Abstract Course: Bachelor Thesis in Business Administration Institution: Business School at Linneus University in Växjö Authors: André Weichert, Donika Ombashi and Ebba Olson Supervisor: Natalia Semenova Examiner: Elin Funck Title: Balanced Scorecard as fashion and diffusion – A study in Sweden's county councils with focus on healthcare Background: The Balanced Scorecard is a control instrument that mainly focuses on integrating the financial objectives with the non-financial objectives. The control instrument is used for for-profit organizations as well as for nonprofit organizations. Previous research on the Balanced Scorecard indicates that the control instrument has a tendency to a wave-like pattern, called fashion. To determine fashion there must be a diffusion. The term diffusion is further defined as a process where innovation is communicated among the members of a social system. In this paper, the members of the social system refers to Sweden's county councils. The Balanced Scorecard is considered as an innovative control instrument which is spread among different organizations in the social system. Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to identify the fashion and the diffusion of the Balanced Scorecard in Sweden's county councils. The paper also intends to explain the advantages and disadvantages of the Balanced Scorecard and what other control instruments are used in the county councils. Method: A quantitative research strategy is applied to this study. The selected approach for the collection of data, consists of a survey assigned to all the county councils in Sweden. Other data has been collected through Internet searching for articles, printed literature and websites. Conclusion: The results in the study indicate that the county councils have, through their survey responses, confirmed the advantages and disadvantages of theories about the Balanced Scorecard. Furthermore, the authors of the study have confirmed that there is a diffusion of the Balanced Scorecard in the Swedish county councils. However, the study has not been able to establish if a fashion exists. To determine whether a fashion exists, further studies are necessary. / Sammanfattning Kurs: Kandidatuppsats, Civilekonomprogrammet Lärosäte: Ekonomihögskolan vid Linnéuniversitetet i Växjö Författare: André Weichert, Donika Ombashi och Ebba Olson Handledare: Natalia Semenova Examinator: Elin Funck Titel: Balanserat styrkort som mode och spridning - En studie inom                             Sveriges landsting med inriktning på sjukvård Bakgrund: Det Balanserade styrkortet är ett styrinstrument som huvudsakligen fokuserar på att integrera de finansiella målen med de icke-finansiella målen. Styrinstrumentet används inom kommersiella- och icke-kommersiella verksamheter. Tidigare forskning kring det Balanserade styrkortet visar att styrinstrumentet har en tendens till ett vågliknande mönster med upp-och nedgångar, vilket benämns för mode. För att ett mode skall fastställas behöver en spridning ske. Termen spridning definieras vidare som en process där innovation kommuniceras mellan olika enheter i ett socialt system. I denna uppsats utgörs enheter av offentliga verksamheter, vilka avser Sveriges landsting. Det Balanserade styrkortet anses vara en innovativ modell som sprids mellan olika verksamheter i det sociala systemet. Syfte: Syftet med denna uppsats är att kartlägga modet och spridningen av det Balanserade styrkortet inom Sveriges landsting. Uppsatsen avser även redogöra för de för- respektive nackdelar det Balanserade styrinstrumentet medför samt vilka andra styrinstrument som används som substitut/komplement till BSc inom landstingen. Metod: Denna uppsats tillämpar en kvantitativ forskningsstrategi. Det valda tillvägagångssätt för insamlad data utgörs av en enkätundersökning som tilldelats samtliga landsting i Sverige. Annan data har samlats in genom internetsökningar för artiklar, tryckt litteratur samt trovärdiga hemsidor. Slutsats: Studien har resulterat i att landstingen, baserat på enkätundersökningen, har bekräftat de för- respektive nackdelar avseendet det Balanserade styrkortet som teorier har benämnt. Vidare har uppsatsens författare konstaterat att det finns en spridning av det Balanserade styrkortet inom de svenska landstingen, det har däremot inte kunnat fastställas att ett mode finns. Ytterligare forskning behöver genomföras för att detta skall kunna konstateras.

The purpose of this study was to understand in what ways the law of Lex Sarah contributes to quality within the Swedish social services. The legislation of Lex Sarah aims to ensure quality assurance of social services by eliminating misconduct. Operational developers are keyactors in the investigation process of Lex Sarah. Therefore a central question of this study was: In what ways does operational developers consider that Lex Sarah achieve its purpose? The method of analysis was a qualitative study. The basis of the theoretical framework of the study is social constructivism, in which institutional theory and thoughts describing how ideas are transferred and spread is a part of. The theoretical framework has been helpful to illustrate possible ways of how the idea of quality has been spread from industry to social services. The empirical material has been collected by qualitative semistructured interviews.   Central findings of the empirical material is that there was no coherent definition within the group of operational developers of the quality concept. Emphasis is mainly placed on the quality concept's commitment to legislation and user satisfaction. The term is explained in broad terms and no detailed description is given. Lex Sarah is described as an alarm system and the empirical material also shows oppon it’s controlling functions. Through the empirical material it is also shown that the measures proposed by the operational developers not necessarily lead to improvement or quality of the operations. One explenation highlighted is the gap between investigation and the enforcement. A central discovery is also based on the lack of user influence within the Lex Sarah-process.