In this paper, we present the ban on progressive depreciation of housing associations in connection with the change to K-regulatory frameworks. Bokföringsnämnden (2014) stated that progressive depreciation was no longer allowed, and this study explores what kind of implications it had for the housing associations' income statements. Additional problems have been addressed by examining what effects it could have on the perception of that accounting must be based on giving a fair view (Artsberg, 2005), and whether stakeholders can access and interpret this financial information (Burks, 2015). Based on theories that consider that a similar framework is not appropriate for housing associations and non-profit organizations, as for profit driven companies, we have used this criticism on the matter (Burks, 2014; Torres and Pina, 2003). We have also taken into consideration why Bokföringsnämnden decided to prohibit the depreciation method. The empirical study focuses on examining twenty newly constructed housing associations annual reports from 2012 to 2014 to see whether they have had to change their depreciation method, and if this in turn has had an influence on their results, and if this has led to changes in their annual report. The end result of this study is based on a quantitative research which shows that a change has occurred in housing associations' income statements. 95 percent of the sample reported a loss in 2014, while in 2012 only 5 percent showed negative results. In a combined analysis of the use of literature and empirical data, there are clear indications that there is a requirement for new regulatory alternative templates for housing associations to report financial information if they are to present a fair view and enable comparison between associations.

South Africa is facing a water crisis in terms of the scarcity and the quality of its water. Considering this water-constrained future it is evident that companies in South Africa should pay attention to the pristine management of this scarce resource. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the reporting and disclosure requirements of water of Socially Responsible Investment-indexed (SRI) JSE-listed companies. The disclosure requirements of the integrated report, King III, the Global Reporting Initiative and the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants, provided the theoretical background to develop a water disclosure index. Content analysis was used as the research method to analyse the integrated and sustainability reports of a selected group of SRI indexed JSE-listed companies. The results were analysed in terms of the disclosure on items such as materiality, governance, corporate policies, environmental management systems, risk assessments and key performance indicators. The findings of the study include that most of the companies illustrate commitment towards water stewardship by reporting on water-related aspects. The mining sector rated the highest on disclosure and reporting of water-related aspects by providing the most detailed descriptions by indicating that they clearly understand the context of their operations and the associated risks. In the process of analysing the integrated and sustainability reports with specific reference to the key performance indicators, it was evident that companies lack comparability and consistency in their disclosure. It is recommended that companies improve the relevance, depth and clarity of their disclosure on water. / MCom (Management Accountancy), North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2015

South Africa is facing a water crisis in terms of the scarcity and the quality of its water. Considering this water-constrained future it is evident that companies in South Africa should pay attention to the pristine management of this scarce resource. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the reporting and disclosure requirements of water of Socially Responsible Investment-indexed (SRI) JSE-listed companies. The disclosure requirements of the integrated report, King III, the Global Reporting Initiative and the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants, provided the theoretical background to develop a water disclosure index. Content analysis was used as the research method to analyse the integrated and sustainability reports of a selected group of SRI indexed JSE-listed companies. The results were analysed in terms of the disclosure on items such as materiality, governance, corporate policies, environmental management systems, risk assessments and key performance indicators. The findings of the study include that most of the companies illustrate commitment towards water stewardship by reporting on water-related aspects. The mining sector rated the highest on disclosure and reporting of water-related aspects by providing the most detailed descriptions by indicating that they clearly understand the context of their operations and the associated risks. In the process of analysing the integrated and sustainability reports with specific reference to the key performance indicators, it was evident that companies lack comparability and consistency in their disclosure. It is recommended that companies improve the relevance, depth and clarity of their disclosure on water. / MCom (Management Accountancy), North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2015

Prestationsmätning förekommer i de flesta företagen och nyckeltal är mått på de prestationer som mäts. Studiens syfte är att undersöka vilka nyckeltal som används och hur dessa utgör en del av styrningen i två olika företag inom samma bransch. Den bransch som har valts att studeras i denna uppsats är fordonsindustrin och de två företag som har valts är lastbilstillverkare. En del av syftet är att identifiera likheter och skillnader i användningen av nyckeltal i de olika företagen. Denna studies problemformuleringar är:    Vilka nyckeltal används i kärnprocessen hos lastbilstillverkarna? På vilka sätt utgör dessa mått en del av företagens styrning? Metod: I denna uppsats används både en kvalitativ och en kvantitativ metod. Den kvalitativa metoden som används är i form av intervjuer. Intervjuerna är semistrukturerade vilket innebär att intervjuaren utgår från ett frågeformulär och respondenterna besvara frågorna fritt. Till dokumentstudien som handlar om att studera vilka nyckeltal som presenteras i respektive företags årsredovisning, för år 2014 används en kvantitativ forskningsmetod.   Teori: Teorier kring nyckeltal, prestationsmätning och styrning är de teorierna som används i denna studien.   Empiri: De fallföretag som valts till studien är två företag som är verksamma i fordonsindustrin ibland annat Sverige, en bransch av stor betydelse för svensk export. Denna bransch är konkurrentutsatt och fallföretagen är konkurrenter. För att uppnå syftet med studien har en semistrukturerad intervju med respektive företag genomförts. Intervjuerna är utformade och utförda för att få en djupare förståelse för vilka nyckeltal som används samt hur dessa påverkar styrningen i fallföretagen. Som ett komplement till intervjuerna gjordes en dokumentstudie för att få ytterligare information och förståelse om vilka nyckeltal som används i respektive företag. Utifrån informationen som samlats in genom intervjuerna och dokumentstudien jämfördes fallföretagen för att se likheter och skillnader mellan företagen.   Slutsats: Undersökningen visade att fallföretagen har samma vision. I företagen används både finansiella och icke finansiella nyckeltal. En del av nyckeltalen är liknande i båda företagen men det förkommer även nyckeltal som skiljer sig mellan fallföretagen, även om visionen är densamma. Det balanserade styrkortet är ett styrverktyg som används i företagen. I det balanserade styrkortet delas nyckeltalen in i olika perspektiv. Den största skillnaden som visats i denna undersökning är att målen för respektive nyckeltal tas fram på olika sätt i fallföretagen. Slutsatsen är att två företag med samma vision arbetar mot sitt mål på olika sätt. / Performance measurement is an instrument that exists in most companies, a key indicator are a tool which value are decided by performance that is measured within the company. There are two different types of key indicators, financial and nonfinancial. The objective of this study is to investigate which of these key indicators that are used in the core process of each company and also how they influence the management. The two selected companies in this study are active in the same branch and are competing with one another. In the theoretical part of this study performance measurement, key indicators and management are in focus. A qualitative study that has been used is by semi-structured interviews. The interviews were conducted with respondents from the respective case companies. Also a documentary study was done by collecting data from the financial statements for the year 2014. The data that was gathered from the interviews and the document study are presented in the empirical section of this study. The results show that both companies are sharing the same vision and uses both financial and nonfinancial key indicators. In their management both companies uses the balanced scorecard, which is a hybrid model that is used as a management tool.

No description available.

<p>Ett styrverktyg som används flitigt i dagens företag är målstyrning. Syftet med denna uppsats är att undersöka processens utformning när övergripande mål bryts ner till försäljningsmål och dess påverkan på medarbetarnas motivation. Med utgångspunkt i Latham och Lockes målsättningsteori påvisas hur målens utformning inverkar på medarbetarnas motivation. Angreppssättet för studien var kvalitativa intervjuer. I uppsatsens slutsatser konstateras att målen utformas centralt i det företag som studien utförts på. Vidare har budgetprocessen en central roll i nedbrytningsprocessen och viss förhandling om målen sker mellan olika nivåer i företaget. Medarbetarna upplever att målen har inverkan på deras motivation. Den positiva påverkan kan härledas från målens tydlighet, kontinuerlig uppföljning, viss delaktighet och tillgången till stöd. Studien har dock visat att alla mål inte upplevs motiverande. Den svaga motivationen inför vissa mål kan kopplas samman med att den rådande målstyrningen gör det svårt att sätta mål med hänsyn till varje enskild individs förutsättningar. Dessutom är möjligheten att påverka målen endast marginell på lägre nivåer. Vidare upplevs vissa mål orimliga vilket väcker känslor som irritation och uppgivenhet.</p>

The organisation of maintenance, in the Aseptic Liquid Food (ALF) industry, represents an important management task that enables a company to pursue higher manufacturing effectiveness and improved market share. This research is concerned with the process to design and implement maintenance tasks. These two complementary processes (design and implementation) have been thought and designed to answer the particular needs of food industry regarding product safety and equipment reliability. Numerous maintenance engineering researchers have focused on maintenance engineering and reliability techniques highlighting the contribution of maintenance in achieving world class manufacturing and competitive advantage. Their outcome emphasizes that maintenance is not a “necessary evil” because of costs associated, but it can be considered an “investment” that produces an added value which generates a real company profit. The existing maintenance engineering techniques pursue equipment reliability at minimum cost; but in food industry, food safety represents the most critical issue to address and solve. The research methodology chosen is based on case studies coming from ALF industries. These show that low maintenance effectiveness could have dramatic effects on final consumers and on the company’s image and underline the need of a maintenance design and implementation process that takes into consideration all critical factors relevant to liquid food industry. The analysis of measurable indicators available, represents a tool necessary to show the status of critical performance indicators and reveals the urgency of a research necessary to address and solve the maintenance problems in food industry. The literature review underlines the increasing regulations in place in food industry and that no literature is available to define a maintenance design and implementation process for ALF and in general for food industry. The literature review enabled also the gap existing between theory and real maintenance status, in the ALF, to be identified and the aim of the research was to explore this gap. The analysis of case studies and Key Performance Indicators (KPI’s) available highlights the problem and the literature review provides the knowledge necessary to identify the process to design and implement maintenance procedures for ALF industry. The research findings provide a useful guide to identify the process to design maintenance tasks able to put under control food safety and equipment reliability issues. Company’s restraining forces and cultural inertia, that work against new maintenance procedures, have been analysed and a maintenance implementation process have been designed to avoid losing the benefits produced by the design phase. The analysis of condition monitoring systems shows devices and techniques useful to improve product safety, equipment reliability, and then maintenance effectiveness. This research aimed to fill the gap in the existing literature showing the solution to manage both food safety and production effectiveness issues in food industry. It identifies a maintenance design process able to capture all conceivable critical factors in food industry and to provide the solution to design reliable task lists. Furthermore, the maintenance implementation process shows the way to maximize the maintenance design outcome through the empowerment of equipment operators and close cooperation with maintenance and quality specialists. The new maintenance design and implementation process represents the answer to the research problem and a reliable solution that allows the food industry to improve food safety and production effectiveness.

This paper presents the background, aim and results of a small empirical study conducted in the setting of a medical hospital library. The background is found both in the quality ambitions of the medical professions and organizations and in the effort of medical libraries to show their importance to the total quality of medical decision making. As a first step in the library's quality process, the aim has been to identify quality performance indicators of value to library users in their contact with a medical hospital library. The second step- to identify satisfaction levels - is not included in this work. Another aim has been to compare the quality categories in this small study with the generally accepted quality categories that emerged in the comprehensive studies of Parasuraman, Zeithaml and Berry in which customers express their expectations and perceptions of services. This study is based on a small number of interviews with representatives from different user groups within a hospital. The analysis is inspired by phenomenography which build on perceptions of phenomena - in this case the phenomenon "quality". In the material from the interviews five quality categories were identified. Compared to generally accepted quality categories from the service sector none of these five categories were unique. Important conclusions were that despite the homogeneity of the user group, expectations and needs are different and vary from time to time. Consequently flexibility and individual treatment of library users are crucial if the library is to meet user expectations. But the material also shows that despite access to modern technology users have very traditional perceptions of the library seeing the library as a room. If libraries were to let only user expectations initiate changes, it would lead to stagnation. It is not realistic to rely only on the knowledge or interest of the users.

This thesis explored the academic staff working conditions, organizational commitment and performance of Nigerian universities. There is a general thinking that there has been a decline on the motivation of the average academic staff in Nigerian university system leading to brain drain situation and a decline in quality of performance of the universities. Incidentally, there is limited empirical evidence comprehensive enough to serve as a framework of what the academics need at work to make them more inclined to remain in their universities, including university performance. This thesis explored the topic in a comprehensive way with academics from six Nigerian universities. It answers the question what and how did the perceived obstacles to academic staff organizational commitment and university performance in Nigeria evolve, and what can be done to improve it? The research design was cross-sectional. Qualitative and quantitative information were gathered to uncover the historical origin of the problems; satisfaction with current working conditions, issues of personal growth, organizational commitment, and university performance. A sample of 248 academics participated in the study. Historically, both structural and managerial issues, internal and external factors, were implicated in the evolution of the problems in the university system. Satisfaction with teaching resources and facilities was poorest. Factors important for personal growth were the same as those that would make the academics more inclined to stay, though, concern with basic salary and welfare were more prominent in decision to stay. Reference to comparable situations with colleagues elsewhere was basis for need to improve on some work factors like salary. The thesis concludes that, deficiency-growth factors, intrinsic-extrinsic factors, and equity issues are important in dealing with the organizational commitment and performance problems in the Nigerian universities studied. Sugestions and limitations of the study are provided.

Title: Analysis of the game performance in relation to different types of the match mini-basketball players. Objectives: The objective of this study is analysis and comparison of the selected performance indicators of the player in relation to the current competiton system in the Czech minibasketball (5x5 vs 3x3 with one basket). Methods: As a research method, the method of observation of the video recordings. Using the basic statistic and arithmetic methods, the measured data were processed statistically and consequently, graphically also. Results: It was discovered that frequency of selected performance indicators is higher , for the whole team as well as individual players in form of modified minibasketball 3x3, in most cases. Key words: 5x5, 3x3, performance indicators, modification, U11, U12, Baskeťáci TJ Sokol Josefov