The backdrop of this dissertation is one ubiquitous element of everyday life: the stock market. Traditionally, accounting and stock markets are logically coordinate entities and this thesis analyzes how accounting supports private investors in their role as shareholders – as investors in shares and owners of companies. This analysis is carried out in four independent essays. The first two essays analyze the privatization of Telia, a former state-owned Telecommunication Company in Sweden that went public in 2000. The field material for the two essays consisted of newspaper articles, government bills and interviews. Qualitative and quantitative analyses demonstrate how accounting is used among different actors to realize the privatization. Theoretically, the first two essays lend themselves to the governmentality debate as introduced to accounting research by Miller and Rose (1990). The third and fourth essays are analyses of annual general meetings (AGMs). The field material was generated from a study of participants at 36 AGMs during the spring of 2004. The choice of these two seemingly unrelated cases was done deliberately. Both cases are stock market events that typically involve an audience of a large number of non-professional investors. In the privatization of Telia over 1 million people took part in the offer. The AGMs are typically seen as the single event by which non-professional investors have an opportunity to meet with top management. Thus, each event represents an instance in which accounting is confronted by a predominantly non-professional audience. The contribution of this study is two-fold. First, earlier work inspired by the Miller and Rose framework (1990) has favored an analysis of the programmatic. This study develops the technological aspect of the theoretical framework by means of a rich empirical description. In addition the two essays on the privatization of Telia contribute with an analysis of how once a specific technology translates to become and becomes understood at the site of intervention. Second, the two studies of AGMs contest earlier criticism against the meeting as a corporate governance mechanism detached from the overall corporate governance system. The argument here is that the AGM offers a valuable setting for private investors to discuss stewardship issues. That this opportunity is taken advantage of is suggested by the present field material.

<p>This study analyses the relationship between the manner of citizens&rsquo / engagement with the state and the level of service delivery they experience in their everyday lives, as residents of Khayelitsha. The phenomena of so-called &lsquo / service delivery&rsquo / protests across South Africa have now become a fixture of South African politics. Khayelitsha is one of the sites with frequent protests in Cape Town and is inhabited by poor people, 70 percent of whom live in informal settlements. While the lack of municipal services is undoubtedly a major problem for many poor people in South Africa, thus&nbsp / far, few studies have been dedicated to investigate empirically this alleged link between service delivery and protest activity. The study utilizes mostly quantitative analysis techniques such as&nbsp / regression analysis and path analysis to discover the form and strength of linkages between the service delivery and participation forms. While residents of informal settlements and therefore&nbsp / poorer services were more prone to engage in protests and thus reinforcing the service delivery hypothesis, this relationship was relatively weak in regression analysis. What is more important than the service delivery variables such as water services was the level of cognitive awareness exemplified by the level of political engagement and awareness on the one hand and level of community engagement in terms of attendance of community meetings and membership of different organizations. In summary the study found relatively weak evidence to support the service&nbsp / delivery hypothesis and stronger evidence for the importance of cognitive awareness and resource mobilization theories in Khayelitsha as the key determinant of protest activity.</p>

In this essay, I discuss one of the recurring dilemmas for a working recreational pedagogue, namely the hard task of cooperation with parents. As a recreational pedagogue, I am required to work by the curriculum Läroplan för grundskolan, förskoleklassen och fritidshemmet 2011. This policy document talks about what my responsibilities are, including establishing collaboration with parents in terms of the children’s development and education. It happens, however, that the pedagogue and the parent's ethical positions differ. When norms collide, it is my responsibility as a recreational pedagogue to relate to the different norms in a professional manner. In this essay I argue that, one of the main characteristics of a competent pedagogue is the ability to meet various parents with their respective backgrounds, to be able to interpret the individuals and meet them in an encouraging way for the children's development. Personal identity today is multiple, as an individual, I have created myself a number of identities which apply at different times. At home, I'm a mother, at family dinners; I am a daughter, sister and granddaughter. At university, I am a student and at my workplace, I am recreational pedagogue. Thus, I am not only my profession but also a human with my own experiences, interpretations and feelings. From them I act. In this essay, I draw on my own experiences where my view of ethics and upbringing is different from a parent's sight. In essay writing, I reflect on my actions in the events with the help of various ethical theories and the intercultural approach. Through my writing, I have been given a chance to pause and reflect on my own behavior in situations where I meet parents of other opinions than my own. How can I act differently and more professionally in these meetings in the future?

Utskrivningssamtalet är den sista kontakten mellan läkare och patient innan patienten åker hem ifrån avdelningen. Syftet med den föreliggande studien är att undersöka ifall det förligger kommunikativa utmaningar i ett utskrivningssamtal mellan en läkare och en patient med afasi.  Den konkreta frågeställningen för studien var hur de potentiella problem som uppkom i samtalet hanterades och vilket utrymme som skapades för patientens deltagande i samtalet samt hur samtalsdeltagarna använde sig av icke-verbal kommunikation för att uppnå förståelse. Den valda metoden för att undersöka detta var Conversation Analysis, CA. I studien deltog två läkare, två patienter med afasi, samt två närstående till patienterna. Patienterna som deltog hade mild till måttlig afasi, svenska som modersmål och var 50 år och 70 år gamla. Läkarna som deltog hade varit anställda på avdelningen och arbetat med patienter med afasi i 2.5 år respektive 3.5 år och hade svenska som andraspråk. Resultatet av analysen var en identifiering av kommunikativa handlingar som ledde till sekvenser i samtalet som deltagarna orienterade mot som problematiska. Dessa var bland annat när läkaren inte följde upp på patientens förfrågan för mer information eller patient-initierade ämnen och inte redde ut missförstånd som uppkom. I resultatet identifierades även sekvenser där samtalsdeltagarna använde sin kommunikativa kompetens för att hantera kommunikativa utmaningar, samt sekvenser där samtalsdeltagarna använde sig av icke-verbal kommunikation för att underlätta den gemensamma förståelsen. Resultatet stämde överens med tidigare forskning om hur patienter med afasi och vårdpersonal organiserar interaktion i samtal.

Title from PDF of title page (University of Missouri--Columbia, viewed on Feb 16, 2010). The entire thesis text is included in the research.pdf file; the official abstract appears in the short.pdf file; a non-technical public abstract appears in the public.pdf file. Dissertation advisor: Dr. Charles N. Davis. Vita. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (D.W.S.)--Institute for Worship Studies, 2002. / Abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 157-162).

Lean is a philosophy that has been studied extensively in recent years, and it has been successfully implemented in a number of different processes and businesses. This study aims to examine how Lean can contribute to create effective meetings, which is a topic that has received limited attention in today’s research. Firstly, a situation analysis is done in order to identify common meeting problems at Ericsson Borås. Secondly, a comprehensive analysis is conducted concerning whether Lean is applicable on meeting processes or not. This analysis is mainly based on the five principles of Lean Thinking. Thirdly, the study investigates the potential effect of an implementation of Lean, as well as how Lean principles can be applied in order to reduce or eliminate wastes. The result of the analysis formed the base for the development of the action plan. Subsequently, the action plan is implemented on the meeting processes by pilot testing it on three different meetings. This analysis is mainly focusing on whether the meeting problems have been eliminated or not. Based on our research, we have perceived that almost every meeting is unique and all meeting problems we have identified do not occur at all meetings. Majority of the meeting problems were eliminated by applying Lean principles. Moreover, several respondents also expressed that Lean is a good way to give more structure to meetings, and therefore contributes to more effective meetings. However, we have noticed that principles of Lean cannot eliminate all meeting problems at Ericsson. This can be seen as minor criticism when organizations use Lean as the only solution to improve meeting processes.

The purpose of this research was to investigate the role of leadership in creating high performance software development teams. Of specific interest were the challenges faced by the Project Manager without a software engineering background. These challenges included management of a non-visible process, planning projects with significant uncertainty, and working with teams that don’t trust their leadership. Conclusions were drawn from the author’s experience as a software development manager facing these problems and a broad literature review of experts from the software and knowledge worker management fields. The primary conclusion was that, until the next big breakthrough, gains in software development productivity resulting from technology are limited. The only way for a group to distinguish itself as performing at the highest levels is teamwork enabled by good leadership. / text

This thesis takes a departure from a view of scientific literacy as situated in participation in civic practices. From such a view, it becomes problematic to assess scientific literacy through decontextualised test items only dealing with single aspects of participation in contexts concerned with science. Due to the complexity of transferring knowledge, it is problematic to assume that people who can explain scientific theories will automatically apply those theories in life or that knowledge will influence those people’s behaviour. A common way to more fully include the complexity of using science in different practices is to focus participation around issues and study how students use multiple sources to reflect critically and ethically on that issue. However, participation is situated in practices and thus becomes something specific within those practices. For instance, shopping for groceries for the family goes beyond reflecting critically and ethically on health and environment since it involves considering the family economy and the personal tastes of the family members. I have consequently chosen to focus my studies on how to assess scientific literacy as participation in civic practices. The thesis describes a praxis development research study where I, in cooperation with teachers, have designed interventions of assessments in lower secondary science classrooms. In the research study I use the theory of Community of Practice and Expansive Learning to study affordances and constraints for assessing communication, source critique and decision-making in the science classroom. The affordances and constraints for students’ participation in assessments are studied through using a socio-political debate as an assessment tool. The affordances and constraints for communicating assessment are studied through peer assessments of experimental design. The affordances and constraints for teachers to expand their assessment repertoire are studied through assessment moderation meetings. Finally, the affordances and constraints for designing authentic assessments of scientific literacy are studied through a review of different research studies’ use of authenticity in science education. The studies show that tensions emerge between purposes of practices outside the classroom and practices inside the classroom that students negotiated when participating in the assessments. Discussion groups were influential on students’ decisions on how to use feedback. Feedback that was not used to amend the designs was still used to discuss what should count as quality of experiments. Teachers used the moderation meetings to refine their assessments and teaching. However, conflicting views of scientific literacy as either propositional or procedural knowledge were challenging to overcome. Different publications in science education research emphasised personal or cultural aspects of authenticity. The different uses of authenticity have implications for authentic assessments, regarding the affordances and constraints for how to reify quality from external practices and through students’ engagement in practices. The results of the studies point to gains of focussing the assessment on how students negotiate participation in different civic practices. However, this approach to assessment puts different demands on assessment design than assessments in which students’ participation is compared with predefined ideals for performance. / <p>At the time of the doctoral defense, the following papers were unpublished and had a status as follows: Paper 1: Accepted. Paper 2: Submitted. Paper 3: Submitted. Paper 4: Manuscript.</p>

published_or_final_version / Linguistics / Master / Master of Arts in Applied Linguistics