Bakgrund: Ambulanssjukvården har utvecklats mycket under det senaste århundradet från att vara en transportorganisation till att faktiskt kunna utföra högspecialiserad vård på väg till sjukhus. Detta innebär även att kraven ökat på de yrkesverksamma inom ambulansen. Som nyexaminerad sjuksköterska kan upplevelsen av att gå från teori till praktik vara utmanande, inte minst inom ambulanssjukvården. Syfte: Att beskriva nyexaminerade sjuksköterskors upplevelser av att arbeta på ambulansen som första anställning. Metod: En kvalitativ studiedesign användes. Data samlades in genom semistrukturerade intervjuer. Analysen genomfördes som en kvalitativ innehållsanalys med induktiv ansats, och i resultatet presenterades det manifesta innehållet. Resultat: Presenteras i tre huvudkategorier: Ett nytt sammanhang; att gå från teori till praktik, Vikten av kunskap och erfarenhet, Vikten av stöd från kollegor och verksamheten. Nyexaminerade sjuksköterskor upplevde rädsla men även en personlig utveckling av att börja jobba inom ambulanssjukvården direkt efter examen. Det var flera faktorer som spelade in på deras upplevelser av arbetet. Det upplevde helhetsbedömningar av patienter som en utmaning medan stöd från mer erfarna kollegor och utbildning från verksamheten upplevdes som värdefullt. Slutsats: Sjuksköterskor tog upp positiva och negativa aspekter av att vara nyexaminerad sjuksköterska och även vilka aspekter som främjade deras utveckling inom verksamheten. Detta kan vara viktigt att ta till beaktning för att upprätta ett bra inskolningsprogram för nyanställda.

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Title: Comparison of the ice hockey players working relationship in Czech Republic and abroad Goals: Comparison of duties and rights of individual work-legal relations for ice hockey players in the first two best national competitions in different European countries. Method: For the treatment of this topic has been used secondary data analysis and desk research in economics, management, and professional sports. For qualitative research sample of hockey players and managers interview method was used. Results: They simulate application of individual abroad work-legal relations into the Czech conditions, even commentaries and comparison to nowadays conditions. They suggest more favorable conditions for the national competition. Key words: professional sport, ice - hockey, professional ice - hockey player, non- amateur ice - hockey player, self - employed - definition, right and duties, players contract, dependent activity - rights and duties, work contract, ice - hockey league.

This dissertation examines collaborations between the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC) and non-union elements of global civil society (GCS). GCS is presented as a crucial emergent site of transnational class formation, and ITUC collaborations within this field are treated as potentially important moments in transnational class formation. The goal of the dissertation is threefold. It seeks to 1) address the lacuna in GCS studies around the involvement of organized labour; 2) provide an analysis of what ITUC GCS collaborations mean for the remit and repertoire of action of the ITUC; and 3) provide an analysis of the impact of ITUC collaborations on transnational class formation. What the findings show is that the ITUC is heavily engaged in GCS through numerous collaborations with non-union organizations concerned with environmental degradation, human rights, global economic inequality, and women workers. Most significantly, collaboration within GCS has provided the ITUC an avenue to incorporate the needs of marginalized women workers whose work does not “fit” into the traditional model of trade union organizing. These findings lead to the conclusion that these collaborations have allowed the ITUC to expand the remit of its activities beyond “bread-and-butter” unionism, and expand its repertoire of action beyond interstate diplomacy. However, the findings do not support the idea that the ITUC has adopted a social movement framework, although it is clear that the ethos of social movement unionism has had an impact on the organization. Nonetheless, the dissertation concludes that the incorporation of marginalized women workers, and the active engagement of the ITUC in global environmental policy debates, signifies a new moment in transnational class formation. / Graduate / 0629 / 0703 / davidbhuxtable@gmail.com

Emerging markets such as India have witnessed waves of domestic and cross-border mergers and acquisitions. This historical analysis, which consists of two parts, tests central tenets of resource dependence theory. The first part entails an analysis of the transition in public policy governing corporations between 1991 and 2005. The second part tests hypotheses derived from resource dependence theory relating to a firm’s decision to acquire. The analysis explores the factors that explain why firms engage in mergers and acquisitions by examining three specific policy periods (i.e., 1991-1996, 1997-2001 and 2002-2005). The findings from the historical analysis suggest that firms did not merely react to the conditions (i.e., constraints on capital) in their environment by undertaking merger and acquisition activity, but attempted to alter them as resource dependence theory suggests. Findings from the event history logit model also support resource dependence theory. Overall, the study shows that merger and acquisition activity increased during a period of intense deregulation (i.e., 1991-2005) brought about by the adoption of neo-liberal reforms, change to the multilayer subsidiary form, deregulation of the banking and financial sectors’ and reforms in foreign direct investment and equity markets. During this period of uncertainty, firms controlling more resources in terms of earnings, efficiency and number of subsidiaries were more likely to undertake acquisition activity as they have leverage in organization-environment relationships. The effect of number of subsidiaries on acquisition activity was the most consistent across policy periods’. This dissertation is organized in the following manner: Following the introductory chapter, Chapter II is a historical examination of the three policy periods and includes an analysis of the effect of the political-legal environment on mergers and acquisitions between 1991 and 2005. Chapter III reviews the propositions of resource dependence theory that pertain to organizational change and presents research hypotheses related to mergers and acquisitions. Chapter IV describes the data, measurement and methodology employed in the quantitative analysis. Chapter V presents the findings from the quantitative analysis and discusses the results. The concluding chapter (Chapter VI) includes a presentation of the theoretical findings and discussion of the limitations and scope of the study.

The present study is an attempt to analyze the impact of changing policy regime during the liberalization era on the behaviour of 81 sample firms in Indian electronics industry in terms of factor productivities. We categorise a period of 12 years (1993-2004) as the two phases of liberalisation: - Period/ Phase 1: 1993-1998 and Period/ Phase 2: 1999-2004. The 81 sample firms are segregated into four primary sub-sectors of electronics industry based on their use pattern: communication equipments, computer hardware, consumer electronics and other electronics. The objective is to trace the growth of output in the four sub-sectors in Indian electronics industry over two phases of liberalisation and to determine the relative contributions of Input Growth (IG) and Total Factor Productivity Growth (TFPG) to Output Growth (OG). Further, the study focuses on determining the relative contributions of Technological Progress (TP) and Technical Efficiency Change (TEC) to TFPG and establishes the influence of firm specific managerial decision making and management efficiency variables on TEC and TP. The methodology follows a three-step approach in order to achieve the above objectives. The first step is to determine a potential stochastic production function using stochastic frontier production function model and measure firm-wise technical inefficiency levels. The second step is to measure the growth of TFP over two phases and to derive the components TEC and TP. The third step measures the influence of management decision variables on TEC and TP using a frontier approach model on a panel data. The contribution of labour to output was found to be higher than the contribution of capital in all four sub-sectors. However, capital contribution improved in phase 2 relative to phase 1 for computer hardware and other electronics sub-sectors. Computer hardware was the only sub-sector that experienced an improvement in returns to scale from constant returns to scale in phase 1 to increasing returns to scale in phase 2 of liberalisation. The Technological Progress (TP) and Technical Efficiency Change (TEC) that contributed to TFPG exhibited a contrasting relationship for all the four sub-sectors in the electronics industry: TEC declined when there was high TP while it improved when there was a decline in TP. This could be because Indian electronics firms generally focus on either technology imports/ develop indigenous technology to achieve TP or to assimilate the imported/ indigenous technology for better use. The lag in assimilation of imported/ developed technology could be a reason for the negative relation between TEC and TP. The communication equipment sub-sector had a balanced growth in terms of TEC and TP among the four sub-sectors. The computer hardware and the other electronics sub-sectors were worse performers in terms of TEC in period 2 relative to period 1 and so had been the electronics industry as a whole. The computer hardware sub-sector had the highest average OG in period 2 relative to period 1 among all the sub-sectors due to relatively high contribution of IG. Other electronics sub-sector had the highest average TP that compensated for the negative average TEC. On an average, percentage contribution of TP to TFPG was high for the electronics industry and its sub-sectors in period 2 relative to period 1. This is an indication that the sub-sectors of Indian electronics industry have strived and achieved steady technological progress in the period of economic liberalisation to cope with the intensifying competition internally as well as externally. The sample firms in the electronics industry were in favour of towards external acquisition of sophisticated technology, which explains the relatively high contribution of TP to the TFPG of the industry. However, this was not followed up with adequate in-house R&D in order to develop indigenous technology or to absorb imported technology as a result of which TEC for the sub-sectors and the whole industry suffered. Growth in Operating Margin (OMG) and Growth in Returns on Capital Employed (ROCEG) generate additional revenue that could be ploughed back into the firm for improvement of its existing indigenous technology or absorption of imported technology thereby leading to improvement in TE and TP. The positive influence of OMG as well as ROCEG on TEC and TP for all the sub-sectors is an indication of efficient management in these sub-sectors in utilizing assets and profits to generate earnings. However, the trend of operating margin and returns on capital employed had been declining for all the sub-sectors. Inventory management proved to be costly for TP as financial resources diverted to maintain inventory had an undesirable effect on their indigenious technology. Most of the sample firms in the electronics industry were found to have incurred R&D expenditure to derive tax incentives. As a result the resources got diverted away from other creative operational or skill improvement efforts to unproductive and wasteful R&D activities. Thus, R&D did not have the desirable influence on the components of TFPG. The present study showed that unplanned and ad hoc technology imports or even raw material imports was not conducive to the growth of both the components of TFPG. Older firms need to develop their technology or adequately import better and more sophisticated technology. This would enable older (more experienced) electronic firms to overcome the negative influence of age, reflected in our analysis. This is, however, applicable to only those segments of the electronics industry where firms preferred to serve lower end of the market as well as lower end of the technological spectrum (eg. Computer hardware and other electronics sub-sectors). Electronics industry like any other capital goods industry offers scope for vertical integration. Management of the firms in electronics industry should emphasize on vertical integration, expansion of scale of operations and should initiate R&D investments to build up R&D base, among others to improve TEC and TP. This would also help to check the decline in operating margin and returns from invested capital among the firms. Thus, improved managerial effectiveness and decision making do help in the form of generating thereby surpluses facilitating to achieve higher TP and even TEC. Regional and State governments should provide adequate policy support and appropriate industrial infrastructure to electronic firms which would in turn improve their managerial effectiveness and TFPG.

It is widely accepted that street trading is a survivalist activity that yields low profits. Few, if any, studies investigate how much profit is earned; intra-household allocation; and contribution of this income towards households needs. Therefore, a glaring omission in street trading literature is a critical evaluation of the contribution of street trading to household food and livelihood security. A major strength and original contribution of this study to the wider context is the analysis of street trading as a household food and livelihood security coping strategy. This study investigated whether street traders had sufficient food for household consumption; whether street trading reduced vulnerability to hunger; and determined how income from street trading was spent by households. Seven innovative participatory tools applied through a unique research design, were used to elicit business; household and demographic information. Five fruit and vegetable vendors; three clothing and cosmetics; two food; one telephone service; and one video vendor participated. Street traders were categorised into four food security groups according to increasing Coping Strategy Index scores. These were: two traders in a seemingly food secure group; five in the relatively food secure group; four in the relatively food insecure group; and one in the food insecure group. The use of innovative participatory research tools led to several findings. Types of goods sold did not determine profitability, but profitability determined household food security. As household income decreased, Coping Strategy Index scores increased. This finding implied sufficient access to food for household consumption was determined primarily by income levels ranging from R250 to R10 000 per month. Low income traders used severe coping strategies and were more food insecure than other traders. The middle income traders used intermediate coping strategies while the high income group used less severe strategies or did not apply food security coping strategies such as eating less preferred foods. This study found that child dependents and unemployed household members increased household food insecurity. Risk sharing networks among street traders played a key role in accessing cash for food and the sustainability of the micro-enterprises. Social grants reduced household food insecurity and provided a cash safety net for economic activity. Assets reduced hunger and provided crisis security. The study has shown that street trading supplemented low income levels for pensioners and low income earners. Street trading was a primary livelihood strategy for people who had no access to income from pensions or other/formal employment. The study concluded that income from street trading was vital to improve access to food for household consumption. Street traders who had established customers; and access to material and social assets consumed a greater variety of foods than street traders who were fairly new, lacked access to loans (through family and friends) and owned few or no material assets. All participating street traders began trading as a coping strategy to increase household cash. Their trading evolved into an adaptive or permanent livelihood strategy. Households used a mix of food related coping strategies and street trading was an adaptive strategy, rather than a coping strategy to access sufficient food for household consumption. Participating street traders were survivalists as street trading provided a daily net for subsistence. Although street trading income was barely sufficient to sustain households, it provided much needed income to pay school fees; rent; water and electricity. Street trading is therefore critical to household welfare for participating street traders; but infrastructure and resource constraints trapped street traders in survivalist enterprises and exacerbated their vulnerability to food and livelihood security. This study fills a gap in understanding of street trading behaviour in Raisethorpe. This is the first study to apply participatory research methods to comprehensively explore street trader coping strategies and the first study to attempt to link street trading, livelihood security and food security. It is recommended that municipalities adopt a developmental approach to street trading that includes trading sites with secure tenure and infrastructure such as shelter; tables; water and sanitation. Policy reform in terms of issuing trading permits and developing regulations for renting trading sites is imperative. Since this study found that profitability determined household food security, business advice and skills training should be provided for all street traders to promote business sustainability and profitability. A final recommendation is that street trading be recognised as a survivalist strategy that requires further investigation and policy measures to improve income and ensure food security for vulnerable groups. / Thesis (Ph.D.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2008.

This study explored processes, marketing and management styles employed by stall holders at the roadside markets of Umkhanyakude municipal area. The first aim of the study was to find types of traditional artifacts that are commonly sold at the roadside markets. The second aim was to find out if the members of roadside markets were aware of their target market. The third aim was to uncover the marketing strategies employed and the understanding of their principles by the respondents in relation to the success with their sales. Nine roadside markets were visited out of which only seven were willing to be investigated. From each roadside market 50% of the members present at the time of research formed the sample for this study. Focus group discussions were held with the management committees. These discussions were looking at the management and policy issues followed by roadside markets when employing the marketing principles in their daily operations. The research was conducted by using personal observations of the roadside markets by the researcher, focus group discussions which involved discussions between the researcher and the management structures of the various roadside markets, attending meetings to enable a critical understanding of the level at which the markets operate, and a questionnaire that was administered to the stallholders of the seven markets. The combination of qualitative and quantitative research provided a framework of how the roadside markets operate in promoting and selling their products to customers. A questionnaire translated into Isizulu was used and the results were analyzed using the SSPS model. Findings suggested that the roadside markets have their marketing strategies of which some are basically the marketing mix and some originate from their way of life. The members of the roadside markets have a lesser understanding of the marketing strategy in relation to product development and packaging, costing and pricing, promotion and target market awareness. The management teams of the markets with an understanding of business management knowledge were instrumental in contributing to better performance of the markets. Management committees that had been exposed to capacity building and training showed better skill levels compared to those that had not had the exposure. / Thesis (M.Sc.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2005.

L’objectif central de cette thèse est d’appréhender « le maillon faible » du système français de régulation et de contrôle des dépenses de santé, entendu comme un élément résiduel, « caché », qui empêche le système de parvenir aux objectifs ciblés. Nous mettons en œuvre les outils économiques et économétriques pour tester l’hypothèse selon laquelle les comportements dépensiers et inattendus des médecins sont liés aux politiques publiques. Pour appréhender le phénomène recherché nous menons quatre études micro–économétriques (qui sont économiques, quantitatives et sociologiques) de l’évolution du comportement du médecin omnipraticien libéral français. Nous nous sommes intéressés aux choix volontaires des praticiens portant sur les pratiques tarifaires et sur l’organisation du travail. Dans le cadre de l’approche économétrique, nous utilisons les données d’un panel non-cylindré de 8131 médecins libéraux différents observés durant la période 1979-2000 et représentatifs de la population concernée, ainsi que les méthodes économétriques appropriées à chaque cas étudié selon sa nature. Outre la validité de l’hypothèse, les résultats obtenus apportent des éléments de compréhension du type de rationalité du médecin, de ses motivations, des facteurs qui guident ses choix et des pistes d’explication de l’inefficacité des dispositifs politiques mis en œuvre. Ils fournissent également des réflexions sur les recommandations à faire en matière de mesures politiques et suggèrent de nouvelles pistes de recherche. / The main aim of that doctoral dissertation is to comprehend "the weak link" in the French system of regulation and control of health expenditure, understood us a residual, "hidden" element, which prevents the system from reaching the targets. We use the economic and econometric methods to prove the hypothesis that unexpected and wasteful medical behaviour can be caused by the public policy. There are four micro-econometric studies (which are economic, sociological and quantitative) of the French general self-employed practitioner’s behavioural evolution. We focus on the practitioner’s voluntary choices of the pricing practices and on the medical practice organisation. In the econometric studies, we use an unbalanced panel data comprising 8131 self-employed physicians who were observed over the 1979-2000 period and who are representative of the medical population, and different econometric methods depending on the analysis. Our results offer an empirical understanding of an unexpected medical behaviour phenomenon; they offer information about the practitioner’s rationality kind, the practitioner’s motivations, the factors exerting influence on their choices; and they offer clarification of the public policy’s inefficiency. Also, our results propose observations about a recommendation for policy measures and new approaches for the future research.

The aim of my diploma thesis is to analyze the principles of personal income taxation including social contributions and health insurance. Overall personal income tax is composed of five different partial tax bases. The first partial tax base consists of income from employment, the second one is self employed income, the third is income from rental property, the fourth is income from capital and the last is "other income". This thesis will deal with the first four partial tax bases. In the theoretical section I have described the most important concepts of personal income tax structure, social contribution and health insurance. The practical part is divided into four chapters according to partial tax base. I have chosen six different amounts from 100 000 CZK to 5 000 000 CZK which were used for tax calculation. The main goal is to compare partial tax bases of personal income tax in 2014.