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Titel: Lever varumärket hos anställda? – En kvalitativ fallstudie om Living the Brand i Friskis&Svettis och MQ Författare: Carlsson, Sofia och Nilsson, Sanna Handledare: Lars Palm Examinator: Ulrika Sjöberg Utbildningssäte: Högskolan Halmstad Sektion: Hälsa och Samhälle (HOS) Kurs: Medie- och Kommunikationsvetenskap 61-90 hp Delkurs: C-uppsats, 15 hp Språk: Svenska År: 2010 Syfte: Studera Living the Brand:s påverkan på Friskis&Svettis och MQ:s anställda som i sitt dagliga arbete möter kunden Teori: Service management, varumärke, the VCI Alignment Model, kommunikation, Living the Brand, Maslows behovstrappa, engagemang Metod: Kvalitativ intervju och kvalitativ observation utförda lokalt hos respektive organisation Resultat: Living The Brand fungerar i organisationerna och de kommunicerar båda kontinuerligt ut vision och kärnvärden till sina anställda för att varumärket ska bli starkt. Nyckelord: Living the Brand, varumärke, internkommunikation, organisationskultur, organisationsidentitet   Det blir allt viktigare för organisationer att stärka sitt varumärke. En strategi för att göra det är att använda sig av Living the Brand som syftar till att få personalen att agera efter organisationens vision, mission och kärnvärden. Denna studie har undersökt två serviceföretag, Friskis&Svettis och MQ för att se hur de arbetar med Living the Brand och hur denna strategi påverkar deras medarbetare som möter kunden i sitt dagliga arbete. Nedan följer vår frågeställning:   Hur används strategin Living the Brand i Friskis&Svettis och MQ? - Hur kommuniceras vision, mission och kärnvärden? -  På vilket sätt påverkar kulturen inom organisationen Living the Brand? -  Vad har anställdas identitetsskapande för betydelse för att strategin ska fungera?   Studien använder sig främst av kvalitativa intervjuer kompletterade med observationer då vi besökte en förening respektive butik från de två organisationerna. Vår slutsats blev att Living the Brand efterlevs hos de två lokala organisationerna vi studerat eftersom de anställda känner identifikation med organisationen och kan leverera det som organisationen står för. Strategin påverkar också deras sätt att arbeta och sätt att förmedla varumärket. Genom att personalen får kontinuerlig information om varumärket hjälper det till att upprätthålla varumärkets betydelse i deras sinnen. Något som också framgår av vår studie är att kulturen inom organisationen har stor betydelse för hur Living the Brand kan utövas. Ifall kulturen arbetar för att varumärket ska spegla verksamheten blir det lättare för individen att tillämpa strategin. Det är därför viktigt att personen känner identifikation det som organisationen står för om Living the Brand ska fungera i praktiken. Detta är något vi ser hos respektive av våra intervjupersoner. Att personer från organisationerna fått vara med och ta fram vision, mission och kärnvärden gör även det att medarbetare kan identifiera sig med organisationen.   Vi tror att om Living the Brand uppmärksammas mer av allmänheten och av organisationer kommer det ha stor betydelse för vilken organisation kunden väljer. Kunden skapar sig förväntningar av organisationen och om inte kunden får vad den förväntar sig blir den missnöjd, vilket kan leda till att företaget mister kunden. Därför anser vi att det både för allmänheten och organisationer är viktigt att fortsätta studera detta ämne.

The assisted living industry is predicted to experience considerable growth due to the simultaneous aging of the baby boom generation and their subsequent need for long-term care. This study investigates individuals’ pathways to administration in assisted living and the ways in which assisted living administrators define and carry out their roles. The study contributes to the understanding of the knowledge, skills, and personal traits needed by those who assume these vital leadership roles in an industry poised to care for the bourgeoning population of older adults. The sample for this study is 44 administrators who work in a random sample of 45 assisted living facilities in Georgia. Qualitative methods were used to analyze the data. The data revealed that multiple multi-level factors not only facilitate an administrator’s pathway to AL administration, but these factors also help to shape how an administrator experiences his or her role within an ALF.

This thesis proposes a destination restaurant, near Tatamagouche, Nova Scotia, Canada, that serves as an informative showcase of common food plants grown indoors, and allows visitors to experience the food cycle of growing, processing, cooking, eating, and composting, from soil to table. Throughout the building, the line between architecture and agriculture is blurred, as program areas incorporate food plants. The environmentally-conscious design, built primarily of re-used wood and locally sourced sandstone, inspires visitors to start growing food at home by being a living example of a variety of growing methods, most of which could be adopted at home on a smaller scale.

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Support provision is a personal and important element of daily life for many people with disabilities. The study examines the ways in which organizational mandates and philosophies shape interactions between people with disabilities and support providers at two unique organizations: a L’Arche community for people with intellectual disabilities and a Independent Living Resource Centre. The project is framed with the social model of disability, the work of Titchkosky (2003) and human geography. Data was collected through semi-structured interviews, including a scenario component, with administrators at each location, people with disabilities using the services and support providers. The findings demonstrate that both organizations have strongly articulated philosophies that the participants are familiar with. The L’Arche model creates an environment that determines certain ways of interacting and while the IL participants amend the philosophy to reflect the daily reality of support provision.

Many aspects of economic analysis require judgements to be made about distributions. When agreement on a single criterion for judgement is not possible, it is necessary to examine whether one distribution is better than another from a number of perspectives. The problem of 'distributional dominance', which Part One addresses, is precisely this problem of ordering two distributions in relation to one or more objective functions, via use of a single 'dominance criterion'. Four themes are pursued. It is argued that welfare, poverty and inequality dominance criteria can be fruitfully analyzed within a single framework. The need to approach the problem of distributional dominance as a statistical one is stressed. Estimators and a method of inference are proposed and are themselves tested via a simulation study. The likely effect of aggregation on the attained ordering of distributions is assessed, also via a simulation study. A critical re-appraisal is presented of the most widely-used dominance criterion, second-order stochastic dominance, and alternative criteria are proposed. The usefulness of thinking of dominance criteria in terms of curves within bounds is emphasized. Part Two of the thesis is a study of the distribution of income in urban China in the eighties, using both aggregated, nationwide data and disaggregated data for two provinces. This study is both an application of the methods developed in Part One and a case-study of the dynamics of income distribution in a transitional economy. Evidence is found that cash-income inequality has grown over the decade, and this is linked to the reform process. However, inequality remains exceptionally low by international standards. Moreover, both the system of price subsidies and that of cash compensation introduced to replace the subsidies are shown to have exerted an equalizing influence on the urban distribution of income.

Introduction: Almost all the research on transportation use and travel patterns of older adults has been confined to community-dwelling seniors. This multi-phase project was initiated to gain a better understanding of transportation modalities (including driving) and travel patterns of seniors living in retirement complexes. The current study, Phase IV of the project, focused on residents who were still driving. Previous phases included surveys to determine driving status (Phase I) and general transportation use (Phase II), as well as an in-depth examination of residents 65+ who had recently stopped driving in the past two years (Phase III). Purposes: The primary objective of this study was to examine the actual driving practices of older drivers living in retirement communities, including associations with driver characteristics, perceptions of driving comfort and abilities, indicators of well-being, and extent of activity and group participation inside and outside the villages. This study also examined travel patterns outside the village, in addition to driving themselves. Methods: A convenience sample of 38 drivers (mean age 81.9 ?? 5.6, range 70 to 91, 42% male) from five urban retirement villages located across Southern Ontario (Kitchener, Waterloo, Guelph, Etobicoke and Whitby), were assessed between February and July, 2013. Participant vehicles were equipped with two electronic data logging devices (one with GPS) for two weeks, during which time they also filled out trip logs (for each driving trip) and daily travel diaries (for non-driving trips). Participants also completed questionnaires (background and driving history, activities inside and outside the village) and scales to assess depression, well-being, perceptions of driving comfort and abilities and balance confidence. Interviews were conducted to examine their experiences over the two week period, as well as gather feedback on transportation at the retirement facilities. Results: Overall, the sample was highly educated, reported being in good health and not depressed. They were also considerably older and had a greater proportion of females than most community studies. Driving data were obtained for 32 participants. Participants drove an average of three days a week (range 0.5 to 6.5 days/week), and only eight (32%) drove at night. Consistent with findings on older drivers living in the community, driving trips were most often for shopping and errands (65% of total trip segments), followed by social and entertainment purposes (18%). The sample showed more restricted driving patterns when compared to prior studies with community seniors; driving substantially less at night (trips and distance). Most of the sample (73%) did not drive on days with bad weather. Driving perceptions (particularly night comfort) were significantly (p<0.05) associated to many driving indicators (days driven, trips, stops, duration and night driving indicators). As expected, the number of non-driving trips outside the village increased as the amount of driving decreased. The sample did not take many non-driving trips over the two weeks (3.7 ?? 6.6, range 0 to 29) while some took many trips due to frequent walking trips. Walking (66% of total trips) and being a passenger in a vehicle (29%) were the most common modes of non-driving trips, with public transportation only accounting for less than 1% of all total trips. Non-driving trips were most often for recreational and social reasons, followed by shopping trips. Interviews suggested the sample was starting to think about driving cessation (20/38 or 53%) since moving to the village, where prior to that only one person (2.6%) had thought about it. Conclusions: Compared to community living seniors, older drivers living in retirement complexes are driving less. Services and amenities within the communities appear to be well utilized, which may reduce the need for travel outside the villages. Although use of public transit, taxis, paratransit and the facility bus (for group outings) was minimal, walking was popular for physical activity and going to shopping areas nearby. Participants reported driving less often after moving to the village and a significantly larger proportion thought about driving cessation only after moving. It is possible that living in a retirement residence makes driving less essential and therefore residents are leaving the village less often than someone living in the community. Although the study did not have a sufficient sample to conduct comparisons between village locations, the sample represented five different locations, therefore providing a better depiction of retirement living residents. The next phase of the project will help build on current findings by increasing the sample size and allowing for additional comparisons.