Globalization has opened up national borders, which has led to a spread of companies globally and a culturally diverse nature of labor. Efficient cultural diversity management (CDM) has become a significant challenge for organizations and managers have to find ways of managing a cross-cultural staff, as a disregard of cultural dissimilarities is the cause of most failures by cross-national businesses. The literature on diversity management has mainly been focused on domestic models, resulting in a lack of research regarding how this is done in an international context and how multinational companies (MNCs) are answering to an increasingly globalized staff. To address this gap, this study contributes to the existing literature by examining CDM within a MNC. In order to provide a better understanding of how to manage cultural diversity in a multinational company, two research questions were stated, which focused on approaches and managerial skills within CDM. The study was conducted using a qualitative case study approach and data was collected through three semi-structured interviews with managers within a Swedish MNC. The findings showed that the investigated MNC uses five out of seven approaches outlined inprevious literature regarding CDM, whereas four of them are used to some extent and one to agreater extent. Furthermore, the literature outlined 29 managerial skills, whereas the findings supported 12 of them but also contributed with a number of additional managerial skills perceived as necessary. Overall, the findings showed that the investigated MNC both encourages and is positive toward cultural diversity at the workplace. / Gränser mellan länder öppnas upp som ett resultat av globaliseringen, vilket har resulterat i en spridning av företag globalt och en kulturellt varierande arbetskraft. Effektiv hantering av kulturell mångfald har blivit en stor utmaning för företag. Chefer måste hitta sätt att hantera en tvärkulturell arbetskraft eftersom ignorans av kulturella olikheter är orsaken till flest misslyckanden hos gränsöverskridande företag. Litteraturen gällande hantering av kulturell mångfald har i huvudsak fokuserat på inhemska modeller, vilket har resulterat i att det saknas forskning gällande hur detta görs i ett internationellt sammanhang samt hur multinationella företag svarar på en alltmer globaliserad arbetskraft. Denna studie bidrar till den befintliga litteraturen genom att undersöka hur kulturell mångfald kan hanteras inom ett multinationellt företag. För att nå en bättre förståelse för hur man hanterar kulturell mångfald i ett multinationellt företag, formulerades två forskningsfrågor med fokus på tillvägagångssätt och chefliga kompetenser för att hantera kulturell mångfald. Denna studie utfördes genom en kvalitativ fallstudie och data samlades in genom tre semistrukturerade intervjuer med chefer inom ett svenskt multinationellt företag. Resultaten visade att det undersökta multinationella företaget använder fem av sju tillvägagångssätt som är presenterade i tidigare litteratur om CDM, medan fyra av dem används i viss utsträckning och en i större utsträckning. Vidare redogjorde litteraturen för 29 ledarskapskompetenser. Resultaten bekräftade 12 av dem men bidrog även med ett antal ytterligare ledarskapskompetenser som uppfattades som nödvändiga. Sammantaget visade resultaten att det undersökta multinationella företaget både uppmuntrar och är positivt mot kulturell mångfald på arbetsplatsen.

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Which investments in energy efficiency measures have been done as a result of RegionHallands energy audit checks? In the view of which economical aspects have proposed measures in the energy audits been done? Does the companies experience some kind of barriers regarding the investments and what kind of incentives could possibly stimulate the implementation of energy efficiency measures?

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Abstract Title Perception of consumers regarding the use of data in the sharing economy. Authors Laval Maeva & Noiraut Alexian Level Bachelor thesis, 15 ECTS credit Supervisor Venilton Reinert Examiner Hélène Laurell Keywords sharing economy, Y generation, consumers’ perception, and data Background As link between consumption of collaborative economy and perception of data had not yet been investigated; a more indepth analysis of consumer perception of data use by companies is needed. Purpose The purpose of this study is to understand the consumers’ perception about the use of their data by companies of the sharing economy. The goal is to see if they are aware of this phenomenon and if it would modify their behavior regarding the use of these online platforms. Research Question How does the generation Y perceive the fact that companies use their data in Sharing Economy businesses? Method A quantitative, qualitative research has been done for this study to understand generation Y's perception of the sharing economy regarding the use of data by companies. With this research, we focused on a survey but also on four focus groups composed of five persons: French students aged from 18 to 25 years old who travel often for both studies and leisure. We took people from different social backgrounds and have chosen different studies. We emphasize this research with previous theories about the consumer behavior with the buyer decision process in the sharing economy, the selfperception and the price-perception. Theoretical framework: Theories regarding perception on several aspects, from the individual values, to benefit going through price have been included as a basis of discussion in order to analyze our empirical findings. Findings and conclusion Through our research study, we have seen that the Y generation uses the sharing economy essentially for the economy benefit and the time saved but also for its social character and its environmental aspect. Data protection is a really concerning matter for Y generation but they don’t do much about it. Internet use is essential for young people so they accept, when they are aware, to give their data against the free usage of the platform. In addition, we have noticed that the main marketing application of data collection, customized advertising, are misconducted by companies and doesn’t reach users. Despite the awareness of users regarding the protection of data, this generation thinks that collaborative platforms are not so intrusive in their privacy regarding personal information request.

Tidigare har man identifierat två steg i processen att utfärda going concern-varningar. Det första steget innebär att revisorn blir övertygad om att bolaget förtjänar en varning och det andra steget innebär att revisorn beslutar sig för att faktiskt utfärda varningen (LaSalle et al., 1996; Ruiz-Barbadillo et al., 2004). Arnedo et al. (2008) anser att det är nödvändigt att lägga till ett tredje steg, nämligen med vilken tydlighet varningen formuleras. De menar att det finns en uppsjö av forskning som behandlar de två traditionella stegen, men att det i princip saknas empirisk forskning om hur revisorer formulerar varningarna. Vi har i vår studie kartlagt och analyserat going concern-varningarnas träffsäkerhet och tydlighet utifrån ett antal revisors- och klientfaktorer, i en population av svenska bolag som gick i konkurs under år 2010. Dessa faktorer är revisorns kön, kompetens, byråtillhörighet, tiden mellan revisionsberättelsens avlämnande och konkursbeslutet, klientens storlek och finansiell stress. Vårt resultat visar att revisorernas träffsäkerhet bland konkursbolagen är 22,7 procent, och att samtliga faktorer påverkar träffsäkerheten, utom byråtillhörigheten. Vidare finner vi att revisorerna formulerar tydliga going concern-varningar i 60,1 procent av fallen (i 26,3 procent av fallen formulerar revisorerna mellantydliga varningar och i 13,6 procent av fallen otydliga varningar). De revisorsfaktorer som påverkar varningarnas tydlighet är byråtillhörighet samt tiden mellan revisionsberättelse och konkursbeslut. De båda klientfaktorerna storlek och finansiell stress påverkar, utöver varningarnas träffsäkerhet, även tydligheten. Vår studie visar att revisorerna i vart tionde fall har valt att använda sig av två alternativa formuleringar. Av de undersökta faktorerna är det endast de två klientfaktorerna storlek och finansiell stress som påverkar förekomsten av kompletterande formuleringar i varningar. Ungefär hälften av kompletteringarna förstärker det som redan sagts, medan hälften förmildrar det som sagts. Ingen av faktorerna i studien påverkar hur kompletteringarna sammansätts. / <p>2013-06-03</p>

Abstract   Change is an alteration from one state of being to another, brought by individuals or organisations as a result of different types of internal or external forces. The change phenomenon, when discussed in context of the organisation, is referred to as organisational change. Organisational change is all about restructuring and re-engineering business processes so as to assist organisations in the growth and development process. This research paper aims to gain further insight and knowledge about change and the change management process. The research paper focuses on understanding the concept of Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) and its impact on organisations. The study also focuses on gaining insight in the change that is introduced when the ERP project is initiated in an organisation. Various change and change management models are explained and studied. Moreover, the case study method of research design was followed for further research and knowledge, and the empirical survey was conductedwithin the company of Siemens. The empirical survey was conducted with 20 respondents, and the results indicate that it is very important for a global industrial organisation to successfully implement the ERP system so as to survive and sustain in the global competitive environment. To achieve successful ERP implementation, the organisation must clearly understand the need for change and its implications. Changes need to be properly communicated to all affected employees of the organisation. In order to have successful implementation, it is important that employees do not fear and resist the change process. Proper support and training from the management need to be provided to the employees to increase their motivation for change. In conclusion, it was identified that in order to reach a successful outcome, an efficient change management process needs to be followed. To support this, a change management model was proposed with the intention of helping the organisation to successfully manage change during implementation of the ERP system.