The main purpose of our study was to gain a deeper understanding of how culture influences the interpretation of ethical leadership by both leaders and followers in Zambia and Sweden. The study was conducted using an interpretative narrative inquiry with a small sample of ten participants (i.e. leaders and followers) selected using a purposive sampling method. The participants were drawn from six small and medium local authorities in Sweden (three medium size Kommuns) and Zambia (Two municipalities and one District Council). The empirical data was collected using semi-structured interview guides with interview sessions lasting 45 minutes on average. The data collected was transcribed and analyzed using narrative and thematic analysis. Based on this analysis, we came up with four main themes regarding the interpretation of ethical leadership by leaders and followers, and these are: Morality, Law, Humanity and Nature which constitute our Culture-Ethical Leadership interpretation model.   The empirical narratives demonstrated some similarities in the interpretation of ethical leadership between leaders and followers in Sweden and Zambia. The leaders and followers from both countries affiliated ethical leadership to morality, humanity, adherence to the law, and, caring and protecting nature. Our research also led us to conclude that there is a degree of variance in the interpretation of ethical leadership which relates to the differences in the cultural contexts. In Zambia, leaders and followers show high inclination to the law as being ethical which is reflected in Bello (2012)’s statement that failure to follow rules and regulations is a manifestation of unethical leadership while in Sweden, leaders and followers are inclined to high morality and humanity influenced by high levels of trust as narrated by our participants from Sweden. / <p>Alumbwe leza!</p>

This comparative case study examines the timely issue of internationalization of the Swedish higher education system in the context of lagom, a Swedish word which means “not too much, not too little, just the right amount.” This study presents a comprehensive overview of internationalization policies at the international and national levels, and examines their application at the institutional level within a higher education institution in Sweden to determine gaps between policy and practice. The data was gathered through qualitative interviews with students and international university administrators, which provided their perspectives of the current internationalization efforts, as well as a summary of the current internationalization policies at the institution. The interviews pointed to the organizational culture of the university as a factor affecting internationalization, taking Swedish lagom culture into consideration. This discovery is followed by the application of Sporn’s Organizational Culture Typology (1996) to the institution to understand the strengths and weaknesses of the university, and how to harness the strategic management style to better facilitate internationalization and thus increase the number of students pursuing studies abroad. The results suggest that a more centralized organizational university culture is a more effective way to facilitate internationalization. Additionally, the Swedish lagom culture presents a uniquely challenging paradigm for fostering the innovative internationalization agenda in HEIs.

With the rising importance of environmental sustainability, there is a growing need for solutions. Some research indicates that Sweden is performing well in environmental sustainability and the Swedish concept of lagom has been trending in recent years due to its usefulness in leadership. This thesis aims to determine if‘lagom’ can be the key to a sustainable business by examining how the concept is implemented in Swedish companies and how it affects them. Based on the literature review, five semi-structured interviews were held with Swedish business professionals, where questions regarding sustainability, lagom, business culture, and leadership culture were covered. After an analysis of the empirical findings, a correlation between lagom and improved sustainability was found in various aspects. The implementation of trial-and-error was found to be a contributing factor that promotes sustainability. Further, the subconscious cultural influence was also a contributing factor to promote sustainability as the Swedish cultural values promote Laget före jaget (The team before the self), which is incorporated on a societal level. The results would indicate that ‘lagom’ could be a useful aspect to improve sustainability, and potentially of the keys (not the only one) for sustainable business. Although lagom as a concept could be implemented in non-Swedish companies, it is rooted as a Swedish cultural value and is likely not as effective if implemented somewhere where these values are not present. However, due to the nature of the research, this cannot be concretely verified and a need for a case study with several non-Swedish companies would be required to find the true usefulness of lagom.

This thesis examines the unique set of circumstances which led to the rapid rise of a supposed right-wing populist party in Sweden. The Sverigedemokraterna (Sweden Democrats) are not the first nationalist party to enter the Swedish parliament, but are the first to survive multiple parliamentary elections and are currently the third largest party in parliament. This thesis argues the Sverigedemokraterna do not constitute a political party, but remain a populist movement within Swedish politics, are not right-wing but rather a lagom-inspired hybrid, and the stabilizing effects of the culture of lagom prevents the permanence of extremism in Swedish politics. The increase in immigrants from predominantly Muslim states due to the Arab Spring and the Syrian civil war stoke the anti-Islamic rhetoric of this nationalist group, but did not cause their rapid ascent and neither did the entry of Sweden into the European Economic Community. The Sverigedemokraterna are a single-point culmination of a century of nationalist and fascist groups splitting and merging within Sweden, but as other groups continue to appear the SD cannot be the only culmination. / Master of Arts

Lärares arbetssätt och stödinsatser undersöktes, som kan gynna elevers motivation och matematikutveckling med inriktning på att kunskapskraven ska kunna uppnås. Det är en kvalitativ intervjustudie  med  ett urval av lärare i matematik, speciallärare och specialpedagoger som arbetar i grundskolan. Data analyserades tematiskt och resulterade i tre teman: relationsskapande och trygghet; struktur, hjälpmedel och lustyllt lärande samt undervisningsnivå och tempo.