The aim of this thesis is to gather insights on the underlying social factors behind the current state of controller roles in a multinational enterprise. Additionally, the thesis explores the possibility of managing perceptions and expectations of controller roles, in accordance to corporate business objectives. In order to do this, theoretical concepts of Role Theory, Boundary Spanning and Identity Control were utilized. This paper has a qualitative research design and is based on an embedded single-case study. Due to the exploratory nature of the research, the study is based on the method of „systematic combining‟. The objectives of the company were to establish both local and regional controllers as business partners. Findings indicate that the regional controller could focus on business advisory tasks to a large extent due to a formally appointed role, whereas the local controllers were restricted by their role and expectations to focus more on scorekeeping and managerial duties. The term „business partner‟ was spread throughout the organization. By ascribing this label to controllers, other expectations on the role were induced, which also infers a higher hierarchical positioning. Future research could go more in depth on the process of internalizing values.

Arbetslivet förändras och detta leder till förändringar av organisering och struktur inom organisationer. För att möta behov av flexibilitet, effektivitet och konkurrenskraft har nya sätt att organisera resulterat i nya ramar och strukturer för arbete med personalfrågor.  Dessa nya sätt att organisera har lett fram till nya roller och ansvarsfördelningar. I denna studie var syftet att skapa förståelse för hur HR- funktionens utformning påverkar chefers arbetssituation. Studien undersökte chefers upplevelser av HR-stödet i relation till arbetssituationen inom en organisation där HR-stödet bygger på ett service center, en expertenhet och HR business partners ute i verksamheten. Uppsatsen bygger på tio kvalitativa intervjuer med HR-medarbetare och chefer på Trafikverket. Studien visar att cheferna upplever ett tillfredställande HR-stöd från expertenheten och HR business partners. Samordningsproblem inom HR-funktionen ger dock effekter för både chefer och HR-medarbetare inom organisationen. En varierande chefsroll som innefattar både generella kunskaper om verksamheten, personalfrågor, administration i kombination med att vara ledare åskådliggörs i uppsatsen. / Work and employment often change, and this leads to transformations in the structure of organizations. To meet the demand for flexibility, efficiency, and competitiveness, new ways of organizing have resulted in new frameworks and structures for jobs in the field of human resources. These newly presented ways of organizing have led to shifting roles and distribution of responsibility. The purpose of this study is to create a wide understanding of how the organization of HR affects the work of managers. The study examines the experiences of managers with HR-support in relation to the current work situation within an organization where HR-support is based on a service center, a center of expertise, and HR business partners. Ten qualitative interviews with HR employees and managers at the governmental organization Trafikverket form the base of this study. The results show that HR-support, given by the center of expertise and business partners, is satisfying for managers.  However, issues of coordination within HR affect both managers as well as HR employees within the organization. A shifting role of the manager, which includes general knowledge of operations, questions of personnel, and administration in combination with being a leader, are illustrated in the study.

<p>Introduction: Already in the 1970’s, internationalisation was noted as a striking trend in business. Since then, the speed of internationalisation has increased as infrastructure, communication, and IT have decreased space and time barriers for international trade. Today, companies must engage in international activities to survive in the competitive environment and researchers argue that firms’ international performance is determined by their ability to establish relationships.</p><p>Problem: In order to facilitate the search for business actors globally, Chamber Trade Business to Business AB offers a database in which companies can post business inquiries. Lately, the number of inquiries published in the database has decreased. Therefore, the question arose what other tools companies use instead when searching for business partners. This empirically driven problem is also matched by a theoretical need for more research about how firms establish international relationships.</p><p>Purpose: The purpose of this thesis is to analyse how small Swedish B2B companies find downstream international partners.</p><p>Theoretical framework: In order to create a frame of reference for guidance in the collection and analysis of the empirical data, theory has been divided into three sections; Internationalisation theory, Business to Business relationships theory, and Means for international interaction.</p><p>Method: To fulfil the purpose of the thesis, a qualitative study with an inductive approach was undertaken. Secondary data in terms of literature and academic articles were scanned to create a theoretical framework and to facilitate the collection of primary data. Primary data was gathered from ten small Swedish firms in order to find out how their downstream international business relationships had been initiated.</p><p>Conclusion: Our thesis concludes that many Swedish sellers start out their internationalisation to countries with close distance by responding to unsolicited orders from foreign customers. Over time, their proactiveness increases and they primary use the following channels in order to find international partners: networks, trade fairs, trade- and industry organisations, and the Internet. Databases have several defaults for being a useful search tool, mainly their lack of precise search criteria and personal interaction. Further, when companies offer a high quality product, a reputation is created about the company. Consequently, foreign customers pull the company into new countries and the need for external search tools is low.</p>

In den letzten Jahren geriet die sogenannte fehlende Zahlungsmoral von Unternehmen und deren negative Auswirkungen immer wieder in die Schlagzeilen der Tagespresse. Obwohl derartige Klagen immer wieder laut werden, existieren bisher kaum systematische Untersuchungen, die sich mit den Ursachen fehlender Zahlungsmoral und den Vermeidungsmöglichkeiten beschäftigen. Vor diesem Hintergrund soll mit der vorliegenden Studie das Problem der "Zahlungsmoral" für das Handwerk im Raum Leipzig näher untersucht werden. Die Ziele der Studie können insbesondere durch die folgenden drei Fragestellungen umrissen werden: Welchen Umfang haben Unregelmässigkeiten tatsächlich? Wie sehen die betroffenen Handwerksbetriebe die Situation? Welche Faktoren führen zu einem unregelmäßigen Zahlungsverhalten von Kunden?

Most recent research show that the role of the modern controller has changed from thetraditional bean counter towards a business partner role. However, all literature does notagree with this notion, claiming that the controller is still more of a bean counter. Further,what it actually means to be a business partner also differs between researchers. The rolechange has also brought several new challenges for the controller. The purpose of this studyis to examine what it means to be a controller at a consultancy company in the IT industry,and what challenges and opportunities exist for business partnering. This is achieved usingcase study as the research design, including qualitative data from interviews of ten controllersof different seniority. The findings are analyzed through a theoretical framework consistingof role theory combined with previous literature on the topic. The findings of the study showthat the role of the controller at the case company shared more similarities with the traditionaldescription of a bean counter than a business partner. While more elements of businesspartnering started to appear as seniority increases, the controllers still felt like they weredoing too much bean counting activities. However, some opportunities for businesspartnering were still found at the company. The study suggests four major challengescontributing to role issues and hindering the controllers from becoming business partners.The four challenges are related to (1) lack of adaptation to new technology, (2) a centralizedorganizational structure, (3) the interplay between financial and business departments, and (4)accountability issues.

Introduction: Already in the 1970’s, internationalisation was noted as a striking trend in business. Since then, the speed of internationalisation has increased as infrastructure, communication, and IT have decreased space and time barriers for international trade. Today, companies must engage in international activities to survive in the competitive environment and researchers argue that firms’ international performance is determined by their ability to establish relationships. Problem: In order to facilitate the search for business actors globally, Chamber Trade Business to Business AB offers a database in which companies can post business inquiries. Lately, the number of inquiries published in the database has decreased. Therefore, the question arose what other tools companies use instead when searching for business partners. This empirically driven problem is also matched by a theoretical need for more research about how firms establish international relationships. Purpose: The purpose of this thesis is to analyse how small Swedish B2B companies find downstream international partners. Theoretical framework: In order to create a frame of reference for guidance in the collection and analysis of the empirical data, theory has been divided into three sections; Internationalisation theory, Business to Business relationships theory, and Means for international interaction. Method: To fulfil the purpose of the thesis, a qualitative study with an inductive approach was undertaken. Secondary data in terms of literature and academic articles were scanned to create a theoretical framework and to facilitate the collection of primary data. Primary data was gathered from ten small Swedish firms in order to find out how their downstream international business relationships had been initiated. Conclusion: Our thesis concludes that many Swedish sellers start out their internationalisation to countries with close distance by responding to unsolicited orders from foreign customers. Over time, their proactiveness increases and they primary use the following channels in order to find international partners: networks, trade fairs, trade- and industry organisations, and the Internet. Databases have several defaults for being a useful search tool, mainly their lack of precise search criteria and personal interaction. Further, when companies offer a high quality product, a reputation is created about the company. Consequently, foreign customers pull the company into new countries and the need for external search tools is low.

Denna studie behandlar controllern och dess roll. Då controllerrollen upplevs som väldigt diffus är syftet att förtydliga vad en controller är genom att använda begreppen bönräknare och företagspartner. Den teoretiska referensramen tar upp teorier från centrala författare inom området, bland annat Lindvall, Mattsson, Frenckner och Samuelson. Studien är en kvalitativ studie och utfördes på Saab AB i Arboga. Totalt åtta stycken djupintervjuer genomfördes med både controllers och icke-controllers för att på detta sätt kunna få en djupare förståelse för controllerrollen. Urvalet av de åtta intervjupersonerna är ett icke-sannolikhetsurval i form av ett bekvämlighetsurval och även ett snöbollsurval. Vid intervjutillfällena användes semistrukturerade intervjuer med en intervjuguide. Detta för att ha friheten att kunna anpassa intervjuerna utifrån de olika personerna som intervjuades och på det sättet kunna fokusera på det de enskilda personerna tyckte var intressant. Genomgående i studien behandlas följande områden: definition, utbildning, egenskaper, arbetsuppgifter, förändringar i omvärlden och framtiden för controllern. Resultatet av vår studie visar att företagspartnerrollen och bönräknarrollen till viss del finns, men att även en ytterligare roll verkar infinna sig, en så kallad kompetensrelationsroll. / This study discusses the controller and its role. Since the role of the controller is perceived as very diffuse, the study aims to clarify what a controller is by using the concepts bean counter and business partner. The theoretical framework discusses theories from key writers in the area, including Lindvall, Mattsson, Frenckner and Samuelson. The study is a qualitative study and was conducted at Saab AB in Arboga. A total of eight interviews were conducted with both controllers and non-controllers to gain a deeper understanding of the role of the controller. The selection of the eight interviewees is a non-probability sample in the form of a convenience sample and it is also a snowball sampling. During the interview sessions we used semi-structured interviews with an interview guide. This way we had the freedom to customize the interviews according to the people interviewed and thus we were able to focus on what the individuals thought was interesting. Throughout the study, the following areas are addressed: the definition, education, personality traits, tasks, changes in the surrounding world and the future of the controller. The results of our study show that the business partner role and the bean counter role both still exist, but also an additional role seems to appear, a so-called competence relationship.

Since its big breakthrough in 1980 starting in America (Bredin, 2008), we see yet another shift from traditional to Strategic Human Resources which were basically about two normative model “best fit” vs. “best practice” and their implication in business organizations (Boxall &amp; Purcell, 2000). Scholars like Ulrich (1997), suggested ways about how Human Resource (HR) could contribute in the search for competitive advantage by advocating new organizational structures and roles such as HRSSC (Human Resource Shared Service Center) or the new role of HRBP (Human Resource Business Partner). These new roles and structures can be seen as an extension of “best fit” vs. “best practice” thinking and provide with a tool to cope with challenges faced by today’s organizations. The first and foremost objective of this paper is to come up with a reasonable understanding about these different changes in roles and structures of HR. To do this, it puts the whole change process under “organizational evolution theory” lens and analyzes the whole phenomena to figure out “where do these changes come from” and “what is the implication of these changes for practitioner managers”. To be more precise, this paper applies ecological perspective at organizational and population level suggested by Lovas &amp; Ghoshal (2000) and provides a starting point for future research to apply what Lovas &amp; Ghoshal (2000) called “Guided Evolution” perspective. The next objective of this paper is to check if it is possible to come up with a Key Success Factors (KSF) which would work across different business environments and come up with implications for today’s organizations accordingly. In addition to an extensive literature review, the thesis conducted four semi-structured interviews with three large companies in Sweden applying “qualitative research interview” technique and then analyzed the data with adding more data from other secondary sources. The findings of this work suggest that, the whole change process corresponds to a “variation” cycle of the evolutionary process which should eventually move to a “selection” cycle. The choice and success of these new structures and roles are dependent on factors such as corporate strategies, adequate knowledge of HR or presence/absence of competition and finally suggest that success factors vary from environment to environment and thus it is not possible to come up with a set of Key Success Factors (KSF) which would work across cultures and business environments.

Since the inception of the industrialization of Taiwan¡¦s society, people have changed their lifestyles and values thanks to the rapid economic growth. This phenomenon has also been accompanied by the deprivation of spiritual and psychological needs. Being highly civilized also implies the psychological illness as the most serious and one of the most easily overlooked illness. The World Health Organization has made solemn warning and prediction that depression will be listed along with cancer and AIDS as the world's three major psychological illness by the year 2020. It is also a growing concern that depression consequently results in health and socio-economic losses such as waste of resources in medical insurance. Given the situation described above, it is our society¡¦s top priority to control the spread of depression. Therefore, organizations that focus on curing depression will serve a more important role in the future. So far there have been very few systematic research literatures that dedicate to the analysis of the collaborative relationship among non-profit, social organizations and businesses. So far, we have not been able to find any study focusing on such relationship based on the unique terminology ¡§strategic alliance¡¨ commonly used by the businesses to define the partnerships among non-profit organizations. Presently, whether in public or private sectors, the link between the mode of independent operation and the grassroots¡¦ need remains unclear and therefore often leads to unsatisfactory results, contributing to the waste of civil and governmental resources. Consequently, it has become an urgent matter that the government unit, business sector and civil 3rd non-profit organizations establish an effective and practical cooperative mechanism based on strategic alliance to promote social welfare or work related to advocating the awareness of social welfare. This report used the ¡§Daylily Depression Prevention Association¡¨ in the city of Kaohsiung, Taiwan as a case study to perform an in-depth analysis on the organization¡¦s capabilities in handling the integration of the resources and joint implementation of the partnership project planning, as well as the results acquired from executing the strategies set through the public relationship of the media¡¦s marketing channels under various situations. Additionally, we organized and compiled the valuable opinions and practical advices obtained from in-depth interviews with the industry, the government and academic institutions, access to relevant experts, scholars and practitioners. We hope to provide reference directions which not only are adapt to the public issues but also follows the main stream values of the modern times, to similar non-profit organizations. These results could also be used as the basis for future organizational development. The findings indicate that the resources acquired through the links based upon strategic alliance partnerships is an important factor that non-profit organizations rely on for survival and growth. Not only can these resources reduce the risks resulted from competition in the market but also establish the direction where the organization follows for future growth and the guidelines used for internal management. Non-profit organizations must break down the stereotype which the society perceived as a vulnerable group. They must proactively look for the best resources that they can leverage upon through the cooperative mechanism in strategic alliance. This way the non-profit organizations can extend their tentacles to the public and private areas; highlight the mutual benefit between them and the governmental departments, academic institutions and private enterprises to actively strengthen theirs cooperation ties well into the 21st century with the advent of the era of mission leadership.

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