The innovation progress for municipalities is currently going slowly. Today most of the communication, decision-making, delegation and service of process are still handled via letter mail or phone calls. Companies and municipalities are starting to comprehend this and see opportunities. With the technology that exists today it is possible to speed up the processes when citizens and municipalities comunicate with each other. By migrating from the old way of applying and filing different matters by letter mail to so-called digital e-services, the citizen can apply, complement and get info on how their matter is going directly on the web. Abou AB works with optimizing information handling for municipalities and has recently made it possible for municipalities to eliminate their tedious way of handling matters by traceable web communication. They have a vision to take this to a new level of easement to the municipalities and their citizens by offering these services in mobile phones as so-called apps. One of these contemplated services is to file error reports. The service will offer the citizen to send in a report with attached meta data such as photo and the location of the regarding matter. This will be done by the mobile phones built in hardware in form of camera and GPS. This master’s thesis will describe the work to develop a prototype for filing an error reports in mobile phones that support Android and iOS operating systems. The goal for this thesis work is to develop this prototype by means of a process tool called Kanban and investigate if the tool fits the situation properly. The situation is that two persons will work in parallel with slightly different projects. Also the quality and usability of the resulting prototype applications is asserted with qualitative evaluations that results in higher awareness of the defects and suggestions on how to reform and improve the application in a usability point of view. The actual implementation work was planned according to a slightly loose Kan- ban paradigm. Kanban is all about improvements along the way and the im- plementation phase is divided into smaller phases with sub goals and recurring process evaluations. Suggestions of improvement regarding the work processes is a result of this. A Kanban board that helps visualize the workflow is used to help team members and project owners to get a good overview of current situa- tions. Several adjustments were made throughout the project and the so-called lead times, the time it takes to complete a task, was shortened in average from the beginning of the project compared to the end of the project. Each phase in the implementation part of the thesis work resulted in different functionalities in the application. A phase was two weeks long and ended with a demo were the new functionality was demonstrated. Prior to each demo session everyone at the company where the thesis work was performed was invited. The participants in these sessions were encouraged to give feedback on what they saw to help increase the quality of the applications. The prototype applications resulted in a more easy accessible service to citizens. By cutting out the process steps that previously needed to been done on a computer the 1application contributes to the possibility of an increased democratization grade for the citizen. The investigation regarding if the Kanban process tool was a suitable aid in the implementation part of the project resulted in that it was suitable for the specific situation. By measuring both lead times and other activities that did not concern the implementation work and plot them in a diagram explained why some weeks did not have as high productivity as others. To assert the awareness and quality of the developed applications in terms of usability a so-called heuristic evaluation was performed. This qualitative eval- uation resulted in a set of usability problems. These problems were all graded into different priority to be solved and some was given suggestions on how to be solved. The main purpose with this evaluation was to find the problems and document them to possible future programmers if the prototype will go into production. The result of this evaluation has increased the usability of the application and consequently the quality.

Business modelling (BM) is being used in commercial organizations of different sizes and industries all over the world as a tool to design, structure and analyse business processes and activities. Hence, advantages of BM can be exploited by public sector institutions (PSIs) as well. Adoption of open source software (OSS) is another phenomenon that started to spread from individual and corporate users to public environment. In Europe, it was successfully done in German municipalities and Swedish police. Moreover, guidelines on OSS public procurement were developed by the group of researchers led by R. A. Ghosh on the base of EU directives on software management. The aim of the current study is to combine two mentioned above tools (BM and OSS adoption) in one practical approach that could be used by municipalities. The main reason for doing this is obvious lack of findings in both theoretical and practical aspects though the subject is being broadly discussed and promoted. The overall purpose of the current research is to design an OSS based business model for Kivos municipalities that can be later generalized to other public organizations, probably even in other countries. The specific feature of this business modelling is that it is created upon value and relationships instead of issues related to money which is more common for BM. The current study is an exploratory and inductive qualitative research where case study was chosen as a research strategy. Data collection was conducted using the following techniques: literature review – for secondary data collection, and communication (interview and survey) – for primary data collection. Theoretical framework includes literature (sources providing both general and specific information related to the subject of interest. All gathered information was interpreted and analysed through the instrumentality of enterprise modelling or simply summarised and discussed verbally. On the base of interpreted results of theoretical and empirical studies desired OSS based business relationships model was designed and described for Kivos municipalities. It is based on value which in particular case implies sharing information, knowledge and experience as well as mutual assistance and reliable interaction between participants of relationships existing in OSS environment.

I de flesta offentliga organisationer arbetas idag i projekt¬arbets¬form. Dessa organisationer måste ta hänsyn till att projekt inte längre är ett undantag och skapa strukturer och metoder för koordination av projektverksamheten. Vid projektplaneringen kan ett antal olika metoder användas för att undvika fel och brister som lätt uppstår när flera personer är inblandade. Fel och brister gynnar inte den inre effektiviteten. Ett likartat arbetssätt, ibland i form av projektmodell, kan användas för ökad kontroll av projektarbetsformen. Projektmodellen medför struktur och rutiner som förbättrar utnyttjandet av projekt¬arbets¬formen. Syftet med denna magisteruppsats i industriell projektledning är att undersöka och be¬skriva om projektledarna inom offentliga organisationer använder metoder som bidrar till att öka den inre effektiviteten i projektledarens projektplanering. Undersökningsmetoden är av kvalitativ art. Den empiriska datainsamlingen har skett genom telefonintervjuer eller besöksintervjuer med tolv respondenter fördelade på sex av Sveriges länsstyrelser. Med utgångspunkt från undersökningen har vi konstaterat att den inre effektiviteten på¬ver¬kas av i vilken mån metoder för projektplanering används. För att öka projektets inre effek¬tivitet och förankringen av projektet bör intressentanalys och kravanalys föregå den över¬enskommelse som resulterar i en tydlig beskrivning av projektets mål. Vi har funnit att ansvar och befogenheter måste anges tydligare än vad som är brukligt idag för att öka den inre effektiviteten samt fördelar med att placera projekten utanför den vanliga linjeorganisationen. Beträffande kommunikation behöver fler rapporter skrivas i avsikt att gynna lärandet inom organisationen och finnas tillgängliga i större utsträckning. Den inre effektiviteten kan öka om projektledaren förutom kunskap i sakämnen också besitter kunskap i metoder för projektplanering. En generell slutsats är att en projekt¬modell och/eller en väl genomförd och strukturerad planering gynnar den inre effek¬tiviteten eftersom problem och konflikter minimeras när så sker. / The work in most public sectors today is sometimes done in project work form. These organizations have to realize that projects are no longer an exception, but rather the norm, and create structure and methods to coordinate the projects. There are some different methods that can be used during project planning to avoid mistakes and shortcomings, which can easily happen when many people are involved. Mistakes and shortcomings do not improve the efficiency of the organization. A similar way of working, often in the way of a project model, can be used to increase the control of the project. The project model intro¬duces structure and routine which in turn increases the use of the project work form. The purpose of this master thesis in Industrial Project Management is to examine and describe if project managers within the public sector use methods of project planning to increase the efficiency of the organization. The research method is of qualitative conduction. The empirical data collection has been done through phone interviews and personal interviews with 12 respondents representing six of Sweden’s county ministries. Starting with the study, we concluded that the efficiency of an organization depends on which level of methods the organization use for project planning. To increase a project’s efficiency and to attain organizational commitment a stakeholder analyse and analysis of requirements should be done before the agreement of the project result. The agreement must show a detailed description of the project goal. We have found that responsibility and duties have to be more clearly specified to increase the efficiency. If the project is organized outside the normal guidelines we have found an improvement of the efficiency. To improve the learning within the organization more reports need to be done and be easily accessible. The efficiency of the organization will improve if the project manager not only is know¬ledgeable about the project idea but also has good knowledge about project planning methods. A general conclusion is that problems and conflicts are minimized if the project is well planned and structured or a project model is used. In consequence of those actions the project efficiency will increase.

The research presented in this thesis is about recordkeeping in the public sector, focusing especially on the relationship between the public administration and its archives, and selected aspects affecting the way this relationship is developing in the digital era. Two research questions are addressed: RQ1: What are ‘archives’ and ‘recordkeeping’ in the digital context and the developing e-government? RQ2: What are the indications of current and future challenges regarding the cooperation between public administration and archives? Six studies resulting in six papers form the basis of the thesis. Each study explores a unique aspect of how current developments, discussions, and decisions affect contemporary understanding and practices regarding archives and recordkeeping. Public records are authoritative information resources, crucial in the everyday lives of citizens. Public recordkeeping develops continuously alongside administrative practices, technological achievements, and political goals. Examples include the development of shared services within the public sector and the involvement of the private sector in public infrastructure projects through outsourcing. These processes are currently affected both by digital technologies, which offer new possibilities to create, use, and preserve records, and by e-government, characterized by the combination of information and communication technologies with organizational change to improve public services and democratic participation. In these processes, existing practices are reviewed and revised, and the concepts of ‘archives’ and ‘recordkeeping’ redefined. The research was pursued using an interpretive approach. The research methods used were concept analysis; discourse analysis; literary warrant analysis; phenomenography; critical theory; and the records continuum model as a theoretical structure. The results shows that common usage of the terms ‘archive’ and ‘recordkeeping’ is fluid and changing, which can make decision-making challenging and affect the relationship between archives and administration. Efforts to develop recordkeeping strategies may be hampered by factors related to the different ways in which the nature and role of archives and recordkeeping are perceived, including differing understandings of related concepts; varying discourses on what an archive (or e-archive) is or should be, and different ways of interpreting legal frameworks and their significance. / <p>Vid tidpunkten för disputationen var följande delarbeten opublicerade: delarbete 6 accepterat.</p><p>At the time of the doctoral defence the following papers were unpublished: paper 6 accepted.</p> / God informationsförvaltning / En effektiv digital informationshantering

This thesis examines elements of continuity and change in systems of pay determination in UK local government, with a specific focus on the period of austerity since 2010. Spending cuts present significant challenges for collective bargaining through the National Joint Council (NJC), which also serves as a ‘critical case’ to test our understanding of contemporary collective bargaining and industrial relations. The research draws on 56 interviews with a total of 62 key actors from the employers’ representative organisations and trade unions at both national and local level, and eight local authority case studies. The interview data are complemented by a range of secondary qualitative and quantitative data sources. It seeks to understand the changing power relationships between employers and unions as they attempt to navigate increasingly turbulent waters, and the pragmatic trade-offs both sides are willing make over pay, terms and conditions, and working practices in pursuit of longer-term strategic goals. These issues are addressed through three levels of analysis. Firstly, building on a rich tradition of industrial relations research, the thesis shows how the national employers have repositioned the sector level collective agreement as a means to deliver cost control rather than ‘fair wages’, which the unions have so far tolerated in preference to a complete dissolution of national bargaining. Second, drawing on contingency models of pay and HRM, case study data are used to explore the mixture of managerialism and political opportunism which characterises the development and implementation of pay and reward strategies at the level of the organisation. The findings identify the continued importance of transparent job evaluation processes in determining wage structures, but also show how pay practices act as a means to signal desired behaviours from employees, and are used to reinforce local level political narratives. Finally, through a critical re-appraisal of New Public Management (NPM) reforms in local government since the 1980s, further case study data reveal the way in which employers have reorganised staffing structures to match reduced budgets, but it appears that increased levels of work intensity for a significantly depleted workforce are beginning to impact on service standards. The findings also suggest that the on-going process of restructuring serves as a means to increase managerial control of ‘the labour process’ through the efforts to standardise working practices and break down embedded departmental and professional identities. Taken together, the evidence suggests that although the formal institutions of employment relations have proved to be remarkably resilient, collective bargaining as a dynamic mode of joint regulation built on the notion of partnership has steadily been crowded out from both above and below. The meaningful content of negotiations has been squeezed by the tight financial constraints applied by central government, and in the vacuum created by stalled sector level negotiations local level pay and HRM strategies are becoming increasingly important to explain the level and distribution of wages. Perhaps as important as negotiations over pay are negotiations over working practices which fall outside the formal regulatory scope of the collective agreement, and change expectations about working time, task discretion, and job boundaries. A degree of drift across these three dimensions has resulted in an increasingly fluid adjustment of the wage-effort bargain over which the unions have a declining sphere of influence.

Bakgrund: Kommuner har tidigare varit i en förvaltningsfas där de fokuserat på att förvalta samhället och de byggnader som finns. I och med att kommuner har ökat sina investeringar markant de senaste åren indikerar det på att kommuner befinner sig i en ny fas, vilket är samhällsbyggnadsfasen. I den nya fasen handlar kommunernas verksamhet om att förbättra samhället med nya investeringar samt rusta upp de befintliga byggnaderna för att öka kvalitén för medborgarna. De flesta byggnationerna sker i projektform där flera olika förvaltningar och nämnder i kommunen är involverade. Förvaltningar och nämnder har ofta olika intressen och motivationer vilket gör att gränser behöver dras för att precisera projektets innebörd. Med ökade investeringar ökar också risken hos kommunen och gränsproblematiken är en viktig faktor för att lyckas med projektet. Syfte: Syftet med denna studie är att bidra med ökad förståelse kring kommunala samhällsbyggnadsprojekt gällande de strukturella och konceptuella gränserna. Vidare syftar studien mer specifikt att bidra med förståelse för nämnda gränser vid etableringsfasen av ett kommunalt samverkansprojekt. Metod: Studien är en kvalitativ fallstudie av ett kommunalt samhällsbyggnadsprojekt. Studien bygger på fyra semistrukturerade intervjuer samt dokumentstudie och observation. Den har en övergripande abduktiv forskningsansats och utgår således från teori och empiri. Slutsats: Studien visar att kommunen använder sig av direktiv och riktlinjer i projekt som skapar gränser för projektgruppen. De upplevs porösa och oklara då projektgruppen inte vet vad som förväntas av dem. Därmed behövs det en tydlig ansvarsfördelning inom projektorganisationen eftersom kommunen är ovana att arbeta i stora investeringsprojekt. / Background: For a long time, municipalities have been in an administration phase where the focus have been to administrate the community and existing buildings. Since municipalities in recent years have increased their investments it indicates that municipalities are in a new phase, which is the phase of social structure. The municipality’s work in the new phase is to improve the community with new investments and improve the existing buildings in order to increase quality for the citizens. The municipality’s work is done in projects where several departments are involved. The departments have often different interests and motivations which means that boundaries are required to define the meaning of the project. Increased investment results in higher risk for the municipality and therefore boundaries are an important factor for the project to succeed. Aim: The aim of the thesis is to increase the understanding of boundaries in a municipally social structure projects. Furthermore, the aim is to increase the understanding of boundaries in the establishment phase of a collaboration project. Methodology: This is a qualitative case study of a municipal social structure project. The study is based on semi structured interviews, document studies and an observation. The thesis has an abductive approach. Conclusion: The thesis shows that municipally use directions and guidelines, which creates boundaries for the project organization. However, the boundaries are vague and the project organization do not know what is expected of them. Therefore, it is important with a distinct responsibility distribution within the project organization because of municipality's unfamiliarity to work in large investment projects.

Det finns ett direkt samband mellan medarbetarnas motivation, produktivitet och hälsa och ledningen. Tidigare studier visar att verksamheter inom offentlig sektor dras med unika utmaningar och möjligheter som påverkar ledarskapet. Syftet med denna studie har varit att undersöka vilka faktorer som påverkar motivationen hos anställda i offentlig sektor. Genom en fallstudie baserad på kvalitativa intervjuer av medarbetare i en sydsvensk kommun har studien undersökt hur offentlig sektor jobbar med motivation. Under intervjuerna framkom att det finns brister i motivationsarbetet och att det saknas officiella riktlinjer för hur motivationsarbetet ska bedrivas. Studiens resultat visar att det finns en hel rad faktorer som påverkar motivationen i den offentliga verksamheten. I den studerade kommunen fanns en stark vilja att arbeta mer med motivationshöjande insatser, både hos chefer och medarbetare. Studien visade också på brister i grundläggande motivationsfaktorer som förtroende och förståelse för ledningen, vilket kan härledas till brister i kommunens arbete med likabehandling och transparens. Många medarbetare efterlyste också mer lyhördhet och förståelse från ledningen, samt fler utbildningar och interna mål. Resultatet av studien blev en ökad förståelse för den komplicerade sits som ledare i offentlig sektor befinner sig i, liksom insikten om att organisationer i offentlig sektor behöver arbeta mer fokuserat med motivationsfrågor. / There is a direct link between employee motivation, productivity and health and the conduct of management. Previous studies show that public sector activities are attracted to unique challenges and opportunities that affect leadership. The purpose of this study has been to investigate which factors affect the work motivation of employees in the public sector. Through a case study based on qualitative interviews of employees in a southern Swedish municipality, the study had investigated how the public sector works with motivation. During the interviews, there were shortcomings in the motivationalwork and that there are no official guidelines for how motivation work is to be conducted. The results of the study show that there are a whole range of factors that influence the motivation in public activities. In the studied municipality there was a strong willingness to work more with motivational efforts, both at managers and employees. The study also showed weaknesses in basic motivational factors such as trust and understanding of management, which can be attributed to shortcomings in the municipality's work on equal treatment and transparency. Many employees also called for more responsiveness and understanding from management, as well as more education and internal goals. The result of the study became an increased understanding of the complexity of public sector leaders, as well as the awareness that public sector organizations need to work more focused on motivational issues.

Magister Administrationis - MAdmin / This research study focuses on the way the Namibian public sector plans and implements capital projects, mainly in the Ohangwena region, and the Ministry of Health and Social Services in general. The research results show that the planning and project process is not clear and that options need to be considered for the improvement thereof. It is observed that often some of the identified and approved capital projects are not implemented and, if implemented, this is typically done in two or three years. Most parts of Ohangwena are comprised of sandy roads, especially the north-eastern area of Ohangwena which represents a large part of the region. Distances between health facilities and the scarcity of transport make it difficult for the community to easily reach the nearest health facility. The primary objective of this study is to perform an assessment of the planning process in the public sector for the implementation of capital projects and its effectiveness with regard to the planning and implementation of identified capital projects. From the outset, the critical issue is not only implementation, but also how the Ministry plans its capital projects for successful implementation. Interestingly, no research has been done before on this topic in Namibia. Against this background, officials (planners) that are directly involved in capital projects design were interviewed at the district, regional and national levels of the Ministry. The research investigation found that, in general, the planning and project processes in the Ministry are good, but a number of weaknesses were observed in the implementation process. The findings of the study showed that capacity in the Ministry, in terms of skills and technical expertise, are among the main causes of delay in the implementation of capital projects, particularly in the region and in the Ministry in general. The research found that lack of technical expertise in the Ministry and the limited capacity of those responsible for capital projects initiation and implementation, especially at the District and Regional level, have a substantial influence on most of all the weaknesses observed in the system. In this regard, specific recommendations were made regarding the prioritization of the necessary posts and building capacity at the operational level. / South Africa

Magister Commercii (Industrial Psychology) - MCom(IPS) / The aim of this research study was to assess the existence and impact of career barriers on women in a municipal environment and to understand whether career salience explains some of the differences in the perception of career barriers. To answer the research hypothesis, permission was obtained from the municipal management to embark on the study and the respondents were notified in writing of the purpose and benefits of the study. A cross-sectional, convenience sample of 89 female employees in post levels one to ten was used. The survey questionnaire consisted of a demographical questionnaire, The Career Barriers Inventory-Revised (CBI-R) (Swanson, Daniels & Tokar, 1996) and a career salience scale. The statistical analyses included descriptive, inferential statistics and analysis of variance. The data was also subjected to a Scheffe’s test to determine the differences in perceptions. The results (N = 89) of this study do not support the hypothesis that there is a significant difference between age and women’s experiences of sex discrimination as a career barrier. The first and second hypothesis, which meant to prove a significant relationship between career salience and career barriers and a significant difference in women’s perceptions of career barriers based on their career salience, was partially accepted

Magister Public Health - MPH / In response to the increasing burden with regard to treatment of HIV/AIDS in Mozambique, the Ministry of Health has developed a national strategic plan for HIV and AIDS. This provided for broader access to Antiretroviral Therapy (ART) by decentralizing and integrating ART services into the essential services provided at the primary care level. In keeping with this initiative,medical technicians are now responsible for first-line ART prescription and management at primary-level care health centres in the country. The ART programme was introduced in Mozambique in 2003 alongside other health services offered in hospitals; it was decentralized to PHC health centres in 2006.This study aimed to explore the experiences and perceptions of medical technicians regarding the decentralization and integration of ART services into PHC health centres in Beira. An exploratory qualitative study was conducted using in-depth interviews, key informant interviews and focus group discussions. A sample of 15 medical technicians was distributed across two focus groups for the purpose of discussion. In addition there were four in-depth individual follow-up interviews with four medical technicians, drawn from the two focus groups. Three key informant interviews were also held to collect data. The data was analysed using content analysis.The study revealed that the decentralization process was viewed by many of the medical technicians as a very positive initiative for the country. However a number of operational and managerial issues need to be addressed to ensure the effectiveness of the comprehensive approach that was institutionalized and adopted by all PHC health centres. Key amongst the issues that needed to be addressed were the workloads of the health care personnel, and of medical technicians in particular. Their workloads have increased without any corresponding increase in the health workforce needed to manage the patient load. The medical technicians felt that this adversely affected the quality of care they were able to provide to patients, and specifically to those requiring ART medication. The recommendations that emerge from the study are intended to promote the development of policy that will improve of working conditions and assist medical technicians to provide a better service to their patients.