This scientific essay deals with the concept of care and how care takes shape in preschool and in preschool teachers' practical professional knowledge. Through a phenomenological perspective and in relation to Hanna Arendt's discourse on collective responsibility, the study approaches the concept of care in preschool but also the significance of the phenomenon itself. The study consists of four stories, all of which are taken from my own activities and an ethnological field study conducted at two different preschools, where participatory observation and interviewing have been used as a method. The focus of the observations has been to study the practical knowledge of preschool educators and to see how care takes place. By studying, reflecting, and critically examining preschool educators and my own practical professional knowledge, I aim to get closer to the many forms of care. Which is important to be able to make it visible and reflect on the many meanings of care. The study also examines the relationship of care to learning and how these can form a whole in preschool. New public management is described in the study as something that has characterized the Swedish welfare sector since the late 1990s. Results, goal fulfillment, efficiency indications are some of the factors that characterize a successful business in an NPM-influenced business. When this is contrasted with the preschool's activities where the ability to empathize and the importance of showing consideration for others is what instead characterizes a safe and successful activity, it affects the preschool. The results of the study are discussed in relation to the philosophies of Nel Noddings. Where the approach becomes central to how care emerges in this study. The result of the study shows that care is something that is constantly and daily going on in preschool, but that the time, knowledge, or power to put it into words sometimes doesn`t exist. Which sometimes leads to that the important practical knowledge about care, doesn`t take equivalent place in preschool. Which unfortunately has major consequences for daily practice where care risks becoming a concept that does not keep up with developments in preschool. Giving care to children in preschool appears in the study as a relational phenomenon. Care as a phenomenon is created when we educators listen to what the children express and try to reach them where they are. When the care action is answered by the child, the relationship between educator and child is strengthened. This process requires an awareness, mind presence and knowledge from the educator’s perspective. / Denna vetenskapliga essä behandlar begreppet omsorg och hur omsorg gestaltar sig i förskolan och i förskolepedagogers praktiska yrkeskunnande. Genom ett fenomenologiskt perspektiv och i relation till Hanna Arendts diskurs om kollektivt ansvar, närmar sig studien begreppet omsorg i förskolan men även fenomenets betydelse i sig själv. Studien består av fyra berättelser som alla är hämtade från min egen verksamhet och en etnologisk fältstudie utförd på två olika förskolor, där deltagande observation och intervju använts som metod. Fokus för observationerna har varit att studera förskolepedagogers praktiska kunnande och för att se hur omsorg tar plats. Genom att i studien, synliggöra, reflektera och kritiskt undersöka förskolepedagogers och mitt eget praktiska yrkeskunnande, kommer jag närmare omsorgens många skepnader. Vilket är viktigt för att kunna synliggöra den samt reflektera om omsorgens många innebörder. I studien undersöks även omsorgens relation till lärande och hur dessa kan bilda en helhet i förskolan. New public management beskrivs i studien som något som kommit att prägla den svenska välfärdssektorn sedan sent 90-tal. Resultat, måluppfyllelse, effektivitet och kvalitetsindikationer är några av de faktorer som i en NPM- präglad verksamhet kännetecknar en lyckad verksamhet. Men när detta sätts i kontrast mot förskolans verksamhet där förmågan till inkännande, empati och vikten av att visa hänsyn till andra är det som i stället kännetecknar en trygg och lyckad verksamhet, påverkar det förskolan som helhet.  Studiens empiriska material diskuteras utifrån Noddings syn på omsorgsetik. Där förhållningsättet blir centralt för hur omsorg framträder i denna studie. Resultatet av studien visar att omsorg är något som ständigt och dagligen pågår i förskolan, men att tiden, kunskapen eller makten för att klä den i ord ibland inte existerar, vilket gör att den viktiga praktiska kunskapen kring omsorg, en slags tyst kunskap inte ges utrymme i förskolan. Vilket tyvärr får stora konsekvenser för den dagliga praktiken där omsorg riskerar att bli ett begrepp som inte hänger med i utvecklingen. Att ge omsorg till barn i förskolan framstår i studien som en relationell företeelse. Omsorg som fenomen blir till när vi pedagoger lyssnar till det barnen uttrycker och försöker nå dem där de är. När omsorgshandlingen besvaras av barnet stärks relationen mellan pedagog och barn. Denna process kräver en medvetenhet, sinnesnärvaro och kunskap från pedagogens sida.

Marketisation reforms has for a long time been a recurring and debated phenomena, which has recently blossomed by the reform proposal of the Swedish Public Employment Service presented in the so-called “January-agreement”. The aim of this qualitative study is therefor to examine the reform proposal of the Swedish Public Employment Service presented in the “January-agreement” and relate this to marketisation. This will in this study be done by theory consuming of first George Sörensen theory about the impact of globalization on the welfare state, to give a broad view of the cause of marketisation. Then Patrik Halls definition of marketisation within NPM, to explain the meaning and effects of marketisation. And finally, Bo Rothsteins description of the market-equal model, to examine how the creation of legitimacy can be seen as a motive for the reform. The conclusions show that marketisation can describe the reform proposal presented in the January-agreement, which can be seen as a creation of public constructed market with a distinct client focus. Further, the market-equal model shows how the low public confidence for the Swedish Public Employment Service can be seen as a strong motive for some type of marketisation in other to create an increased legitimacy. / Marknadisering har länge varit ett återkommande debatterat ämne, som nyligen blommat upp genom reformförslaget av Arbetsförmedlingen i det så kallade Januariavtalet. Målet med denna kvalitativa studie är därför att förklara och analysera reformförslaget i Januariavtalet och relatera det till marknadisering. Det görs i uppsatsen genom en teorikonsumering av först George Sörensens teori om globaliseringens påverkan på välfärdsstaten, som används för att ge en bredare syn av orsaken till marknadisering. Sedan kommer Patrik Halls definition av marknadisering inom NPM användas för att förklara innebörden och effekterna av marknadisering. Till sist används Bo Rothsteins förklaring av den marknadslika modellen, för att förkalkar hur reformförslaget kan motiveras utifrån en legitimitetsaspekt. Uppsatsens huvudsakliga slutsatser är att marknadisering kan förklara reformförslaget i Januariavtalet, som kan ses som ett skapande av en offentlig marknad med tydligt kundfokus. Utifrån den marknadslika modellen kan Arbetsförmedlingens låga förtroende ses som ett strakt motiv för någon form av marknadisering för att skapa legitimitet.

The aim of this study is to examine in what ways civics teachers perceive digitalization as a means of efficiency in perspectives mainly revolving the teachers’ organization. By conducting interviews with five teachers educating within civic studies, the aim is to collect data about a perceived reality, rather than a factual state. Hence the following essay focuses on a qualitative approach, rather than a quantitative. The interviews were conducted over the internet as a result of the raging pandemic, Covid-19. By including the neoliberal marketing model of New Public Management as the theoretical framework in the analysis, the purpose is to illuminate the difficulties of steering a dynamic organization with quantitative values. The result showed that teachers were generally pessimistic about the inclusion of digital tools within both the administration and the classroom. All of the interviewed teachers worked with digital tools, but in different extent and with varied competence. The work with digital tools was well established in both administration and classroom. Teachers believed the digital tools could be used as means of efficiency, but that would require a more pragmatic approach, from developing the tools, to implementing them. Teachers mainly believed digitalization to increase the workload. The conclusion is that the downside of including digital tools overweighed the upside. The main issues teachers mentioned included indirect threats to teacher autonomy and student equality. These threats sprung out of the economic efficiency teachers believed digitalization to muster. Digitalization could be used as means to create efficiency in teaching and administration, however, not when schools are steered by a neoliberal market fundamentalism. Questions rose on how the teachers’ education prepare its students for working within this reality, and how the style of teaching could adapt to the increased opportunities digital tools provide. Furthermore, considering the current state of the world with an on-going pandemic, how will the attitudes towards digital tools and digitalization be in a near future?

Bakgrund: Användandet av PMS och olika styrmedel är föremål för ständig diskussion. Ett populärt verktyg inom styrning är det balanserade styrkortet, som kombinerar finansiella mål med ickefinansiella mål. Dessa mål fastställs och verkställs utifrån en organisations strategi. Hybrida organisationer är organisationer som har flera olika målsättningar, och har visats ha svårighet att identifiera sina mål inom det balanserade styrkortets perspektiv. I den svenska kontexten är en typ av hybrida organisationer kommunala bostadsbolag. Tidigare studier har efterfrågat vidare forskning om användandet av PMS i hybrida organisationer, varför en studie av omfattningen av kommunala bostadsbolags användning av det balanserade styrkortet kan bidra till forskningsområdet. Syfte: Skiljer sig omfattningen av redovisningen av de olika dimensionerna kopplade till det balanserade styrkortet mellan kommunala och privata bostadsbolag? Metod: Studien har applicerat en kvantitativ metod där vi, i linje med tidigare studier, tillämpar en kvantitativ innehållsanalys som består av 30 kommunala bostadsbolag och 30 privata bostadsbolag årsredovisningar. Studien bygger på en deduktiv ansats där en hypotes formulerats utifrån befintliga teorier. Erhållen empiri har använts för deskriptiv statistik, korrelationsmatrisen samt OLS-regressioner för att beskriva omfattningen av redovisning utifrån det balanserade styrkortets olika dimensioner. Slutsats: Studiens resultat visar att det finns vissa samband mellan kommunalt ägande av bostadsbolag och omfattningen av redovisningen av de olika dimensionerna i det balanserade styrkortet. Kommunalt ägande visade signifikant negativt samband med omfattningen av det finansiella perspektivet och interna-processer-perspektivet i det balanserade styrkortet. Av kontrollvariabler för storlek visade endast materiella anläggningstillgångar positiva signifikanta samband med omfattningen av redovisningen. / Background: The use of PMS and various management control systems is the subject of constant debate. One popular tool is the balanced scorecard, which combines financial and non-financial goals described in several different dimensions. These goals are set and executed dependent on the strategy of the organisation. Hybrid organisations are organisations which have several different goals, and have shown difficulty in identifying what their goals are in the context of the balanced scorecards various perspectives. In the context of Sweden, one type of hybrid organisations are municipal housing corporations. Earlier studies have requested further research regarding hybrid organisations and their use of PMS. This study aims to contribute to this area of research by studying the extent of municipal housing corporations use of the balanced scorecard. Purpose: Does the extent of the reporting of the different dimensions in the balanced scorecard differ between municipal housing corporations and private housing corporations? Methodology: The study applies a quantitative method in which we, in line with earlier studies, apply a quantitative content analysis which consist of 30 municipal housing corporations and 30 private housing corporations. The study is constructed with a deductive approach where a hypothesis has been formulated by existing theories. Obtained empiricism has been used for descriptive statistics, correlations matrix and OLS-regressions to describe the extent of the reporting of the different dimensions in the balanced scorecard. Conclusion: The results of the study show that there exists some relation between municipal housing corporations and the extent of the reporting of the different dimensions in the balanced scorecard. Municipal ownership showed a significant negative relation with the extent of the financial perspective and the internal processes perspective. For the control variables regarding size, only fixed assets showed a significant positive relation with the extent of the reporting.

This study is about the upcoming challenge Sweden face with a population that grows older and in need of elderly care. The challenge lies in that municipality, as it is today, won’t have the personnel to care for the elders. The study presents two problematic factors that need change for the municipality to be able to guarantee reasonable living standards according to social laws. The first factor is the decreasing profession attractiveness that makes it hard to employ personnel. The second factor, which the study focuses on, is the fact the caregivers are overrepresented in the social insurance office statistics of personnel on sick leave. We choose to focus on the caregiver’s work environment to get a perspective on the problem. To be more exact the study focuses on finding a covariance between experienced New Public Management and Sense of coherence. Our second focus is to see if there is an underlying relation between the experienced New Public Management reforms and the three parts of Sense of coherence; meaningfulness, comprehensibility and manageability. A third focus is to see if the relationship is influenced by the caregivers’ age and work experience. Our main findings are that experienced New Public Management has both positive but mainly negative effect on caregivers’ sense of coherence and therefore on caregiver’s health. Our conclusion is therefore that New Public Management can be seen as a factor for care givers high ratings in the social security offices statistics over sick leave from work.

University culture is seen as University culture is seen as one of the main obstacles to the successful implementation of the process of strategic university management. Although existing organisational approaches of changing processes give theoretical insight, they fail to consider the cultural perspective and how change can be implemented successfully. This article focuses on cultural approach and therefore introduces a cohesive cultural model to the Higher Education (HE) context. It will be shown how this paradigm can be used in strategic management processes at universities and how it can support them. It therefore offers an approach that is applicable to the practice of university management. / Universitätskultur kann als eines der Haupthindernisse für die Implementierung von strategischem Management an Universitäten angesehen werden. Vorhandene Ansätze der Organisationsforschung betrachten zwar Veränderungsprozesse, diskutieren die Rolle der Organisationskultur jedoch nur am Rande und fragen nicht nach dem Wie der Umsetzung einer solchen organisationalen Veränderung. Dieser Artikel betrachtet strategisches Management an Universitäten aus einer kulturtheoretischen Perspektive und überträgt das kohäsionsorientierte Organisationsmodell auf den Hochschulkontext. Es wird gezeigt, wie dieses Modell strategische Prozesse unterstützen kann, so dass es einen praktischen Nutzen für das Hochschulmanagement bietet.

Sverige har en vision om att digitalisera samtliga delar av den offentliga sektorn, med målet att uppnå en god hälsa och välfärd för hela befolkningen. De verksamheter som allt mer blir föremål för digitalisering är bland annat verksamheter som handlägger ärenden om ekonomiskt bistånd. Syftet med denna undersökning är att försöka få svar på hur digitaliseringen av ansökan om ekonomiskt bistånd påverkar det sociala arbetet och klienterna. För att få svar på detta har vi skickat webbenkäter till 15 olika verksamheter för ekonomiskt bistånd i Sverige. Resultatet visar att handläggarna övervägande ser positivt på den digitala utvecklingen där de menar att handläggningen blivit enklare och mer effektiv. Det framkommer även att handläggarna blivit tilldelade fler klienter än tidigare där tiden med varje enskild klient har minskat. En begränsning som är framträdande gällande digitaliseringen av ansökan är att enskilda som inte har tillgång till de digitala verktyg som krävs blir hänvisade att ansöka via pappersansökan. Våra resultat visar att digitaliseringen kan bidra till ett mer effektivt och för klienterna mer lättillgängligt socialt arbete men som behöver utvecklas för att kunna inkludera alla medborgare i det svenska samhället. / Sweden has a vision of digitizing all domains of the public sector, with a goal of achieving good health and welfare for the entire population. The organizations that are increasingly becoming the subject of digitalization are, among other things, those that deal with financial aid matters. The purpose of this study is to investigate how the digitalization of the application for financial aid affects the social work and its clients. To answer this, we have sent out web surveys to 15 financial aid organizations in Sweden. The results show that the social workers for the most part are positive concerning the digitalization since the application process has become easier and more efficient. The social workers express that they have been assigned more clients than before and that they have gotten less time with each individual client. One prominent limitation regarding the digitalization of the application is when individuals who do not possess the digital tools required to apply have to apply via paper application. Our results show that digitalization can contribute to social work being more efficient and easily accessible for clients. Thus, for it to be accessible for the whole Swedish population more development needs to be done.

Syftet med studien har varit att med fokus på organisationsförändringar undersöka vilka bakomliggande orsaker som ligger till grund för hur en Region i Sverige arbetar med införandet av egna slutenvårdsplatser inom abstinensvård, utifrån de nationella målen för god vård och hur införandet av sådana vårdplatser kan komma att påverka vården. Genom att analysera Regionens egen utredningsrapport tillsammans med den revisionsrapport som externa konsulter skapat på uppdrag av Regionen, har denna kvalitativa fallstudie bidragit till en övergripande bild av bakomliggande orsaker som ligger till grund för beslutet. För att ge en fördjupad förståelse för dessa bakomliggande orsaker har studien kompletterats med en intervju där områdeschefen för Regionens beroendevård har bidragit med sin kunskap inom området. Resultatet tyder på att upphandlad abstinensvård kan försvåra säkerställandet av vårdens kvalitet, då det är problematiskt för den offentliga sektorn att kontrollera och utvärdera vård som tillhandahålls av privata vårdgivare. / The aim of the study has been to focus on organizational changes to examine the underlying causes of the Regions decision to implement a new unit for withdrawl treatment, based on the national goals for good health care and how the implementation of such new unit can affect provided care. By analyzing the Regions own enquiry report along with a review report made by external consultants on behalf of the Region, this qualitative study has compiled a general comprehension of underlying causes that the decision to open a new unit is based upon. For a deeper understanding of the underlying causes a supplementary interview took place with the area manager of the withdrawl treatment in this Region, who added knowledge to the study. The result indicates that outsourced health care can lead to difficulties in ensuring the quality of good care, because it is problematic for the public sector to control and evaluate care provided by private care givers.

Research problem and objective: NPM had an uneven distribution throughout Europe during the 1980s. The NPM system has had a major impact on the public sector and the libraries. By analyzing eight European library legislations this bachelor’s thesis aims to see what NPM characteristics are visible, how the legislations differ from each other and discuss if the democratic mission is inhibited by NPM. Method: A qualitative content analysis. Use of the four sociopolitical models by Sapir (2006), a tentative hypothesis by Hood (1995) and previous research by Kann-Christensen (2011), among others. Key results and arguments: The legislations that show a high NPM impact are those from England/Wales, Northern Ireland, Denmark, and France. Those that show lower impact are those from Spain, Italy, Sweden, and Norway. Libraries in countries with multiple national borders may have a more accessible library service. The sociopolitical models can only predict the impact of NPM to some degree. Commercial services counteract the equal access to information. Conclusion: The study has led to the main conclusion that NPM could have an inhibiting effect on the democratic mission of libraries, but the risk is low if libraries and librarians stay true to their democratic values.

In this master's thesis, we investigate the meaning and significance of professional networking to Swedish librarians in their everyday professional practices. In addition, we explore the relationship between librarians' networking needs and the needs or expectations presented by their institutional context (i.e. the workings of their specific library organization or, more broadly, the library sector and work life). The study consisted of 1) a pre-study through an online survey directed to librarians at seven public libraries and four research libraries in Sweden 2) qualitative interviews with 21 public and research librarians recruited through the pre-study survey and 3) an additional interview with the chair of the Swedish national library association (Svensk Biblioteksförening). Overall, participants in the study rated the importance of their professional networks highly. When asked the significance of professional networks to everyday professional practice, the responses given by the interviewed librarians favored explanations in terms of 1) knowledge provision and learning, 2) interlinkage of library organizations with the goal of raising the standards of library service and 3) as a means of providing both professional and organisational support. Many of the study's participants also reported an expectation that they should network, citing either a direct expectation from library management or general trends in contemporary Swedish work life. Librarians' professional networking needs were related by respondents to characteristics of their institutional context, where some librarians pointed to factors such as sparse staffing or budget constraints as creating a need for professional support networks. This is a two years master's thesis in Library and information science.