The main goal of this master thesis is to implement a system for performing customer profitability analysis in a consulting company. Implementation of the system is based on concepts that are presented in the theoretical part of this thesis. This thesis also contains discussion about the usability of the activity based costing and of the time driven activity based costing. The theoretical part of this thesis contains an explanation of the customer profitability analysis. This part also presents the activity based costing method and also the time driven activity based costing method. Due to the main focus of this thesis, theoretical part also contains an explanation of specifics of performance management in a consulting company. The practical part of this thesis begins with a description of current conditions in the researched company. This is followed by the implementation of the customer profitability analysis system. This thesis is concluded by performing customer profitability analysis in the researched company.

Denna studie har utgångspunkt i den trend där allt fler organisationer, såväl privata som offentliga, idag inför aktivitetsbaserade kontor. Studiens syfte är att undersöka de anställdas upplevelser av den förändringsprocess som genomförts till aktivitetsbaserat kontor och deras upplevelser av att arbeta aktivitetsbaserat. Dessa upplevelser har belysts utifrån teorier rörande meningsskapande. En kvalitativ studie har genomförts på en myndighet i Stockholmsregionen genom åtta semistrukturerade intervjuer. Därefter har en tematisk analys gjorts. Intervjuerna visade på varierade upplevelser hos de anställda gällande förändringen och det aktivitetsbaserade arbetssättet. De huvudresultat som framkommit i studien visar att de flesta anställda upplever att förändringen av kontorsmiljö har lett till att deras relation till sina chefer har förändrats, att hemarbetet har ökat och att samhörigheten kollegor emellan har förändrats. Utifrån studien drogs slutsatserna att de anställda idag upplever kontoret som mindre hierarkiskt och att vissa fysiska faktorer i arbetsmiljön påverkar. Vidare verkar en hög grad av hemarbete hämma skapandet av en gemensam förståelse för förändringen. De anställdas upplevelser tycks även påverkas av personliga och arbetsrelaterade aspekter, något som gör att det aktivitetsbaserade arbetssättet inte är för alla. / This study explores the growing trend of switching to activity-based offices, something organizations in Sweden are increasingly implementing today. The aim of the study was to examine the employee experience of the organizational change process as well as how the employees experience the new, activity-based office. These experiences have been analysed using sensemaking theories. A qualitative study was conducted at a governmental organization in Stockholm through eight semi-structured interviews and the data was then organized using a thematic analysis. The study shows that after the change of office employees experience better relationships with their managers, changes in their relationships with colleagues, and an increased number of employees began working from home. The study’s conclusions are that the activity-based office is less hierarchical while at the same time there are factors in the physical work environment that affect the employees experience. In addition, increased levels of working from home seems to hinder a common understanding for the change into an activity-based office. Furthermore, the experience of the activity-based office seems to be affected by both personal traits and work-related aspects which means that the activity-based working is not suitable for everyone.

The thesis deals with the strategic cost management (SCM) highlighting particular approaches and their possible synergies. In the beginning, it depicts actual state of this field of research and presents areas related to the SCM including strategic management and business strategies. The main part of the thesis deals with an analysis of the existing three lines of research. A special emphasis is given to the information support of the decision-making process. In order to analyse these approaches the thesis includes selected tools that should define and characterize their requirements. Process-based line includes an examination of Activity Based Costing/Management (ABC/M) model. Product-based line is covered by a calculation of the Life Cycle Costing (LCC). Responsibility-based line aims on the two main pillars of the approach, which are the organisational structure and the performance measurement system. Balanced Scorecard (BSC) model is then used as an example of a complex performance measurement system. In the end, the thesis analyses current state of the managerial accounting and it sums up contemporary trends and influences in the field. Finally, it identifies the main shift towards a managerial accounting that uses various lines of research that together form an efficient synergy that empowers the long-term growth of the company.

L’anorexie mentale (AN), un trouble du comportement alimentaire multifactoriel, se traduit par une perte de poids. La sévère dénutrition retrouvée dans l’AN est associée à des altérations métaboliques induisant une dérégulation de l’axe intestin cerveau. Les mécanismes physiopathologiques sont encore mal connus. Le travail de cette thèse était de mieux appréhender les dysfonctions de l’axe intestin cerveau en évaluant le métabolisme protéique de divers tissus (hypothalamus, côlon et estomac) dans un modèle murin d’anorexie par une approche protéomique. Le premier travail a permis de mieux caractériser le modèle d’anorexie nommé activity-based anorexia (ABA) en fonction du sexe. Puis les différentes analyses protéomiques ont permis de constater une adaptation tissu dépendant des mécanismes régulant l’équilibre énergétique, avec une activité cérébrale potentiellement augmentée au détriment des fonctions digestives. Chez les souris femelles ABA, il a été constaté une augmentation d’expression de protéines mitochondriales au niveau de l’hypothalamus et à l’inverse, une diminution du métabolisme protéino-énergétique au niveau colique avec un rôle de la voie de signalisation mTOR. L’autophagie était augmentée dans ces deux tissus. Ensuite, nous avons démontré un ralentissement de la vidange gastrique secondaire à la dénutrition, et l’analyse protéomique a permis de constater une augmentation du stress oxydant au niveau de l’antre des souris ABA femelles. Ces altérations peuvent contribuer aux troubles fonctionnels gastro intestinaux. En conclusion, nos études soulignent des mécanismes d’adaptation tissu dépendants dans l’anorexie, qui devront être ultérieurement approfondis. / Anorexia nervosa, a multifactorial eating disorder, is a major public health problem and results in a severe body weight loss. The severe malnutrition observed in anorectic patients is associated with metabolic alterations inducing disturbance of the gut-brain axis. However, involved mechanisms remained poorly understood. The aim of the present thesis was to better understand the alterations of the gut-brain axis in the activity-based anorexia (ABA) model by evaluating the protein metabolism of various tissues (hypothalamus, colon and stomach) by proteomic approach. Firstly, we have better characterized the response to ABA model according to sex. Then, different proteomic analyses were performed using female C57BL/6 mice. Our results revealed a tissue-dependent adaptation of protein and energy metabolism with an increased hypothalamic activity and a decrease in the gastrointestinal tract. Indeed, ABA mice exhibited an increased expression of proteins involved in mitochondrial metabolism at the level of the hypothalamus, and conversely a decrease of proteins involved in protein and energy metabolism in colonic mucosa with a key role of the mTOR signaling pathway. Both in hypothalamus and colon, autophagy was increased. We were also able to show that gastric emptying was delayed in ABA mice that is mainly due to malnutrition. In addition, proteomic analysis revealed an increase in gastric oxidative stress in female ABA mice. These alterations may contribute to the gastrointestinal functional disorders frequently described in anorexia nervosa. In conclusions, our study underlined tissue-dependent adaptive metabolic process during anorexia that should be further explored.

Change is a constant factor in today's society and an important factor in the success of organizations. As a result, it is highly important that organizations learn to manage change in order to stay competitive and keep up with the rapidly changing market conditions. Change Management has therefore been a highly emphasized area within Business Administration. As new trends arise on the global market, it is important for organizations to be able to adapt. One of these trends is the implementation of the Activity-Based Flexible Office (A-FO). An Activity-Based Flexible Office consists of different areas with closed, half-open or open zones. The areas are created in order to match employee needs and the requirements of each work activity that needs to be conducted. As a result, no one is assigned a personal workstation, instead the employees move between different areas depending on what type of work activity they need to accomplish. Even though Change Management has been thoroughly investigated and A-FOs have been researched to some extent, no previous research has been found regarding the change process of implementing an A-FO. The main purpose of this thesis is to investigate the difference in managers’ and employees’ perceptions regarding the change process towards an A-FO. As a result, a deeper understanding of change management as well as of the effects of the A-FO will be provided from the viewpoints of managers and employees. This leads to the research questions: “How does the perception of the change process concerning activity-based flexible offices differ between managers and employees? What do managers and employees perceive as essential factors of the change process and A-FO implementation and how do these perceptions differ?”. The Theoretical Framework mainly consist of previous research models and theories regarding change management literature, work environment and activity-based flexible offices as well as employee satisfaction. Communication has also been chosen as an important factor as it has been stated to be vital in both change management and within the A-FO. Furthermore, in order to fulfil the purpose of the thesis and answer the research questions, the chosen research method for this study is qualitative with an exploratory research design and an inductive approach. Therefore, semi-structured interviews were conducted with seven respondents from a department at Skellefteå municipality who were chosen based on a combination of a purposive and snowball sampling method. After the interviews were transcribed, the empirical findings were analyzed and presented by using a thematic analysis. The findings show that when conducting an A-FO change process, managers’ and employees’ perceptions often differ. Managers often focus on the practical aspects of a change, while employees emphasized on “soft values”. Employees were also more skeptical towards the change in the beginning, compared to managers, and seemed more aware of possible disturbances in the A-FO. Furthermore, both managers and employees were highly satisfied with the change process and the implementation of the A-FO, but emphasized on different factors resulting in increased satisfaction. To conclude, since managers’ and employees’ perception regarding the A-FO change process often differ, but can also coincide, it is important to take both aspects into consideration when conducting this type of change. By involving everyone in the change process, it is more likely to be successful.

Bakgrund: Det aktivitetsbaserade kontoret blir allt mer vanligt då fler företag och organisationer går från det traditionella kontoret till ett aktivitetsbaserat. Det aktivitetsbaserade kontoret är oftast uppdelat i olika zoner, utan bestämda platser, där medarbetare väljer plats efter arbetsuppgift. Tidigare studier inom ämnet har främst fokuserat på de organisatoriska effekterna och på medarbetares upplevelser av det aktivitetsbaserade kontoret. Genom att utgå från hur chefer upplever det aktivitetsbaserade kontorets effekter på deras möjligheter att leda bidrar denna studie med hur det aktivitetsbaserade kontoret upplevs av och påverkar formella chefer i deras roll som ledare. Syfte: Studiens syfte är att studera om och hur formella chefer i deras roll som ledare upplever att implementationen av ett aktivitetsbaserat kontor har påverkat deras möjlighet att utöva ledarskap. Studien fokuserar på påverkan på kommunikation och motivation. Metod: Studien använder en kvalitativ forskningsstrategi med en deduktiv ansats. Studien bygger på en fallstudie av ett företag i fastighetsbranschen. Empirin har samlats in genom semistrukturerade intervjuer med chefer och interna dokument från företaget. Slutsats: Det aktivitetsbaserade kontoret upplevs ha förbättrat möjligheterna att ledasamtidigt som det kommer med vissa utmaningar. Utmaningarna har varit kopplade till hur man bäst leder medarbetare i deras självledarskap och etableringen av de riktlinjer som företaget skapat i samband med förändringen. De naturliga möten som det aktivitetsbaserade kontoret möjliggör upplevs främja ledarskapet, kommunikationen och motivationen, genom att det gör cheferna mer tillgängliga och främjar samarbete mellan medarbetarna. / Introduction: The activity-based office is a growing trend as more businesses and organizations are moving from the traditional office to an activity based. The activity-based office is usually divided into different zones, where employees do not have any allocated seats but chooses their location after the task at hand.  Previous research has mainly focused on the organizational impact and employees’ perceptions of the activity-based office. In order to further develop the theoretical area, there is a need to also consider the impact on the leadership. By examining how the managers perceive the effects on their ability to lead, this study contributes to expand the knowledge on how the activity-based office is perceived by and affects managers in their role as leaders. Purpose: The purpose of this study is to examine if and how managers in their role as leaders experience that the implementation of an activity-based office has affected their ability to exercise leadership. The study focuses on the effect in two aspects: communication and motivation, from a manager’s perspective. Method: The study uses a qualitative research strategy with a deductive approach and is based on a case study of a real estate company. The empirical data has been collected through semi structured interviews and internal documents from the company. Conclusion: The activity-based office is perceived to have improved the managers’ ability to lead at the same time as it comes with some challenges. These challenges have been related to how the managers can lead the employees in their self-leadership and the establishment of the company’s guidelines, which was created for the change. The natural meetings that the acitivty-based office provides is perceived to promote leadership, communication and motivation, in that it allows managers to be more accessible and promotes collaboration within the organization.

Titel: Kostnadskalkylering för lean-företag – En systematisk litteraturstudie Författare: Max Börjesson Handledare: Helena Forslund Examinator: Elin Funck Lärosäte: Ekonomihögskolan vid Linnéuniversitetet i Växjö Kurs: Examensarbete i controller för Civilekonomprogrammet Nyckelord: lean, kostnadskalkylering, standardkostnader, activity based costing, ABC, value stream costing, VSC. Bakgrund och problemformulering: lean är en filosofi som fått stort genomslag. Samtidigt kräver användandet av filosofin anpassningar, bland annat i företags kostnadskalkylering. I den befintliga forskningen är det inte tydligt vilken forskning som faktiskt passar bäst för företag som använder lean. Syfte: Syftet med studien är att kartlägga forskningen om kostnadskalkylering tillsammans med lean, samt utreda vilket av verktygen för kostnadskalkylering som passar bäst för företag som använder lean. De verktygen som undersöks är standardkostnader, ABC och VSC. Metod: metoden är baserad på en systematisk litteraturstudie, kompletterat med ett teorikapitel. Slutsats: studien visar att kostnadskalkylering för lean-företag är ett område som fått ett ökat intresse sedan år 2002. Den identifierade litteraturen kommer framförallt från Europa och Nordamerika. Standardkostnader används ofta som en jämförelse till andra verktyg, medan activity based costing och value stream costing ofta har en mer central roll i studier. I studien har få fördelar med standardkostnader identifierats. Både activity based costing och value stream costing framstår som lämpliga, utifrån den litteraturen som finns idag. / Title: Lean Cost Accounting – A Systematic Literature Review Author: Max Börjesson Tutor: Helena Forslund Examiner: Elin Funck Institution: School of Business and Economics, Linnaeus University, Växjö Course: Degree Project in Controlling, The Business Administration and Economics Programme, 4FE18E. Keywords: lean, cost accounting, standard costing, activity based costing, ABC, value stream costing, VSC. Background and problem discussion: the interest for lean has been great. Implementation of lean requires companies to make adoptions. One of the adoptions that needs to made is in the cost accounting. The current literature has not identified what the best method for lean companies is. Purpose: the purpose of this study is to identify the existing research about cost accounting for lean companies, and to examine the method that fits lean companies the best. The tools used are standard costing, activity based costing and value stream costing. Method: A systematic literature review is used in this study. Conclusion: This study shows that the interest for cost accounting for lean companies has developed since 2002. The identified literature is primarily from Europe and North America. Standard costing is often used for comparisons with other tools. Activity based costing and value stream costing have a more central role in studies when they are used. This study has not identified any benefits of using standard costing, while both activity based costing and value stream costing seem to be useful.

published_or_final_version / Business Administration / Master / Master of Business Administration

Det är viktigt hur kontorsmiljöer utformas så att de kan skapa förutsättningar för lärande, välbefinnande och hälsa på arbetsplatsen. Syftet med aktivitetsbaserade kontor (ABkontor) är att ge de anställda möjligheten att välja den kontorsplats som bäst lämpar sig för den uppgift som ska utföras. Det innebär att ingen har en egen plats att gå till. Även om den här kontorstypen blir alltmer populär finns det begränsat med forskning som undersökt vilken effekt ABkontor har på kommunikation, stöd, hälsa och välbefinnande, särskilt ur ett lärandeperspektiv. Syftet med den här studien var att undersöka om det finns skillnader mellan män och kvinnor i hur de skattar hälsa, välbefinnande och hur nöjda de är med olika förutsättningar för informellt lärande i ABkontor, samt om det finns ett samband mellan förutsättningar för informellt lärande på arbetsplatsen och upplevd hälsa och välbefinnande. Ett frågeformulär skickades ut till 174 arbetare på ett av Trafikverkets kontor och svarsfrekvensen var 53 %. Analyserna visar att det inte fanns någon signifikant skillnad mellan män och kvinnor i hur tillfredsställda de är med de olika förutsättningarna, generellt så skattades tillfredställelse högt. Ett signifikant samband hittades mellan informellt lärande och välbefinnande men inte mellan informellt lärande och hälsa. Vidare forskning behövs för att undersöka om informellt lärande faktiskt äger rum i ABkontor genom att undersöka en större population och en större variation av ABkontor för att reda ut den kausala relationen mellan informellt lärande och välbefinnande. / It is important how office environments get designed so they can promote conditions for learning, well-being and health in the workplace. The purpose of an activity-based office (ABW) is to give the employees a possibility to choose the workplace best suited for the task at hand, implying that no one has their own private office to go to. Although this office environment gets increasingly popular, there is a lack of research demonstrating the effects of ABW:s on communication, collegial support, health and wellbeing, especially from a learning perspective. The aim of this study was to investigate differences in how satisfied women and men are in an ABW with the conditions for informal learning, such as work-related information exchange, cooperation and social support and test whether it is a relation between informal learning at work and self-rated wellbeing and health. A questionnaire was sent out to 174 employees working at the Swedish Transport Administration and the response rate was 53 %. The analyses showed that there is no significant difference between men and women in how satisfied they are with the conditions for informal learning in the ABW, overall both genders gave high ratings on satisfaction. A significant relationship was found between informal learning and well-being but not between informal learning and health. Further research is needed to investigate whether informal learning actually takes place in the activity-based office, using a bigger sample and variety of ABW:s, to clear out if the relation between informal learning and well-being is causal.

Purpose: The aim with this study is to compare perceived productivity and job satisfaction between activity based offices and traditional offices. The goal is to investigate, through a quantitative comparison, productivity and job satisfaction between the office types, and if generations perceive this differently. Method: The method used in this study is a quantitative method, in form of a questionnaire. The questionnaire used was taken from a study made by Sahlström and Severin (2015) at the Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm. The same questionnaire was taken because it had already been quality assured and had good content for the survey. Four IT companies were included in the study. Two of them had activity based offices and two of them had traditional office type. Literature review has also been a method in order to get a deeper understanding of the subject. Findings: The results of the study show that there are differences between the two office types in perceived productivity and job satisfaction. The traditional office type showed the best results. However, this result can be discussed since the two traditional offices differed widely in their responses. The results also show that there are differences between the generations experiencing productivity and job satisfaction of the various offices. The elder generation, Baby boomers, shows better results on the traditional office type and the younger generation, Generation Y, shows better results on the activity based offices. Implications: One conclusion to be drawn from this is that employees at traditional offices are more satisfied with their working place and experience increased productivity than employees on activity based offices. However, these results may be due to other factors than how the office environment affects the employees. Therefore, these results will not be recommended. Another conclusion is that the Baby boomers are experiencing higher productivity and job satisfaction of traditional office and Generation Y experiences higher productivity and job satisfaction on activity based office. These results can be recommended. Limitations: The limitations of this study are to examine only IT companies in Sweden with a maximal amount of employees of 150 persons. The results are, apart from the scattered results in the first issue, generally valid and can be applied to other IT companies. To succeed fully applicable results, a survey with more companies involved had been better. Then, detections of anomaly would easier have been discovered and possible disregards of certain results could have been done. Keywords: Perceived productivity - Self-rated assessment of employees on their own productivity. Traditional offices - In this work traditional offices includes cell offices and shared rooms. Activity based offices - Office where employees have no fixed work place and there are often zones to support different types of working. / Syfte: Syftet med detta examensarbete är att jämföra upplevd produktivitet och arbetstillfredsställelse mellan aktivitetsbaserade kontor och traditionella kontor. Målet är att genom en kvantitativ jämförelse undersöka upplevd produktivitet och arbetstillfredsställelse mellan kontorstyperna, samt om generationer upplever detta olika. Metod: Metoden som har använts i detta arbete är en kvantitativ metod, i form av en enkätundersökning. Enkäten som användes är tagen från en studie av Sahlström och Severin (2015) som gjordes på Kungliga Tekniska Högskolan i Stockholm. Samma enkät användes då den redan hade kvalitetssäkrats och hade passande frågor för vår undersökning. Fyra IT-företag var med i undersökningen, varav två av dem hade aktivitetsbaserat kontor och två av dem hade traditionell kontorstyp. Litteraturstudie har även varit en metod för att få djupare förståelse inom ämnet. Resultat: Resultaten från studien visar att det finns skillnader mellan de två kontorstyperna i upplevd produktivitet och arbetstillfredsställelse. Den traditionella kontorstypen visade högst resultat. Dock kan detta resultat diskuteras då de båda traditionella kontoren skiljde sig mycket åt i svaren. Resultaten visar också att det finns skillnader mellan hur generationer upplever produktivitet och tillfredsställelse på de olika kontoren. Den äldre generationen, Baby boomers, visar högre resultat på den traditionella kontorstypen och den yngre generationen, Generation Y, visar högre resultat på de aktivitetsbaserade kontoren. Konsekvenser: En slutsats som kan dras från detta är att anställda på traditionella kontor är mer tillfredsställda med sin arbetsplats och upplever högre produktivitet än anställda på aktivitetsbaserade kontor. Däremot kan resultaten berott på andra faktorer än hur kontorsmiljön påverkar de anställda. Därför rekommenderas inte just dessa resultat. Ytterligare en slutsats är att Baby boomers upplever högre produktivitet och arbetstillfredsställelse på traditionella kontor och att Generation Y upplever högre produktivitet och arbetstillfredsställelse på aktivitetsbaserade kontor. Dessa resultat kan rekommenderas. Begränsningar: Avgränsningar som har gjorts är att endast undersöka IT-företag i Sverige med maximalt 150 anställda. Resultaten är, med undantag från de spridda resultaten i första frågeställningen, generellt giltiga och kan tillämpas på andra IT-företag. För att lyckas få helt applicerbara resultat hade en undersökning med fler företag medverkande varit bra, eftersom man då hade kunnat upptäcka avvikelser lättare och eventuellt bortse från vissa resultat. Nyckelord: Upplevd produktivitet - Självuppskattad bedömning av anställda på deras egen produktivitet. Traditionella kontor - I detta arbete innefattar traditionella kontor cellkontor och delade rum. Aktivitetsbaserade kontor - Kontor där de anställda inte har några fasta arbetsplatser och där det ofta finns zoner för att stödja olika typer av arbete.