Under de senaste åren har energibranschen mött nya utmaningar som förändrat förutsättningarna, i en tidigare stabil verksamhet som kännetecknats av god tillväxt och kapitalintensitet. De nya utmaningarna inom branschen har lett till ett behov av att förändra sättet att organisera och leda verksamheterna. Många koncerner inom energibranschen har hierarkiska, funktionsstyrda strukturer som betraktas som mekaniska, reaktiva system med ett internt fokus. De nya förutsättningarna kräver hög flexibilitet, proaktiva system med ett externt fokus. Total Quality Management (TQM) har lanserats som framgångsrika koncept för att uppnå detta. Studier visar att en lyckad implementering av dessa koncept kräver en stark företagskultur, ett engagerat ledarskap och en struktur anpassad till TQM (Bergman och Klefsjö, 2012; Ljungberg och Larsson, 2012) Många organisationer i energibranschen står inför en genomgripande förändring av kultur, struktur och ledarskap. Genom att medvetandegöra och belysa dessa faktorer ökar möjligheterna att motverka oönskade kulturella effekter och därmed underlätta förändringen. Föreliggande studie har undersökt hur kultur, struktur och ledarskap samverkar genom att kartlägga dessa faktorer, i en organisation med en funktionell struktur. Studien har genomförts som en fallstudie där även en organisations styrkor respektive svagheter avseende kultur, struktur och ledarskap ur ett TQM-perspektiv har beskrivits. Resultatet visade att samverkan mellan kultur, struktur och ledarskap kan beskrivas som en iterativ, interagerande process. Ledarskapet har förmåga att påverka värderingar, kultur och struktur, samtidigt som strukturen bär på värderingar och kultur som påverkar ledarskapet. Ledarskapet i fallstudien dominerades av värderingar, som stämmer överens med TQM, även kulturen dominerades av dessa värderingar, trots den funktionella strukturen. Men studien påvisade även att den funktionella strukturen hade en viss inverkan både på kultur och ledarskap. Resultatet visade också en brist på struktur anpassad till den rådande kulturen och ledarskapet i fallstudien, eftersom den funktionella strukturen visade sig vara dominerande / <p>2019-08-29</p>

In recent decades, the EU has significantly expanded its presence and influence in many of the former Soviet states. This essay have examined how the relationship between the EU and Russia has change since The Eastern Partnership was introduced 2009 and the extent to which it can be seen as a contributing factor. The Eastern Partnership is a joint initiative involving the EU, its Member States and six Eastern European Partners. Among this six this essay has focued on Ukraine and its part in the relationship between EU and Russia. This essay have been a theory-consuming case study that analyzes and explains the EU and Russia`s actions concerning the EaP, with the help of Mearsheimer`s theory of offensive realism. The analysis showed that the relations between EU and Russia had changed and deteriorated. The Eastern Partnership has provoked Russia and has made them feel restricted in their sphere of power. There has been a conflict over the six countries, including Ukraine, between the EU and Russia.

Syftet med föreliggande studie var att med utgångspunkt i offensiv kvalitetsutveckling bidra med kunskap om det kommunala ledarskapet i det förebyggande krisberedskapsarbetet. Den metod som har använts har varit hermeneutisk, induktiv samt kvalitativ metod. En multipel fallstudie har gjorts genom tre intervjuer med säkerhetsstrateger/beredskapssamordnare i kommunal sektor. Frågorna har varit semistrukturerade, där frågorna skapades med inflytande av Appreciative Inquiry. De slutsatser som framkom var att det kommunala ledarskapet har styrkor och utvecklingsmöjligheter i det förebyggande krisberedskapsarbetet. Det fanns styrkor och utvecklingsmöjligheter i samtliga av hörnstenmodellens värderingar. Dessa styrkor och utvecklingsmöjligheter i det kommunala ledarskapet kan bidra till en positiv utveckling av krisberedskapsarbetet och skapa ett tryggare samt säkrare samhälle. Exempel på upplevda styrkor var kommunala ledare som tillåtit delaktighet i risk- och sårbarhetsanalyser och bidragit till utbildningar. Exempel på utvecklingsområden för kommunala ledare var att ledare bör bidra till mer öppenhet, lyhördhet, delaktighet och diskussioner gällande krisberedskapsarbetet. / The purpose of this study, with it ́s base in Total Quality Managment, was to contribute with knowledge about the minuicipal leadership and the proactive crisismanagment. The method that has been used has been hermenetuic, inductive and qulitative method. A multiple casestudy has been made through three interviews with crisis coordinators in the municipal sector. The questions in the study have been semistructurated. The questionnaire was made with the influence of Appreciative Inquiry. The conclusion was that the municipal leadership have strengths and opportunities to development in the proactive crisimanagment. There was strengths and opportunities in all six principels in Total Quality Management. These strenghts and opportunities in the municipal leadership could contribute to a positive developmen of the crisismanagment and create a safer community. Exampels of perceived strenghts was municipal leaders that alowed participation in risk- and vulnerabillity assessments and educations. Exampels of development areas of municipal leaders was that leaders schould contribute to openness, responsiveness, participation and discussions regarding crisis management.

This case-study examines the Swedish armed forces in Afghanistan between 2009 and 2012. The aim of this study is to explore how it comes that an organization that is promoting security and stabilizing operations in a post conflict setting in northern Afghanistan gaudily turns in to an aggressive fighting force. The analytic framework is based on Theo Farrells theory of military adaption as well as Lauren Wilcox’s theory of the role of gender as an explanation of military organisations offensive bias. The results show that the Swedish behaviour should be understood as a combination of adaption to demands form allied forces, a result of pollical will to achieve national political goals and a strong offensive bias.

The sea mine has shown that it is an effective weapon during numerous wars and conflicts over the course of history, including operations against the Japanese Empire during World War II and during the Korean War. Yet, despite its proven potency, the sea mine is often neglected or even forgotten. In order to better comprehend this phenomenon a better understanding of mine warfare is needed. When studying previous research into naval mine warfare, an absence of theoretical perspectives can be identified. The purpose of this study is to contribute to this scientific gap by approaching mine warfare from a theoretical perspective. Raoul Castex’ theories on strategic manoeuvre and offense versus defence, are used to develop an analytical instrument. Two cases are then analysed: the offensive mine laying campaign in Japan 1942-1945 and the defensive mine laying campaign in Korea 1950-1953.  The results show that the theory of strategic manoeuvre has greater explanatory value for the offensive case, while the theory of offense versus defence has an equally high explanatory value for the two cases with their diverse actors. In conclusion, the study demonstrates that a theoretical perspective enables greater scientific understanding of mine warfare and its internal factors.

There are different discourses about the dominance of the offensive, the offensive dominates in a small state like Sweden as well, especially in the tactical thinking, through the military culture and education. Yet it is proven that military culture consists of hegemonic masculinity. Sweden and its armed forces are at the forefront of gender equality work in relation to other states and armed forces, as can be seen with the Swedish armed forces gender manual, and that Sweden have the world´s first feminist government. But if a small state like Sweden, dominated by offensive tactics, have gendered the offensive and the defensive through its military culture, it is likely other states, that haven’t gone that far in their gender equality work, have gendered the offensive and the defensive. This could cause a problem if decisions are made upon the will to appear brave or aggressive instead of good judgement from intelligence. The study aims to examine how the offensive cult can be understood through masculinities theory. This study is conducted on the basis of group interviews with three groups of army officers in the Swedish armed forces, where the groups military culture, thoughts and experience about the offensive and the defensive were sought. This study examines that the offensive is given its dominance through gendering by the military culture in the army. By gendering the offensive as masculine, in terms of being brave, aggressive and historical successful offensive operations. While the defensive been gendered as feminine, in terms of passivity and cowardice. This makes the offensive as the accepted answer to its legitimacy, and the defensive is ought to be sub-ordinated.

The aim of this thesis is to examine to what extent China acts as a superpower in the South China Sea. In order to accomplish the purpose of the study the International relations theory Offensive realism has been applied. The thesis is a case study, with the premiss to test Offensive realism on the selected case. Data is gathered from books and articles. Within the framework of Offensive realism, three categories have been selected to study China’s actions on three different occasions. The categories that have been applied are diplomacy, economy, and military. The occasions occur at different time periods, 1974, 2012, and 2014, in order to be able to give the study a wide basis.   The result shows, that from an Offensive realism perspective, China acts like a superpower in the South China Sea. In the cases studied China acts as a superpower in all of them. Breaking it down to the applied categories, diplomacy, economy, and military, it is showcased that China’s actions in the region are corresponding to that of a superpower eight of nine times. China seeks control of the region's wealth to strengthen its own economy, which in turn strengthens the country's military. Furthermore, the growth of the economy and resources means that control of the area is centered to China. Which increases the chance for China of creating a hegemony in the region.

The public sector in Sweden has throughout the years undergone some majorchanges, new government ideals has been implemented in order to increase efficiencyand cost awareness. There is a new governance model that is called New PublicManagement and aims to introduce a similar governance model as compared to theones being used in the private sector. This was done in order to increase the publicawareness and counteract the rising costs within the public sector. The reason behindthis study is to understand how New Public Management affects the Swedishhealthcare system. In order to investigate this, we studied the DRG-Process at ahealthcare clinic specialized in gynecological activities. By studying the DRG-processwe would like to understand how the process is applied and how offensive qualitydevelopment potentially could affect the process. In order to answer the studyquestions, observations and interviews has been conducted with doctors, secretariesand other staff that’s involved or in any other way possess knowledge of the process.The DRG-process is initiated by a doctor that dictates all the actions performed on apatient, a secretary then transcribes and encodes the actions. The process ends whenthe doctor signs the transcribed dictation. The performance of the process is affectedby the vastly varying sub-operations within the process, which affects the efficiency ofthe process. The process is also affected by the absence of a well-defined governancemodel.The doctor and secretary departments work independently from each other, this isnot an efficient process as their work is not well integrated. As DRG is used as acompensation system, the focus is on increasing the compensation, this shows thatthere is a major misconception amongst the employees within the clinic as to how theDRG-system actually works.We believe that many of the flaws we identified within the DRG-process could beeliminated or improved by introducing Offensive quality enhancement. According toBergman and Klefsjö (1995, 25), Quality enhancements consists of five base elementsand all five of these elements must be applied in order to gain an optimal advantageout of the model.

Idag står organisationer inför ständiga utmaningar att förändra och effektivisera sin verksamhet, vilket kan förklaras med det ökade kravet på ökad lönsamhet och kostnadsnedskärningar. Detta har bidragit till att företagsledningar oftast löser dessa ökade krav genom kostnadsrationaliseringar. Dock har det visat sig vara mindre framgångsrikt. Ambitionen med examensarbetet har varit att undersöka hur ledarskap kan utövas för att uppnå TQM, effektivitet och lönsamhet. Ett svenskt byggföretag har varit föremål för denna fallstudie. Fallstudien har genomförts genom strukturerade djupintervjuer med tre gruppchefer samt enkätfrågor till medarbetare. Det huvudsakliga resultatet från den här uppsatsen är begreppet lönsamt ledarskap, vilket är genererat ur det analyserade materialet. Studiens resultat visar att det är flera faktorer som bidrar till det lönsamma ledarskapet. Resultatet visar att hörnstenarna i hörnstensmodellen är en stor bidragande faktor till det lönsamma ledarskapet. Emellertid har studiens resultat kommit fram till att den sjätte hörnstenen “engagerat ledarskap” är mycket viktig för organisationens framgångssaga vad gäller lönsamhet, kortsiktigt som långsiktigt. / <p>2018-08-29</p>

Since Donald Trump got elected as president of the United States in november 2016 there has been uncertainties concerning which foreign policy Trump intends to implement. Trump has been accused of being a populist and has himself been clear with his patriotic and nationalistic interests. The study has focused on the classical IR theory, realism and the trade policy theory protectionism. The analysis is based upon two speeches held by Trump in which he makes foreign policy statements. The first of the two speeches was held to the UN and the second upon the situation in the northern Syria. The two speeches got analyzed using ideal types based on offensive realism, defensive realism and protectionism. In summary president Donald Trump shows tendencies of implementing offensive neorealism to his foreign policy, he is also using protectionism to control Americas trade policy.