<p>Risk- och beredskapsfrågor är idag mycket aktuella inom olika verksamheter. Studien undersökte hur barnomsorgspersonal i Örebro betraktade risk och beredskap i arbetet samt hur känslan av sammanhang (KASAM) samt arbetsrelaterade faktorer som krav, kontroll och stöd påverkade dessa upplevelser. Studien baserades på enkäter byggda på frågeformulären QPS-Nordic 34+, 13 frågors KASAM samt egna frågor. 53 personer deltog. Resultatet visade att den upplevda beredskapen var god i förhållande till den upplevda risken. Krav, kontroll, stöd och KASAM vara alla signifikant relaterade till beredskapsfaktorerna. Endast KASAM hade samband med riskupplevelser. Personer med hög KASAM och högt stöd i kombination upplevde generellt mindre risk samt bedömde beredskapen som bättre. Höga värden på dessa faktorer bidrar till en tryggare arbetsmiljö och bör således prioriteras.</p> / <p>Risk and preparedness issues are currently of interest for many sectors. This study investigated how staff in Örebro’s childcare viewed risk and preparedness and how a sense of coherence (SOC) and requirements, control and support in work influenced these views. The study was based on polls containing items from the questionnaire OPS-nordic 34+, 13 SOC questions and original questions. 53 people participated. The result shows assessed preparedness as high compared to perceived risk. Requirements, control, support and SOC were significantly related to preparedness. Only SOC was related to perceptions of risk. Combined high levels of SOC and support generally make for lower perceived risk and higher assessment of preparedness. This contributes to a safer workplace and should be prioritized.</p>

<p>The study examines risk perception and crisis preparedness among personnel at high-schools. The focus is set on teachers and leaders at four high-schools in Örebro municipality, Sweden. The purpose of the study is to examine crisis preparedness and identify factors which influences risk perception and crisis preparedness. The survey consisted of a questionnaire which was completed by 95 respondents. The results show that better information about the crisis preparedness in the schools is needed. Further education is also required, as two thirds of the respondents states that they have not received any training in crisis preparedness. Having personal crisis experience increases the awareness of risks. Being a leader increases both risk perception and the judgement of crisis preparedness of the school.</p>

<p>The aim of the study states what is expected to be achieved by the study overall. According to Brink, Van Der Walt and Van Rensburg (2006), the aim should include the target population, research setting and the research variables. The aim of this study is to investigate the academic transitional challenges (variable) postgraduate students (target population) experience in the Faculty of CHS at UWC (setting) and to determine whether students utilize the available support systems provided. Research objectives Objectives are defined as clear concise declarative statements that are expressed in present tense, which indicate the specific information the study must yield (Burns &amp / Grove, 2003). The objectives of this study are: To determine the academic preparedness of the postgraduate students as evidenced by experience and previous participation in research activities, publications and papers delivered prior to postgraduate enrolment / To determine if postgraduate students make use of the support services offered by UWC to facilitate smooth academic transition / To determine the primary motivations of students enrolling for postgraduate studies in the faculty / To compare the characteristics of postgraduate students with academic preparedness and primary motivations.</p>

<p>Transition has been the major focus of educational institutions. The focal argument of the majority of research into student transition deals with the challenges that students faced when they moved from high school to first year at university. Not much focus has been placed on the transition from undergraduate to postgraduate studies. Postgraduate enrollment rates have steadily grown over the past few years in Higher Education Institution`s (HEI). Support systems have been put in place to assist students. In spite of these available support systems, postgraduate students still find themselves facing challenges when engaging with postgraduate studies. The primary aim of this study was to investigate the academic transitional challenges postgraduate students&rsquo / experience as reflected by the inconsistencies in the enrollment and throughput rates. Secondly, to determine whether students utilised available support systems, e.g. the Academic Writing Centre and the Postgraduate Enrolment and Throughput (PET) programme at the Faculty of Community and Health Science at University of the Western Cape. This was a quantitative study. A cross sectional survey has been conducted by means of a computerised self-administered questionnaire (CSAQ). The study population was postgraduate students in the Faculty of Community and Health Science at masters&rsquo / level. Both course work and research students were included in the study. No sampling method was employed due to the small size of the population. Data was collected to explore the academic preparedness of postgraduate students, and there primary motivations for studying and the utilization of available support services at the University of the Western Cape.</p>

Risk- och beredskapsfrågor är idag mycket aktuella inom olika verksamheter. Studien undersökte hur barnomsorgspersonal i Örebro betraktade risk och beredskap i arbetet samt hur känslan av sammanhang (KASAM) samt arbetsrelaterade faktorer som krav, kontroll och stöd påverkade dessa upplevelser. Studien baserades på enkäter byggda på frågeformulären QPS-Nordic 34+, 13 frågors KASAM samt egna frågor. 53 personer deltog. Resultatet visade att den upplevda beredskapen var god i förhållande till den upplevda risken. Krav, kontroll, stöd och KASAM vara alla signifikant relaterade till beredskapsfaktorerna. Endast KASAM hade samband med riskupplevelser. Personer med hög KASAM och högt stöd i kombination upplevde generellt mindre risk samt bedömde beredskapen som bättre. Höga värden på dessa faktorer bidrar till en tryggare arbetsmiljö och bör således prioriteras. / Risk and preparedness issues are currently of interest for many sectors. This study investigated how staff in Örebro’s childcare viewed risk and preparedness and how a sense of coherence (SOC) and requirements, control and support in work influenced these views. The study was based on polls containing items from the questionnaire OPS-nordic 34+, 13 SOC questions and original questions. 53 people participated. The result shows assessed preparedness as high compared to perceived risk. Requirements, control, support and SOC were significantly related to preparedness. Only SOC was related to perceptions of risk. Combined high levels of SOC and support generally make for lower perceived risk and higher assessment of preparedness. This contributes to a safer workplace and should be prioritized.

The study examines risk perception and crisis preparedness among personnel at high-schools. The focus is set on teachers and leaders at four high-schools in Örebro municipality, Sweden. The purpose of the study is to examine crisis preparedness and identify factors which influences risk perception and crisis preparedness. The survey consisted of a questionnaire which was completed by 95 respondents. The results show that better information about the crisis preparedness in the schools is needed. Further education is also required, as two thirds of the respondents states that they have not received any training in crisis preparedness. Having personal crisis experience increases the awareness of risks. Being a leader increases both risk perception and the judgement of crisis preparedness of the school.

Katastrofer kräver omedelbara beslut och åtgärder för att minimera allvarliga konsekvenser. Undersökningar och analyser från tidigare katastrofer visar att utbildning, övning, samverkan och ledarskap behöver förbättras för att evidensbaserat beslutsfattande ska uppnås. I Sveriges hälso- och sjukvård är det regional Tjänsteman i Beredskap, TiB, som i de flesta fall initialt fattar de övergripande beslut om mobilisering och fördelning av resurser och behov av medicinsk kompetens vid katastrof och allvarlig händelse. Syftet med denna studie var att kartlägga den kunskap och erfarenhet som innehavare av funktionen TiB har för att vara förberedda för sin uppgift. Studien är kvantitativ och bygger på en enkät konstruerad av författaren som har skickats till innehavarna av funktionen regional TiB inom hälso- och sjukvård i Sverige. Resultatet analyserades med deskriptiv statistik och analytisk statistik. En jämförelse gjordes mellan de respondenter som hade medicinsk utbildningsbakgrund och de som inte hade sådan. Resultatet visar att det finns vissa skillnader beträffande kunskaper och erfarenheter och behovet av sådan. De som inte hade medicinsk utbildningsbakgrund hade övervägande specialkunskaper i katastrofmedicin och de ansåg också i högre grad att medicinsk kompetens var viktig för funktionen som TiB. Studiens resultat kan vara till stöd gällande utbildning och planering inför allvarliga händelser. / Disasters and major incidents require immediate decisions and actions to minimize serious consequences. Studies and analyzes from previous disasters show that education, practice, collaboration and management need to be improved. This together with learning from experiences will make the planning of relevant preparations easier. The purpose of this study was to do a survey of the knowledge and experience of a defined operative  level of strategic management (command and control) who can make the overall decisions regarding mobilization and distribution of resources, distribution of casualties and need of medical skills to be prepared  for their tasks in case of disaster and major incident. In Sweden this function is called Tjänsteman i Beredskap (TiB). The study is quantitative and based on a questionnaire constructed by the author and sent to the holders of the function TiB in Sweden. The results were analyzed by descriptive statistics and analytical statistics. A comparison was made between those respondents who had medical education background and those who did not have one. The result shows that there are some differences in knowledge and experience and the need for such. Those who had medical education background had vast expertise in disaster medicine and they also considered relatively more medical skills were important for the function of TiB. Study findings can provide support with training and planning for major events.

This thesis provides a case study of the Government of Canada's former Office of Critical Infrastructure Protection and Emergency Preparedness (OCIPEP) through the lens of horizontal management (part of New Public Management theory). This study demonstrates that the effective use of horizontal management (horizontality) may reduce fragmentation occurring when the goal of critical infrastructure protection requires organizations to work cross-jurisdictionally and in partnerships. This need to collaborate is due to the ownership problem: over 85 per cent of Canada's critical infrastructure is owned by organizations other than the federal government. Research methods include a background survey of literature on critical infrastructure protection, horizontal management and horizontality, and new public management; and interviews using a snowball sample of eight subjects who held various positions within OCIPEP to better understand what the organizational structure appeared to be from within the organization. The research concludes that OCIPEP was not given the resources necessary to successfully fulfil its mandate. Results include the need for administrative and managerial support for horizontal endeavours, to encourage a "cultural context" of horizontality, as there are many organizational barriers to successfully using horizontality and collaborative methods. There were areas of success for OCIPEP, but more areas of weakness. Recommendations include additional study of the organization, a shift into a better-supported organization (which was accomplished with OCIPEP's inclusion into Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness Canada), and clear delineation of roles between the Government of Canada and the owners of the critical infrastructure. / October 2005

The overall purpose of this thesis is to gain a better understanding of the internationalization readiness process of firms, by identifying and describing and its components. In order to reach the purpose of this thesis a case study of four Swedish SMEs has been conducted, namely: MaxiGrip AB, Playsay AB, Flano Design AB and KOTP. Face-to-face interviews were carried out with the main decision makers within the firms. The theoretical framework involves a description of different internationalization theories, such as the transaction cost approach, the traditional “stage” model, the network approach and the international entrepreneurship approach. Based on these four internationalization theories has the traditional “stage” model been chosen to function as a theoretical foundation for the analysis. In the analysis the theoretical framework is related to the results of the empirical study. The barriers faced by firms prior to internationalization are discussed and analysed, as well as theimportance of each barrier, resulting in internal barriers being regarded of greater importance. The decision maker’s role and influence during the process is described as highly influential. The key success factors enabling the internationalization readiness process of firms are identified and discussed, namely: vision and international outlook of decision makers, having a unique offering, the availability of time and vast industry knowledge. It is concluded that a firm is able to achieve internationalization readiness by fulfilling a certain criteria, which has been the result of the combination of both theory and empirical data. Resulting in the decision maker being at the center of the process. While, the internal stimuli of industry knowledge and product uniqueness are the two main influencers combined with time  and commitment. At last, both theoretical and managerial implications are presented, ending this paper with the limitations and suggestions for further research.

Abstract The frequency of natural disasters and its negative consequences in terms of the number of people killed, property destroyed and negative environmental impacts caused in the affected communities constitute one of the basic foundations and motivations for the development and use of ICT and other means of preventing as well as responding to disasters in the world today. This is simply because disaster management constitutes an important part of any developmental framework. Unfortunately a majority of these natural disasters occur in developing countries where information flow is greatly hampered because the national actors in disasters lack the skills to use ICT to prepare for and to response to disasters in their communities. Current study aims at studying the use of ICT in disaster management in Cameroon-a less developing country south of the Sahara To achieve the aim of this study, a quantitative research approach was chosen. A total sample of 150 organisations was selected from a population of 285 organisations within Cameroon, that are directly or indirectly involved with disaster management or developmental issues of any nature. In total 150 questionnaires were administered to these selected national actors by mail, internet, telephone and self-administration and 85 of the organisations respondended to the questionnaire. After collecting and analysing the data, the authors came to the conclusions that; disasters occur in Cameroon on frequent bases causing lots of damages thus the need for ICT use in humanitarian logistics to move information and material. Results showed that national actors use the radio and local TV (CRTV) for disaster preparedness and the mobile phone for disaster response, while the internet and computer techonology, foreign TV, Fixed phone and fax had a very low usage rate or sometimes not used at all. The reason for low usage or no usage was due to problems encountered by national actors in an attempt of trying to use them. Against this background, the authors suggested a number of recommendations that could improve the degree of ICT usage. One of them was that the Cameroon government should partner with private sector firms to make ICT infrastructure available by investing more and improving on the telecommunication sector in the country. This will solve the problem of poor ICT infrastructure, poor radio and TV signals, limited internet connectivity accessibility and availability in Cameroon.