An inherent aspect of an audit is the level of task complexity that junior auditors (staff and senior level associates) endure on a daily basis. This complexity directly impacts an auditor’s ability to form an appropriate problem representation, which in turn impacts judgment performance. One of the key components of this process is having sufficient knowledge for purposes of problem representation; without it, the auditor’s problem representation and ultimately judgment performance are negatively impacted. Conversely, audit teams can positively influence the conciseness of problem representation and performance by way of effective task-specific knowledge transfer. Knowledge transfer in the audit field occurs during three distinct phases: when an auditor reviews prior and/or current year workpapers; when an auditor requests help; and/or during the workpaper review process. For purposes of efficiency and increasing (i.e. improving) problem representation, prior to any deleterious effects, it’s critical that the audit profession understand how to maximize the knowledge transfer as soon as possible after the auditor’s initial assignment of the task. Because auditors commonly will immediately refer to audit programs in the current year documentation in the electronic audit file to gain an understanding of the task, maximizing the knowledge transfer within the electronic audit file is critical to increasing auditor judgment performance. I propose utilizing media richness theory to establish an increased media rich transfer of knowledge via the electronic audit file from the audit managers (expert) to junior auditors (novice). Procedure screens within the electronic audit file would likely be categorized as “written, formal” mediums within the media richness theory, because the source of information is impersonal. However, if audit firms can successfully transform the transfer of information within the audit files from being solely formal document screens to also incorporate personal source characteristics, they will successfully increase the information richness, which will allow for a more successful transfer of knowledge and subsequently the ability for the auditor to more effectively form a problem representation.

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Syftet med denna studie är att kritiskt granska hur problemet med de statliga insatserna som syftar till att underlätta för nyanländas etablering representeras i en utav Riksrevisionens granskningar inom området etablering och integration, samt vilka subjektspositioner representationerna producerar. Genom att granska materialet vill jag tydliggöra vilka problemrepresentationer som föreligger i det praktiska arbete statliga aktörer utför. Den teoretiska utgångspunkten har varit att det har betydelse hur problem representeras i den offentliga politiken. Först när politiken ifrågasätts kan vi därför förstå hur styrning opererar med vilka effekter för de som är föremål för den. Den metodologiska vägen framåt har i denna studie varit Carol Bacchis metod för policyanalys "What's the problem represented to be?", vilken är en typ av diskursanalys som i detta fall möjliggör ett ifrågasättande av de problematiseringar som styr nyanländas arbetsmarknadsetablering. De problematiseringar som görs i materialet handlar dels om hur vissa kommuners ovilja till ansvarstagande för flyktingmottagandet, till följd av bostadsbrist, ekonomiska förutsättningar eller andra oproblematiserade förklaringar, leder till sämre etableringsresultat. Något annat som problematiseras är statliga aktörers agerande, vilket efter kritisk granskning visar sig präglas av en bristande långsiktighet. Regeringens och myndigheternas brist på långsiktighet i den ekonomiska resursanvändningen belyses och flera myndigheters uppdrag och interna arbete tycks generellt vara ineffektivt för att uppnå goda etableringsresultat långsiktigt. Kortsiktigt agerande visar sig således förhindra etableringen av nyanlända i flera avseenden. Styrningen skapar subjektspositioner och ställer specifika grupper av nyanlända ansvariga för sina egna misslyckanden till etablering - särskilt tydligt är detta i problematiseringar kring etableringen av nyanlända med låga utbildningsnivåer, som helst enkelt betraktas som "icke matchningsbara", samt nyanlända kvinnor. / The purpose of this study is to critically analyse how problems related to the work of the Swedish state, when it comes to enabling newly arrived immigrants to integrate to the labour market, is represented in one of The Swedish National Audit Office's audits regarding integration, and also to analyse how representations constitute subject positions. By critically analysing the material I want to shed light on existing problem representations in the practical work of the public agencies.  The theoretical starting-point is that how problems are represented in public politics matters. It is not until politics is questioned that we can fully understand how governing operates and with what effects for those governed. The methodological way forward in this study is a method for analysing policy called "What's the problem represented to be?", developed by Carol Bacchi, which is a type of discourse analysis that enables questioning of problematisations regarding the labour market integration of newly arrived immigrants. Problematisations in the research material are partly done regarding how the unwillingness of some municipalities to take responsibility for receiving immigrants, whether the reason is lack of housing, economic preconditions or other explanations that are left unproblematic, leads to worse integration results. Another problematisation is done regarding the acting of public actors, which after critical analysis is shown to lack long-term vision. The lack of long-term vision in the use of resources in the government and the public agencies is shed light and several missions of the  public agencies and their internal work is shown to be ineffective for the purpose of reaching good integration results in the long-term. Short-term acting is therefore shown to hinder the labour market integration of newly arrived immigrants.    This governing creates subject positions and puts specific groups of immigrants themselves as responsible for their own failures to integrate - especially regarding immigrants with low levels of education, who are considered simply as "un matchable" and immigrant women.

The right to adequate housing is an unaccomplished human right, and unequal power relations between men and women are also perpetuated when trying to access decent housing even in the most prosperous global cities such as Barcelona. The aim of this research study has been to show how housing is represented and produced by the Barcelona City Council and which are the gendering effects and implications thereof. Through the analysis of the three most relevant political instruments in the field of housing, the “What’s the Problem Represented to be?” method proposed by Carol Bacchi (1999) has allowed to ascertain different problem representations of the same phenomena within the Council, such as “lack of adequate housing” and “vulnerable women”, with important consequences, along with other policy gaps. In our opinion, while feminism is often produced as the engine for change, these inconsistencies prevent women liberating completely from their socially imposed roles and achieving real and effective gender equality.

Detta är en uppsats vars syfte är att undersöka diskursen kring värnplikten och reda ut problematiseringar i debatten kring avvecklingen av den allmänna värnplikten. Detta görs genom att urskilja skillnader gällande problemrepresentationer i debatten mellan regeringen och oppositionen. Uppsatsen har sin utgångspunkt i ett diskursanalytiskt perspektiv och utifrån Carol Lee Bacchis diskursanalytiska frågor är tre forskningsfrågor konstruerade som ligger till grund för uppsatsen. – Hur representeras problemet med den allmänna värnplikten? – Vilka antaganden ligger till grund för denne representation? – Vilka effekter produceras av denna problemrepresentation? I uppsatsen råder ett diskursanalytiskt angreppssätt men diskursanalysen skall inte endast ses som en metod för analys av data, utan diskursanalysen är en metodisk och teoretisk helhet. Den teoretiska inriktningen av diskursanalysen utgår ifrån Carol Lee Bacchi. Det resultat som studien har givit upphov till att se är att det råder skilda problemrepresentationer i debatten kring avveckling av värnplikten. De problematiseringar som ligger till grund för avvecklingen av värnplikten är enligt regeringen att den förändrade hotbilden kräver en högre tillgänglighet och användbarhet, något som skapas genom ett insatsförsvar. De huvudsakliga problematiseringar oppositionen ser med regeringens förslag om avvecklingen kring värnplikten är att det råder en obefogad beredskap och att värnplikten är starkt kopplad med en demokratisk aspekt. Det som tydligt går att urskilja av undersökningen är att hur problem framställs har en betydande roll. Hur problem i policyanalyser representeras bestämmer utgången för lösningen. / This is an essay whose purpose is to investigate the discourse of conscription and sort out problematisations in the debate about the dismantling of the general conscription. The interest of this paper is to discern conflicting problemrepresentations in the debate. The essay has its origins from a discourse analytical perspective and Carol Lee Bacchis discourseanalytical questions are the three research questions designed as the basis for the thesis. - How representends the problem of the general conscription? - What assumptions underlying the latter representation? - What are the effects produced by this problemrepresentation? The essay has a discourse analytical approach but the discourse analysis should not only be seen as a method of data analysis, the discourse analysis is a theoretical and methodological whole. The theoretical focus of discourse analysis is based on Carol Lee Bacchi. The results of the study have given rise to see that there is conflicting problemrepresentations in the debate about the settlement of conscription. The problematisations as are the basis for the settlement of conscription, according to the government, it is the changed baselesses witch demands a higher accessibility and usability witch you can reach through by an operational defense. The main problematisations the parliament sees with the Government's proposals for the settlement on the conscription is that there is an unjustified preparedness and the conscription is strong established with a democratic aspect. What can be clearly distinguished from the survey is that the politics of representation has a significant role. How problems in policy analysis is represented determines the outcome of the solution.

Illicit firearms and the proliferation of them are an increasingly discussed topic worldwide. This thesis uses content analysis to analyse the 2005 EU Strategy and revised version of it, the 2018 EU Strategy, on how to combat the proliferation of illicit firearms. With a post-structuralist approach, related theoretical aspects and the use of Carol Bacchis’ six questions in the What is the Problem Represented to Be? (WPR) approach, the thesis examines problem representations in the thesis, and discusses these to identify the shift of the representation of illicit firearms in the EU Strategies. By doing this, it is filling the research gap of policies on illicit firearms that are examining problem representations. The comparison between the two Strategies shows that there is a significant shift in the problem representation, and that contextual factors and norms play an important role in why this shift has taken place. The thesis has identified the political climate at the time of the implementation of the EU Strategies as a vital factor to the differences in the Strategies.

This research uses a modified version of Carol Bacchi’s (2016) “What’s theProblem Represented to Be?” approach to conduct a critical discourse analysison the 2016-2020 National Plan for Gender Equality for Greece published bythe Greek General Secretariat for Gender Equality under the auspices of theGreek Ministry of the Interior (MoI, 2018). The aim of this research study is toshow how gender equality is represented by the Greek General Secretariat forGender Equality and which are the implications and allegations throughdifferent problem representations.

This thesis explores the underlying assumptions guiding the United Nations’ activities in the Democratic Republic of the Congo with regard to conflict-related sexual violence (CRSV). The purpose is to reveal how the organization’s ‘End Impunity’ narrative represents the problem of CRSV and to analyze the ideational premises that legitimize the solution of increased accountability and prosecution. This thesis conducts a qualitative discourse analysis inspired by the ‘What’s the Problem Represented to be’ approach to analyze the implicit content of the narrative’s key policy texts. The results show that the narrative problematizes the inability of the Congolese judiciary to prosecute perpetrators, the disregard of legislation prohibiting sexual violence and the lack of justice provided to survivors of these crimes. These problematizations are reliant on assumptions of the rationality of perpetrators of sexual violence, as well as the universality of the Western human rights norm and ‘modern’ institutions. The findings suggest that the UN represents the problem of CRSV to be a problem of law and weak legal institutions in the DRC. Whilst this could be contingent on the ‘collapsed nature’ of the Congolese state, this thesis argues that as the DRC is a central case in the UN’s efforts to fight CRSV, the results of the analysis can be applied to the wider population of countries affected by conflict and sexual violence.

This study applies a post-structural discourse analysis developed by Carol Bacchi, called the WPR-approach, on both Estonia's and the Czech Republic's cyber security policy with the purpose of comparing it to the Swedish cyber security policy. It utilizes Foucauldian ideas about how policy creates rather than discovers “problems'' through representation, and what effects this can have. The purpose of this study is to contribute to the government's work to strengthen Swedish society's cyber security policies, which includes both the public and private sectors, through analysis and comparison of two previously vulnerable countries' policy documents. By previously exposed countries is meant here exposed to socially disruptive cyber-attacks. The results show that many of the identified fundamental problems in the two equivalent policies are not taken into care by the Swedish policy. A conclusion is drawn that the Swedish cybersecurity strategy seems to fail to sufficiently address in what way knowledge-raising measures are needed, especially at the strategic levels. This is important for enabling an overall positive cyber security climate which probably affects how well cyber security will be integrated in ordinary business processes. Lack of sufficient incentive structures seem equally important to acknowledge as well as to investigate further, and perhaps there is also a need for a more ambitious approach as well as a less vague view on responsibility. Finally, as other researchers suggest, there is an urgent need to conduct significantly more research in the interdisciplinary field of cyber security. / <p>2022-05-25</p>

This thesis focuses on work-life balance policy; one of the key field of EU gender equality policies. The purpose of this study was to analyze most recently proposed policy on work-life balance ‘An initiative to support work-life balance for working parents and carers’ that aims to upgrade existing policy and legal frameworks. The main objective of the study is to identify problem representation(s) of gender equality in the stated policy. The study objectives comprises of problematizing identified problem representation(s) by drawing attention to silences and underplayed issues including its far-reaching implications on various groups. Analysis presented in this thesis is guided by theoretical framework of poststuructural feminism chiefly through discourse analysis methodology. In that endeavor, Carol Bacchi’s ‘What’s the problem represented to be?’ (WPR) approach has been applied for discourse analysis of the policy by employing 3 out 6 postulated questions. The study identifies several problem representations of gender equality in the stated EU reconciliation policy. Among others, childcare responsibility is identified as the most dominant problem representation. Likewise, the study points out silenced issues in the policy. This includes structural challenges affecting accessibility and advancement of women in labour market, the type of work, division of unpaid work besides caring responsibilities, inequalities engendered by intersectional factors, well-being of individuals, family, children, elderly care and commitment from employing organizations. The study finally notes ensuing lived effects on women due to added responsibilities. The study analysis concludes some still present pitfalls in the modernized work-life balance policy.