Westerners have for centuries been present in Africa with different motives. The most recent phenomenon is young volunteers that, instead of being tourists in a normal sense, go to the continent to work within organizations as for example teachers. This study, where the empirical material is based on qualitative interviews done with twelve European volunteers during a minor field study in Ghana, aims to examine what apprehension the volunteers have of their role and function. To create an understanding for the purpose, questions on the meaning of the concept of volunteering, motives and outcomes of the volunteering experience as well as the view of westerners and Ghanaians have been asked. In the light of postcolonialism and volunteer tourism, the study shows a number of factors that explains motives and the understanding of the concept, with a focus on the learning and growth of the volunteer. The outcome circles around knowledge on development issues and aid work as well as being able to have an impact on Ghanaians and development in Ghana. The volunteers also show revulsion from other westerners (that want to “help” and have a “colonial” behavior) and Ghanaians, but at the same time they prefer to spend time with westerners. The volunteers’ apprehension of their role and function is found to be bipartite; expressed is that they are in Ghana to experience and to learn, but understood is also that they see it as their task to spread their view of life, help the locals and contribute to development. A possible explanation to this contradiction might be that the volunteers, grown up in a time where they have been taught “how they should think” about “Us” and “Them”, distance themselves from everything that disaffirm their belief. However, at the same time they are deeply influenced by the western society’s way of focusing on differences between people, differences with signatures such as “developed” and “underdeveloped”. It creates a complexity of knowing something but not being able to live by it. / Med en historisk tillbakablick ser man att västerlänningar länge och med olika motiv har varit närvarande i Afrika. De senaste i raden är unga volontärer som, istället för att vara turist i vanlig bemärkelse, åker till kontinenten för att arbeta inom organisationer som till exempel lärare. Denna studie, vars empiriska material bygger på en fältstudie i Ghana där kvalitativa intervjuer gjorts med tolv europeiska volontärer, syftar till att undersöka vilken förståelse volontärerna har av sin roll och funktion. För att skapa en idé kring syftet har frågor kring volontärkonceptets betydelse, motiv och effekter av volontärupplevelsen samt synen på västerlänningar och ghaneser ställts. I ljuset av postkolonialism och volontär turism visar studien på ett antal faktorer som förklarar motiv och volontärkonceptets betydelse, med fokus kring vikten av volontärens läroprocess och mognad. Effekterna handlar om kunskap kring utvecklingsfrågor och biståndsarbete samt en upplevelse av att kunna påverka ghaneser och utvecklingen i Ghana. De visar också på avståndstagande från både västerlänningar (som vill ”hjälpa” och har ”kolonialt” beteende) och ghaneser, samtidigt som de helst umgås med de förra. Volontärernas förståelse av sin roll och funktion upplevs tvådelad; uttryckt förstås den som någon som är i Ghana för att uppleva och lära sig, men det utläses också att de ser som sin uppgift att sprida sin livssyn, hjälpa lokalbefolkningen och medverka till utveckling. En möjlig förklaring till denna motsägelsefullhet kan vara att volontärerna, uppväxta i en tid där de lärt sig ”hur de ska tänka” om ”Vi” och ”Dem”, tar avstånd från allt som motsäger den synen men samtidigt är de också djupt påverkade av det västerländska samhällets fokus på skillnader mellan folk, skillnader med förtecken så som ”utvecklade” och ”underutvecklade”. Det skapar en komplexitet av att vara medveten om något men inte kunna leva efter det.

The purpose of this research has been to investigate possible reasons for why honour related oppression exist in Sweden as well as to find out how some voluntary organisations work to change honour oppression related attitudes. The questions that the reserachers were trying to answer were (1) What are the possible causes for honour related oppression in Sweden? (2) How can honour related oppression be identified? (3) What are the voluntary organisations doing to change these attitudes? To answer these questions a qualitative method was used. The reserachers examined what leading researchers in this area thought were the reasons to why honour related oppression exist and then carried out interviews with participants from four voluntary organisations. A social constructional approached were chosen as the theoretical framework for this research and the results were also analysed from several perspectives. The reserachers found that the reasons for the honour related oppression links to the upkeep of old traditions and customs as well as gaps in the Swedish integration of immigrants. The researchers concluded that the honour related oppression exist due to old habits that can change over time.

Syftet med vår studie var att undersöka på vilket sätt ideellt arbete upplevs av arbetslösa personer. Vi valde att göra studien på den ideella musikföreningen Pipeline. En kvalitativ metod användes för att kunna ta del av intervjupersonernas upplevelser gällande ideellt arbete. Studien bestod av fem intervjuer med personer som hade eller haft praktik på Pipeline. Praktiken var arbetspraktik för arbetslösa eller praktik för ungdomar på individuella programmet. Resultatet visade att personerna upplevde gemenskap, bra ledarskap, motivation och en känsla av sammanhang i det ideella arbetet. / The purpose of our study was to see in which way unemployed person´s life was affected by working in a voluntary organization. The study was made on the music organization Pipeline. We choose to make the study in a quality method, to be able to take part in the people´s own experiences with voluntary work. The study was made by interviewing five persons who had work related practice for unemployed or for youths at the individual program. The results showed that the people experienced fellowship, good leadership, motivation, a sense of coherence in voluntary work.

Background: The last few years a globalization of the capital market has occurred. This have led to that it is more important for the companies that their financial information can be compared with other companies in order to compete on same grounds. In order to fa-cilitate for the companies within EU to compete with other companies and in order to strive for an internal market EU decided that IFRS should be used by all listed companies within the union. Problem: In 2006 the first financial reports according to IFRS will be published, and then it will be interesting to investigate how the companies have chosen to communicate the transition to its stakeholders. According to IFRS some information is compulsive but the companies have chosen to disclose voluntary information to a different degree. Purpose: The purpose of this study is to describe to what extent the Swedish listed com-panies have reported the transition to IFRS in their consolidated financial statements. Method: In this essay a quantitative method have been chosen in order to find general re-lations. The data collection is done with help of an evaluation model that have been devel-oped for this study. The data have been collected from the chosen companies’ annual re-ports. Conclusion: The study shows that the amounts of information about the transition to IFRS within the company’s annual reports vary a lot. The result of the transition is also varying. The study shows a connection between the companies’ net sales and how much in-formation the companies publish in their annual reports. The study found no relation be-tween how the transition to IFRS affected the companies equity or the result and how much voluntary information that was disclosed. / Bakgrund: De senaste åren har en stark globalisering av kapitalmarknaden skett. Detta har lett till att det har blivit viktigare för företagen att deras finansiella information kan jämföras med andra företag för att konkurrera på samma grunder. För att underlätta för företagen inom EU att konkurrera med andra företag och för att fortsätta strävan efter en inre marknad har EU beslutat att IFRS skall tillämpas av alla börsnoterade företag inom unionen. Problem: 2006 kommer de första årsredovisningarna enligt IFRS att publiceras, det är då intressant att undersöka hur företagen valt att kommunicera övergången till sina intressen-ter. I IFRS anges att en del information är tvingande men företagen har valt att I olika om-fattning ha med frivillig information. Syfte: Att beskriva i vilken omfattning de svenska börsnoterade företagen har rapporterat övergången till IFRS i sin koncernredovisning. Metod: I denna uppsats har en kvantitativ metod valts för att generella samband skall hit-tas. Datainsamlingen sker genom ett utvärderingsunderlag som utvecklats för denna studie. Data har samlats in från de utvalda företagens årsredovisningar. Slutsats: Undersökningen visar att mängden information om övergången till IFRS i företagens årsredovisning varierar kraftigt. Även resultatet är varierande. Det finns ett samband mellan företagens omsättning och hur mycket information företagen publicerar I sina års-redovisningar. Det finns dock inget samband mellan hur övergången till IFRS påverkat eget kapital eller resultat och mängden information.

Swedish voluntary associations, folkrörelser have been honoredwith a gilt-edged history, a chronicle in need of criticalnuance. Those mass movements which at the time of thebreakthrough of democracy and the welfare society were bearers ofcivic ideals and visions have changed in character and metcompetition from other organizations. Over the years theorganizational sphere as well as its enviroment have evolved intosomething of a completely different nature.The purpose of this study is to reconstruct the communityfunctions of voluntary associations; and to identify theconditions under which voluntary associations are able to promotedifferent political cultures.The analyses prove that voluntary associations in the welfaresociety occupy community functions located between the extremesof a service and a pressure function. Extrapolated to themacro-level they are on the way to a privatist and pluralistsociety, respectively. Few, if any, organizations maintain forcesthat point in the direction of a civil or state society.Organizations push society onto a path leading towards pluralismand individualism, but what does this imply for the developmentof the whole social formation? A variety of forces maycounterbalance the aspirations of voluntary associations. In thewelfare society key emphasis must be placed on what happens whenorganizations meet the challenge imposed by the volumnious growthof the public sector.The capacity of organizations to change the enviroment isdependent on the scale and thoroughness of public intervention:the more extensive government interventionism, the harder it isfor organizations to leave their imprint on the making of apolitical culture. If, however, the integration of the economic,social, and political arenas was to disintegrate or the arenaswere to become softer in their contours, organization potentialswould grow stronger. Voluntary associations are more reactivethan active in political conditions characterized by integratedarenas and government interventionism; reducing publicintervention is a prerequisite for organizations to be able toreshape the political culture. / digitalisering@umu

Titel: Företagens behov av revision, efter avskaffandet av revisions-plikten för mindre företag i Sverige. Nivå: C-uppsats i ämnet företagsekonomi Författare: Jonas Lööw-Ohlson, Malin Vestlund Handledare: Markku PenttinenDatum: 2013-02-20 Syfte: Syftet med detta arbete är att undersöka hur revisionspliktens avskaffande påverkat de olika aktörer som berörs av denna förändring och att utifrån detta identifiera de faktorer som styr behovet och valet av frivillig revision i små aktiebolag i Sverige. Metod: Undersökningen har ett deduktivt angreppssätt med kvalitativ inriktning då insamlandet av empirisk data utgått ifrån den satta referensramen. Resultat och slutsats: Fördelar för företagen att välja frivillig revision är främst att revision anses tillföra tillförlitlighet till räkenskaperna och fungera som en kvalitetsstämpel för företaget i dess kontakter med yttre intressenter. Företagens behov av revision beror på vilka krav och förväntningar som ställs på deras redovisning från olika intressenter och hur väl revisionen hjälper företagen att uppfylla dessa krav. Det avgörande är om företagen upplever att den nytta de får av att välja frivillig revision uppväger kostnaden. Många av de farhågor och förhoppningar som de olika intressenterna hade inför avskaffandet har infriats. Det är dock ännu för tidigt att se hur skatteintäkter, skattefel och ekobrottslighet påverkats, men det ser inte ut som att det ska få så stor inverkan som förväntat, om någon alls. Det har även visat sig att inte heller räntor och lånevillkor påverkats så mycket som några intressenter trott dådetta hänt i andra länder. Bankerna riktar in sig mer på nuläget i företagen och det enda som påverkats är att det kan ta längre tid att få lån och krediter godkända om inte det finns tillräckligt bra bedömningsunderlag tillgängliga.Avskaffandet har lett till att marknaden för revisions- och redovisningsbyråer har förändrats. Det fanns olika bud om vilka som skulle vara de största förlorarna i denna förändring. Det som framkommer är att varken redovisningsbyråer eller större revisions-byråer påverkats i så stor utsträckning. Redovisningsbyråerna kan märka av en större konkurrens då många revisionsbyråer nu erbjuder redovisningstjänster i större utsträckning än tidigare. Revision ersätts av redovisningstjänster. Det har startats samarbeten mellan olika intressenter och en utveckling av regelverk i syfte att kvalitetssäkra redovisning och inkomstdeklarationer. Alla aktörer i undersökningen är positiva till en höjning av gränsvärdena till EU-nivå. Förslag till fortsatt forskning: Det skulle vara intressant att se en liknande undersökning lite längre fram i tiden med mer statistiskt underlag. Exempelvis vid 5 år och 10 år efter förändringen. Det skulle också vara intressant med en jämförelse av de företag som väljer att inte ha revisor. Hur stor andel som anlitar en redovisningsbyrå och hur stor andel sköter bokföringen själva? Finns det skillnader här mellan och inom olika branscher? Det skulle också vara intressant att se en större kvantitativ undersökning bland de berörda företagen i Sverige, gällande vilka faktorer som gjort att de valt att ha revision respektive valt att ta bort den, likt den gjord av Collis i England. Det kan vara intressant att se hur stor betydelse de påverkansfaktorer som identifierats har i företagens val och om det finns andra faktorer som kan spela in och vara mer avgörande. Exempelvis direkta krav från kreditgivare, upplevd nytta mm. Uppsatsens bidrag: Uppsatsen bidrar till en ökad förståelse hur revisionspliktens avskaffande påverkat de olika aktörerna och hur de ser på en framtida höjning av gränsvärdena till EU-nivå. Den identifierar de faktorer som styr de berörda företagens behov av revision. Den visar också de anpassningar som skett och fortfarande sker av både angreppssätt och arbetssätt, hos de berörda aktörerna, i en strävan att hjälpa företagen att leva upp till lagstiftade kvalitetskrav som finns på årsredovisning och inkomstdeklaration. Nyckelord: Revisionsplikt, obligatorisk, frivillig, revision, redovisning, avskaffande / Title: Companies needs of the audit, after the abolition of the statutory audit for smaller companies in Sweden. Level: Final assignment for Bachelor Degree in Business Administration Authors: Jonas Lööw-Ohlson & Malin Vestlund Supervisor: Markku PenttinenDate: 2013-02-20 Aim: The purpose of this work is to investigate how the abolishment of the statutory audit affected the different actors involved in this change, and that on this basis identify the factors that control the need and choice of voluntary audit for small companies in Sweden. Method: This study has a deductive, qualitative approach, as the gathering of empirical data is based on the set framework. Results and Conclusions: Benefits for companies to choose voluntary audit is primarily that the audit is considered to bring reliability to the accounts and it provides a quality stamp for the company in its dealings with external stakeholders. The companies need for audit depends on the demands and expectations placed on their accounts from different stakeholders and how well the audit helps them to meet these requirements. The decisive factor is if the companies feel that the benefits they get from choosing voluntary audit outweigh the cost. Many of the concerns and aspirations that the various stakeholders had prior to the abolishment of the statutory audit has actually become a reality. However it is still too early to see what impact the abolishment will have on taxes and financial crime, but it does not seem like it will have as big of an effect as they thought it would have, if any at all. It has also been shown that neither interest rates nor loan terms have been affected as much as some of the stakeholders expected, as that had happened in other countries. Banks focus more on the current situation of the companies and the only thing that it could affect is that it may take longer for the companies to get loans and credits approved if not good enough documentation needed for assessment is available. The abolishment has led to that the market for audit and accounting firms has changed. There were different views on what kind of firms would be the biggest losers of this change. What emerges is that neither accounting firms nor larger audit firms are affected very much. Accounting firms may notice some more competition as audit firms now offer accounting services to a greater extent than before. Audit services are replaced by accounting services. Collaborations between different stakeholders and a development of regulatory framework in order to ensure the quality of the accounts and income tax returns has been started after the abolishment. All participants in the survey are in favor of raising the limit to the EU level. Suggestions for future research: It would be interesting to see a similar study a little further ahead in time with more statistical data. For example at five and ten years after the change. It would also be interesting to have a comparison of the companies that choose not to have an auditor. How many of the companies that hires an accounting firm for help and how many that handles the bookkeeping themselves. Are there differences here between and within different industries? It would also be interesting to see a larger quantitative survey among the companies in Sweden, regarding the factors that led to the choice of keeping the audit or removing it, like the survey made by Collis in England. It might be interesting to see how significant the impact factors identified have been for the companies and if there are other factors that have made a difference and been more decisive. For example, direct claims by creditors, perceived benefits etc. Contribution of the thesis: This paper contributes to a better understanding of how the abolishment of the statutory audit affected the different actors and what they think of a future increase of the limits to EU level. It identifies the factors driving the companies need for audit. It also shows the adjustments that have occurred and still occurs in both approaches and practices, of the actors involved, in an effort to help companies meet statutory quality requirements on the annual accounts and tax returns. Keywords: Statutory Audit, mandatory, voluntary, audit, accounting, abolishment

Voluntary wheel running is rewarding and believed to activate the same brain reward system as in alcohol and drug addiction. Brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF), a well-known growth factor widely expressed in the brain, is modulated by both voluntary exercise and alcohol consumption. The aim of this study was to evaluate how voluntary exercise affects the expression levels of BDNF and its receptor TrkB in brain regions involved in positive and negative reinforcement. Additionally we wanted to evaluate the effect it may have on alcohol drinking behaviors in C57BL/6 mice, a mouse model which are naturally prone for engaging in voluntary exercise and voluntary alcohol consumption. We found a small upregulation in DG and CA1 after three weeks of exercise, confirming findings by others, and a significant 3-fold downregulation of BDNF in NAc after both three weeks of exercise and exercise followed by a five week period of either ethanol intake or not. Interestingly, we here show a significant 100-fold increase in BDNF after exercise and a 120-fold increase after both exercise and alcohol consumption in amygdala, a region involved in regulation of anxiety-related behavior and negative reinforcement. Additionally a slightly lower 10-fold increase in BDNF was seen after exercise and a 15-fold increase after exercise followed by ethanol in prefrontal cortex, a structure contributing to reward-related behavior. Behaviorally, we could not either directly following exercise or at five weeks post-exercise detect any significant effect of wheel-running on depression-related behavior. However, we did find that exercise significantly increased the alcohol intake.

Sedan 2005 är det obligatoriskt för alla företag som har aktier eller andra värdepapper noterade på börs inom EU att upprätta koncernredovisning enligt IFRS. Detta beslut fattades av Europaparlamentet och rådet för att få en ökad jämförbarhet gällande redovisningen mellan olika länder samt för att företag ska ha samma tillgång till de globala kapitalmarknaderna. Det är främst på grund av den ökade internationaliseringen som en gemensam redovisningsstandard skapats för att åstadkomma en harmonisering mellan olika länders redovisning. För onoterade bolag som inte behöver använda IFRS finns möjligheten att frivilligt tillämpa de internationella redovisningsreglerna istället för nationella redovisningsregler. Syftet med denna studie är därför att undersöka vilka faktorer som förklarar frivillig tillämpning av IFRS i svenska onoterade bolag. Studien behandlar organisatoriska faktorer som rör förhållanden inom företagen samt miljöfaktorer vilka innefattar företagens yttre omgivning. Utifrån Positiv redovisningsteori och Institutionell teori har hypoteser formulerats som sedan testats statistiskt för att jämföra företag som tillämpar de internationella redovisningsreglerna med företag som använder nationella redovisningsregler. På så vis kan samband mellan olika faktorer och frivillig tillämpning av IFRS undersökas. För studiens genomförande har en kvantitativ metod applicerats. Genom en dokumentstudie där årsredovisningar granskats har det varit möjligt att samla in data för företagen som sedan använts för den statistiska analysen. Resultatet av undersökningen visar att faktorerna bonus för VD kopplad till företagets vinst, utländskt ägarskap, utländska intäkter, storlek samt val av revisionsbyrå tillhörande ”the big four” förklarar och har ett samband med frivillig tillämpning av IFRS i svenska onoterade koncernbolag. / Since 2005 it is mandatory for all companies that have shares or other securities listed on a stock exchange within the EU to prepare their consolidated accounts in accordance with IFRS. This decision was taken by the European Parliament and the Council to get a better comparability regarding the accounting in different countries and for companies to have equal access to the global capital markets. It is mainly because of the increased internationalization that a common accounting standard has been created to harmonize different countries’ accounting.  For unlisted companies that do not need to use IFRS, there is the possibility to voluntarily apply the international accounting standards instead of national accounting rules. The purpose of this study is therefore to investigate the factors that explain voluntary application of IFRS in Swedish unlisted companies. The study focuses on the organizational factors regarding conditions in the firms and environmental factors which include the firms’ external environment. Based on Positive accounting theory and Institutional theory hypotheses have been formulated which are then tested statistically to compare companies that apply international accounting standards with companies that use national accounting rules. In this way relationships between various factors and voluntary application of IFRS can be investigated.  For the performance of the study a quantitative method has been applied. By a document study where annual reports have been reviewed, it has been possible to collect data for the companies that then were used for the statistical analysis. The result of the investigation shows that the factors bonus for CEO linked to the company’s profit, foreign ownership, foreign revenues, size and the choice of auditing firm within the ”big four” explain and have a connection with the voluntary application of IFRS in Swedish unlisted group companies.

Current literature on the developmentally disabled indicates they represent a large untapped labor pool that is significantly inhibited in its inclusion in the community. To address this unnecessary isolation, Right in the Community (RitC), a voluntary agency in Cobb County, Georgia, wanted to innovate its service offering by providing meaningful and sustainable work opportunities for those that are severely developmentally disabled. The Competing Values Framework (CVF) offers a dynamic and robust theoretical framework that has been adapted to explain many business factors in addition to organizational effectiveness. Based on a fourteen-month action research engagement at RitC, I adapted the CVF to concentrate on the dimensions of organizational focus, strategy formation and motivational traits to understand and guide service innovation in a voluntary organization. My research aided RitC’s development of a program to provide meaningful and sustainable work opportunities for those that are severely developmentally disabled. From a theoretical standpoint, I have added new knowledge on managing service innovation in voluntary organizations and adapted CVF for understanding and guiding service innovation in that particular context.

Both authors of this study have been involved in the School of Business at Umeå University Student Association (HHUS) and is due this discovery deficiencies and problems within the association. The pressure to engage in HHUS is compared with other financial organizations around the country very low. This led us to consider why this is the case. From experience we know that communication between the association and its members are not functioning optimally. Communication itself is essential for motivating students and for that motivation should be high for the students to experience good quality on the engagement.   The purpose of this study is to identify lines of communication and motivational factors that affect students who are members of HHUS to get involved or not. By demonstrating and explaining any shortcomings of this study, we show how these deficiencies affect engagement in HHUS. In carrying out this study we have used the theories in communication, motivation and service quality.   The study has been conducted in an objective manner with a positivistic approach. Through a deductive research approach with elements of induction, we start from theories in the above areas that concern our problem. Based on these theories, we have created a questionnaire that we distributed to all members of the HHUS group at Facebook, 113 of them completed the questionnaire. Based on the collected data received the survey have been analyzed by using SPSS.   Our study shows that the communication channels that work least well for HHUS is the plasma screen, closely followed by the website. Best working channels was communication through Facebook and friends. We also discovered weakness in communication between HHUS and their members, which affects the ability to motivate students. What motivates students to become involved proves to be both to develop personally, but also to sharpen their resume. The biggest reason that students choose not to get involved is because they perceive the work environment within HHUS to be bad.   Finally, we also examined how the quality of service commitment HHUS delivers. Through the use of a gap analysis, we investigated whether there were any deficiencies in the service. There has revealed that HHUS not really know what students want to engage in and as a result of this, they are also poor at adapting their entries by students' preferences.