Parents are often advised to increase the amount of time spent with their preschool-age children because of the beneficial outcomes associated with positive parent-child interactions, and numerous programs exist to encourage and support this type of parent involvement. However, there is a paucity of information about whether and how parents manage and organize their time in a manner that facilitates parents’ interactions with children. Increasing home-based parent involvement is a federal mandate and central tenet of the Head Start program for low-income parents. One of the ways in which a local Head Start program encourages parent involvement is to offer weekly educational activities to families designed to be completed at home by parents and their children. The purpose of this study was to examine how a group of Head Start managed and organized their time in a manner that facilitated completion of these activities and the way in which other aspects of the home environment affected these efforts. Parents in this study (N =22) were diverse in terms of ethnicity, parenting status (grandmothers, grandfathers, mothers, fathers), employment status, marital status, and education. The constant-comparison method was used to analyze comments obtained during focus groups. Parents primarily discussed time management and organization in two ways: techniques and tools that helped them manage and organize time and the obstacles they faced in doing so. Parents also discussed alteration of the physical environment conducive to completing the activity, the benefit of social support, and the ways in which they acquired and maintained their child’s engagement in the activity. Knowledge about such time management strategies may be utilized by programs hoping to increase home-based parental involvement. This study contributes to the current dearth of information that exists about low-income family time management and organization.

Several Swedish studies have suggested that within the group of clients contacting social welfare offices for social assistance, approximately one third are having problems with heavy drinking. The overall aim of the dissertation was to study how social workers approach these problems in single, male clients. That is; are the drinking problems of these clients approached and if they are, when and why does this happen? The subject has been investigated in four studies. In study I (n=66) and II (n=103) social workers were to respond, in a written questionnaire, on how they would act on a hypothetical client described in vignettes. The results from these studies suggest that there is no consensus among social workers of how to act towards the clients drinking problem and that social workers personal values seem to influence their choice of action taken. In study III, data was collected from case files on male single clients in nine municipalities. Case files in which alcohol related notes were present (n=297) were investigated. The results indicate that social workers are more active as regards demands on clients to moderate or stop their alcohol consumption if the clients are able to work, than if they are not. Study IV was based on focus-group interviews in eight municipalities. In each municipality, a work group of social workers dealing with social assistance were interviewed on one occasion. The social workers approach to the client’s problems was described as a mobile point within a two-dimensional system. The legislative dimension concerned the clients’ right to be equally treated versus the right to have their application judged individually with every circumstance considered. The other dimension was related to traditional social work with the client’s integrity versus the need for support and control. The results were contextualised mainly from three aspects, the influence from raised demands on a “knowledge-based” practice, the prerequisites consistent of the specific frames for social work and changes in the public discourse constituting the frame of socially acceptable drinking habits.

Purpose/Aim: In the information and communication technology society (ICT) we live in today it is easy to feel that we are constantly expected to be available. The daily contact with the Internet and the use of cell phones has changed our way to communicate. With this in mind in combination with the increased stress among young adults my aim is to investigate how young adults, aged 23-26 years, experience to be constantly connected and available through the Internet and the cell phone. What are their opinions, attitudes and feelings about what this entails in their lives? Material/Method: The essay is based on four focus group interviews with sixteen students from Uppsala University aged 23-26, two groups consisting of women and two groups consisting of men. The ICT & Internet research is developing rapidly which led me to do an exploratory study that is hypothesis-generating and which I hope can be used for forthcoming research of the consequences of the ICT society. The empiric result has been analyzed from a behavioural science perspective. Main results: The results have been interesting from several perspectives. The focus groups seem to think that the Internet and cell phone use is the best thing that has happened. They are so-called "Multitaskers" and have no problems to do several things simultaneously. The relationship between ICT and stress becomes slightly more noticeable among the girls. I dare to say that the constant availability do result in a certain stress, which I based on the clear statements about stress that came up between the lines. The focus groups are highly dependent on both their cell phone and access to Internet. They have also developed new cell phone behaviours that are customized to different situations and people.

Purpose/Aim: To investigate why people in the age group of 30-40 subscribe to the traditional morning newspaper even though they can get the same information at a much lower cost from for example TV, the internet or the free daily papers. The aim is to also look at possible future alternatives to the traditional morning newspaper. Material/Method: Focus group interviews were used to gather the empirical material. These consisted of a total number of twelve people, divided into three groups. The results from the focus group interviews were analysed with help from established uses & gratifications theories and two diffusion theories. Main results: This study shows that people read the traditional morning newspaper to get a good mixture of entertainment and local, national and global news. It is relaxing to read the newpaper on paper compared to reading it on the internet, mainly because you get a good overview which makes it a lot easier to find exactly want you want to read. The content of the newspaper is often discussed with family, friends and colleagues and can therefore be said to fill an important social function. Reading the newspaper is thought of to be intellectual and can help people form their identities. All respondents in this study grew up in homes which subscribed to a morning newspaper and thought this fact was a big reason for them finding it so important to have a subscription themselves. Even so, most of them were positively in favour of the so called e-paper, as a future alternative to the traditional newspaper, when discussed in the groups, mainly because of it being a more environmently friendly option, but also because of the ability to pick and choose your personal newspaper content and only pay for what you want to read.

Purpose: The purpose of this thesis is to increase the understanding of the link between internal marketing and customer relationship management by conducting a case study of one Nordea call center. Background: Keeping existing customers is less expensive than acquiring new ones. Nowadays, up to sixty percent of marketing budgets are being dedicated towards retaining customers. So forth customer relationship manage-ment is slowly beginning to penetrate the banking industry as sustaina-ble relationships between organizations and their customers are becom-ing more evident. Theory: The case study is based on an internal marketing model by Bansal et al. (2001) which shows how managers can influence the job satisfaction of their employees through six dimensions. Based on the previously men-tioned model, customer relationship management theory and the service marketing triangle by Kotler et al. (2002), the researchers present their our own model, at the end of the theoretical section, which seeks to en-hance the understanding of the link between internal marketing and cus-tomer relationship management. Method: Since there was lacking theoretical evidence in how to link internal marketing to customer relationship management, the study was of exploratory nature. Qualitative data was collected by conducting two fo-cus groups (independently of each other) at one Nordea call center. The first focus group was composed of five managers and the second focus group of three frontline employees. Conclusion: Nordea has been used as an example to illustrate that customer relation-ship management, such as using sales opportunities to strengthen rela-tionships with customers, is dependent on managers‟ ability to “sell” the organization‟s customer relationship management ideas to its front-line employees. Moreover managers have the ability through the six dimensions of internal marketing to affect job satisfaction which in turn will determine how frontline employees make use of the sales opportu-nities provided by Nordea‟s content management system (CMS).

This thesis investigates how consumers perceive ecologically and locally produced milk. Theories on consumer perception are used together with definitions of ecologically and locally produced food. The empirical findings are based on four focus groups discussing their perception towards six milk brands in Uppland as well as the concepts of ecologically and locally produced goods. We see a positive perception of brands with higher responsibility standards and brands wearing external labels guaranteeing the standards of the product. We have come to the conclusion that the participants in this study have an interest in ecologic and local production, something that we presumed because of the trends we have seen. We do however also conclude that the knowledge of these concepts is low due to vague information from the producers in combination with consumer inertia.

Abstract Purpose/Aim: To describe in-classroom use of mobile phones amongst teenagers. Material/Method: The data was collected through as use of focus groups and field studies. Main results: The main findings confirm the findings of other studies on teens and mobile phones. Teens use their mobile phones for much more than just sending text messages and making calls, there are many different types of localized usages. There is also a strong emotional connection between the device, its content and the user. Keywords: mobile phone, teens, classroom, focus groups, observation, field studies, mobility.

The basic intention of this study is founded on an ambition to make change within the competing activity at “Svenska Brukshundklubbens Halmstadavdelning” (SBK Halmstad). This is a local association for owners of working dogs, where I am one of the members. A problem in engage a larger number of voluntarily working members in the association has been established and discussed over several years. My premier aim was to make the members award of different perspectives of the problem. This was made by a presentation of made up assertions in focus groups. The interpretations that have been made from the result of the study are influenced from my former experiences from my membership of the association. From these interpretations I have made an analysis which mainly illustrates a need of reorganizing in tasks and improved communication among groups of the members. Eventually I have framed a plan of actions, which expresses my understanding of how the problem can be solved by an increased use of competence. Since I have learned a lot from my friends in SBK Halmstad, I hope this study will be significant in the future development of this association and others.

SammanfattningArbetsterapeuten arbetar holistiskt med individen i centrum, utifrån individens egna förmågor i relation till aktivitet. Arbetsterapi som profession står med sin breda kompetens och breda förståelseperspektiv inför nya utmaningar. Syftet med studien var att beskriva arbetsterapeu-ters uppfattningar om att arbeta som coach respektive behandlare. Kvalitativ metod med ett målinriktat urval kombinerat med nätverksurval användes. Två fokusgruppsdiskussioner genomfördes. Deltagarantalet var nio kvinnliga yrkesverksamma arbetsterapeuter från varie-rande verksamhetsområden. Dataanalysen genomfördes genom att olika kategorier definiera-des utifrån syftet. Arbetsterapeuterna anser sig kombinera rollerna som behandlare respektive coach i sitt arbete med olika individer. Vilka uppdragsgivare arbetsterapeuten har och vilken verksamhet han/hon arbetar i är avgörande för tillvägagångssätt. Ekonomi, politiska faktorer och fokus för verksamheten styr. Beroende på verksamhet och fokus har individen varierande ansvar för sin behandling/rehabilitering. Arbetsterapeututbildningen genererar en gemensam terminologi och ett aktivitetsperspektiv som skapar en gemensam grund. Den traditionella yrkesrollen har blivit omarbetad, frågan blir om coach är ett modeord och behandlare mer traditionellt? Det är av vikt att yrket har en klar profilering och idag söker arbetsterapeuter samma tjänster som andra yrkesprofessioner. Slutsatsen blir att arbetsterapeutyrket är mång-facetterat med en gemensam grund. Verksamhet och den enskilde individen styr arbetstera-peutens tillvägagångssätt och angreppssätt i rehabiliteringen/behandlingen / SummaryTitle: Occupational therapists as a coach or paramedicOccupational therapists have a holistic view and works with each individual in focus, based on individuals abilities in relation to activity. The occupational therapy profession with its broad expertise and broad perspective of understanding is facing new challenges. The purpose of this study was to describe occupational therapists perception of working as a coach or as a paramedic. A qualitative method with a purposive sampling combined with a net-work sam-pling were used. Two focus group discussions were conducted. The number of participants were nine female working occupational therapists from a various scope of practice. The data-analysis was conducted through individual and group analysis and different categories were defined in accordance with the purpose. The occupational therapists combine the two roles as coach and paramedic in their work with different individuals. What employer and work area the occupational therapists work in, is essential for what approach they have. Economics, po-litical factors and the focus of the work influences. Depending on work area and focus, the individual has varying responsibility in their rehabilitation/treatment. The occupational thera-py education generates a joint terminology and an activity perspective that forms a common basis. The traditional professional roles has been revised, the question is whether coach is a buzz-word and paramedic more traditional? It’s essential that the profession has a clear profile and today occupational therapists apply for the same posts as other professions. In conclusion the occupational therapy profession is multifaceted with a common ground. Work area and the individual are essential for the occupational therapists approach in the rehabilita-tion/treatment.

The aim of this study is to re-contextualize prior negotiation theory emanating from the field of communications in a unique contemporary setting. The research focuses on the Canadian residential telecommunications sector, where the dominant business model involves the use of a rather peculiar variable pricing strategy, which has compelled a proportion of consumers to adopt competitive negotiation strategies. Through a series of three focus groups, the project gleans insight into the participants’ experiences and perceptions of the telecommunications procurement process. Based on prior theoretical assumptions and on this original research, the study tests the appropriateness of descriptive phase models of negotiation in the Canadian telecommunications industry, providing a new dimension to the nascent body of academic research in this area.