During 2001 experienced Turkey a deep financial crisis with high inflations, large public dept and a growing currency account deficits that caused a loss of confidence among investors. However, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the Turkish government together established a stand-by-arrangement which gave remarkable results. The recover of Turkey’s economy has been a success story with an average growth of 10 percent that has attracted Foreign Direct Investments facilitated by the investors’ recognition of the country’s valuable opportunities. This has also attracted Swedish companies and today it is over 400 Swedish companies represented in Turkey. Hofstede (1997) study shows that there are significant cultural differences between Swedes and Turks which will imply that the expanding Swedish companies will face problems that hinder their effectiveness due to these differences. The aim of this study is therefore to identify the common cultural differences in order to facilitate the cultural interaction in the workplace. This thesis applies Hofstede (1997) study of nationalities as a foundation to identify the cultural differences. The authors have also used qualitative methods and ethnographic science to be able to interpreted and analyse the findings. The information was gathered from the managers of Volvo Cars, Tetra Pak and IKEA and was also complemented by a questionnaire to the Swedish and Turkish employees. The findings shown important cultural differences that is essential to consider in man-agement in order to increase the effectiveness in the workplace. The analysis show that Turks want to be provided clear directives rather than guidelines, while Swedes want a consultative manager, take more responsibility and solve their task independently. Turks are also very emotional integrated with their tasks and thereby take criticism more per-sonally. Swedes, on the other hand, handle the criticism more professionally due to their emotional distance to their work. The findings also shown that there are differences in risk taking where Swedes are willing to take risk at a greater extent than the Turks. The nationalities moreover belong to different time cultures which require the managers to be tolerant to delays. However, there are also similarities as both Turks and Swedes value team-work as a prior motivator. The conclusion state that it exist common cultural differences but that are not considered as troublesome in the studied companies due to the expatriates cultural experience and intercultural skills. ii

In this study I analyze the Swedish parental benefit system focusing on a certain component, the basic level, and its effects on childbearing. The basic level consists of a fixed monetary amount given to parents. The compensation level was raised three times between 2002 and 2004, which would, according to economic theories, imply increased incentives for having children. I use longitudinal data of women in fertile age between 1993 and 2005. Applying a difference-in-differences model on comparison groups based on region of birth I conclude that the policy changes probably did not cause increased probabilities of having children.

Empati är känslan som väcks när människan lever sig in i någon annans situation. Forskning har visat att händelserna dödsfall av partner och skilsmässa är de mest stressfulla situationerna i livet. I två experiment undersöktes om dessa situationer även väckte mycket empati. Det första experimentet innefattade en berättelse där målpersonens kön och händelse varierade. Resultatet visade att kvinnor känner Amer empati för den som drabbas av dödsfall av partner än av skilsmässa, medan män känner lika mycket empati för de drabbade i de två händelserna; detta kan bero på att männens sociala nätverk är mindre än kvinnornas och därför tar en brytning väldigt hårt. Det andra experimentet gjordes på enbart kvinnor och undersökte vilket av dödsfall av partner och dödsfall av barn som väckte mest empati. Resultatet visade ingen skillnad mellan händelserna. Detta kan ha sin förklaring i att dödsfall av partner är den mest stressfyllda situationen i livet.

The subject of this paper is the congestion tax in Stockholm, Sweden. The study has been conducted with the purpose to examine of how public attitudes towards congestion charging looks and the reason behind the attitude. And also to examine if there are any differences in attitudes between those living inside and outside the payment zones, between men and women and between car owners and those who do not own a car or have a driver's license. The study used a questionnaire sent out electronically to a group of friends of friends and of friends’ family members. The respondents think it´s very important to present a better option if price incitements are to be used; in this case the better option is public transportation. Revenues should be spent so that large amounts go to the public transportation. There were no attitude differences between residents living inside the payment zones and those living outside the payment zones and between men and women. There is an attitude difference between those who own a car and those who do not own a car or have a driver's license. Those who own a car are more negative to the congestion charge than those who do not own a car or have a driver's license. This is believed to diminish if information is given to the public on how the revenue is spent and if congestion charge is introduced in several of the larger cities in Sweden.

En ökad handel med Kina har inneburit att fler svenskar arbetar och bor där tillfälligt. Det betyder att det finns intresse att undersöka kulturella skillnader för att underlätta anpassningar vid arbete och fritid. Åtta personer med erfarenhet av att arbeta och leva i Kina intervjuades. Resultatet visade på betydande skillnader i kommunikation, tidsuppfattning, organisation, relationer och socialt beteende. Kommunikationssvårigheter fanns både under arbete och vid fritid vilket berodde på språket i sig samt olika kommunikationsstilar. Den hierarkiska organisationen bidrog till att saker tog längre tid, men goda relationerna upplevdes minska tidsåtgången. Socialt beteende skiljde sig till exempel vid bordskick. För att motverka skillnaderna underlättar ett gott tålamod samt en kulturell förståelse och acceptans. Resultatet diskuteras utifrån skillnaderna i de kulturella samhällsvärderingarna.

Flera teorier om självkänsla har gemensamt att självkänsla grundläggs i barndomen och berör individens syn på sig själv och hur omgivningen uppfattar individen. Tidigare studier av pornografiskt material har inriktat sig mot negativa effekter av konsumtion för beteendet. Studiens frågeställningar berörde huruvida det fanns några könsskillnader eller skillnader mellan individer med hög respektive låg självkänsla gällande hur ungdomar påverkas av pornografiskt material. Totalt deltog 131 personer av dessa var 80 kvinnor och 51 män. Män påverkades mer av pornografi än kvinnor Individer med låg självkänsla påverkas mer av pornografi än de med hög självkänsla. Studien visar att det finns en koppling mellan påverkan av pornografiskt material och individens självkänsla.

Vårt sätt att kommunicera med varandra är i hög grad situationsberoende. Ett tillfälle när samtalets form kan ha stor betydelse är i kontakten mellan läkare och patient och då speciellt när läkaren behöver förmedla tråkiga nyheter till patienten. I denna studie undersöktes faktorer som påverkar hur läkaren upplever sin förmåga att genomföra samtal med ”bad news” för patienten. Nio läkare på två sjukhus i Mellansverige intervjuades. När materialet analyserades induktivt genom meningskoncentrering framkom det att patientens ålder och personlighet tycks ha större inverkan än kön, och att anhöriga ansågs kunna vara både ett värdefullt stöd och en belastning för informationsgivningen i svåra samtal. Eftersom de flesta studier om svåra samtal inom vården bygger på uppgifter ur vårdpersonalens synvinkel diskuterades vikten av att i framtida studier fokusera patientens egna upplevelser.

Tidigare forskning menar att kvinnor har lägre tilltro till sin förmåga att ta sig an organisatoriska roller än män (A. Dickerson & M. A. Taylor, 2000; K. S. Lyness & C. A. Schrader, 2006). Sveriges statistiska centralbyrå redovisade 2009 att färre kvinnor än män var representerade i ledartjänst. Studien har undersökt studenters nivå av akademisk self-efficacy och deras vilja att ha ledaransvar framledes. Resultat grundas på enkätdata från 78 studenter. Män hade högre nivå av akademisk self-efficacy än kvinnor. Det fanns däremot inga könsskillnader gällande viljan att ha ledaransvar. Studien visar ett positivt signifikant samband mellan nämnda variabler. Även erfarenheter av att utöva ledarskap och pappans ledarposition tycks ha betydelse för deltagarnas vilja att ha ledaransvar i det framtida yrket.

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to analyze how employees perceive their leader / manager. How the leader / manager perceives himself in relation to employees and what differences exist. Research Method: The information was made through a qualitative approach. The study includes interviews with semi-structured questions and a subjective selection. The authors interviewed seven respondents from a service company. Based on the information the authors have attempted to draw parallels between the leader’s behaviour and theories involving different leadership styles and see how the employees perceive the leader. Conclusions: The employees and the leader have the same ideas about what is a good leadership. The leader has the right knowledge to be a leader and to maintain the company. The leader works with different leadership styles. It’s the situation that determines how the leader will respond to the problem.

Women outperform men in face recognition and are especially good at recognizing other females’ faces. This may be caused by a larger female interest in faces. The aims of this study were to investigate if women were more interested in female faces and if depth of friendship was related to face recognition. Forty-one women and 16 men completed two face recognition tasks: one in which the faces shown earlier had been presented one at a time, and one where they had been shown two and two. The Network of Relationships Inventory was used to assess depth of friendships. As hypothesized, but not statistically significant, women tended to recognize more female faces when faces were presented two and two. No relationships were found between depth of friendships and face recognition. The results gave some support for the previously untested hypothesis that interest has importance in women’s recognition of female faces.