleges that are rural, unemployment rate, and amount spent per full time enrolled community college student. The independent variable data that was collected came from the Bureau of Labor and Statistics, the United States Census Bureau, and the Integrated Post-Secondary Education Data System (IPEDS). The dependent variable was the mean score of Carl Perkins Act reporting data that each state is required to report to federal authorities every year. The states were divided in two separate groups, centralized or decentralized form of governance. A regression analysis was performed in order to analyze if a relationship exists between the independent and dependent variables for each group. The research indicated that the form of governance does impact Carl Perkins Act reporting scores in a decentralized form of governance in relation to median income, but overall the model is not a good predictor of overall scores. A significant difference was found in states that have a decentralized form of governance and median household income in relation to Carl Perkins Act reporting data. However, the model, as a whole, did not produce significant results in relation to the independent and dependent variables. Considerations for future research are discussed.

More journalists are choosing to settle down and work in bigger cities, while the number of journalists in smaller towns decreases. This study aims to examine professional journalists' views on careers and job opportunities in a metropolitan centralized field of work. The focus is on career, salary, network, geographical proximity and myths that arise in the conversation around these focus points. Despite the fact that journalists are educated around the country and the population expects nationwide reporting, half of Sweden's journalists live in Stockholm today. Therefore it is interesting to see what consequences it has in the attitudes towards a working career and the journalistic force after a few years as an active journalist. To find out, a qualitative interview study was conducted with six professional journalists. The conversations resulted in five themes that are presented in the study's analysis. The theoretical frameworks on which the study is based are Pierre Bourdeius' field theory and Roland Barthe's theory of myths. The results show that the geographical choice of profession affects what a journalist can work with. For example, certain journalistic professions are not offered in the smaller towns. There is also a difference between the journalism that is conducted in smaller and larger places. Because of this, some journalists believe that a move to a larger city is required to be able to pursue a career in the industry. In the field of work, contacts are important, as networks are seen as the main path to new job opportunities. The perception of uncertainty in the industry means that a permanent job is seen as a sign of status as it generates recognition among other journalists. In conversations about journalists' careers, underlying and implicit meanings are expressed that can be linked to journalism. The answers in the interviews can be seen as myths. One of the most common descriptions of being educated as a journalist is that it is difficult to get a job after graduation. Furthermore, local journalism is expressed as a limited form, while national journalism is city-based and limited in reporting from smaller towns in the country.

Цель исследования состояла в выявлении основных концепций образования Русского централизованного государства, сформулированных в работах советских ученых с начала существования советского государства до 1964 г., в контексте изменений идеологических установок. В работе выявлены и систематизированы одиннадцать концепций, которые были также сведены и в две таблицы, представленные в приложении. Была прослежена эволюция концепций, периода сталинизма и «оттепели» с учетом изменения идеологических установок. Были проанализированы дискуссии, связанные с основными положениями концепций образования централизованного государства. В 1917–1953 гг. историками была проделана большая методологическая работа, проведено несколько дискуссий, но основным предметом оставался вопрос периодизации. После 1953 г. в науке не произошло одномоментно кардинальных изменений. Во многом XX съезд КПСС вызвал бурную реакцию в научном сообществе и породил линию в историографии, направленную на полный пересмотр всего того, что было сделано ранее. В течение 1917–1964 гг. советская историография прошла длительный эволюционный путь в понимании термина «централизация»: от восприятия его в качестве простого объединения земель в рамках одного государства до представлений о многогранном процессе преодоления феодальной раздробленности, включавшем экономические, законодательные, военные, административные, политические преобразования. / The purpose of the study was to identify the main concepts of the formation of the Russian centralized state, formulated in the works of Soviet scientists in the context of changes in ideological attitudes from the beginning of the existence of the Soviet state until 1964. The work identified and systematized eleven concepts, which were presented in two tables in the appendix. The evolution of concepts during the period of Stalinism and the Khrushchev’s "thaw" was traced with the consideration of changes in ideological attitudes. The discussions related to the main ideas explaining the formation of a centralized state were analyzed. In 1917–1953, historians did a lot of methodological work, several discussions were held, but the issue of periodization remained the main subject. After 1953, fundamental changes did not take place at once. In many ways, the 20th Congress of the CPSU caused a strong reaction in the scholarly community and gave rise to a line in historiography aimed at a complete revision of everything that had been done earlier. During 1917–1964 Soviet historiography has gone through a long evolutionary path in understanding the term "centralization": from perceiving it as a simple unification of lands in one state to ideas about the multifaceted process of overcoming feudal fragmentation, which included economic, legislative, military, administrative, and political transformations.

With the large amount of personal data being shared on social media platforms, there is an increased security risk involved. Individuals are reliant on companies keeping their promises of securely handling personal data. Despite this, previous incidents such as the Cambridge Analytica incident have unveiled issues with the model of trusting a single entity to handle personal data safely. Instead of relying on a single entity keeping their promise, a different type of social media platform has started to emerge that decentralizes control over data. This type of social media platform that removes trust in a central entity, is called a decentralized social media platform. There are a plethora of decentralized social media platforms each relying on different heuristics for creating the network. Depending on the network structure which is the backbone of the platform, each network can have a different degree of centrality. If a decentralized social media platform’s network becomes too centralized, some entities in the network can gain larger control of the network, defeating its intended purpose. To prevent this, studying the network that comprises the platform can be fruitful. The science of network analysis can aid in finding the optimal network structure that best fits a decentralized social media platform. This study has examined five different network generation algorithms with a number of permutations in search of the network generation algorithm that best fits a decentralized social media platform. Each algorithm has generated 1,000 networks which were then used in one-way ANOVA tests to observe differences between the measurements. Four network centralization measures and a network efficiency measure have been used to determine the algorithm that minimizes centralization, while still being functional. The results indicate that, out of the five algorithms, the k-degree algorithm best fits a decentralized social media platform. / Med den stora andelen personlig data som delas på sociala medieplattformar, medför det en ökad säkerhetsrisk. Individer är beroende av att företag håller sina löften kring säkerhetshantering av personlig data. Trots detta har tidigare incidenter som Cambridge Analytica-incidenten avslöjat problem med modellen där individer behöver ha fullt förtroende att en enskild aktör ska hantera personlig data på ett säkert sätt. Istället för att ha förtroende att en enskild aktör ska hålla sitt löfte, har en ny typ av social medieplattform dykt upp som decentraliserar kontrollen över data. Denna typ av social medieplattform som avlägsnar förtroendet i centrala aktörer kallas för en decentraliserad social medieplattform. Det finns en stor andel decentraliserade sociala medieplattformar som beror av olika heuristiker för att bygga nätverket. Baserat på nätverksstrukturen, som är grunden till plattformen, så kan varje nätverk ha olika grad av centralisering. Omen decentraliserad social medieplattforms nätverk blir för centraliserad, kan ett par aktörer i nätverket få större kontroll över nätverket, vilket motverkar dess avsedda syfte. För att förhindra detta kan det vara givande att studera nätverket som är underlag för plattformen. Vetenskapen om nätverksanalys kan bidra att hitta den optimala nätverksstrukturen som på bästa sätt passar en decentraliserad social medieplattform. Denna forskning har undersökt fem olika nätverksgenerande algoritmer med ett antal permutationer för att söka den nätverksgenerande algoritm som bäst passar en decentraliserad social medieplattform. Varje algoritm har generat 1,000 nätverk som sedan använts i ett antal one-way ANOVA test för att observera skillnader mellan mätningarna. Fyra centraliseringmått och ett effektivitetmått har använts för att bestämma den algoritm som minimerar centraliseringen men som fortfarande är funktionell. Resultaten indikerar att, av de fem algoritmerna, passar k-gradsalgoritmen en decentraliserad social medieplattform bäst.

By analyzing the corpus of administrative seals from the late Middle Kingdom, this study attempts to identify what type of administration was in practice. This was achieved mainly through the use of an observational and comparative approach in the analysis of institutional and title-seals from four late Middle Kingdom sites. It has been concluded that royal mortuary complexes and Nubian military installations were administered on both a local and a centralized level. On the one hand, individuals mentioned on title-seals could be linked to various local departments attested on institutional seals. In most cases, they were affiliated to certain areas of activity linked to a specific institution. Additionally, at all sites represented in the study, traces of the central administration remain – evident from the accumulation of title-seals belonging to royal officials and extra-local institutional seals coming from royal donations. While each site displayed a unique institutional structure, parallels could be made between them. Late Middle Kingdom administrative seals point to a societal structure which in some sense was rigid, particularly on a local level. However, local activities appear to have also been overseen and operated by a mobile class of higher officials. / Genom att analysera sena mellersta rikets administrativa sigillkorpus söker denna studie att utröna vilken typ av administration som bedrevs. Detta har genomförts framför allt genom att observationsstudier samt komparativa tillvägagångsätt har tillämpats i analysen av institutionella sigill samt titelsigill från fyra historiska platser daterade till det sena mellersta riket. Studien visar på att både kungliga gravkomplex samt nubiska militära installationer administrerades på en lokal och centraliserad nivå. Å ena sidan har individer som omnämns på titelsigill kunnat länkas samman till olika lokala institutioner som även attesterats på institutionella sigill. I de flesta fall var dessa individer anslutna till arbetsområden tillhörande en viss institution. Vid samtliga platser kvarstår dock spår av en centraladministration –vilket ter sig tydligt i förekommandet av titelsigill tillhörande kungliga ämbetsmän samt icke-lokala institutionella sigill från kungliga donationer. Även fastän varje enskild plats hade en distinkt institutionell uppbyggnad kunde paralleller dras mellan dem. Mellersta rikets administrativa sigill tyder på en samhällsstruktur som på ett antal plan, särskilt på en lokal nivå, var fast. Samtidigt styrdes dessa lokala verksamheter emellertid av en mer rörlig klass av högre tjänstemän.

<p>This research project explores the effects of neoliberal policy reform at Children Aid Society (CAS) in Ontario with a specific focus of a newly amalgamated agency in Northern Ontario. For the purpose of this research paper, the agency currently restructuring is referred as Agency # 1. The amalgamation has been initiated by the Ontario Ministry of Youth and Children Services (MYCS). In order to provide these changes, the MYCS formed the Commission to Promote Sustainable Child Welfare (CPSCW) to look into approaches that would make services more efficient and sustainable. This project focuses on the interpretation of the amalgamation through three lenses: the academic literature reviewed; five interviews conducted with administrators and front line workers; and finally the researchers lived experience at Agency # 1 will form a backdrop to the research questions in order to highlight the voices of the research participants. A qualitative approach was conducted to analyze and outline specific themes and sub themes that relate to the literature review such as Neoliberalism, Centralization and New Public Management (NPM). The findings support that neoliberal policy reform has impacted employees at Agency # 1 through a series of miscommunication on policy and procedures along with a delayed process to agreeing on a Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA). The data outlines that the process has been highly influenced and developed by the MYCS, CPSCW and senior administration. The data supports the conclusion that neoliberal reform through managerial approaches is highly entrenched in restructuring of Agency # 1.</p> / Master of Social Work (MSW)

The supply chain is multilateral concept, involving all actors partaking in fulfilling customer requests. Within the supply chain, the outbound distribution network is key for achieving profitability as it has a direct effect on supply chain costs and on customer value. Assessing the cost-efficiency of the distribution network is thus of great importance to keep track of overall profitability. However, the layout of the distribution network often differs between different regions, where one of the major differences is the level of centralization, i.e. whether or not local distribution facilities are at place or if shipments are sent directly from a central warehouse. This complicates the evaluation of cost-efficiency, as different costs levels are to be expected from different levels of centralization. Therefore, this study aims at investigating how to evaluate the cost-efficiency while taking into consideration different levels of centralization in the regions being evaluated. To achieve the research aim, a case study was conducted at pharmaceutical company Swedish Orphan Biovitrum, as a real life setting is deemed to aid the credibility of the study. The research question was formulated as “How should companies evaluate the cost-efficiency of a distribution network with different levels of centralization?”. Additionally two sub-questions have been formulated, considering how internal data from the company ERP system, as well as data from external sources, can be utilized when performing such an evaluation. A deductive approach has been deployed, where qualitative data was used to understand the company’s distribution network, while quantitative data was analyzed to answer the research question. The quantitative data categories were in turn included based in factors identified in literature to be affecting distribution costs. The results indicated that the cost per sold product is significantly lower for countries with local distribution, possibly providing guidelines on what cost levels to be expected for local and central distribution separately. Costs as a percentage of sales did however not show a significant difference, indicating that such a measure could be used to compare cost-efficiency between countries with local and central distribution. However, it was also identified the variation in customer types can have an integral impact in cost-efficiency, as selling products upstream to a wholesaler has an impact, on both costs and sales, which is not displayed in the measures investigated. Furthermore, the pharmaceutical industry is characterized by regulations and market conditions which differs in almost every country, dictating the possibility for cost-efficiency, thus making countries difficult to compare. / Försörjningskedjan är ett brett koncept som involverar alla aktörer som deltar i att skapa kundvärde. Inom försörjningskedjan är distributionsnätverket avgörande för att uppnå lönsamhet, då det direkt påverkar kostnader såväl som kundvärde. Att utvärdera distributionsnätverkets kostnadseffektivitet är således av stor vikt för att säkerställa lönsamhet. Distributionsnätverkets utformning skiljer sig dock ofta åt mellan olika regioner, där en av de största skillnaderna är graden av centralisering, det vill säga om lokala distributionsfaciliteter finns på plats eller om försändelser skickas direkt från ett centrallager. Detta försvårar utvärderingen av kostnadseffektivitet då olika kostnadsnivåer kan förväntas med olika grader av centralisering. Därför syftar denna studie till att undersöka hur kostnadseffektivitet kan utvärderas samtidigt hänsyn tas till olika grader av centralisering i de regioner som utvärderas. För att uppnå detta syfte har en fallstudie genomförts på läkemedelsföretaget Swedish Orphan Biovitrum, då en verklig miljö bedöms bidra till studiens trovärdighet. Forskningsfrågan formulerades som ”Hur borde företag utvärdera kostnadseffektiviteten i ett distributionsnät med olika grader av centralisering?”. Dessutom har två delfrågor formulerats för att undersöka hur intern data från företagets affärssystem, samt data från externa källor, kan nyttjas vid en sådan utvärdering. Ett deduktivt tillvägagångssätt har använts, där kvalitativ data använts för att förstå företagets distributionsnätverk, medan kvantitativ data analyserats för att besvara forskningsfrågan. De kvantitativa datakategorierna inkluderades i sin tur baserat på faktorer som utifrån studerad litteratur bedöms kunna påverka distributionskostnader. Resultaten visade att kostnaden per såld produkt är betydligt lägre för länder med lokal distribution, vilket möjligen ger riktlinjer för vilka kostnadsnivåer som kan förväntas för lokal respektive central distribution. Kostnader som procent av försäljning visade dock inte en lika signifikant skillnad, vilket kan tyda på att ett sådant mått kan användas för att jämföra kostnadseffektivitet mellan länder med lokal och central distribution. Dock kan även olika kundtyper vara en faktor av betydelse, då försäljning av produkter uppströms till en grossist har en inverkan, på både kostnader och försäljning, som inte återspeglas i de undersökta måtten. Dessutom kännetecknas läkemedelsindustrin av lagar och marknadsförhållanden som skiljer sig åt i nästan alla länder, som dikterar möjligheten till kostnadseffektivitet och gör jämförelser mellan länder svåra.

Le Tournaisis, entre le XIVe et le XVIe siècle, n’est qu’une poussière à l’échelle du royaume de France puis, après 1521, des Pays-Bas de Charles Quint. La soixantaine de paroisses rurales qui le composent est, depuis 1383, réunie en un bailliage de Tournai, Tournaisis, Mortagne et Saint-Amand qui constitue le cadre administratif intermédiaire et qui exerce la plupart des prérogatives régaliennes dans la province. Ce bailliage se superpose et concurrence d’anciennes cours féodale et allodiale du Tournaisis ; il est lui-même doublé par des États provinciaux développés au XVIe siècle pour répondre aux besoins de la fiscalité directe gouvernementale. Au niveau local, les pouvoirs sont extrêmement fragmentés en un panel diversifié de seigneuries. L’autorité seigneuriale repose sur des cours féodales et des échevinages à variantes multiples, qui encadrent des communautés villageoises relativement peu organisées.Durant ces deux siècles, l’évolution a sans doute davantage affecté les hommes œuvrant au sein des structures provinciales que les institutions elles-mêmes. Dans les villages, l’imbrication des cadres seigneuriaux, le poids politique et économique de Tournai et l’influence institutionnelle flamande participent à figer dans la diversité les équilibres existants. Si le développement et le perfectionnement administratif des monarchies française et habsbourgeoise sont incontestables, leurs effets au niveau intermédiaire sont inégaux, et modérés sur le plan local. L’État moderne laisse une très large place aux structures héritées de la féodalité ; en Tournaisis, le pouvoir est plus partagé que centralisé, la concurrence institutionnelle davantage horizontale que verticale. / Between the 14th and the 16th century, Tournaisis counted only for a grain of dust on the scale of the Kingdom of France and later, after 1521, of Charles the Fifth’s Low Countries. The roughly sixty rural parishes that it consisted of had been combined together since 1383 into one bailiwick of Tournai, Tournaisis, Mortagne and Saint-Amand, making up the intermediary administrative framework exercising the greatest part of the regalian prerogatives in the province. This bailiwick is superimposed on and rivals more ancient feudal and allodial courts of Tournaisis ; it is in turn overcapped by the Provincial States, evolved in the 16th century to meet the needs of direct government tax system. At local level, powers are extremely fragmented into a variety of seigneuries. Seigneurial authority rests on feudal courts and a multiplicity of échevinages, which enframe rather poorly organized village communities.Over these two centuries, the people at work within the province structures were probably more deeply affected by evolution than the very institutions themselves. In the villages, the interwoven seigneurial frameworks, Tournai's political and economic weight together with the influence of Flemish institutions all partook in the freezing of the diversity of existing power balances. Whereas the development and the administrative improvement of the French and Habsburg monarchies are indisputable, their effects at the intermediary level remain moderate and uneven at local level. The Modern State leaves wide space to structures inherited from the feudal system. In Tournaisis power is more shared than centralized and institutional competition develops more horizontally than vertically.

Notre recherche étudie les modifications dans la structure de l’entreprise occasionnées par la mise en œuvre de l’innovation ouverte. Plus précisément, nous nous intéressons aux modifications qui ont lieu dans la structure organisationnelle profonde et formelle de l’entreprise. Nous étudions ces modifications en mobilisant des données primaires (entretiens semi-directifs) et secondaires (rapports annuels et articles de presse) issues de neuf entreprises. Les résultats consistent en une nouvelle définition de l’innovation ouverte entrante, en un modèle contingent de l’innovation ouverte au niveau de l’entreprise et en une compréhension approfondie des modifications observées dans la structure organisationnelle profonde et formelle. La définition de l’innovation ouverte que nous proposons insiste sur trois aspects importants : l’intégration de l’ouverture dans la stratégie de l’entreprise en matière d’innovation, le caractère fréquent des collaborations et le caractère systématique de celles-ci. / This thesis studies the changes in the organizational structure determined by the implementation of open innovation. Specifically, we consider the changes in the deep and formal structure of a firm. We study these changes in nine firms by using primary data collected through semi-structured interviews and secondary data consisting of firms’ annual reports and journal articles. Our results consist of a new definition of inbound open innovation, a proposition of a contingency model of open innovation at firm level and a deep understanding of the way open innovation impacts the firm. The definition of inbound open innovation we propose emphasizes three main aspects : the integration the openness of innovation into the firm’s formal innovation strategy and the systematic and frequent use of collaborations with various actors in the innovation process.