Since the end of the 1980s, the introduction of market mechanisms in the public sector has been a dominant feature in Sweden. The same is true for the social services in several municipalities, where business style behaviour and organisation, and competition have become salient features of market-oriented social services. The aim of the study is to describe and analyse: the structural conditions for market oriented personal social services; how social workers pursue client centred work in market oriented personal social services; the consequences of this market orientation on the personal social services. The empirical study is a case study of the personal social services in the municipality of Linköping. The purchaser-provider model in Linköping is one of the most advanced and discussed in Sweden. The research comprises a quantitative pilot study and a qualitative main study. The main study is based on twenty semi-structured interviews with experienced social workers and their immediate superiors. The analysis of the interviews reveals that the personal social services are only achieving to a lesser extent the ends that a quasi-market, theoretically, should achieve. The conditions that have to be satisfied to achieve the ends of the quasi-market are only partly met. Bureaucratic control is one important reason why the personal social services are imperfect as a quasi- market. The re-organisation has resulted in a number of, to some extent, positive consequences. The re-organisation has, however, also resulted in some negative consequences. In the thesis these are categorised in terms of fragmentation, antagonism and obscurity. A linguistic change, in market oriented personal social services, appears to have influenced social workers to think and act differently in relation to their work. The most important conclusion drawn from the study is that the market oriented personal social services partly function as a responsive quasi-market for strong, rational and well- informed clients. However, in relation to the most vulnerable, it is failing in many respects. / digitalisering@umu

Magistro baigiamajame darbe analizuojami ikimokyklinių įstaigų vadovų vaidmenys rengiant vaikų ugdymo programas. Neabejotina, kad ikimokyklinio ugdymo įstaigos vadovo vaidmuo šiame procese labai svarbus. Tyrimo tikslas - atskleisti ikimokyklinių ugdymo įstaigų vadovų vaidmenis rengiant ugdymo programas. Tyrimo tikslui pasiekti buvo suformuluoti tokie tyrimo uždaviniai: 1.Išanalizuoti ir aptarti literatūrą, nagrinėjančią ikimokyklinio ugdymo įstaigų ugdymo programų rengimo vadybos ypatumus. 2. Išryškinti ikimokyklinio ugdymo įstaigų vadovų vaidmenį ugdymo programos kūrimo procese bei telkiant komandą ugdymo programų rengimui. 3. Remiantis ikimokyklinių įstaigų vadovų, jų pavaduotojų ugdymui ir pedagogų nuomone, išryškinti vadovų vaidmenis kuriant ugdymo programas. 4. Atskleisti ikimokyklinio ugdymo įstaigos vadovų vaidmens telkiant komandą ugdymo programų kūrimui ypatumus. 5. Išsiaiškinti ikimokyklinių įstaigų vadovų vaidmenis įgyvendinant parengtą ikimokyklinio ugdymo programą. Tyrime dalyvavo: 336 tiriamieji iš keturių Lietuvos miestų ir rajonų (Kauno, Kėdainių, Šiaulių ir Vilniaus) samprotavimai: 65 ikimokyklinių įstaigų vadovų, 75 jų pavaduotojų ugdymui, 196 ikimokyklinio ugdymo įstaigų pedagogai. Tyrimo metu nustatyta, kad: 1.Pagrindinius ikimokyklinių įstaigų vadovų vaidmenimis vadovai ir jų pavaduotojai ugdymui, pedagogai, įvardino: stebėtojo, skatintojo. 2. Beveik visų pedagogų, teigimu, įstaigos vadovai ugdymo programos kūrimo procese tiki pedagogais, jų... [toliau žr. visą tekstą] / There are the analyse of roles of preschool institution’s head organizing the programmes of children’s education in the master task. Undoubtedly, the role of preschool institution’s head is very important in this process. The aim of research – to reveal the roles of preschool institution’s head organizing the programmes of children’s education. The problem of research have been formulated like that: 1. Analyse and discuss the literature which examine the peculiarities of children’s education programmes. 2.Develop the role of preschool institution’s head in the process of creating the programmes and also assisting the team for creating the programmes. 3.Develop the roles of leaders organizing education programmes according to preschool institution’s head, substitute and pedagogue’s opinion. 4.Reveal the roles of preschool institution’s head assisting the team for the peculiarities of education programmes. 5.Find out the roles of preschool institution’s head in a realization of the prepared preschool education programme. There were 336 people who were explored from 4 towns in Lithuania ( Kaunas, Kėdainiai, Šiauliai and Vilnius ) : 65 preschool institution's heads, 75 substitutes who are responsible for education, 196 pedagogues from preschool institutions. It is identified that: 1.The heads, substitutes and pedagogues think that the main role of the head is observation and encouragement. 2.Almost every pedagogue is sure that the heads believe in pedagogues and their... [to full text]

Aim of the study: to survey pupils’ opinion regarding healthcare service organizing in boarding schools of Vilnius city. Objectives: to evaluate healthcare service organizing, to evaluate factors haveing influence in the relations between doctors and children; to compare health care service organizing between boarding schools of Vilnius city. Methods: a sample anonymous survey of 193 pupils aged between 10 and 18 was conducted. Results were compared between two surveyed boarding schools. SPSS statistics software (SPSS 10.0) was used to measure the statistical significance of the results. Results: School nurses play an important role in health care organizing within schools. Almost a half of pupils reported to have been registered with a doctor by school nurses. 84 % of younger pupils stated that nurses accompany them to the health centers. More than a half of pupils surveyed (53.9 %) indicated that average waiting time in health centre, prior to being admitted to the consulting-room, was between 10 to 20 minutes. The majority of pupils asserted that doctors have not provided them with accurate information regarding their health status; only 51 % of them believe that doctors would keep information about their health status in secret. Only 1 of ten children remarked, that doctor wasn’t attentive to him. Conclusions: Sufficient attention has been paid to the healthcare organization in Vilnius boarding schools, healthcare services have been provided in time, unfortunately... [to full text]

This thesis details the development of a model of driver behaviour at railway level crossings that allows the probability of an accident under different conditions and interventions to be calculated. A method for classifying different crossings according to their individual risk levels is also described.

In this thesis, I challenge assumptions underlying my discipline of enterprise architecture that led to two choices facing practitioners: either to work with tools and techniques which predict and control changes towards predetermined ends or to accept informal processes that are unpredictable and wasteful. Orthodox enterprise architecture defines an enterprise as an organisation, which is a system, and prescribes methods that seek to provide control over the transformation of an organisation into a desired state of affairs by achieving complete knowledge of the system before initiating the desired transformation. Drawing on complexity sciences, I offer a different perspective on organisation and claim that organising what we do is an aspect of doing what we do. Organising is process. I furthermore claim that the people who are organising what we do can act spontaneously and surprise both themselves and others, but often they act habitually. Habitual ways of acting allow us to anticipate to some extent how others are likely to respond to us and, as we grow up, we learn how to behave ourselves, that is, how to adjust our behaviour to what we judge socially acceptable to increase the likelihood of being able to garner support and collaboration. I posit that social control is exercised in this way as mutual self-adjustment that forms what is normal and valued conduct. In other words, our shared social norms and values thus paradoxically and simultaneously form individuals and their conduct and are formed by individuals and their conduct. I claim that in this way we have partial, but never full, knowledge of how others generally respond to certain behaviour of ours. We can ever have only partial knowledge of that which is - in the words of Mannheim - in the process of becoming. I therefore reject the central assumptions upon which orthodox enterprise architecture is based. In organisations, we engineer and exploit mechanical mechanisms that can conduct certain action more effectively and efficiently than people can. Materiality, objects in the world, can resist attempts to shape them to suit our needs but do so without intentionality or spontaneity. Accommodating material resistance is thus repeatable. Enterprise architecture as a discipline grew out of engineering of physical mechanisms and assumes a similar repeatability and predictability when working with the social, which I find to be an unwarranted assumption. I argue against the claim of orthodox enterprise architecture that we can bring about a pre-determined state in a controlled fashion and against the claim that without such control we have informal processes that are inevitably unpredictable and wasteful. I posit that what emerges is paradoxically stable instabilities of socially enabled and constrained recognisable patterns of behaviour. When devising a mechanism in a physical object, such as a software programme, a repertoire of scripted action is transcribed into it which remains constant until transcription is renewed. Transcription has a tendency to render action less fluid. Some members of an organisation may judge particular scripted action to be awkward or detrimental while others may judge the same scripted action to be efficient and beneficial. Thus, determining which scripted action to transcribe into mechanisms is a highly political decision which attracts the attention of skilful political players. Enterprise architects can have a valuable role to play, since we have a better than average partial knowledge about technology, and since technology is increasingly important for many enterprises. I posit that becoming more aware of power and power plays, developing a feel for the game, and becoming more detached about our involvement will allow us to play into what is emerging socially with more political awareness and expertise.

The purpose of this research study was to assess the control function of social work managers. The basic focus of the study is on how they perceive this management function of control as they exercise it, as well as how it is exercised to them. Out of two research methods that one can choose from, namely quantitative and qualitative, the quantitative was chosen as the relevant one to use because of the specific close-ended questions that were to be answered by respondents regarding the exercise of control as a management function. Out of twenty five (25) questionnaires, an analysis of data was done on twenty (N = 20), because that was the original target and the five were just distributed in case some could not answer for whatever reason. The findings and responses from the respondents were analysed and interpreted to meet the main objectives of the study. / Die doel van hierdie studie was om vas te stel wat die kontrole funksie van ’n maatskaplikewerk-bestuurder is. Hierdie studie is gefokus op hoe die bestuursfunksie beleef word soos dit beoefen word. Van die twee navorsingsmetodes waaruit gekies kan word, naamlik kwalitatief en kwantitatief, is daar besluit dat die kwantitatiewe metode meer relevant sal wees omdat dit spesifieke geslote vrae vra wat ingestel is op die bestuursfunksie van kontrole. Uit die 25 vraelyste is die data van 20 (N = 20) vraelyste ontleed, aangesien dit die aanvanklike teiken was. Daar is 5 ekstra uitgedeel net ingeval daar persone sou wees wat nie die vraelys kon voltooi nie. Die bevindinge en reaksie van die 20 ondervraagdes is ontleed en geïnterpreteer om die basiese doel van die studie te bereik. / Social Work / M. Diac. (Social Work)

In this thesis I deal with organisations and organising of flood measures in the Czech Rep. until 2000 and after 2000. In the thesis I compare valid and no longer valid legislative regulations; by comparing them I observe the development of legislation concerning organisations and organising of flood measures in the Czech Rep. as well as the current legislative framework in this field. First, I compared legislative regulations valid until the flood of 1997 and after it and subsequently legislation that was changed on the basis of the flood of 1997 and the currently valid text of the Water Act no. 254/2001 Coll. The Acts no. 239/2000 Coll. on the Integrated Rescue System and the Act no. 240/2000 Coll. on Crisis Management, which were adopted in response to the community demand after the flood of 1997, when due to uncoordinated actions and confusion during the flood huge damage occurred to lives and health of people as well as their property, were not compared with regard to the date of their adoption. I have documented functionality of the current legislative set with practical outputs from the floods of 1997 and 2002 that clearly indicate the conclusion that legislation before 2000 was not good, even after the effort to improve it after the flood of 1997. These shortcomings have been remedied and the Water Act together with the Acts on the Integrated Rescue System and the Crisis Management represent a modern and functional model, which becomes apparent if you compare the outputs of the floods of 1997 and 2002. I consider the duality of management that occurs on announcement of a critical state as a partial flaw of the Act no. 254/2001 Coll. A flood is one of many possible emergency events and its solution should not be terminologically differentiated in the operative activities of collective management bodies - commissions - as in practice this results in a number of states of confusion and misunderstanding. A solution might consist in cancellation of flood commissions, which would remove management inconsistency during the development of a flood, possible misunderstanding, ambiguity in names of organisations, etc.

Today, Sport Utility Vehicles are marketed as both on-road and off-road vehicles. This results in a compromise when designing the suspension of the vehicle. If the suspension characteristics are fixed, the vehicle cannot have good handling capabilities on highways and good ride comfort over rough terrain. The rollover propensity of this type of vehicle compared to normal cars is high because it has a combination of a high centre of gravity and a softer suspension. The 4 State Semi-active Suspension System (4S4) that can switch between two discrete spring characteristics as well as two discrete damper characteristics, has been proven to overcome this compromise. The soft suspension setting (soft spring and low damping) is used for ride comfort, while the hard suspension setting (stiff spring and high damping) is used for handling. The following question arises: when is which setting most appropriate? The two main contributing factors are the terrain profile and the driver’s actions. Ride comfort is primarily dependant on the terrain that the vehicle is travelling over. If the terrain can be identified, certain driving styles can be expected for that specific environment. The terrains range from rough and uncomfortable to smooth with high speed manoeuvring. Terrain classification methods are proposed and tested with measured data from the test vehicle on known terrain types. Good results were obtained from the terrain classification methods. Five terrain types were accurately identified from over an hour’s worth of vehicle testing. Handling manoeuvres happen unexpectedly, often to avoid an accident. To improve the handling and therefore safety of the vehicle, the 4S4 can be switched to the hard suspension setting, which results in a reduced body roll angle. This decision should be made quickly with the occupants’ safety as the priority. Methods were investigated that will determine when to switch the suspension to the handling mode based on the kinematics of the vehicle. The switching strategies proposed in this study have the potential, with a little refinement, to make the ride versus handling decision correctly. Copyright 2007, University of Pretoria. All rights reserved. The copyright in this work vests in the University of Pretoria. No part of this work may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, without the prior written permission of the University of Pretoria. Please cite as follows: Bester, R 2007, The ride comfort versus handling decision for off-road vehicles, MEng dissertation, University of Pretoria, Pretoria, viewed yymmdd < http://upetd.up.ac.za/thesis/available/etd-10252007-111611 / > / Dissertation (MEng (Mechanical Engineering))--University of Pretoria, 2007. / Mechanical and Aeronautical Engineering / unrestricted

The aim of this diploma thesis is to suggest new organization structure in the industry company, the main is to focus on individual organization components and to specify goals, which would be achieved by this restructure. The proposal of new enterprise organization structure is made on basics of analysis of present situation in company, provided information and internal sources from employees and Management Company. In scope of this diploma thesis I suggested new organization structure, which faces to improve of its efficiency – decreasing of costs and increasing of productivity.

No / This article examines recent organising successes in the Carbones del Cerrejón coal mine, reversing the organisational crisis of the Colombian mining union, Sintracarbon. Using Wever's concept of ‘field-enlarging strategies’, we argue that these events were facilitated by the dissemination of organising experiences between affiliates of a Global Union Federation, International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers' Unions (ICEM), which recently merged to form IndustriALL. Additionally, we argue that this articulation between international and national unions, based on the principle of subsidiarity, was facilitated through sustained ICEM educational project activity, providing multiple entry points for Sintracarbon to operationalise its strategy and re-establish bargaining with multinational employers.