The main purpose of this master thesis is to investigate the information seeking of lay politicians, part-time politicians and professional politicians in connection with the possible upcoming fusion of the two administrative regions, Västra Götaland and Värmland. The focus of this study has been to study how politicians use and evaluate information and sources of information, and to investigate if there are any differences in how different categories of politicians seek information. Seven politicians were interviewed using semi-structured questions, and a phenomenographic approach was used to analyze the data. In Sweden there are few available studies of how politician seek information, but some international studies have focused on information needs, information sources, selection and evaluation of information. I have used previous research, and data from respondents to compile and analyze my results in three descriptive categories. The politicians viewed information seeking as:- Being well prepared with up-to-date information- Reaching a comprehensive view using different perspectives- Sorting and evaluating informationThe study identified both similarities and differences in how the regional politicians viewed information seeking as a phenomenon. All of them found it important to view information from different perspectives. The professional politicians have an advantage in access to information, especially if they belonged to the party holding the majority. Both part-time politicians and professional politicians received information through cognitive authorities. Their differences in views were more dependent on the context in which the politicians work, than on their being a lay, part-time or professional politician.

Bakgrund: Lättillgänglig och reliabel information blir betydande för effektivt beslutsfattande. Således identifieras förbättringen av beslutsfattande som den drivande orsaken till att företag införskaffar affärssystem som avser att skapa underlag, utföra analyser samt ta fram relevant data. Beslutsunderlaget som skapas ökar kvaliteten och understödjer beslutsfattandet. Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system, även känt som Affärssystem, är en standardiserad programvara som används för hela organisationer över flera funktioner med avseende till att effektivisera affärsområden som bokföring, inköp, tillverkning och försäljning. Numera finns det alternativ för mindre organisationer att införskaffa affärssystem, vilket resulterar i att fler SMF väljer att vända sig till mjukvaran. Affärssystemets syfte om att underlätta verksamhetens drift och förbättringar i arbetsflöden genom standardisering bidrar till att företagen blir mer resurseffektiva inom de respektive processerna. Syfte: Syftet med studien är att undersöka hur små-och medelstora företag använder sig av affärssystem och vilka konsekvenser det får för beslutsfattandet. Metod: Studien utgår ifrån en kvalitativ forskningsmetod. Empirin utgörs av tolv semistrukturerade intervjuer med tre små och medelstora företag. Respondenterna valdes ut genom ett målstyrt urval. För att besvara studiens problemformulering har det empiriska materialet analyserats med den teoretiska referensramen. Slutsats: Resultatet av studien visar att affärssystemet påverkar små- och medelstora företags beslutsfattning. Följande områden blir påverkade; relevans i beslut, förbättrat beslutsunderlag, delegering av beslut inom organisationen och förbättrad effektivitet vid beslut. / Background: Easily accessible and reliable information becomes essential for effective decision-making. Thus, the improvement of decision-making is identified as the driving reason why companies acquire business systems that intend to create data, perform analyzes and produce relevant data. The decision-making basis that is created increases the quality and supports decision-making. Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems, also known as Business Systems, are a standardized software, used for entire organizations across multiple functions to make business areas such as accounting, purchasing, manufacturing and sales more effective. Nowadays, there are options for smaller organizations to acquire business systems, which results in more SMEs choosing to turn to the software. The purpose of the ERP system to facilitate the operation of the business and improvements in work flows through standardization, contributes to the companies becoming more resource efficient within the respective processes. Purpose: The purpose of this study is to investigate how small and medium-sized companies use ERP systems and what consequences this has for decision-making. Methodology: The study is based on a qualitative research method. The empirics consists of twelve semi-structured interviews with three small and medium-sized enterprises. The respondents were selected through a purposive sampling. In order to answer the study's problem formulation, the empirical material has been analyzed with the theoretical frame of reference. Conclusion: The results of the study show that ERP systems affect the decision-making of small and medium-sized enterprises. The following areas are affected; relevance in decisions,5improved basis for decisions, delegation of decisions within the organization and improved efficiency in decisions.