<p>This master´s thesis consists of two parts. The first part is a study where the possibility to use existing tools from the market is assessed. The second part describes the design, development and usability test of a web based hardware configuration tool. The usability test made in the design process, was made in order to remove common usability problems and to assess whether or not the design decisions made during the thesis were good. The usability test that was performed followed the think aloud method and gave me very useful information that helped me improve the tool.</p><p>The study that was made in the beginning of the thesis was done in order to see if there were any programs on the market which already did the required tasks or could be adjusted to do them. I could not find a satisfying alternative amongst the five alternatives investigated. This lead to the decision to design a new tool. The main functions are the ability to save the current state the hardware is in, and at a later stage load this configuration back.</p><p>The tool was designed for the PRAN unit at Ericsson AB, in Linköping, Sweden.</p>

<p>Background: As the economy turns up and down, and companies sometimes face loosing employees, it is important for them to make sure they do not loose competence at the same time. Therefore a need to handle competence efficiently exist. </p><p>Purpose. The purpose of this thesis is to investigate what measures companies take to minimise the risk of loosing competence from the company, at times of layoffs and in general. </p><p>Methodology: We mainly used interviews to gather information. Three competence intensive companies participated in the study. By competence intensive we mean companies that continuously need competence to develop and produce their products. All companies were in the technology sector. </p><p>Conclusion: The companies were surprisingly passive when it came to managing competences, especially tacit competences. The work of continuously handling competences was left to the unit managers, and was not dealt with company-wide. The measures used are similar in all companies, as well as the fact that they have not changed those measures after the layoffs. This could be a result of that they worked well, or that they have no better alternatives. All companies used routines as a mean of capturing competence, but had realised that routines could never replace the individual competences. Instead they tried to create an environment at the companies where competence sharing was a part of the daily work, e.g. by evaluating employees through variables connected to competence sharing.</p>

No description available.

<p>Sarbanes-Oxley Act, SOX, har inneburit stora förändringar för de företag som</p><p>är noterade på en amerikansk börs. Med höga krav på en struktur för interna</p><p>kontroller av processer inom företaget har detta inneburit mycket arbete för</p><p>företagen och revisorer. Framförallt under införandet men även efteråt i det</p><p>dagliga arbetet.</p><p>I denna uppsats redogör vi för hur svenska företag ser på Sarbanes-Oxley Act</p><p>och vad de anser om hur väl regelverket uppfyller sina mål att förhindra fel</p><p>och fusk i redovisningen samt den finansiella rapporteringen. För att komma</p><p>fram till våra slutsatser har vi intervjuat sex olika personer som på något sätt</p><p>kommer eller har kommit i kontakt med SOX. Det är svar från personer på</p><p>ABB, AstraZeneca, Autoliv, Ericsson samt Ernst & Young som varit grunden</p><p>i vårt arbete.</p><p>Det visade sig att de alla ansåg att SOX höjt kvaliteten i deras redovisning och</p><p>hjälpt dem att hitta felaktigheter i ett tidigare skede. Dock är det tveksamt om</p><p>regelverket motverkar de riktigt omfattande bedrägerier vi sett och kanske</p><p>även i fortsättningen kommer se.</p>

<p>Adjustment to a new culture is a slow and step-wise process, which can be facilitated by cross-cultural training. First, a comprehensive review of current theories about cross-cultural adjustment and different training techniques is presented. Then, the study looks at the preparation and training of expatriates at Ericsson in relation to these theories. In-depth interviews with two Area Managers at Ericsson have been carried out in order to establish how the company’s training program is structured. We found that Ericsson follows a sequential model with both pre-departure and post-arrival training, mainly didactic in nature. The pre-departure training is very culturegeneral, whereas the post-arrival training is more specific for the host culture. The post-arrival training is, however, not offered in all host countries. Language training is also offered, and expatriates are encouraged to visit the host country prior to the departure. Many components in Ericsson’s training program are supported by theory,but several other techniques described in the theory are not in use. A suggestion is made to further formalize the post-arrival training and make the overall training more culture-specific.</p>

<p>Intressenter har under de senaste åren ställt högre krav på att företag ska ta ett socialt ansvar vilket har bidragit till en omfattande debatt om Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR). Denna uppsats ämnar att undersöka hur Ericssons CSR integreras på organisationens huvudkontor i Kista. För att kunna svara på samhällets förväntningar är det väsentligt för företag att integrera CSR djupt i organisationen. För att integrera CSR presenterar denna uppsats en fyrstegsprocess som bygger på att företag bör ha en intern CSR röst, att de ska mäta CSR aktiviteterna, att företaget ska ha ett proaktivt synsätt och att det ska ske en attitydförändring angående CSR i företaget. Genom att analysera Ericssons CSR-aktiviteter utifrån denna process kan vi konstatera att Ericsson integrerar sina CSR aktiviteter via sitt ledningssystem, sin Corporate Responsibility & Sustainability rapport, intern kommunikation och utbildning och dialoger med företagets interna intressenter. Slutligen framkom även att Ericsson har ett relativt proaktivt synsätt på CSR och att företaget arbetar på att förändra attityden kring CSR inom organisationen.</p>

Today we are living in a knowledge-society where knowledge sharing is of utmost importance for companies in order to keep their competitiveness. Therefore, it is a much debated issue - in both the academic and the corporate world - in what way one should handle the knowledge which continuously is created within companies. The aim of this study is to describe how practitioners share tacit knowledge within a large knowledge company. By that we aim to get an answer to how the chosen theoretical models regarding tacit knowledge relate to the empirical world. In this study we will focus on tacit knowledge in contrast to explicit one. Further we will not study knowledge sharing between organisations but concentrate on this process within them. We chose to approach the purpose of this study in a qualitative way by conducting interviews within a large knowledge-firm. The company was Systems Integration within the Ericsson-group where we held interviews with four persons familiar with knowledge. Furthermore, we have perceived that theories concerning the knowledge-sharing process are relatively fragmented. Therefore, we have built a model which links the different theories together in order to give a better overview of the whole process. Having conducted the study, we found that the case company to some extent handlesknowledge in line with the theories chosen. Furthermore, we came to the conclusion that some modifications in the model are necessary in order to achieve a successful knowledge-sharing process.

Background: As the economy turns up and down, and companies sometimes face loosing employees, it is important for them to make sure they do not loose competence at the same time. Therefore a need to handle competence efficiently exist. Purpose. The purpose of this thesis is to investigate what measures companies take to minimise the risk of loosing competence from the company, at times of layoffs and in general. Methodology: We mainly used interviews to gather information. Three competence intensive companies participated in the study. By competence intensive we mean companies that continuously need competence to develop and produce their products. All companies were in the technology sector. Conclusion: The companies were surprisingly passive when it came to managing competences, especially tacit competences. The work of continuously handling competences was left to the unit managers, and was not dealt with company-wide. The measures used are similar in all companies, as well as the fact that they have not changed those measures after the layoffs. This could be a result of that they worked well, or that they have no better alternatives. All companies used routines as a mean of capturing competence, but had realised that routines could never replace the individual competences. Instead they tried to create an environment at the companies where competence sharing was a part of the daily work, e.g. by evaluating employees through variables connected to competence sharing.

Sarbanes-Oxley Act, SOX, har inneburit stora förändringar för de företag som är noterade på en amerikansk börs. Med höga krav på en struktur för interna kontroller av processer inom företaget har detta inneburit mycket arbete för företagen och revisorer. Framförallt under införandet men även efteråt i det dagliga arbetet. I denna uppsats redogör vi för hur svenska företag ser på Sarbanes-Oxley Act och vad de anser om hur väl regelverket uppfyller sina mål att förhindra fel och fusk i redovisningen samt den finansiella rapporteringen. För att komma fram till våra slutsatser har vi intervjuat sex olika personer som på något sätt kommer eller har kommit i kontakt med SOX. Det är svar från personer på ABB, AstraZeneca, Autoliv, Ericsson samt Ernst &amp; Young som varit grunden i vårt arbete. Det visade sig att de alla ansåg att SOX höjt kvaliteten i deras redovisning och hjälpt dem att hitta felaktigheter i ett tidigare skede. Dock är det tveksamt om regelverket motverkar de riktigt omfattande bedrägerier vi sett och kanske även i fortsättningen kommer se.

Despite its strategic importance most firms managing complex product development fail to meet their pre-set or emerging targets. This thesis argues that this is due to a number of limitations in the fundamental assumptions behind the dominant approach based on planning. Two alternative approaches are introduced and elaborated based on extensive empirical investigation of five organizational settings at Ericsson applying the dominant approach and two organizational settings also at Ericsson that repeatedly succeed to meet pre-set and emerging targets. The two alternative approaches; integrationdriven development and dynamic synchronization are based on integration, building dependencies, allocating resources to the boundaries and building a capacity for real-time handling of both emerging problems and opportunities rather than minimizing deviations from the pre-set plan. / Diss. Stockholm : Handelshögskolan, 1999