Current research on knowledge integration offers valuable structural analyses of factors that influence knowledge integration, performance outcomes, and knowledge integration mechanisms. Less attention has been paid to how knowledge integration is carried out over time in cross-functional development projects. This thesis is based on a year-long field study of an Information Systems Development Project. The study shows how the knowledge integration process was repeatedly interrupted by different problems that could not be resolved by merely relying on integration mechanisms that were imposed by the top management. Instead, a bottom-up dynamic evolved where the project members and participating project managers managed to reestablish coordination and knowledge integration through the invention of different ‘collective heuristics’. A novel model of Dynamic Knowledge Integration is presented which claims that knowledge integration contains two interplaying processes; one consisting of different knowledge integration mechanisms and activities, and one consisting of the collective heuristics that were invented and employed when unexpected problems emerged. In general, this research argues that knowledge integration can be understood as a dynamic process, of which both knowledge integration mechanisms and collective heuristics constitute core elements. / Aktuell forskning inom området kunskapsintegration erbjuder värdefulla strukturella analyser av påverkansfaktorer, prestationsutfall och mekanismer för kunskapsintegration. Mindre uppmärksamhet har riktats mot att förstå hur kunskapsintegration åstadkoms över tid i tvärfunktionella utvecklingsprojekt. Avhandlingen bygger på en ett år lång fältstudie av ett informationssystemutvecklingsprojekt. Studien visade att kunskapsintegrationsprocessen ideligen avbröts av olika problem som inte kunde lösas med de integrationsmekanismer som den högsta ledningen infört. Istället utvecklades en ”underifrån-dynamik” där projektmedlemmarna och de deltagande projektledarna lyckades återställa koordinering och kunskapsintegration genom skapandet av olika ”kollektiva heuristiker”. En ny modell för Dynamisk Kunskapsintegration presenteras som visar att kunskapsintegration inrymmer två samverkande processer; en som består av olika mekanismer och aktiviteter för kunskapsintegration och en som består av de kollektiva heuristikerna som uppfanns och användes när oväntade problem uppstod. Mer generellt visar denna forskning hur kunskapsintegration kan förstås som en process i vilken mekanismer och heuristiker utgör centrala element som båda behövs för att förklara processens dynamiska karaktär.

Mythos can be regarded as an (absolutely) true story about the beginning of the world. Man with the mythical consciousness understands his spiritual transcendence and perceives time as eternity. The mythical consciousness was predominant in the society at first, but in the Antiquity started being replaced with the mental consciousness that puts science on a pedestal. However, the mythical consciousness is ingrained in man. National and transnational systems -- the Holy Roman Empire, the United States of America as well as the European Community -- were created with the consciousness of mythos. Man is able to transform the mythos, as a return to the (ideal) beginning, into political visions. New mythoi can be created by abusing the original ones -- see the Nazi mythos or the Communist mythos. However, such mythoi do not work in a long run and represent the negative externalities of the mythical consciousness. The true and original mythos must be one and universal since the beginning of the world (Earth, universe) is just one as well. The synthesis of the mythical consciousness and the mental consciousness (the synthesis of spirit and science) gives rise to the integral consciousness that sees matters in a complex manner ("he, who shall not understand everything, shall understand nothing") and interconnects feelings with reason. Political visions created based on the integral consciousness and implemented based on spontaneity and democratic consensus can move the society to a qualitatively higher level.

This thesis analyses economic and political situation of France and its position during the evolution of the European integration process. The first chapter focuses on the role of France in the European integration process from its beginnings to the present. The second chapter discusses the current position of France in the EU and its attitude to reforms which address the issue of the euro zone debt crisis. The third chapter concentrates on the macroeconomic analysis of France from the perspective of the most important macroeconomic indicators and it also compares France with other EU countries.

Sammanfattning Examensarbete Civilekonomprogrammet Titel: Integrationsprocessens utformning och genomförande vid företagsförvärv - En flerfallsstudie på svenska aktiebolag med uttalad förvärvsstrategi Inledning: Tidigare forskning kring förvärvs- och integrationsprocessen anses vara normativ utifrån ett finansiellt teoretisk perspektiv med fokus på hur en integrationsprocess bör utföras. Däremot har forskningen inte i samma utsträckning berört området om hur denna process faktiskt går till. Därav uppdagas en kunskapslucka i den tidigare forskningen avseende hur en integrationsprocess genomförs i praktiken. Avsikten är således att bidra med en empirisk analyserande och förklarande studie till den vetenskapliga diskussionen kring bolagsförvärv och då främst dess integrationsprocess. Syfte: Syftet med uppsatsen är att öka kunskapen om hur svenska aktiebolag med en uttalad förvärvsstrategi arbetar med integrationen av uppköpta företag. Vidare kommer de studerade bolagens integrationsprocess kartläggas för att identifiera och analysera vilka faktorer som är avgörande för integrationen och därmed leder till ett framgångsrikt förvärv.  Metod: Uppsatsen är en kvalitativ studie med en abduktiv ansats. En flerfallstudie tillämpas där det empiriska materialet inhämtas via semistrukturerade intervjuer från fem företag med uttalade förvärvsstrategier. Slutsats: Studiens resultat visar på att integrationen i fallföretagen är av mjukare karaktär och mer flytande i sin utformning. Avgörande för denna process är att fokus riktas mot värdeskapande aktiviteter och att integrationen situationsanpassas utefter varje förvärv. Detta i syfte att inte förbruka tid och resurser på åtgärder som genomförs efter standardiserade ramverk snarare än att se till det som de facto behöver åtgärdas. Ytterligare en slutsats är att det är avgörande att inte enbart se till integrationen som en isolerad företeelse utan att förstå helheten i förvärvsprocessen med dess tidigare faser. / Abstract Master Thesis in Business Administration Title: The design and implementation of the integration process in acquisitions - A multi-case study on Swedish limited companies with a defined acquisition strategy Background: Previous research on the acquisition and integration process is considered normative from a financial theoretical perspective with a focus on how an integration process should be carried out. However, the research has not to the same extent studied how this process actually is carried out. As a result, a knowledge gap is discovered in previous research regarding how an integration process is carried out in practice. The intention is thus to contribute with an empirical analytical and explanatory study to the scientific discussion about company acquisitions and mainly its integration process. Purpose: The purpose of the thesis is to create an enhanced knowledge of how Swedish limited companies with a defined acquisition strategy work with the integration of acquired companies. Furthermore, the integration process of the studied companies will be visualized to finally identify and analyze which factors are decisive for the integration and thus lead to a successful acquisition. Method: The thesis is a qualitative study with an abductive approach. A multi-case study is applied where the empirical material is obtained through semi-structured interviews from five companies with defined acquisition strategies. Conclusion: The results of the study indicate that the integration in the studied companies is less formal. Crucial to this process is that the focus is on value-creating activities and that the integration is adapted to the unique characteristics of each acquisition. This is to avoid time-wasting and resource-consuming activities due to standardized frameworks that do not create value. Another result is that it’s crucial not only to look at integration as an isolated phenomenon, but to understand the entire process of acquisition with its prior phases.

Sales market in process industry, especially for chemical, pharmaceutical and food industry, is becoming more and more volatile. Furthermore, the global availability of alternative products shortens the product life cycle. At the same time, the requested volumes depend on strong regional and temporal fluctuations, which are increasingly difficult to predict. To be able to bring product innovations successfully to market, rapid series-production readiness of the prototype is needed. However, the competition after successful approval is increasingly getting tougher. As soon as the product has been accepted by the market, the time necessary to reach sufficient product quantities with required product quality is essential for its profitability. By the end of the product life cycle, the production should be close to the largest remaining sales markets, which means that the production can be shifted accordingly. Classical production processes in process industry do not fulfil these requirements jet. Conti-systems are optimized for a certain production quantity per unit of time, which should not be changed for years, if possible. The higher flexibility of conventional batch plants is associated with unproductive times, for example during conversion. However, modularization of process plants with flexible combinatory design would allow faster turnover times and higher productivity. Individual modules realize standardized production steps and can be combined according to the requested product. Changes to the product are achieved by the exchange of modules, the production quantity can be increased by adding more of the same modules. The integration of a module into an upper classic process control system is laborious using the information models and tools available today. Various aspects of automation, such as human machine interfaces, statuses of sequences or interlocks must be added manually for the visualization and guidance of the module in an upper process control system. However, today's control systems are not prepared to provide the required flexibility of a system based on different modules. This drawback requires a modular plug-and-production methodology. Therefore, an outright modeling of information, beginning with modular and function-oriented integrated engineering is needed. On the one hand, this work considers with a selection of integration aspects, a detailed modeling of this aspects in an information carrier and the integration into the process control level. On the other hand, the concrete selection of one or more descriptive formats is analyzed. For this purpose, a uniform integration architecture and an integration process is described, this allows integration into an upper process control system level. This analysis shows that, with the available descriptive formats, a mapping of the individual integration aspects into an information carrier is possible. It is important to distinguish whether a separate mapping is chosen for each aspect, as chosen by GrapML in the second practical implementation, or whether a uniform format is used for the entire information carrier. The evaluation of the description formats suggests for the use in the information carrier AutomationML. The practical implementation and investigation with AutomationML are already in the scope of the Namur MTP developments and couldn’t therefore investigated deeply in this work. For the most important aspects, the human machine interface as well as the process management, detailed information modeling is available and was checked during implementation. Two different possibilities were presented and discussed for the selection of description formats. To allow flexible extensibility, it is advantageous to choose a description means in which the integration aspects are described separately from each other, independently of the specifically chosen format. A uniform interface within automation systems is required for the needs of the so-called industry 4.0 for the networking and consistency of all components involved throughout the entire life cycle. This work provides the first building blocks of this approach and enables application in process industry but also manufacturing industry.

As a result of the changing scope of data management towards the management of highly distributed systems and applications, integration processes have gained in importance. Such integration processes represent an abstraction of workflow-based integration tasks. In practice, integration processes are pervasive and the performance of complete IT infrastructures strongly depends on the performance of the central integration platform that executes the specified integration processes. In this area, the three major problems are: (1) significant development efforts, (2) low portability, and (3) inefficient execution. To overcome those problems, we follow a model-driven generation approach for integration processes. In this demo proposal, we want to introduce the so-called GCIP Framework (Generation of Complex Integration Processes) which allows the modeling of integration process and the generation of different concrete integration tasks. The model-driven approach opens opportunities for rule-based and workload-based optimization techniques.

Sammanfattning  Examensarbete, Civilekonomprogrammet - Controller, Ekonomihögskolan vid Linnéuniversitetet i Växjö, vårterminen 2023.  Titel: Blir ett plus ett verkligen två?  En kvalitativ fallstudie om hur en privat organisation hanterar spänningar i styrningen efter företagsförvärv   Bakgrund & problem Företagsförvärv har blivit ett populärt tillvägagångssätt för att uppnå snabb och hög tillväxt. Trots detta har det visat sig att merparten av företagsförvärv leder till misslyckanden på grund av svårigheten med att integrera företagens strukturella samt kulturella och strategiska skillnader. För att kunna hantera dessa skillnader är det avgörande att utforma ett styrsystem som tar hänsyn till det förvärvande och förvärvade företagens styrning. Den befintliga forskningen har däremot inte belyst hur företag bör konstruera sin styrning efter ett genomfört företagsförvärv. Bristen på samverkan mellan de två företagen leder så småningom till interna konflikter, även benämnt styrspänningar.  Syftet Syftet med denna studie är att undersöka en organisations styrning både under och efter ett företagsförvärv. Särskilt uppmärksamhet har lagts på att identifiera och illustrera vilka styrspänningar som uppstår efter företagsförvärv samt att undersöka de underliggande orsakerna till deras uppkomst. Slutligen siktar undersökningen även på att finna och förklara hur dessa styrspänningar hanteras inom en privat organisation.  Metod Studien har undersökt en privat organisation som genomför företagsförvärv. Utgångspunkten för denna undersökning har varit genom en kvalitativ forskningsansats med semistrukturerade intervjuer, där en fallstudie med förklarande karaktär har tillämpats. Den empiriska insamlingen har inhämtats från både det förvärvande och förvärvade företagens anställda. Dessutom har interna dokument samt årsredovisningar använts för att komplettera studiens empiriska underlag. Slutsats Studien har identifierat fem styrspänningar som har uppstått efter genomförda företagsförvärv;“Makt till de anställda vs Formella strukturer”, “Gamla system vs Nya system”,“Gamla uppföljningsrutiner vs Nya uppföljningsrutiner”,“Gamla förmåner vs Nya förmåner”, “Gammal identitet vs Ny identitet”. Uppkomsten av dessa styrspänningar förklaras utifrån att det finns kontraster i det förvärvande och förvärvade företagets styrning. Dessutom beror det på att de förvärvade anställda hade förväntningar som inte uppfylldes efter förvärvet. Utöver det har institutionella logiker varit en annan bidragande faktor, där den ena logiken försvagar den andra. Hur dessa fem styrspänningar har hanterats beror på omständigheterna och är därmed situationsanpassade.   Nyckelord: Företagsförvärv, integrationsprocessen, formell styrning, informell styrning, institutionella logiker, styrspänningar / Abstract  Master's thesis, Master of Science in Business and Economics - Controller, Linnaeus University School of Business, Växjö, spring semester 2023.  Title: Does one plus one really equals two?  A qualitative case study on how a private organization handles management control tensions after an acquisition.  Background & problem Acquisitions have become a popular approach to achieve fast and high growth. Nevertheless, it has been shown that the majority of acquisitions fail due to the difficulty of integrating the structural, cultural and strategic differences of the companies. To address these differences, it is crucial to design a management control system that considers the systems of the acquiring and acquired firms. However, existing research has not shed light on how firms should construct their control systems following a completed acquisition. The lack of interaction between the two firms eventually led to internal conflicts, also known as management control tensions.  Purpose The purpose of this study is to examine an organization's management control system both during and after a business acquisition. Particular attention has been given to identify and illustrate the tensions that have arisen in management control and to investigate the underlying reasons for their emergence. Finally, the investigation also aims to find and explain how these tensions in management control are handled within a private organization.  Method The research has investigated a private organization that carries out corporate acquisitions. The starting point for this investigation has been through a qualitative research approach with semi-structured interviews, where a case study with an explanatory character has been applied. The empirical collection has been obtained from both the acquiring and acquired companies' employees. In addition, internal documents and annual reports have been used to complement the empirical material of the study.  Conclusion The study identified five management tensions that have arisen after acquisitions; "Power to employees vs Formal structures", "Old systems vs New systems", "Old monitoring procedures vs New monitoring procedures," "Old benefits vs New benefits", "Old identity vs New identity". The emergence of these management control tensions is explained on the basis that there are contrasts in the management control systems of the acquiring and acquired company. Moreover, it is because the acquired employees had expectations that were not met after the acquisition. In addition, institutional logics have been another contributing factor, with one logic weakening the other. How these five management control tensions have been tackled depends on the circumstances and is thus context dependent.  Keywords: Mergers and acquisitions, integration process, formal controls, informal controls, institutional logics, management control tensions

Before entering into a democratic dispensation, South African military and defence systems were constituted by seven disparate armed forces. The transformation of South Africa from a separatist state introduced renewed efforts and challenges to integrate what was once a divided military corps and society. In 1994, the formation of the South African National Defence Force (SANDF) was born out of the effort to integrate various statutory and non-statutory armed forces in South Africa, including forces from former TBVC states. Through a phenomenological inquiry, integration experiences of former TBVC Armed Force members into the new SANDF structure are investigated. The study aimed to find out from the former TBVC force members how they were affected by the integration process and what their perception with regards to the effectiveness of the integration process on enhancing representation on all rank levels in the new SANDF was. The findings from in-depth semi-structured interviews with 16 such members indicate that transformation of South Africa’s military outfit into an integrated system is not exactly an epitome of a new and different yet cohesive and unified structure. The notion of ‘integration’ is as such cast as essentially a problematic one where inequalities still reflect in how former statutory and non-statutory force members are treated particularly with regards to promotion opportunities. In addition, there are perceived lingering vestiges of a previous separatist system such as the use of Afrikaans language as a medium of instruction and communication, previous SADF policies which helps produce the idea of integration as more a process of absorption instead. Despite this problematisation of integration processes in shaping how the new SANDF outfit is currently experienced by members, there are perceived benefits from the change brought about by ‘integration’ of forces. Some benefits are as tangible as individual career advancement, while others tend to reflect impacts at systemic level of family where members indirectly profit from the reorganisation and call for adjustment to new settings and structures that followed integration / Research / M.A. (Research Consultation)

<p>Oвa диcepтaциje ce бaви законодавнoм функцијoм паpламентa и њeгoвим<br />oднocoм ca дpyгим кoнкpeтним инcтитyциjaмa, кoje пpeyзимajy oд парламента<br />пoвjepeнe мy надлежности, yзpoкyjyjyћи њeгoвy мapгинaлизaциjy. Oвaj пpoцec ниje<br />нoв, aли пocтaje cвe комплeкcниjи. Нa почeткy cy тo билe влaдa и политичке<br />партије, aли ce вpeмeнoм бpoj cyбjeкaтa кojи yгpoжaвajy законодавнy надлежност<br />паpламентa пoвeћaвao. У oвoм кoнкpeтнoм питaњy, парламент ce cyoчaвa ca<br />oзбиљним изaзoвимa, диjeлeћи надлежност joш и ca шeфoм дpжaвe, ycтaвним<br />cyдoм, нeзaвиcним peгyлaтopим тиjeлимa. Нaжaлocт, тy ниje кpaj. Пpoцec<br />eвpoпcкиx интeгpaциja, кpoз eвpoпcкy лeгиcлaтивy, кpeиpao je jeднy нoвy oблacт<br />законодавнe дjeлaтнocти изyзeтe oд надлежности нaциoнaлниx парламенaта.<br />Cнaжнe и вeoмa диcциплинoвaнe политичке партије дoминиpajy, нe caмo<br />политичким пpoцecимa, вeћ и кoмплeтним парламентарним пpoцeдypaмa и њиxoв<br />нapacтajyћи yтицaj yгpoжaвa пoдjeлy влacти кojy ycпocтaвљa ycтaв и пpoyзpoкyje<br />прoблeме y фyнкциoниcaњy парламентa yoпштe. C oбзиpoм нa њиxoв знaчaj, oнe cy<br />y oвoм paдy aнaлизиpaнe кao нeпocpeдни aктep, aли и индиpeктнo, кao чинилaц кojи<br />кoнтpoлишe oдpeђeнe инcтитyциje кoje yгpoжaвajy законодавнy надлежност<br />парламента.<br />Знaчaj диcepтaциje oглeдa ce y тoмe штo oвoj пpoблeмaтици дo caдa ниje<br />пocвeћeнa пyнa пaжњa, кoja yкљyчyje пpoцec eвpoпcкиx интeгpaциja и нeзaвиcниx<br />peгyлaтopниx тиjeлa. Зaкљyчaк кojи cмo дoниjeли нaкoн иcтpaживaњa je дa<br />oчиглeднo пocтojи пoтpeбa за парламентарнoм peфopмoм коja ћe yчинити<br />законодавни пocтyпaк eфикacниjим, a законодавнo тиjeлo cнaжниjим. Гeнepaлнo,<br />cмaтpaмo дa je нeoпxoднo cнaжeњe тpaдициoнaлнe пoдjeлe влacти. Диcepтaциja<br />тaкoђe пpeдлaжe cпeцифичнa кoнкpeтнa pjeшeњa y кoнтeкcтy peфopмe<br />законодавнoг пocтyпкa.</p> / <p>Ova diceptacije ce bavi zakonodavnom funkcijom paplamenta i njegovim<br />odnocom ca dpygim konkpetnim inctitycijama, koje ppeyzimajy od parlamenta<br />povjepene my nadležnosti, yzpokyjyjyći njegovy mapginalizacijy. Ovaj ppocec nije<br />nov, ali poctaje cve komplekcniji. Na početky cy to bile vlada i političke<br />partije, ali ce vpemenom bpoj cybjekata koji ygpožavajy zakonodavny nadležnost<br />paplamenta povećavao. U ovom konkpetnom pitanjy, parlament ce cyočava ca<br />ozbiljnim izazovima, dijeleći nadležnost još i ca šefom dpžave, yctavnim<br />cydom, nezavicnim pegylatopim tijelima. Nažaloct, ty nije kpaj. Ppocec<br />evpopckix integpacija, kpoz evpopcky legiclativy, kpeipao je jedny novy oblact<br />zakonodavne djelatnocti izyzete od nadležnosti nacionalnix parlamenata.<br />Cnažne i veoma dicciplinovane političke partije dominipajy, ne camo<br />političkim ppocecima, već i kompletnim parlamentarnim ppocedypama i njixov<br />napactajyći yticaj ygpožava podjely vlacti kojy ycpoctavlja yctav i ppoyzpokyje<br />probleme y fynkcionicanjy parlamenta yopšte. C obzipom na njixov značaj, one cy<br />y ovom pady analizipane kao nepocpedni aktep, ali i indipektno, kao činilac koji<br />kontpoliše odpeđene inctitycije koje ygpožavajy zakonodavny nadležnost<br />parlamenta.<br />Značaj diceptacije ogleda ce y tome što ovoj ppoblematici do cada nije<br />pocvećena pyna pažnja, koja ykljyčyje ppocec evpopckix integpacija i nezavicnix<br />pegylatopnix tijela. Zakljyčak koji cmo donijeli nakon ictpaživanja je da<br />očigledno poctoji potpeba za parlamentarnom pefopmom koja će yčiniti<br />zakonodavni poctypak efikacnijim, a zakonodavno tijelo cnažnijim. Genepalno,<br />cmatpamo da je neopxodno cnaženje tpadicionalne podjele vlacti. Diceptacija<br />takođe ppedlaže cpecifična konkpetna pješenja y kontekcty pefopme<br />zakonodavnog poctypka.</p> / <p>This dissertation is dealing with legislative parliament function and its relation<br />with other particular institutions that take away stipulated powers from parliament<br />causing his marginalization. This process is not new but it‟s become more complex to<br />deal with. In the beginning there was government and political parties, but during the<br />time, number of actors that threaten the legislative competence of parliament increased.<br />On this particular issue, modern parliament facing difficult challenges, sharing his<br />competence with head of the state, constitutional court, independent regulatory agencies.<br />Unfortunatelly, that is not the end. EU integration process, through the European<br />legislation, creates new area of legislative activity excluded from the national<br />parliaments.<br />Strong and highly disciplined political parties are dominating not only political<br />process but whole parliamentary procedures, and its increasing influence causes further<br />damage to separation of powers that constitution establishes and harms parliament<br />particulary. Considering their impact in this process, they are studied in this work<br />directly, and indirectly &ndash; as an acter that control other particular institutions which<br />threaten legislative competence of parliament.<br />The importance of the dissertation is reflected in the fact that this issue does not<br />have full attention including EU integration process, indepedent regulatory bodies. The<br />conslusion that we made after the research is that obviously there is a need for<br />parliamentary reform which will make law-making process more efficient, and legislative<br />body stronger. Basically, we find it necessary strengthening of the traditional separation<br />of powers. Dissertation also proposes specific solutions in the context of the law-making<br />process reform.</p>

The thesis "Syrians in the Czech Republic" is engaged with the Syrians living in the Czech Republic, and their activities here. Attempts to outline the Syrians view on the Czech society and their integration into Czech society. The main method of work is a field research among the Syrians supplemented with study of technical literature. Keywords Syria, Syrians, the Arabic spring, the Arab revolution, Bashar Assad, the Baas, Syrian identity, islam, emigration, immigration, integration process, problem of identity