Titel: Relationen mellan Revisor och Kund- en Idealbild: En empirisk kundperspektivstudie med fokus på ideal kontra lagstadgade ramar Nivå: C-uppsats i ämnet företagsekonomi Författare: Maria Mejstedt och Marthina Tedesund Handledare: Jan Svanberg Datum: 2016 – januari Bakgrund och Syfte: Tidigare forskning utifrån ett revisorperspektiv tyder på att relationen mellan revisorn och kunden är central vid hot mot oberoendet och revisionskvaliteten. Däremot efterlyses mer forskning från ytterligare perspektiv. Syftet med denna studie är därmed att studera relationen från ett kundperspektiv och kontrastera dennes idealbild av sin revisor ur ett flerdimensionellt perspektiv mot de lagstadgade kraven på objektivitet i revision. Metod: Studien antar ett hermeneutiskt och konstruktivistiskt perspektiv. Forskningsansatsen är abduktiv med tillämpning av en kvalitativ undersökningsmetod och semistrukturerade intervjuer som datainsamling. Den teoretiska referensramen bygger på tidigare forskning, vidare sker tematisk analys där teman söks i intervjusvaren som fördelas i grupper. Svaren tolkas med förankring i tidigare forskning samt genom bearbetning av oss som författare där vi reflekterar/diskuterar över det framkomna resultatet. Resultat & slutsats: Studien tyder på att kundens idealbild av relationen till sin revisor är kopplad till revisorns insatthet och förståelse i kundens verksamhet, dock endast till den grad revisionskvaliteten inte äventyras. Vid anlitandet av större revisionsbolag tycks förhållandet vara transaktionellt fokuserat, vid mindre kan en närmare personlig och social kontakt skönjas. Dock framkommer en överensstämmande bild av hur idealbilden gällande revisor-kundrelationen framställs; en närmare relation anses vara önskvärd. Förslag till fortsatt forskning: Till vidare forskning finns ett behov av att undersöka hur studiens framtagna idealbild skiljer sig mellan olika kundbranscher samt vilken påverkan kundens idealbild av relationen har på revisorns beteende. Vidare är konkurrenssituationen på revisorsmarknaden intressant att koppla till kundens idealbild och revisorns villighet att anpassa sig för att inte förlora kunder i en konkurrenskraftig marknad. Studiens bidrag: Denna studie bidrar med ett nytt perspektiv på revisor-kundrelationen, vilket är av intresse för såväl revisorer som intressenter och redovisnings-/revisionslitteratur. Revisorer gynnas av en djupare förståelse kring relationen för möjligheten att förstå och tillmötesgå kundens idealbild. Detta bidrar till ökad revisionskvalitet vilket även tredje part främjas av. / Title: The Ideal Relationship between the Auditor and the Client: An empirical client perspective study focusing on ideals versus legislation Level: Final assignment for Bachelor Degree in Business Administration Authors: Maria Mejstedt and Marthina Tedesund Supervisor: Jan Svanberg Date: 2016 – January Aim: Previous research from an auditor perspective indicates that the relationship between the auditor and the client is a central factor in concerns regarding objectivity threats and the quality of audit. This research field will greatly benefit from new perspectives. This study therefore aims to investigate this relationship from the client’s perspective in a multidimensional manner, as well as put the client’s ideal relationship in contrast to the auditor’s legislative requirements regarding objectivity. Method: This study adopts a hermeneutic and constructivist perspective alongside an abductive research approach. A qualitative research method is used including semi-structured interviews for the empirical segment of the study. The theoretical part of the study is connected to, and based on, earlier research. When analyzing the results, a thematic analysis approach is applied. The results are then discussed and interpreted by us as authors where we put them in relation to earlier research and theories to generate new conclusions. Result & Conclusions: The results of this study indicate that the client’s ideal image of the relationship is closely connected to the auditor’s insertion in and understanding of the client’s business. However, this only applies as long as the audit quality is not compromised. Differences based in the size of the audit firms has also appeared; clients with large auditing firms seem to have a transactional approach whereas clients with smaller auditing firms seem to have a more relational approach. However, a consistency appears regarding the ideal relationship; that it would be closer and have a more relational focus. Suggestions for future research: For future research, there is a need to examine how the ideal image concluded from this study differs between client sectors, as well as the impact the client's ideal image would have on the auditor behaviors. Furthermore, future research could also cover the effect of the auditor’s competitive situation and the willingness to adapt towards the client’s ideal image in order to keep their clients in an increasingly competitive market.   Contribution of the thesis: This study provides with a new perspective of the auditor-client relationship, which should be of interest for as well practitioners and standardization authorities as stakeholders and accounting/audit literature. A more extensive understanding concerning the relationship in contrast to the legislation should be considered beneficial in legislation updating as well as for all parties affected by the threats to impartialness by the auditor.

Vi har i vår forskningsöversikt inte hittat någon beskrivning på hur ledarskap kan anpassas tillmedarbetares olika personlighetstyper. Vårt syfte med studien var således att ta reda på hurolika typer av ledarskap kan anpassas till anställdas olika personlighetstyper för att uppnåstörsta möjlighet till utveckling av deras motivation. Vilket är en bidragande faktor till ettföretags utveckling och bör därför ligga i ledarens intresse. Med hjälp av två olikapersonlighetsklassificeringsmodeller, teorier om ledarskap och motivation samt empiri hämtatfrån ledare i arbetslivet har vi studerat vad för typ av ledarskap som fungerar för modellernasolika personlighetstyper. Med hjälp av kvalitativ forskningsstrategi har vi använt oss avtvärsnittsdesign samt en öppen och sex semistrukturerade intervjuer för att uppnå studienssyfte.Genom vår studie kan vi på ett tydligt sätt visa på att de personligheter vi utgått ifrån kräverolika typ av ledarskap, motiveras av olika faktorer och att situationen kan ha stor inverkan pånär ett visst ledarskap passar. Resultatet av vår studie har utformats till två tabeller utifrån depersonlighetsklassificeringsmodeller vi använt oss av. Tabellerna presenterar vilkenledarskapsteori som passar till vilken personlighetstyp. Studien resulterade även i ettkonstaterande att ledare bör använda sig av relationsinriktat ledarskap i grunden ochkomplettera det med uppgiftsinriktat ledarskap, för att finna de anställdas motivation och ledadem på ett framgångsrikt sätt. / In the research of this study we found a gap regarding information on how to adapt leadershipto employees of various personalities. Our purpose was now to fill that research gap. In ourstudy on personality-adapted leadership, we found that all kinds of personalities have variouspreferences to be led. Using two different personality classification models, theories ofleadership and motivation as well as empirical evidence drawn from Business leaders, wehave studied which kind of leadership that works best for models of different personalitytypes. With the help of a cross-section design, qualitative methods together with semistructuredinterviews we were able to combine the theories we used with the empiricalevidence. Accordingly, our purpose is to acknowledge how leadership can be adapted todifferent personalities to achieve the greatest opportunity for the development of theirmotivation. This is a contributing factor to the development of a company and shouldtherefore be in the leader’s interest.As a conclusion our study shows how different personalities demand certain kinds ofleadership, that they get motivated by a wide range of factors and that various situations canhave a big effect where a certain leadership is most suitable. The result of our study has led totwo tables based on the personality classification models, which show which leadershiptheory fits the different kinds of personality types. The study also shows that leaders shouldadapt a relationship-oriented leadership and complement it with a task-oriented one in order tofind their employees motivation and be able to lead them in a successful way.

Thesis (MBA (Business Management))--University of Stellenbosch, 2010. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: The mobile phone has not only changed the way the world works today, but also changed the direction the world is moving toward. The mobile phone changed the face of communication and enabled more people to reach more other people than ever before. The big four banks in South Africa represent 83.5 per cent of the total asset value of all banks in South Africa. Traditionally, banking customers (or potential customers) could be reached through the current 2 786 branches, 19 451 ATMs and potentially 4.59 million internet users. There are 47.9 million mobile phone subscribers in South Africa – increasing the number of potential contact points by order of magnitude. The possibilities for banks utilising the mobile phone are endless, however online banking and offering banking services through a mobile phone is increasingly more subject to fraud attacks. Online banking and credit card fraud is still on the increase. Today, SMS is used to alert customer of movements on their bank account. This keeps the customer informed and enables them to notify their banks and prevent subsequent fraudulent transactions. SMS can be sent from one mobile phone to another (P2P) or from a computer system to a mobile phone (A2P). In 2007, 2 trillion SMS's were sent worldwide and was responsible for 75 to 80 per cent of all mobile phone revenues. South Africa sent 34 billion A2P SMS in 2009 of which 29 per cent were sent as transactional SMS by the top three banks in South Africa. SMS-based transactional alerts are SMS sent each time a change occurs in a bank account, for example, when your credit card is used then you will get an SMS on your mobile phone. Each bank makes different functionalities available. Absa reported 2 million customers receiving SMS alerts in 2008. FNB reported 67 million transactional SMS per month in 2009. The core advantages for using transactional SMS are the cost, reliability and ubiquity. Research was conducted among five of the six largest banks. Data revealed that banks send between 16 million and 69.4 million SMS per month and have approximately between 4.5 and 5.1 million customers using this service. The impact was tested through personal interviews. The two common factors were fraud reduction and customer retention. The two key challenges the banks identified are: i) Capacity/throughput with the mobile network operators; and ii) Getting internal systems and processes defined and working together for the alerts. The advantages identified are competitive positioning, customer interaction, empowerment of people and revenue. Key findings of the research were: SMS-based transactional alerts offer strategic importance; Any system is as good as it is being utilised; Security controls are extremely complex; SMS capacity is a common challenge and big risk; Internal processes cause the most complexity; Return on investment is not adequately measured; Transactional alerts is a potential revenue stream; There is no interaction between the bank and the customer; SMS in South Africa create high dependencies; SMS-based transactional alerts are successful.

The increasing evidence of the organizational demands encountered by sports performers provides a fertile ground for research. There is now a requirement to move beyond describing the organizational stressors that performers encounter in order to understand the complex appraisal and coping processes that athletes engage in when experiencing organizational stress. This thesis aimed to conduct a detailed examination of these processes in high-level sport performers. Chapter 2 describes a narrative review of the extant appraisal literature that has examined the roles of situational and personal influences on appraising. In order to generate a detailed understanding of this literature, the review includes findings from the general, occupational, organizational, and sport psychology literatures. This review was instrumental in determining the direction of the research described in later chapters. Chapter 3 aimed to narrow the focus of the thesis to organizational stress transactions in sport performers and therefore, describes a diary study that explored swimmers appraisals of organizational stressors. The findings of this study provided insight into the complex process of appraisal and suggested that appraisals are related to the situational property of the stressor encountered. In addition, the results pointed to the importance of exploring the coping strategies that athletes use to manage organizational stressors in future research. Chapter 4 describes a narrative review of the literature that has examined athletes ways of coping with organizational stressors. Due to the limited sport psychology research in this area and in order to extend current knowledge in sport, prominent findings from the organizational and occupational psychology domains were considered. Chapter 5 was designed to extend the findings of Chapter 3 and the existing literature by examining the coping strategies that swimmers use in response to organizational stressors. This chapter highlighted the complexity of coping and suggested that appraisal mechanisms are linked to the coping family employed. Chapter 6 aimed to take a more complete approach to examining organizational stress transactions by exploring various components of stress transactions. The study presented in this chapter suggested that the appraisal an athlete makes is influential in determining the performance outcome that they will experience. Collectively, the chapters described above highlighted appraising as the pivotal element in stress transactions and established a rationale for the cognitive-behavioral based intervention that is described in Chapter 7. The study presented in Chapter 7 aimed to alleviate some of the negative outcomes of organizational stress by optimizing sport performers appraisals. The findings suggested that cognitive restructuring was a useful technique for achieving this aim. The program of research presented in this thesis suggests that appraising is the pivotal element of organizational stress transactions in sport and that appraising can be optimized in order to alleviate the negative emotional and performance outcomes of maladaptive appraisals. In addition, the research highlights the importance of considering the situational properties of stressors, the complexity of coping, and the relationships between components of stress transactions in future research. Further, the findings presented within this thesis suggest that future research should aim to make methodological and measurement advances and examine, in detail, performers appraisal and coping processes.

Plusieurs études ont confirmé que certains traits de personnalité des enfants et certaines attitudes et pratiques éducatives de leurs parents constituaient des prédicteurs des comportements perturbateurs à l’adolescence. Toutefois, la majorité des recherches ont adopté un modèle postulant des relations directes et indépendantes entre ces facteurs de risque et des comportements perturbateurs. Le modèle transactionnel est plus réaliste parce qu’il postule des relations bidirectionnelles à travers le temps entre ces deux facteurs de risque. Cette étude visait à vérifier l’existence de relations bidirectionnelles entre les traits de personnalité des enfants et les attitudes parentales de leur mère mesurés à deux reprises durant l’enfance (à 6 et 7 ans), pour ensuite vérifier si les comportements perturbateurs des enfants mesurés à l’adolescence (15 ans) pouvaient être prédits par les traits de personnalité et les attitudes parentales. Les données utilisées proviennent d’une étude longitudinale prospective de 1000 garçons et 1000 filles évalués à plusieurs reprises de la maternelle à l’adolescence. Six traits de personnalité des enfants et deux attitudes parentales ont été évalués par les mères à 6 et 7 ans, alors que les diagnostics de troubles perturbateurs (trouble des conduites, trouble oppositionnel avec provocation, trouble de déficit de l’attention/hyperactivité) ont été évalués par les adolescents et les mères à 15 ans. Afin de tester les hypothèses de recherche, des analyses de cheminement (« path analysis ») multi-groupes basées sur la modélisation par équations structurales ont été utilisées. Les résultats ont confirmé la présence de relations bidirectionnelles entre les traits de personnalité de l’enfant et les attitudes parentales durant l’enfance. Toutefois, peu de relations étaient significatives et celles qui l’étaient étaient de faible magnitude. Les modèles multi-groupes ont par ailleurs confirmé la présence de relations bidirectionnelles différentes selon le sexe. En ce qui concerne la prédiction des comportements perturbateurs, de façon générale, surtout les traits de personnalité et les attitudes parentales à 6 ans (plutôt qu’à 7 ans) ont permis de les prédire. Néanmoins, peu de relations prédictives se sont avérées significatives. En somme, cette étude est une des rares à avoir démontré la présence de relations bidirectionnelles entre la personnalité de l’enfant et les attitudes parentales avec des données longitudinales. Ces résultats pourraient avoir des implications théoriques pour les modèles explicatifs des comportements perturbateurs, de même que des implications pratiques pour le dépistage des enfants à risque. / Several studies confirmed that some children’s personality traits and parental attitudes constitute risk factors of later disruptive behaviors during adolescence. However, most research has adopted a model postulating direct and independent relations between these risk factors and disruptive behaviors. The transactional model is more realistic because it postulates bidirectional relations over time between these two risk factors. Even though the transactional model is popular amongst researchers, there is in fact very little research formally demonstrating the existence of bidirectional relations with longitudinal data during childhood. This study aimed at verifying the existence of bidirectional relations between children’s personality traits and their mothers’ parental attitudes measured on two occasions during childhood (ages 6 and 7), and later verifying if individuals’ disruptive behaviors during adolescence (age 15) could be predicted by children’s personality traits and parental attitudes. The data came from a prospective longitudinal study of 1000 boys and 1000 girls assessed on various occasions from kindergarten through adolescence. Six children’s personality traits and two parental attitudes were assessed by mothers at ages 6 and 7, while the disruptive behavior diagnostics (conduct disorder, oppositional defiant disorder, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder) were assessed by adolescents ant their mothers at age 15. In order to test the research hypotheses, multiple-group path analyses based on structural equations modeling were used. The results confirmed the presence of bidirectional relations between children’s personality traits and parental attitudes during childhood. Nevertheless, there were few significant relations and most of them were of small size. Multiple-group models also confirmed the presence of gender-specific bidirectional relations. With regards to the prediction of disruptive behaviors, especially children’s personality traits and parental attitudes at age 6 (rather than age 7) were predictive. Nonetheless, few predictive relations turned out to be significant. Overall, this study is one of the rare to demonstrate the presence of bidirectional relations between children’s personality and parental attitudes with longitudinal data. These results could have theoretical implications for explanatory models of disruptive behaviors, as well as practical implications for early screening of children at risk.

In 1999, Sweden was the first country in the world to criminalize the buying, but not the selling, of sexual services. This law is based on the ideological stance that transactional sex is to be understood as men’s violence against women. Since 1999, however, various studies have shown that not only women sell sex, but that a large number of sex workers are men and transgender. The aim of this study is to investigate how Sweden’s national board of health and welfare (Socialstyrelsen) constructs and presents the gender and sexuality of individuals who are engaged in transactional sex. Educational materials on transactional sex, created by Socialstyrelsen and aimed at health care professionals who work with said individuals, have been processed using critical discourse analysis as elaborated by Fairclough. In this educational material, individuals who engage in transactional sex are portrayed primarily as victims; as such, they lack agency to represent themselves and their situation to the various authorities. Furthermore, professionals who work in this field have asked for methods to talk about transactional sex with their clients, but the material does not supply any such methods or vocabulary. Instead, it is mainly focused on the clients’ need for therapy.

Syftet med studien är att undersöka hur nästa generation av svenska sjöbefäl förhåller sig till det transformella respektive transaktionella ledarskapet till sjöss och om det råder skillnader i detta förhållandesätt könen emellan. Den teoretiska referensramen är baserad utifrån det transformella och det transaktionella ledarskapsstilarna. Den aktuella metoden som studien bygger på är kvalitativ och via semi-strukturerade intervjuer med inslag av scenariofrågor samlades material in från blivande sjöbefäl på Linnéuniversitetet i Kalmar. Resultatet bekräftar att den starka organisationskulturen som finns ombord inte tar hänsyn till de personliga relationerna där bristande ledaregenskaper inte främjar uppbyggnaden av en fungerande gemenskap. Svaren på intervjufrågorna ifrån de kvinnliga respondenterna indikerade tydligt att ett transformellt ledarskap är att föredra. De manliga respondenternas svar på frågorna visade att även de ansåg att ett sådant ledarskap är att föredra i de flesta situationerna. Därav kan det inte med säkerhet fastslås att det finns en skillnad i förhållningssättet könen emellan. / The aim of this study is to investigate how the next generation of Swedish officers relate to the transformal and transactional leadership at sea and if there is any differences in this relationship between the genders. The theoretical framework is based on the basis of the transformal and transactional leadership styles. For the method, we choses to use a qualitative approach and through semi-structured interviews with elements of scenario questions, we gathered materials and information from aspiring officers at Linnaeus University in Kalmar. The result confirms that a strong organizational culture do not take into account the personal relationships on board and that the lack of leadership is not conducive to building a functioning fellowship. Due to that the women answered more along the lines of the transformal leadership and so did the men but not to the same extent, we can not reliably support if there is any difference in the relationship between the genders.

<p>Savremene organizacije u svojoj svakodnevnoj brizi za isunjavanje postavljenih ciljeva sve češće očekuju od svojih zaposlenih, a naročito menadžera, da budu isključivo posvećeni organizaciji i njenom uspehu. Cilj ovog rada je prikaz konceptualnih i teorijskih pitanja koja se tiču povezanosti stilova upravljanja i stresa na radu kod menadžera, u koja spadaju definisanje navedenih pojmova i njihovo razgraničavanje od srodnih pojmova, pri čemu se stilovi upravljanja posmatraju sa stanovišta situacionog modela liderstva razvijenog od strane Hersija i Blanšarda, a stres sa stanovištva transakcionističke teorije stresa.</p> / <p>Modern organizations in their everyday care for the fulfillment of the goals<br />increasingly expect from their employees, especially managers, to be<br />exclusively committed to the organization and its success. The aim of this<br />paper is to present the conceptual and theoretical issues related to<br />connectivity management styles and stress at work with managers, a group<br />that includes the definition of these terms and their delimitation from related<br />concepts, with a management style viewed from the standpoint of situational<br />leadership model developed by Hersеy and Blanchard, and stress from the<br />viewpoint of transactional theory of stress.</p>

Michael Moore's theory of transactional distance, developed in the age of correspondence schools, contributed greatly to theory building in distance education. The theory needs revision, however, when applied to web-based learning environments, specifically by defining transactional distance to include students' relationships with other elements in the learning environment that prohibit their active engagement with learning. The new theoretical model of transactional distance has four dimensions: transactional distance between student and student (TDSS), transactional distance between student and teacher (TDST), transactional distance between student and content (TDSC), and transactional distance between student and interface: online course management system (TDSI). A preliminary item pool of more than 200 items to measure the constructs of TD, TDST, TDSS, TDSC, and TDSI was generated and sent to a panel of experts for review. Items that the reviewers considered weak or very weak in terms of relevance to the constructs and/or clarity and conciseness were eliminated. After a pilot test and further revisions, the proposed scale of transactional distance was administered to a sample of 100 college students. Confirmatory factor analyses and exploratory analyses indicated that the measurement models, especially after modifications, possessed good fit for the data, and the modified scales possessed factorial validity. Reliability analyses indicated that the scales possessed strong internal consistency, with Cronbach alpha coefficients ranging from 0.8169 to 0.9530. Structural equation modeling procedures tested for the causal relationship between the four dimensions and students' general sense of transactional distance in web-based courses. Results indicate that the proposed model of transactional distance is acceptable. The strongest factor that affected students' sense of transactional distance and engagement with learning was found to be transactional distance between student and students (TDSS), followed by transactional distance between student and teacher (TDST), and then by transactional distance between student and content (TDSC). The findings have implications for the development of a revised theory of transactional distance in online education, and provide strong support for constructivist learning theories and social learning theories, reinforcing the importance of establishing learning communities in online learning environments.

The goal of my thesis is to compare the impact of two developmental methods (role playing and discussion about a video specially recorded for the developmental activity). In theoretical part I introduce employee development area from a psychological point of view and I describe psychological concepts in the background of concrete skills as leadership, self-management, communication and influencing. I strive for deeper understanding of ways we use to absorb these skills and understanding of possibilities to be used to enhance employees' development whether we mean the concrete developmental methods or training and development process management as a whole. This knowledge is applicable in training and development, which is an area, where my research is conducted. In empirical part I made two researches. In qualitative research I was identifying target group developmental needs to be able to set relevant developmental goals and chose developmental methods corresponding with actual needs of employees which is an important premise of influencing behaviour. In the main research part I conducted quasi-experiment where I compare the target group score before and after the developmental intervention. I compared statistically significant differences between scores in experimental groups and in control group....