Diploma thesis "Decision-making process in the Council of the European Union after the enlargement 2004 - common commercial policy" deals with decision- making in the Council of the European Union and focuses in particular on the negotiations at a lower level. The common commercial policy is the target area mainly because of exclusive competences of the European Community. The aim of this thesis is the view of negotiations on the commercial agenda in the Council of the European Union and the coalition groups among Member States. A prerequisite for the analysis is the hypothesis, whether it is possible to derive from coalition groups at a lower level of decision-making the later coalitions in the Council of the European union. The analysis is based on reports of the Committee 133, the key body for the Council of the European Union in the common commercial policy in the period from January 2005 to December 2006. The data set was examined by the cluster analysis method.

Au Québec, la décision de placer un enfant est considérée comme une mesure d’exception. En vertu du principe de maintien de l’enfant dans son milieu d’origine, cette décision doit être prise en tenant compte de la notion de réunification familiale. Lorsque cette réunification n’est pas possible, les intervenants doivent décider de la meilleure manière d’orienter le projet de vie de l’enfant afin d’assurer la stabilité des liens et la continuité des soins. Malgré l’importance de ce processus, les connaissances à son sujet sont très limitées. La recherche sur la prise de décision en protection de l’enfance s’est principalement concentrée sur l’étude des décisions individuelles et des facteurs qui les déterminent, dans une approche essentiellement déductive visant principalement à contrôler l’erreur humaine. Cependant, le processus décisionnel en protection de l’enfance est rarement individuel et la décision n’est pas prise en vase clos. Au contraire, ce processus est collectif, itératif et influencé par différents éléments du contexte. Cette thèse visait à comprendre la complexité du processus décisionnel autour de la clarification du projet de vie et du choix d’un milieu de vie de permanence alternatif à la réunification, dans le cas de jeunes enfants (0 à 5 ans). Les deux objectifs spécifiques consistaient à décrire comment les professionnels interagissent dans leurs routines pour prendre des décisions, ainsi qu’à cerner la manière dont ils interprètent le contexte institutionnel pour y arriver. Reposant sur une approche qui combine la théorie de la structuration de Giddens et l’ethnométhodologie, cette étude est le fruit de neuf mois d’observation de comités aviseurs et d’entrevues auprès d’acteurs clés (n=16). Les résultats soulignent que ce processus repose sur un contexte d’action qui prend forme grâce aux routines que créent les acteurs afin d’organiser et de comprendre leur pratique. Ils montrent la nature nettement interactive et collective de ce processus impliquant la participation d’une diversité d’acteurs avec des rôles différents. Ils permettent aussi de dégager des éléments sous-jacents qui structurent ce processus : les pivots de l’action et les logiques institutionnelles. Considérer l’ensemble de ces éléments amène parfois des tensions qui rendent compte de la complexité et du défi que celui-ci représente pour la pratique. / In Quebec, the decision to place a child is considered an extraordinary measure. Based on the principle of keeping the child in the family, this decision must consider the goal of family reunification. When such reunification is not possible, practitioners must decide on the best way to direct the child's permanent plan to ensure continuity of care and stable relationships. Despite the importance of this process, we know very little about it. Research on decision-making in child welfare has focused primarily on the study of individual decisions and the factors that determine them, in an essentially deductive approach aimed primarily towards controlling human error. However, decision-making in child protection is rarely carried out on an individual basis and decisions are not made in isolation. On the contrary, this process is collective, iterative and influenced by different contextual elements. The aim of this thesis was to understand the complexity of the decision-making process around the clarification of the permanent plan and the choice of a permanent living environment as an alternative to reunification, particularly in the case of young children (0 to 5 years old). The two specific objectives were to describe how professionals interact in their routines to make decisions, and to identify how they interpret the institutional context in order to do so. Based on an approach that combines Giddens's structuration theory and ethnomethodology, this study is the result of nine months of observation of advising committees and interviews with key actors (n=16). The results emphasize that this process is founded on a context of action that takes shape through the routines that actors produce in order to organize and understand their practice. They show clearly the interactive and collective nature of this process involving the participation of a diversity of actors with different roles. They also identify underlying elements that structure this process: the pivots of action and the institutional logics. Considering such elements together sometimes leads to tensions which reflect the complexity and the challenge it represents for practice.

In master´s thesis I deal with analysing of decision-making in PPP projects and searching for an optimal solutions. On an example of hypothetical project there is shown a decision making process which consists from three main parts: cost evaluation, revenue evaluation and risk identification. The result of this analyse is based on a public sector comparator where you can demonostrate suitability or unsuitability of particular PPP offers coming from private sphere.

This thesis focuses on the problem and application of artificial intelligence in company decision making. Especially, the use of fuzzy logic in order to select most suitable product which meets a number of parameters. Custom solution are created in the Matlab development environment, and also in MS Excel.

C­lem t©to diplomov© prce je nvrh vhodn© metody, jak vyhodnotit dodavatele model letadel a leteck©ho p­sluenstv­ holandsk© spoleÄnosti Aviation Megastore. Tato poleÄnost existuje na trhu ji v­ce ne 25 let a m v­ce ne 170 dodavatel po cel©m svÄtÄ. Proto vznikla poteba jednotliv© vrobce a distributory ohodnotit a zvit jejich vvoj bÄhem jednotlivch let, p­padnÄ u nÄkterch vybranch dodavatel zvit vzhledem k neuspokojivm vsledkm monost ukonÄen­ spoluprce. Pro vyhodnocen­ bude pouit program MS Excel a MATLAB.

Pour parvenir à une maîtrise des enjeux en matière de changement climatique les stratégies politiques se succèdent à tous les échelons du territoire. Au sein de ces politiques, les projets de développement d'énergies renouvelables ont retenu mon attention en particulier les projets de parcs éoliens. Fortement développés au cours du XXIème siècle, ces projets mis en place pour répondre aux attentes en matière de lutte contre le réchauffement climatique s'articulent-ils pour autant au développement durable des territoires ? L'ambition de ce travail est de chercher à comprendre les dynamiques de la durabilité. Pour cela, je partirai d'un postulat de recherche selon lequel une approche du développement durable par le territoire permet de renouveler l'étude de la durabilité en aménagement. Dans la première partie, j'ancre donc territorialement les études menées sur les politiques de durabilité en mobilisant la notion de développement territoriale durable. Dans la deuxième partie, je m'intéresse aux projets de parcs éoliens en tant que projets de territoire, ce qui me permet de questionner les politiques durables sur des micro-espaces en milieu rural. Il s'est avéré que ces espaces répondent aux mêmes logiques d'aménagement que celles du milieu urbain. Cette constatation m'a amenée à formuler l'hypothèse d'une « nouvelle forme d'organisation des territoires » sans distinction entre l'urbain et le rural. La troisième partie s'attache plus particulièrement à étudier le rôle de catalyseur d'action des acteurs dans le processus de durabilité. Par leurs implications territoriales conscientes ou non, ils suscitent des réactions territoriales. Ces réactions sont la manifestation d'un nouvel intérêt pour le territoire et d'un nouvel ancrage territorial, nécessaire à la conduite de projets territoriaux durables. / Political strategies have been renewed regularly to better respond to climate issues, across international, national, regional and local levels. Within those politics, renewable energy projects caught my attention. Developed in the XIXth century, this project was implanted to uncross the climate change. Therefore, the research aims at understanding how wind power plants interfere "positively or negatively" with place-based territorial constructions. The point is to address the trade-offs between spatial equity and intergenerational equity, which are the core of sustainable policies. I choose a territorial approach of sustainable development to better respond to the core aim. I think this approach contributes to renew the sustainable studies in urban planning. Consequently, in my first part, I settle the sustainable studies in territorial context by mobilizing sustainable territorial development concept. In the second part, my interests focus on wind farms projects; reconsidering such projects is to get some perspectives towards the territorial projects and sustainable policy particularly in micro-territory in rural area. The finding was a concept of “negotiated territory” without distinction between planning in rural or urban area. The third part, tried to understand the stakeholders implementation in sustainable decision-making process. With our territorial positions (conscious or not) they're because of territorial effects. These reactions are reflecting a new interest to the territory, a new links to the local communities, necessary to conduce territorial sustainable development projects.

The interest and demand of sustainable actions have alongside with societal development increased over time. It has become crucial for companies in today’s society to show responsibility for the footprints they leave behind as a consequence of operating. A possible course of action could be the implementation of Creating Shared Value – CSV, which encompasses undertakings that result in value creation for both the company itself, and the local environment in which the company operates. Even though companies are expected to contribute to societal issues, there are still no blueprints declaring how to satisfy societal needs, and the challenges accompanied with it. CSV aims to tackle the distances between societal and business goals, however, despite CSV’s acknowledgement in academia, the concept is often criticized for being insufficient in practice. This has led to businesses trying to apply a CSV approach while still undertaking Corporate Social Responsibility – CSR related activities. The mixture of these concepts has made it difficult to explore what factors that affect the process of capturing Shared Value opportunities. This research investigates what factors that influence the process of capturing Shared Value in the Swedish insurance industry. The findings derived from this single company case study suggests that depending on what managerial decision-making approach used in a company affects the rate of success in terms of Creating Shared Value. An unclear communication plan, combined with the continuous confusion between the concepts, seems to increase the uncertainness of why and how different decisions are taken, hindering the process of CSV as well as the understanding of how Shared Value is created. A variety of factors were identified, where three main factors were considered to play a key role in, not only the capturing of Shared Value opportunities but the entire implementation process of the concept. Based on these factors, a model was established, showing how these main factors obstructs the realization of Shared Value opportunities.

Intervention in Libya is an anomaly in President Barack Obama's foreign policy during his eight years in the office. This thesis aims to analyze the decision-making process leading to this unprecedented step. Using Graham Allison's Bureaucratic Politics Model, the purpose of this analysis is to investigate the influence of some presidential advisors and allies on his final decision. Data for this study were collected using President Obama's public statements, biographies of several members of the administration, and secondary academic sources. After some general context, the thesis closely examines the selected period from the first protests in Libya on February 15 to the beginning of the Operation United Protector on March 31. This timeframe of forty-five days is further divided into the week-by-week process tracing analyses. The development on the ground in Libya is merged with changes of attitude in the American administration and changing alliances among the members of the advisory team of the President. The Bureaucratic Politics Model is used to analyze specific tactics used by American officials to impose their preferred scenario. The study also tests the applicability of several new methodological approaches within the Bureaucratic Politics Model like the palace politics perspective,...

Molntjänster har funnits sedan en lång tid tillbaka. Med åren har allt fler börjat använda dessa tjänster, vilket har gjort att det är ett högaktuellt ämne. Cirka 75 procent av företag använder sig av molntjänster och det ses som nödvändigt för digitaliseringen i svensk offentlig sektor. Trots det råder en debatt om komplexiteten vid användandet av molntjänster för myndigheter. Denna forskningsstudie kommer studera organisationers tankar kring molntjänster och dess prioritering för molntjänsternas olika risker, för att kunna skapa en förståelse kring varför organisationer tar de beslut de tar. Hur kan det komma sig att företag och myndigheter ser olika på användningen av molntjänster? För att ta reda på detta har en litteraturstudie genomförts för att inhämta tidigare forskning kring området, samt semistrukturerade intervjuer med företag och myndigheter för att få en fördjupad förståelse kring dess användning av molntjänster. Undersökningen visar på att det skiljer sig mellan företag och myndigheter när det kommer till anskaffningen av molntjänster. För myndigheter finns det regler och riktlinjer för hur de ska gå till väga. För företag saknas det riktlinjer, de har dock egna individuella beslutsprocesser. Företagen har enbart dataskyddsförordningen att ta hänsyn till samtidigt som myndigheter även har flertalet andra lagstiftningar att följa. Det skilde sig även åt mellan företag och myndigheter gällande de problem och hot som de ser, samtliga myndigheter ser fler hot än vad företagen gör. En likhetsom resultatet visar är att organisationerna hade liknande policys, där man inte får använda otillåtna molntjänster. Myndigheter hade även åtgärder i avsikt att förhindra skugg-IT, detta genom att fånga upp de anställdas behov och på så sätt hindra dem från att nyttja otillåtna tjänster. / Cloud computing has been around for a long time. Over the years, more people have started using these services, which has made it highly topical. 75 percent of companies use cloud services and it is seen as necessary for digitalisation in the Swedish public sector. Nevertheless, there is a debate about the complexity of using cloud services for authorities. This scientific research report will analyze organizations thoughts on cloud computing and identify the different risks of cloud computing, in order to create an understanding of what organizations base their decisionson. How come that companies and authorities have different views on the use ofcloud computing? To find out this, a literature study has been conducted to gather previous research on the area, as well as semi-structured interviews with companies and authorities to gain an in-depth understanding of the organizations use of cloud computing. The results and the conclusions of this study show that there are differences between companies and authorities when it comes to the acquisition of cloud computing. For authorities, there are rules and guidelines for how to proceed. There is a lack of guidelines for companies, they have their own individual processes. Companies only have the GDPR to take into account, while authorities have the majority of other legislation to follow. There was a difference between companies and the authorities problems and threats that they see. All authorities see more threats than companies do. A similarity in the result is that organizations had similar policies, where they are not allowed to use unauthorized clouds. Authorities also had measures in place to counteract shadow IT, this by raising the needs of the employees and thus preventing them from using unauthorized clouds.

In recent years, the development considerations within transport planning have started to examine needs from a more comprehensive perspective in order to shift the focus of planning away from favoring automobile travel. New approaches are emerging around the world to face the challenges we are confronted with, such as urbanization, dispersion of community structures, change in population structure, aging, climate change, and tightening budgets. Therefore, this thesis is aiming to gain more insight on new approaches in transport planning by comparing emerging systems in Sweden and in Finland. The comparison is focused on the renewed procedures at the early stages of transport planning; the methods to conduct multi-modal studies through collaborative decision-making processes in both countries. Thus, in this thesis the renewed preliminary transport planning in Finland and the Swedish method of Strategic Choice of Measures are compared based on implications from practice. The main purpose is to learn from practice and therefore, the data for comparison is based on conducted test cases that aim to develop the emerging planning processes in both countries. In Sweden, the preliminary version of the new planning method, developed by the Swedish Transport Administration, was tested with six cases during 2011. KTH was commissioned to conduct a study to examine the collaborative planning of involved actors in each of these cases, and the cases together. Thus, in the Swedish context, the data for comparison will be collected from the earlier study conducted by a KTH researcher John Odhage. In the Finnish context, a case study will be carried out for the data collection. The chosen case consists of a pilot study initiated in Finland in 2012 for the purpose of collecting ideas for the development of a renewed preliminary planning process. In general, both countries approaches aim at creating efficient procedures that would contribute to cost-efficiency and sustainable development as well as fulfilling other aims of the transport policy of each country.  The focus of the comparison is on the critical aspects of multi-modal studies and three features of a collaborative process; the choice of actors, the problem formulation, and the process management. The comparison is carried out based on theoretical implications and the experiences from practice are scrutinized against the ideal approach of each country. It has become apparent that three clearly distinctive differences between the approaches can be pointed out: the role of the transport administration, the creation of a steering committee, and creation of a concept for process guidance. In addition, the four-step principle is the multi-modal tool used in both countries approaches to generate alternative measures to transport related issues. The basic idea of the principle is in the first place to influence land use, transport demand, and choice of travel mode, and secondly to examine if the use of existing transport system can be optimized prior to construction. However, based on the experiences from practice, it seems that in both countries processes the focus of generating alternative measures is leaning more against minor or large new investments. Thus, the search for complementary measures to achieve considerable cost-savings and more importantly, sustainable development, is perceived challenging.