Creating and communicating the business value of design is a complex task. This case study set out to bridge the fields of business and design by investigating how design consultants can communicate the value of design to their clients. More specifically, the study investigates (1) how desirability can be linked to viability by using Strategy Maps and Conditional Statements, (2) how to quantify design output by calculating Return on Investment of Retention and (3) how to verbally and visually communicate design through relevant terminology and communication techniques. To do this, a Business Thinking approach was applied. A first research phase consisting of 12 interviews were conducted, focusing on understanding the work environment of design consultants at the digital consultancy firm Futurice and how they collaborate with their current project clients. The results were used as a blueprint for the second research phase, consisting of one-on-one co-creation workshop sessions between design consultants and their current clients. The sessions were evaluated in Business Thinking experiments and interviews. Physical co-creation canvases were implemented and used in the workshops. The experiments demonstrate that tools and methods inherited from Business Design and Business Thinking can be integrated without disrupting the existing DesignOps at Futurice. Further, the results indicate that the Business Thinking approach can be applied both to the design process of individual design consultants and into DesignOps management, which encourages application beyond the case of Futurice. To what extent is profoundly dependent on the design maturity of the individual designer and the organization. This is assessed and discussed based on the Design Ladder. / Att skapa och kommunicera affärsvärdet av design är en komplex uppgift. Denna fallstudie syftar till att sammanlänka områdena affärsutveckling och design genom att undersöka hur designkonsulter kan kommunicera affärsvärdet av design till sina kunder. Mer specifikt undersöker studien (1) hur önskvärdhet kan kopplas till genomförbarhet genom att använda Strategy Maps och Conditional Statements, (2) hur man kan kvantifiera design-output genom att beräkna Return on Investment of Retention och (3) hur man verbalt och visuellt kan kommunicera design genom relevant terminologi och kommunikationstekniker. För att genomföra detta tillämpades ett tillvägagångssätt baserat på Business Thinking. En första forskningsfas bestående av 12 intervjuer genomfördes med fokus på att förstå arbetsmiljön för designkonsulter på det digitala konsultföretaget Futurice och hur de samarbetar med sina nuvarande kunder. Resultaten användes som ett underlag för den andra forskningsfasen, bestående av one-on-one workshop-sessioner mellan designkonsulter och deras nuvarande kunder. Sessionerna utvärderades i experiment och intervjuer baserade på metodik från Business Thinking. Fysiska a co-creation kanvaser implementerades och användes i samtliga workshops. De utförda experimenten visar att verktyg och metoder baserade på Business Design och Business Thinking kan integreras utan att störa befintliga design operationer (DesignOps) på Futurice. Resultaten indikerar även att Business Thinking-strategier kan tillämpas både vid designprocessen för individuella designkonsulter och vid DesignOps inom en organisation, vilket även uppmuntrar till tillämpning utanför Futurice. I vilken utsträckning detta kan göras beror på mognadsgraden för design, både för individuella designers och för organisationer. Detta bedöms och diskuteras baserat på metoden Design Ladder.

Background: Since the 1960s, the notion of sustainability has gained worldwide significance, including environmental issues, and advocating for sustainable economic development. Businesses have a crucial role in reducing environmental effects, motivated by pressure from stakeholders such as governments and shareholders. While environmental and economic sustainability receive significant attention, the social aspect often receives less attention. Social sustainability involves creating equitable social systems and ensuring ethical practices, employee well-being, and diversity. Sustainability Consultancy Companies (SCCs) assist firms in integrating sustainability into their daily operations. Nevertheless, SCCs must comply with social sustainability principles, ensuring that they implement the same values they advocate for to maintain their reputation and establish industry benchmarks.   Purpose: The purpose of this research is to determine the extent to which Sustainability Consulting Companies (SCCs) are implementing sustainable practices within their daily operations.  We are investigating whether SCCs possess the necessary knowledge, expertise, and in-depth understanding of issues related to social sustainability practices. Our research aims to provide practitioners with knowledge and awareness of how SCCs perceive social sustainability and to what extent they implement social sustainability practices.    Method: This thesis employed a qualitative research approach, incorporating relevant literature, peer-reviewed articles, and semi-structured interviews. Through the semi-structured interviews conducted with various Sustainability Consultancy Companies (SCCs), employees, and a CEO, we were able to gather varying perspectives and professional insights on social sustainability issues.   Conclusion: The findings of this research indicate that although most SCCs had knowledge on social sustainability issues and practices, only a limited number of levels in Carroll’s CSR Pyramid were fulfilled. Furthermore, while the SCCs consider social sustainability as the missing pillar, there is a limited focus on implementing social sustainability in comparison to the other pillars of sustainability.

The detailed design phase of construction projects marks a critical moment when conceptual ideas andmethods are developed into precise technical specifications, crucial for project execution. Existingresearch shows that insufficient and incomplete construction documents lead to poor integrationbetween design and production, resulting in conflicts and communication barriers. These shortcomingscompromise the integrity of the project and lead to rising costs for clients. Thus, there is a need forincreased commitment from both the client and the design consultant to ensure the quality of theconstruction documents provided to the contractor. This study identified the factors affecting the quality of construction documents in the context ofdesign-bid-build contracts, focusing specifically on the perceptions of clients and consultants in theSwedish infrastructure sector. Furthermore, the study evaluated the responsibilities of clients andconsultants, assessed compliance with governing guidelines and requirements, and suggestedopportunities for their development. Garvin’s eight dimensions of quality, ISO 9001:2015 andorganisational culture were applied as theoretical frameworks. The study employed both qualitativeand quantitative approaches, conducted through questionnaires, document analysis, and semistructured interviews. The results revealed several interrelated factors that influence the quality of construction documents,including competence and experience; quality processes and quality assurance; communication,coordination, and collaboration; budget and form of remuneration; clear documents from the client;and time schedules. Furthermore, the study showed a shared responsibility between clients andconsultants in ensuring the quality of construction documents. Inconsistent compliance with governingguidelines and requirements has been demonstrated. Factors challenging adherence to the guidelinesand requirements include time constraints, high workload, unclear instructions, communication gaps,and reliance on verbal agreements. Regarding the development of guidelines and requirements forpractical and realistic implementation, the study showed that guidelines should outline solutions andsteps for meeting the requirements, but also that the processes must be adapted to specific projects.Based on the conclusions, it is established that the factors influencing quality should be consideredfrom the beginning of the detailed design phase. Clients and consultants should be aware of theirresponsibilities. The focus should be on clear communication and documentation, realistic timeschedules, and adaptable processes to improve compliance with guidelines and the overall quality ofconstruction documents. / Detaljprojekteringsfasen i byggprojekt är en kritisk tidpunkt där konceptuella idéer och metoderutvecklas till tekniska specifikationer och är avgörande för projektutförandet. Befintlig forskning visaratt otillräckliga och bristfälliga bygghandlingar leder till dålig integration mellan design ochproduktion. Detta kan leda till konflikter och hindra kommunikation, vilket äventyrar projektetsintegritet och bidrar till tidsförseningar och stigande kostnader för beställaren. Således finns det ettbehov av ökat engagemang från både beställare och projekterande konsulter för att säkerställakvaliteten på bygghandlingarna som tillhandahålls entreprenören. Denna studie fördjupade sig i faktorer som påverkar kvaliteten på bygghandlingar inom ramen förutförandeentreprenader, med ett specifikt fokus på upplevelsen hos beställare och konsulter i densvenska infrastruktursektorn. Studien identifierade nyckelfaktorer som påverkar kvaliteten påbygghandlingar, utvärderade beställarens och konsulternas ansvar för kvalitet, bedömde efterlevnadenav styrande riktlinjer och krav samt utforskade möjligheter till utveckling av dessa. Garvins åttakvalitetsdimensioner, ISO 9001:2015 och organisationskultur användes som teoretiska ramverk.Studien utfördes genom kvalitativ och kvantitativ metodik via enkäter, semistrukturerade intervjueroch dokumentanalys. Resultatet visade flera sammankopplade faktorer som påverkar kvaliteten på bygghandlingar, blandannat kompetens och erfarenhet, kvalitetsprocess och kvalitetssäkring, kommunikation och samarbete,budget och ersättningsform, tydliga dokument från beställaren och tidplaner. Vidare visade studien attdet är ett delat ansvar mellan beställare och konsulter att säkerställa kvaliteten på bygghandlingar. Eninkonsekvent efterlevnad av styrande riktlinjer och krav har påvisats. Faktorer som utmanarefterlevnaden av riktlinjer och krav är tidsbegränsningar, hög arbetsbelastning, otydliga instruktioner,kommunikationsbrist och att förlita sig på muntliga överenskommelser. Gällande utveckling avriktlinjer och krav för praktisk och realistisk implementering, visade studien bland annat att riktlinjerbör beskriva lösningar och steg för hur kraven kan uppnås, men även att processerna ska varaanpassade till det specifika projektet. Utifrån slutsatserna konstaterades att hänsyn bör tas till depåverkande faktorerna redan i början av projekteringsfasen. Beställare och konsulter ska varamedvetna om sitt ansvar. Fokus ska ligga på tydlig kommunikation och dokumentation, realistiskatidsramar samt anpassningsbara processer för att förbättra efterlevnaden av riktlinjer och denövergripande kvaliteten på bygghandlingar.

This thesis deals with the current issue of discrimination in the workplace, especially focuses on discrimination based on age and sex, sexual harassment and bullying in the workplace, legislation that regulates the area of discrimination in labor relations. The theoretical section includes explanations of terms and connections to a given focus and the practical part includes a probe into five large companies examining whether the effects mentioned in the theoretical part actually occur in practice, or how these problems are solved. This probe was in the form of semi-structured interview respondents in their workplaces. The results confirmed the claim that one of the most vulnerable group are women. Larger companies are trying to provide them a variety of advantages as for example flexible-time work, etc. Some companies have confirmed that there were some cases of bullying or sexual harassment in their firm, but these situations have not been solved other than by the dismissal of one of the participants. However, the occurrence of age discrimination was in the surveyed companies not confirmed - despite the theoretical claims and personal experience. It also showed that the respondents, HR professionals from large companies, have a poor conception of the possible solutions of those situations and...

This thesis I deal with the issue of specific learning disabilities among students at 1 primary school and mention possible solutions. Due to the research carried out by the probe in the practical part of the work focuses on the specific disorder, dysgraphia writing. The thesis contains not only theoretical knowledge that I had to study the issue but a practical part. The practical part of my research included a probe that focused on observations of two boys while working in educational and psychological counseling. The practical part, I would usefully complement the relevant case report.

This thesis deals with the most common HR service which is usually outsourced - recruitment agencies. The first, theoretical part is to introduce the agenda and it consists of several chapters: outsourcing in HR (what do companies outsource and why), and furthermore recruiting agencies (what kind of agencies can be found in the Czech republic, their legal background, what kind of services do they offer), how can these agencies help agencies and job applicants, their pros and cons. The second part, which is based on interviews with job applicants, describes how people perceive recruitment agencies - what do they expect, what are their experiences, whether they use the service that agencies offer, what are their opinion about recruitment consultants etc. The research concludes with several suggestions for job applicants and for recruitment consultants. KEYWORDS Recruitment and selection, recruitment agency, work agency, outsourcing, recruitment consultant, interview, counselling.

Small businesses are critical to economic development. Small businesses create job opportunities and training and innovative products and services, but they encounter significant challenges and many fail in the first 7 years due to lack of sustainable strategies. The purpose of this single case study was to explore strategies owners used to sustain small energy consulting businesses for longer than 7 years. The population in this study consisted of 5 senior executives of a small energy consulting firm in the Washington, DC, metropolitan area. The conceptual framework for the study was the transformational leadership theory that deals with vision and empowerment aimed at increasing both employee effectiveness and well-€being to positively aid employee outcomes, commitment, role clarity, and prosperity. Data were collected through face-to-face semistructured interviews and a review of company documents. After data analysis using thematic analysis and methodological triangulation, 7 themes emerged: functional vision, planning, skilled human resources, match approach to strategy, create market share, good leadership, and staying in tune with innovation. Implications of this study for social change include the potential for small energy consulting businesses to improve in the quality of life in the local environment by playing a vital role in the culture and economy of the community. Implementing the strategies may result in improving a firm's profitability and sustainability and contributing to social change for the local communities by reducing unemployment, offering competitive compensation, providing improved working conditions, and improving work-€life practices.

Syfte – Examensarbetets syfte  är att beskriva utvecklingsprocessen för utbildningar inom en konsultverksamhet utifrån kundorderpunktsmodeller som används inom tillverkande verksamheter. Syftet har brutits ned i två delmål: Delmål: Att beskriva utvecklingsprocessen för utbildningar inom en konsultverksamhet. Delmål: Att placera in utvecklingsprocessen för utbildningar i kundorder­punkts­modellerna. Metod – För att uppfylla examensarbetets syfte genomfördes en fallstudie på teknikkonsultföretaget Combitech AB i Jönköping. För att ge en grund till det teoretiska ramverket gjordes en litteraturstudie. Empiri samlades in genom en fallstudie, innehållande intervjuer och dokumentstudie. Empirin har sedan analyserats mot det teoretiska ramverket och genom mönsterjämförelse placerades kundorderpunkterna in i modellerna. Analysen har bidragit till att uppnå examensarbetets syfte. Resultat – De utvecklingsprocesser som identifierades för de tre utbildnings­kategorierna saknade ett standardiserat arbetssätt. I stället var utbildningarna ofta enskilt framtagna och hårt knutna till de enskilda konsulterna. Examensarbetet visar att de två kundorderpunktsmodellerna från tillverkande verksamhet fungerade olika bra för att visualisera graden av kundorderstyrning i utvecklingsprocessen för en konsultverksamhet. Som visualiseringsverktyg fungerade den tvådimensionella kundorderpunktsmodellen lite sämre då den inte visade så stor skillnad mellan de beskrivna processerna. Modellen för utvecklings- och designprocessen var mer nyanserad och fungerade bättre för att indikera vilken aktivitet i utvecklingsprocessen som var kundorderdriven. Implikationer – Kundorderpunktsmodellerna är skapade för en tillverkande verksamhet som producerar fysiska varor och genom att testa modellerna på en tjänsteverksamhet utmanas modellens ramverk och funktion. Detta examensarbete har bidragit till att täcka en del av det identifierade teoretiska gapet i användningen av kundorderpunktsmodeller mellan tillverkande verksamhet och tjänsteverksamhet. Vidare forskning – För att bidra till att täcka det teoretiska gapet kan förslagsvis den tvådimensionella kundorderpunktsmodellen vidareutvecklas och anpassas helt för tjänsteverksamhet. En person med akademisk kunskap om tjänsteverksamhet och kundorderpunktsteorier skulle kunna bidra med ny teori inom området. Det skulle också vara intressant att undersöka om det går att kombinera de två kundorderpunktsmodellerna som presenterats i detta examensarbete. / Purpose – The purpose of this thesis is to describe the development process for educations within consulting with customer order decoupling point models commonly used within manufacturing operations. The purpose has been broken down into two parts: Objective: To describe the development process for educations within a consultancy. Objective: To position the development process for educations based on the customer order decoupling point models. Method – In order to meet the thesis purpose, a case study was conducted on the engineering consultancy Combitech AB in Jönköping. To provide a basis for the theoretical framework a literature study was performed. To collect empirical data a case study including interviews and a document study was conducted. The empirical data were then analysed against the theoretical framework, and through pattern matching the customer order decoupling points were positioned into the models. The analysis has helped to achieve the thesis purpose. Findings – The engineering process that was identified for the three educational categories lacked a standardized approach. Instead, programs were often individually designed and tightly tied to the individual consultants. The thesis shows that the two customer order decoupling point models from manufacturing operations varied in usefulness to visualize the degree of customer order management in the engineering process of a consultancy business. As a visualization tool the two-dimensional customer order decoupling point model was of limited value because it didn’t show much difference between the processes described. The model for the engineering and design process was more nuanced and worked better to indicate which activities in the engineering process that were customer order driven. Implications – The customer order decoupling point models are created for manufacturing operations that produce physical goods and by testing these models on a service, the model framework and function is challenged. This thesis has helped to cover a part of the identified theoretical gap in the use of customer order decoupling point models between manufacturing operations and service operations. Limitations – To help cover the theoretical gap the two-dimensional customer order decoupling point model can tentatively be further developed and fully customized for service operations. A person with an academic knowledge of service and customer order decoupling point theories could help create new theory in the field. It would also be interesting to investigate whether it is possible to combine the two customer order decoupling point models presented in this thesis. / KOPtimera

在資訊時代引領的知識經濟中，知識密集型服務業已成為產業發展價值鏈中的重要一環，在創新中起著重要作用。 本研究主題在探討台灣的管理顧問服務公司要走向國際化應有的策略與重點執行方向。採取單一個案研究方法，以折衷理論和資源基礎理論為基礎的研究架構來檢視悦智全球顧問這個個案的狀況，並與顧問產業中國際化程度最深的標竿個案麥肯錫相比較，來進行台灣管理顧問公司走向國際化策略的探討。 研究結果發現，台灣管理顧問公司的國際化發展規劃，必須要先著重於：1) 人才資源管理 – 著重領導力，培養未來領袖 2)加速知識管理的能力建置 3)經驗值的累積與傳承制度 / Leading the knowledge economy in the information age, knowledge-intensive service industry has become an important part of the industry value chain, and plays an important role in innovation. This research topic is to explore the gaps and the implementation of a strategy and direction for Taiwan's management consultancy services company when it comes to be internationalizing of its operation. This thesis take single case research method, forming the research framework based on Eclectic Theory and Resource-Based View to examine the case of Atelligent Global Consulting, and comparing to the benchmark case McKinsey which has the deepest degree of internationalization in the consultancy industry, to discuss the internationalization strategy for Taiwanese management consultant firms. Findings, Taiwan management consultants international development plan must focus on: 1) human resource management – focuses on leadership, training future leaders 2) accelerate knowledge management capacity-building 3) experience accumulation and transmission system.

The work deals with the last things of the man from dying, through fear of death, burial and funeral rituals, to the demands that are placed on the funeral service. The work is not focused only on the actual experience of dying and his last period of life, but great attention is paid to survivors, particularly in the context of grieving, coping with loss and consultancy for survivors. In this thesis is provide space for all the various topics that are related to the last things of the man - funeral, cemeteries and funeral services that work closely with the survivors, who come to arrange a funeral. Summarizes the statutory regulations, codexes and regulations, which funeral services must at all times observe. It also mentions the role of undertaker and function of consultancy for survivors.