In the years following the 2008 Global Financial Crisis, corporations have heightened their efforts to comprehensively manage all aspect of business risk that could jeopardize their operations or potentially lead to business failure. This increase in efforts have motivated firms to adopt additional preventative measures to internally manage their unique portfolios of impeding enterprise risk. Due to legislative efforts by the U.S. Congress, both the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act (Dodd-Frank) and the Sarbanes-Oxley Act (SOX) were broadly developed to improve corporate governance while increasing transparency within financial reporting. Specifically, Dodd-Frank mandates that large financial firms with $50 billion in assets establish special committees dedicated to assessing their financial risks. Meanwhile, SOX requires all public firms to establish rigorous internal control systems to ensure the adequacy of financial reporting. However, these laws mainly target financial firms and fall short of requiring nonfinancial firms to establish a separate committee to manage corporate risk even though it would be in these companies own interest to enhance their safeguarding efforts against ambiguous financial uncertainties, reputation downshifts, and other inherent risk. This dissertation seeks to understand whether a separate voluntary risk management committee at the board level is related to the financial stability and creditworthiness of nonfinancial firms. Firstly, we investigated whether the existence of a separate risk management committee is associated with the firm’s leverage, solvency, financial health, and organizational soundness. Secondly, we examined whether the existence of a separate risk management committee is associated with the firm’s short- and long-term credit ratings. Using secondary data from Wharton Research Data Services (WRDS), we analyzed data from a wide range of financial ratios and credit ratings from companies listed on the S&P 1500 index to evaluate if these committees have an association with the firm’s ability to manage its risk effectively. Regression analysis was utilized to explore this relationship. Although the direction of the relationship cannot be determined, the results suggest that the establishment of a separate voluntary risk management committee was minimally related to the financial soundness of the firm and was not related to the firm's leverage, solvency, or overall organizational soundness. Inferences or causality cannot be made. Additionally, we found that firms with better short-term credit ratings were more likely to establish a voluntary risk management committee, while long-term credit ratings did not show a correlation with the presence of a voluntary risk management committee. Interestingly, the study also found that the presence of more men on the board and a larger board size increased the likelihood of firms adopting a risk management committee, but over time, the interest in forming these committees has declined within the timeframe reviewed, particularly in the healthcare, communication, and utilities sectors. The results of this study suggest that relying on traditional financial/accounting ratios might not be the most effective method for assessing a firm's risk. Further, these results underscore the need for a more comprehensive approach that includes both quantitative and qualitative risk assessments and approaches. This dissertation contributes to the benefits of establishing a voluntary risk management committee in nonfinancial firms, which is a topic that has not been extensively researched. The aim is to offer a deeper insight into the benefits of such committees and encourage more firms to improve their risk management practices where positive correlations were identified. / Business Administration/Interdisciplinary

What defines a Swedish university college? This is the overarching question in this archival study of the development of the Swedish university colleges during the past 35 years. The objective of the study is to explore the binary elements in the overall unitary Swedish university system. Departing from existing macro level research on the university colleges (UCs), this study focuses on one single UC. Development of the UC was conceptualized as a question of decision-making in the UC in interplay with political decisions. The UC was explored by taking an extensive inductive approach starting from the original Garbage Can Model of Organizational Choice, a perspective on organizations that focuses on the temporal order emerging from decisions, rather than enduring orders. Nine decisions situations in the UC were identified as well as four political reforms. The study shows that the concept “streams” from the model are the phenomena occupying organization members mind over time, thus constituting a recurring element although not an enduring order, tying together the temporal orders. The streams are shared between the UC and political decision-making; the two decision-making entities both take part in forming the streams over time. The streams are: (1) the academic discipline; (2) the vocational education; (3) research as a means to enhance the quality of education; and (4) regional relevance. The study proposes the emergence of a fifth stream, the research profile, which is taken to be a unique stream for the UCs in general, that differentiates them from the universities. The analysis shows that the UC continuously adjusts the law to the organizational conditions rather than implements legislation when new, hence offering a perspective on organizational change as a persistent condition inherent in the organizational body rather than definable events. By using the concept stream the study suggests a conceptualization of the political influence on the UC organizational body as well as a conceptualization of how the UC influence political decisions. This conceptualization provides a novel perspective on the relationship between state and the universities. A perspective that can be explored in future research, focusing on mutual adjustments of the streams.

本文分別以訪問法、問卷調查法及文獻文件分析法，描述我國公營事業團 體協商過程、結果；從體制因素、環境因素、協商者特性及關係因素等四 方面解釋其對團體協商結果之影響；進而探討當公營事業民營化之後，團 體協商結果可能有什麼變化。全文共分七章，分述如下： 第一章為導 論：分別說明研究背景、研究目的、分析架構及研究限制。第二章為文獻 評述：分別從檢視過去理論、國內所做相關研究、美國所做實證研究；並 說明過去研究之空隙。第三章為研究方法：分別說明本研究之研究設計、 資料蒐集方法、抽樣設計、資料分析方法及研究檢核。第四章為團體協商 之描述：分別介紹團體協商當事人、協商過程與結果。第五章為團體協商 結果之解釋：分別從體制因素、環境因素、協商者特性及關係因素探討其 對公營事業團體協商結果之影響。第六章為前瞻性評估：分別從代理理論 、體制論、交易成本途徑等組織理論說明公營事業民營化後團體協商結果 可能的變化。第七章為結論與建議：分別從團體協商之描述面、解釋面及 前瞻性評估面歸納出數項研究發現，並針對勞工行政主管機關、雇方、工 會、後續研究者及勞動關係政策制定者分別提出建議。

The aim of the study is twofold. First, to provide a picture of what happens when groups of citizens cooperate with municipalities and administrations to produce services essential to the community, i.e., elderly care or road maintenance. Second, to compare this picture with the picture of citizens’ involvement that the civil society theories describe. This is done by comparing four different cooperation projects. The empirical material has been gathered through four qualitative case studies – two elderly care cases and two road maintenance cases – and the analytical frame has been drawn mostly from organization theory, especially the resource dependence and the institutional perspectives. In the dissertation it is shown that in the projects with less complications the processes developed in a way that balanced, to some extent, the asymmetry in the dependence relation, i.e., the resources controlled by the groups became more interesting for the administrations and municipalities. These processes did also develop in a way that made it possible for the actors to come to an agreement of what problem the project was supposed to solve. These findings covariates with how interested the municipalities and the Road Administration organizations were to participate in the cooperation projects. It also covariates with the use of institutionalized cooperation forms. The short cut of an already defined and legitimated cooperation form implied that less transaction resources had to be invested in the cooperation itself – but as a result the actors did not communicate sufficiently and therefore did not develop a mutual understanding and trust. Another finding is that both the groups and the municipalities and administrations had pragmatic motives for their involvement in the cooperation projects, which led to an organizational form that was effective for the purpose of solving the identified problem with the elderly care/road maintenance, but not for the unintended consequences described by the civil society theories. As the group of citizens really involved was small, the consequences – greater solidarity and responsibility, and a decentralized democratic process, only comprised a few, mostly resourceful, citizens. Finally, the study shows that the groups’ contributions to the democratic process were limited by their involvement in actually solving the problem in question, i.e., to build and run an elderly home or to work with the improvement of the roads. The findings suggests that the picture of citizens’ involvement often put forward in the political debate in Sweden – as both a complement to the service provided by the public sector and a way to improve the democratic process – ought to be the subject of further research.

Denna uppsats fokuserar på den etableringsprocess som har skett i Jönköpings kommun vid införandet av familjecentraler. Syftet med studien är att undersöka hur införandet av familjecentraler kan förstås och genom det skapa fördjupad kunskap om etableringsprocesser i socialt arbete. Studien har genomförts i form av en fallstudie. Empiri har samlats in genom intervjuer och genom offentliga allmänna handlingar. Materialet har analyserats genom ett adhoc-förfarande inspirerat av fallstudieanalys. Teorier som använts i analysen grundar sig i agenda-settingteori och i nyinstitutionell organisationsteori. Resultatet visar att familjecentraler som idé är omtolkningsbart vilket resulterat i en omfattande översättningsprocess. I den processen har socialtjänstens roll varit decimerad, vilket avspeglas i det utrymme som socialtjänsten ges på familjecentralerna där deras roll definieras av andra professioner än de själva. Det som gör att familjecentralerna kommer att etableras är en kritik mot och från barnhälsovården rörande relationen med socialtjänsten. Detta ackompanjeras av en ökad oro för föräldraskapet samt ökade krav på billigare och bättre verksamheter inom den offentliga sektorn. Dock får familjecentralsetableringen ett abrupt avbrott i och med att studier lyfts fram som indikerar att det finns bristande kunskaper rörande familjecentralernas effekt, vilket skapar hinder för nyetableringar. Detta medför inte att befintliga familjecentraler läggs ner vilket kan förstås i att familjecentralspolicyn visar en hög grad av institutionalisering, en stark förgivettagen tro på familjecentralerna, där dessa upphör att behöva legitimeras i form av problemadressering och resultat. / This bachelor thesis focuses on the establishment process of family centers in Jönköping municipality, Sweden. The purpose of this case-study is to examine on which terms the establishment of family centers can be understood aiming for the creation of in-depth knowledge about establishment processes in social work. Data has been collected via semi-structured interviews and via open records. The data has been analyzed via ad-hoc analyses inspired by cases study analyses. Theoretical framework used in the study is Kingdon’s agenda setting theory and neo-institutional organization theory. The study presents that family centre policy is highly interpretable and therefore has been a case of policy translation, which has resulted in a decimated part for the social services in the family centers, highly defined by other professions. The establishment of family centers is a result of a critique aimed against and from the child health care services, accompanied with an increased worry for parenthood and demands for more economically efficient function within the public sector. The process is interrupted by studies that indicate insufficient knowledge about the efficiency of the family centers. However this doesn’t result in closure of family centers because the function has reached a high degree of institutionalization, where it is legitimized by presumptions and beliefs rather than results and problem addressing.

Syftet är att ur ett kulturanalytiskt perspektiv beskriva och analysera Länsdelegationen i jämställdhet. Början av uppsatsen kan ses som ett bakgrundskapitel. Detta för att förstå uppkomsten av undersökningen. Där förklaras kort den svenska jämställdhetspolitiken, hur det strategiska arbetet sker genom jämställdhetsintegrering och Länsstyrelsens roll och arbete kring Länsdelegationen. Vidare behandlas hur delegationen arbetar med den avsiktsförklaring de tagit fram och hur de förhåller sig till den. Men också på hur delegaterna faktiskt ser på sitt deltagande, hur de arbetar med att införliva jämställdhetspolitiken i praktiken samt de svårigheter och möjligheter som kommer med arbetet i delegationen. Vidare diskuteras hur delegaterna ser på framtiden med sin medverkan och delegationens varande. Senare görs en kort jämförelse med hur förändringen gestaltat sig sedan delegationens start år 1997. Detta med hjälp av de två tidigare utvärderingarna från år 2000 och år 2006. I den avslutande diskussionen knyts uppsatsen ihop genom att besvara syftet med utvärderingen: att söka svar på hur delegationen arbetar och verkar med jämställdhetsarbetet. Till undersökningen valde jag att arbeta med två olika insamlingsmetoder, dels en webbenkät som gått ut till samtliga delegater i Länsdelegationen i jämställdhet, dels tre intervjuer med några av delegaterna. Jag har även studerat den avsiktsförklaring som togs fram för år 2014-2016 för att få kunskap om vad delegationen ska förhålla sig till. Jag har också använt två tidigare utvärderingar som gjorts av Länsdelegationen i jämställdhet samt den debattartikel som delegationen publicerade inför 2014 års nationella genusforskarkonferens, g14 som var förlagd till Umeå universitet. Slutsatserna i undersökningen är att Länsdelegationen främst verkar som en symbolisk faktor och många talar och skriver om att de vill bli en mer arbetande grupp och agera utåt och bidra till att Västerbotten ska bli ett jämställt län. Men det stannar av där, det blir tillsynes kanske inte mer än vackra ord i handlingsplanerna.

The aim of this paper is to critically examine and analyze how the informal performance about masculinities and femininity are being expressed and produced by the text and pictures in Huddinge kommuns internal magazine for the staff working within the public administration. The concrete questions are: By which patterns constructs the performance of gender in Huddinge kommuns internal magazine for the staff working within the public administration? Are the femininity and masculinities being expressed in a static way or have it changed in Huddinge kommuns internal magazine for the staff working within the public administration throw the examined years 1985, 1995 and 2006? A quantitative and qualitative method is used. The point of departure is organization theory in a gender perspective. With the gender organization theory we examine the structures, leadership, symbolics and changes through the examined years. Our perspective is a social contructionism. Our conclusion is that the patterns about femininity and masculinity changes through the years, but the most significant changes are made by women. That conclusion is in spite of the facts that the quantitative data shows that women have increased by the numbers of pictures. The qualitative examination confirms that masculinity is still the norm and therefore women do change more than the man does.

Orientador: Ricardo Luiz Coltro Antunes / Tese (doutorado) - Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Instituto de Filosofia e Ciencias Humanas / Made available in DSpace on 2018-08-10T10:32:56Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Pinto_GeraldoAugusto_D.pdf: 3740087 bytes, checksum: 69a9eaea78524b43a0163c2b3f00a928 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2007 / Resumo: A década de 90 trouxe grandes mudanças nas relações entre o Estado, as empresas e os trabalhadores no Brasil. Na indústria automotiva, a abertura comercial permitiu às montadoras aplicar estratégias globais no suprimento de autopeças, configurando uma cadeia de fornecimento hierarquizada, onde, nos primeiros níveis, estão as fabricantes de sistemas completos dos veículos (sistemistas), as quais também reproduzem estas relações com suas fornecedoras. Acompanhando este processo, mudanças na gestão do trabalho têm reformulado as estruturas de cargos nas plantas, exigindo novas competências aos assalariados e alterando o relacionamento que mantêm entre si nas esferas gerenciais e operacionais, fatos que se refletiram na própria organização do movimento sindical. Focando tais transformações no setor de autopeças da região de Campinas, os objetivos desta tese são compreender: (1) os principais aspectos das relações estabelecidas entre plantas filiais de grupos transnacionais com suas matrizes, bem como com suas clientes e fornecedoras, nos processos de hierarquização e redução da cadeia automotiva, cujo deslanchar no Brasil ocorreu em meio à desnacionalização deste setor; (2) como estes aspectos se relacionam com a implantação da gestão flexível do trabalho nestas plantas filiais, inclusive no tocante à conjugação de métodos dos sistemas taylorista/fordista e toyotista; (3) como tais mudanças têm afetado os trabalhadores, seja quanto aos perfis profissionais e educacionais exigidos e o montante de empregos ofertados, seja quanto às formas de mobilização e negociação sindicais construídas neste contexto. Para a consecução destes objetivos, revisamos a literatura sobre a reestruturação produtiva e sua difusão no Brasil após os anos 90, e realizamos um estudo de caso empírico numa empresa transnacional, situada na região de Campinas e fornecedora tanto de grandes sistemistas de autopeças quanto de montadoras. O Sindicato dos Metalúrgicos de Campinas também foi pesquisado, mediante entrevistas junto à sua direção e presidência, nas quais se abordaram as ações desta entidade em face da reestruturação produtiva nas empresas e das políticas neoliberais, suas concepções acerca das conseqüências destes processos sobre os trabalhadores, bem como o relacionamento que o sindicato vem tendo com a CUT. Os resultados mostram que a desnacionalização do setor de autopeças brasileiro teve profunda relação com as estratégias globais dos grupos transnacionais desta indústria, refletindo um embate entre corporações dos EUA e da Europa frente ao avanço da concorrência nipônica, liderada pela Toyota, embate no qual têm contado com a atuação dos Estados e das classes trabalhadoras. A implantação da gestão flexível nas plantas filiais de países periféricos, por sua vez, não apenas é parte desta luta mundial pela acumulação de capital, como a reproduz no próprio relacionamento cotidiano entre os assalariados, das gerências ao chão de fábrica, onde a hibridez do taylorismo/fordismo com o toyotismo tem configurado perfis de qualificação que fragmentam social, econômica e politicamente os trabalhadores. Por fim, a terceirização e o desemprego que emergiram destes processos têm imposto obstáculos à ação sindical, levando tensões e rupturas entre instâncias locais, estaduais e federais nos setores mais combativos, como ilustra o rompimento do Sindicato dos Metalúrgicos de Campinas com a CUT / Abstract: The Nineties brought significant changes to the relations among the state, the companies and the working class in Brazil. In the automotive industry, the commercial opening allowed car assembly companies to utilize global strategies on its parts supply, forming a hierarchized supply chain where, in the first levels are the manufacturers of complete vehicle systems (systemists), which also reproduce these relations with their suppliers. Following this process, changes in work management have remodeled the position structures in plants, demanding new competences to working class and altering the relationship that is maintained among them on the operational and managerial aspects, facts that reflected in the own union movement organization. Focusing on such transformations in the automotive components sector in the region of Campinas, this study is aimed at: (1) the main aspects of the relations established among branch plants belonging to transnational groups towards their headquarters, clients and suppliers, in the hierarquization and reduction of automotive chain whose boom occurred during this sector¿s denationalization; (2) how these aspects are related to the implantation of flexible work management in these branch plants, including when it comes to the taylorist/fordist and toyotist systems; (3) how these changes have affected working class, whether to their required personal and educational skills, whether to their union mobilization and negotiations build in this context. In order to achieve these goals, we went over the literature about productive restructuration and its spread across Brazil after the nineties, and we carried out an empirical study case in a transnational company, located in the region of Campinas and both supplier of big automotive components and assembly companies. The Sindicato dos Metalúrgicos de Campinas was also surveyed, through interviews along with its management running, in which actions of this institution were approached in the face of companies productive restructuration and neo-liberal policies, their conceptions about the consequences of these processes to the working class, as well as the good relationship the union has had with CUT. Results have shown that the automotive components sector denationalization had a deep relation with the global strategies of transnational groups of this industry, reflecting a struggle between American¿s and European¿s corporations against the Nipponese competition, led by Toyota, struggle which has counted on States and the working class. The flexible management implantation in the branch plants of peripheral countries, on the other hand, is not only part of this world struggle for capital accumulation, as well as the reproduction on the daily relations among in shop floor managers, where the taylorism/fordism hybridity along with toyotism systems have formed profiles of qualification that fragment socially, economically and politically the working class. Lastly, outsourcing and unemployment which rose from these processes have build big roadblocks to union actions, conducting strains and ruptures among local, state and federal institutions in the most combative sectors, as it has shown the disruption between Sindicato dos Metalúrgicos de Campinas and CUT / Doutorado / Sociologia / Doutor em Sociologia

Svanen är en av världens ledande miljömärkningar och firade nyligen 20 års jubileum. Det har under ett antal år varit möjligt att förutom produkter även svanenmärka tjänster och verksamheter, så som exempelvis restauranger och hotell. För att miljöarbetet inom en verksamhet ska fungera så bra som möjligt är kommunikationen i denna av yttersta vikt. Det har inte utförts några kända studier kring hur kommunikationen på Svanenmärkta hotell fungerar vilket är motivet bakom denna studie. Det finns en misstänksamhet i samhället mot miljömärkta varor och greenwashing har blivit ett allt vanligare begrepp, vilket innebär att företag utnyttjar miljömärkningar för att få ett bättre anseende på marknaden och inte för att egentligen gynna miljön. Syftet med denna studie har varit att titta på hur miljökommunikationen fungerar inom Svanenmärkta hotell. Ett delsyfte har även varit att ta reda på huruvida medarbetarna på hotellen uppfattar att verksamheten genomsyras av en miljömedvetenhet, något som Svanen strävar efter med sin miljömärkning. En fallstudie av två Svanencertifierade hotell har utförts genom intervjuer av personal från olika avdelningar på dessa hotell. Intervjumaterialet har sedan transkriberats och analyserats för att kunna dra slutsatser utifrån den fakta som framkommit. Även en litteraturstudie har genomförts i syfte att studera tidigare forskning i ämnet. Dessutom har material gällande hotellens miljörutiner granskats och analyserats. Resultaten från fallstudien visar att medarbetarna på hotellen är nöjda med kommunikationen över lag, detta trots att det i princip inte finns någon kommunikation mellan avdelningarna på hotellen. Visst utrymme för förbättring finns dock och både koncernen samt inom hotellen skulle det förmodligen tjänas på att decentralisera miljöfrågorna. På båda hotellen anses även att en miljömedvetenhet genomsyrar verksamheterna. Detta skulle kunna vara en följd av Svanencertifieringen, det kan även bero på andra orsaker.

La question de la nature de la firme n’a jamais suscité de consensus parmi les économistes, ce qui signifie que loin d’être épuisé, ce champ de recherche mérite de faire l’objet de nouveaux développements théoriques. Quelles sont les propriétés constitutives et quels sont les mécanismes de gouvernement – interne et externe – des firmes ? Partant d’une analyse critique des théories économiques, cette thèse propose de poser les jalons d’une théorisation de la firme en tant qu’entité réelle émergente fondée sur le pouvoir. Pour ce faire, nous développons une démarche méthodologique originale reposant sur une approche pluridisciplinaire (économie, théorie des organisations et droit) et expliquons que la firme crée des mécanismes génératifs intrinsèques. Pour comprendre les règles constitutives de la firme, nous analysons les relations de pouvoir, lesquelles sont, par nature, plurielles et « cohésives ». Avec l’évolution récente de l’environnement institutionnel, les relations de pouvoir se sont substantiellement modifiées. Que ce soit dans l’entité firme (gouvernement interne) ou dans l’entité firme-réseau (gouvernement externe), nous montrons théoriquement et empiriquement – à partir des enquêtes REPONSE 2004-2005 et ERIE – une relation positive entre le pouvoir et la coopération dans l’activité de production. De nombreuses implications politico-légales et normatives émanent de notre travail de recherche. / The question of the nature of the firm has not lead to a consensus among economists, which means that this research field is not obsolete and makes way for new theoretical investigations. What are the constitutive properties and the internal and external governance mechanisms of firms? Starting from a critical analysis of economic theories, this dissertation proposes some building blocks for a new approach to the firm as a power-based emergent real entity. To do so, an original methodological reasoning based on an interdisciplinary framework (economy, organization theory and law) is proposed and it is shown that the firm produces intrinsic generative mechanisms. In order to understand the constitutive rules of the firm, we analyze power relationships, which are in essence plural and cohesive. With the recent evolution of the institutional environment, power relationships have been substantially modified. Whether in the real entity called “firm” (intra-firm level) or in the real entity called “network-firm” (inter-firm level), we show both theoretically and empirically – from the 2004-2005 REPONSE and ERIE surveys – a positive relationship between power and cooperation in productive activity. Several politico-legal and normative implications result from this dissertation.