Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Social Administration'

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O presente trabalho tem como finalidade a identificação dos fundamentos de uma sociologia da Administração Pública brasileira. Para tanto, uma gama de formulações teóricas são estudadas a fim de obter um panorama sobre as interpretações a respeito da natureza da Administração Pública no país. A metodologia deste trabalho consiste, portanto, em estudar o pensamento social brasileiro relativo à formação histórica do Estado brasileiro e suas implicações para a sua administração pública. Para tanto, adotamos duas grandes categorias do pensamento social brasileiro: a primeira vertente traz, fundamentalmente, a discussão sobre o país patrimonialista, cujas referências críticas atribuem uma cultura particularista do Estado para com o trato da coisa pública; a segunda discute a ação tutelar do Estado sobre a sociedade, cuja finalidade seria concretizar uma nação organizada e cumprir sua missão civilizatória sobre a sociedade. Ao articular tais vertentes interpretativas, temos uma concepção comum a ambas: a administração pública brasileira é de natureza peculiar, derivada de uma densa rede de relações entre Estado, instituições e sociedade civil. Complementarmente, interessa-nos localizar determinados legados históricos, que persistem a despeito das sucessivas reformas pelas quais passou o aparelho do Estado brasileiro. Assim, delineado o contexto histórico reformista e dadas as exposições, contraposições e proximidades entre os autores, traçamos um panorama sobre a administração pública no contexto do pensamento social brasileiro. A intenção, portanto, é contribuir para uma tipificação, ainda que preliminar, dos trabalhos de viés sociológico sobre a administração pública no Brasil
This work aims to identify the foundations of a sociology of the Brazilian Public Administration. Thus, a range of intellectual formulations are studied to obtain an overview on the interpretations regarding the nature of the public administration in the country. The methodology of this study consists in studying the Brazilian social thought on the historical formation of the State and its implications for public administration. Therefore, it was adopted two broad categories of Brazilian social thought: the first part provides essentially the discussion on the patrimonial country, which critic references attribute a particularist culture of the State to deal with public affairs; the second discusses the tutelary action of the State over society, whose purpose would be to bring an organized nation and to realize a civilizing mission. By articulating such interpretative aspects, there is a common conception to both: the Brazilian public administration has a peculiar nature, derived from a dense network of relations between State, institutions and civil society. In addition, there is an interest in identifying some historical legacies related to successive reforms that the Brazilian state has passed. As a result, after the presentation of the reformist historical context and given the exhibitions, oppositions and proximities between the authors, it was traced a panorama of the administration in the context of Brazilian social thought. The intention therefore is to contribute to a classification, although preliminary, of the works about sociological feature on the public administration in Brazil

Orientador: Angelo Del Vecchio
Banca: Fernando Luiz Abrucio
Banca: Edson Bariani Junior
Resumo: O presente trabalho tem como finalidade a identificação dos fundamentos de uma sociologia da Administração Pública brasileira. Para tanto, uma gama de formulações teóricas são estudadas a fim de obter um panorama sobre as interpretações a respeito da natureza da Administração Pública no país. A metodologia deste trabalho consiste, portanto, em estudar o pensamento social brasileiro relativo à formação histórica do Estado brasileiro e suas implicações para a sua administração pública. Para tanto, adotamos duas grandes categorias do pensamento social brasileiro: a primeira vertente traz, fundamentalmente, a discussão sobre o país patrimonialista, cujas referências críticas atribuem uma cultura particularista do Estado para com o trato da coisa pública; a segunda discute a ação tutelar do Estado sobre a sociedade, cuja finalidade seria concretizar uma nação organizada e cumprir sua missão civilizatória sobre a sociedade. Ao articular tais vertentes interpretativas, temos uma concepção comum a ambas: a administração pública brasileira é de natureza peculiar, derivada de uma densa rede de relações entre Estado, instituições e sociedade civil. Complementarmente, interessa-nos localizar determinados legados históricos, que persistem a despeito das sucessivas reformas pelas quais passou o aparelho do Estado brasileiro. Assim, delineado o contexto histórico reformista e dadas as exposições, contraposições e proximidades entre os autores, traçamos um panorama sobre a administração pública no contexto do pensamento social brasileiro. A intenção, portanto, é contribuir para uma tipificação, ainda que preliminar, dos trabalhos de viés sociológico sobre a administração pública no Brasil
Abstract: This work aims to identify the foundations of a sociology of the Brazilian Public Administration. Thus, a range of intellectual formulations are studied to obtain an overview on the interpretations regarding the nature of the public administration in the country. The methodology of this study consists in studying the Brazilian social thought on the historical formation of the State and its implications for public administration. Therefore, it was adopted two broad categories of Brazilian social thought: the first part provides essentially the discussion on the patrimonial country, which critic references attribute a particularist culture of the State to deal with public affairs; the second discusses the tutelary action of the State over society, whose purpose would be to bring an organized nation and to realize a civilizing mission. By articulating such interpretative aspects, there is a common conception to both: the Brazilian public administration has a peculiar nature, derived from a dense network of relations between State, institutions and civil society. In addition, there is an interest in identifying some historical legacies related to successive reforms that the Brazilian state has passed. As a result, after the presentation of the reformist historical context and given the exhibitions, oppositions and proximities between the authors, it was traced a panorama of the administration in the context of Brazilian social thought. The intention therefore is to contribute to a classification, although preliminary, of the works about sociological feature on the public administration in Brazil
Mestre

The majority of building code development and implementation practices are normally connected with the progress of construction community changing awareness, needs and perspectives, advanced technology in construction and new level of knowledge. Unproven practices and the technology of building code development and implementation in case of insufficient and outdated codes, the use of unproven advanced codes of other countries, or the infringement of the existing codes, in most cases, could lead to a large number of shortcomings of minimum requirements of public health, safety and general welfare, and poor quality of buildings. Every aspect of a building code development and implementation practice could be influenced by insufficiencies and infringements in building codes/regulations that could cause buildings failures. Generally, the success of a building code development and implementation practice is directly connected with the involved insufficiencies and infringements in the framework of building code (legal, Administrative, technical, & social), i.e. faults of building code development and implementation should be successfully resolved in order to come to an end of a building project assuring code's objectives (public health, safety and general welfare). One of the early research problems of building code development and implementation practice was conducted by Productivity Commission (2004) where the research organized and categorized the causes of shortcomings of BC according to four main functions of building code, including legal, administrative, technical, and social functions. Productivity Commission Research had been the starting point of research problems of building codes in Kuwait. For the past 20 years, many researchers have high numbers of categories, components and rankings to explain different types of insufficiencies and infringements in building codes/regulations. However, these categories and rankings produce inconsistent and overlapping cause and impact factors. In addition, researchers and practitioners at this point tend to focus on the technical and administrative sides related to the issues of building codes development and implementation, and neglecting the importance of legal and social sides. Legal issues like finding a law to prepare and enforce building codes, cover of insurance companies, building materials testing system, weak regulations related issues, building specifications, and clarity of regulation texts; as well as social issues like community awareness, issuing and enforcing legal court rules, deterrent punishments for violators, violations or cheatings in related issues, all of these were deemed not that critical by most reviewers. The research is specifically concerned with the insufficiencies and infringements in building codes/regulations which cause shortcomings of minimum requirements of public health, safety and general welfare, and how related cause and impact factors are selected and organized. Existing research highlights the need for further researches of how to relate between research and building regulations that are at present. There is evidence that construction industries around the world have little experience in this area (CIB TG37, 2001). The proposal within this research is to address this aspect of the debate by seeking to clarify the role of the four functions of building code; legal, administrative, technical, and social function as a frame of reference that stakeholder parties (building officials, design and construction professionals) might agree with and which should act as the basis for the selection and formation of occurrences of cause factors, and their iv impact on public health, safety and general welfare. The focus on the four functions of building code as a fault (cause) frame of reference potentially leads to a common, practical view of the (multi) dimensionality setting of fault (cause) within which cause factors may be identified and which, we believe, could be grounded across a wide range of practices specifically in this research of building code development and implementation. The research surveyed and examined the opinions of building officials, design and construction professionals. We assess which fault (cause) factors are most likely to occur in building and construction projects; evaluate fault (cause) impact by assessing which fault (cause) factors that building officials, design and construction professionals specifically think are likely to arise in the possibility of shortcomings of minimum requirements of public health, safety and general welfare. The data obtained were processed, analyzed and ranked. By using the EXCEL and SPSS for factor analysis, all the fault (cause) factors were reduced and groups into clusters and components for further correlation analysis. The analysis was able to prove an opinion on fault (cause) likelihood, the impact of the fault (cause) on the objectives of building code. The analysis indicates that it is possible to identify grouping of insufficiencies and infringements in building codes/regulations that is correspondent to the different parts of the framework of building code (legal, Administrative, technical, & social) these suggest three identified groups when viewing cause from the likelihood occurrence and four identified groups and their impact for each building code objective. The evidence related to the impact of building code objectives, view of cause, and provides a stronger view of which components of cause were important compared with cause likelihood. The research accounts for the difference by suggesting that a more selection and formation of cause and impact, offered by viewing cause within the context of a framework of building code, and viewing impact within the context of building code objectives (public health, safety and general welfare) allows those involved in building code development and implementation to have an understandable view of the relationships within cause factors, and between cause and impact factors. It also allows the various cause components and the associated emergent clusters to be more readily identified. The contribution of the research relates to the assessment of cause within a construction that is defined in the context of a fairly broad accepted view of the framework of building code (legal, Administrative, technical, & social). The fault (cause) likelihood construction is based on the building code framework proposed in this research and could facilitates a focus on roles and responsibilities, and allows the coordination and integration of activities for regular development and implementation with the building code goals. This contribution would better enable building officials and code writers to identify and manage faults (causes) as they emerge with BC aspects/parts and more closely reflect building and construction activities and processes and facilitate the fault (cause) administration exercise.

Over the last decade, the advent of social media such as online product reviews (e.g., Amazon.com),blogs and other social networking sites (e.g., Facebook.com) has dramatically changed the way consumers obtain and exchange information about products. This dissertation investigates the impact of various types of social media on product performance and compares the effectiveness of social and traditional media under various conditions. Specifically, the first chapter performs a meta-analysis of consumer-generated WOM elasticity in social media to identify the factors that influence the impact of WOM on product sales and to assess the generalizability of the relationship. The second chapter examines how social media may influence product performance in different product contexts as compared with traditional media, which assists managers in making better media decisions. Taken together, this dissertation evaluates the progress in this field, and then takes a step further by applying past findings to understand how social media may perform at various stages in the product lifecycle.
Ph.D.
Doctorate
Dean's Office, Business Administration
Business Administration
Business Administration; Marketing

This study assessed the extent to which multiple administrations of an intensity scale; in this case, the Simulator Sickness Questionnaire (SSQ), influences participant responding on subsequent administrations of the same scale. The first experiment sought to determine this by using a laboratory task in which one group of participants were asked to watch a number of identical videos depicting a simulated drive from the driver's point of view, and fill out an SSQ and Center for Epidemiological Studies Depression Scale (CES-D) between viewings of the videos. Another group of participants were asked to view the videos, but were only asked to fill out the SSQ and CES-D once before the first video and once after the last video. Overall, it was found that multiple administrations of the SSQ and CES-D do not substantially influence subsequent responding on both scales. The second experiment sought to replicate the findings from the first experiment online by using Amazon's Mechanical Turk service. Here, the same pattern of responding to the SSQ was found. Together, these findings suggest that additional administrations of an intensity scale; in this case, the SSQ, do not substantially influence participant responding on subsequent administrations.

Purpose & Research questions: The purpose of this study is to examine how the use of social media as a marketing channel has influenced the company's way of working. With this purpose in mind, our research questions were formulated as follows: 1. Why are social media agencies a growing phenomenon, even though there are clear tendencies that social media are designed to be, as far as possible, a free method for all users? 2. Why do business companies purchase social media agencies to succeed in social media? Methodology: Qualitative method with a selection of eight semistructured interviews. Conclusion: The study's findings show that social media as a marketing channel has contributed to a change in companies way of working. The study shows that it is knowledge and time that are the mainfactors why companies choose to outsource a part of their organization. Furthermore the communication between consumers and companies has changed significantly. The social media agencies are growing in the same pace as the social media are developing.

La lutte contre les exclusions est actuellement au cœur des débats politiques. La notion d'exclusion s'est progressivement imposée dans le langage social. Mais le cadre juridique dans lequel s'inscrit la lutte contre les exclusions est le fruit d'un processus de longue date. Il s'agit principalement du droit de l'aide et de l'action sociales. Alors que l'Etat a longtemps été le seul cadre institutionnel d'intervention sociale, les différentes collectivités territoriales sont aujourd'hui totalement impliquées dans ce domaine. La décentralisation avait permis d'effectuer une répartition des compétences afin de définir le rôle de chaque niveau institutionnel. Cette répartition a progressivement été remise en cause par l'évolution des phénomènes sociaux. Au niveau juridique, l'exclusion a participé à l'évolution du droit, notamment par la recherche d'une garantie d'accès aux droits, qui a eu pour effet de constater les limites des droits sociaux en posant le problème de leur opposabilité
The fight against exclusions is currently in the heart of the political debates. The concept of exclusion gradually was essential in the social language. But the legal framework in which the fight against exclusions fits is the fruit of a process of long date. It acts mainly of the right of the assistance and the social action. Whereas the State was a long time the only institutional framework of social intervention, the various local authorities today are completely implied in this field. Decentralization had made it possible to carry out a distribution of competences in order to define the role of each institutional level. This distribution was gradually called into question by the evolution of the social phenomena. At the legal level, exclusion took part in the evolution of the right, in particular by the search for a guarantee of access to the rights, which caused to note the limits of the social rights by posing the problem of their opposability

The central question addressed was what motivates small business leaders to incorporate social responsibility in their companies' mission, vision, and culture. In particular, there is a knowledge gap about what motivates small business leaders to take both financial and non-financial actions to support their employees, their local economies, and their communities. Interviews with three small business owners in Michigan were coded to identify key emergent themes explaining why small business leaders contributed to their local communities. Theoretical or conceptual support for the study included Carroll's social performance model, Vroom's expectancy theory, and CCI strategies. The literature review included that of motivation and social responsibility. The interviews were coded, analyzed, and six themes emerged. The participants were concerned with being socially responsible and motivation comes from defining social responsibility and finding ways to fulfill a need. Employees play a key role in creating and continuing an environment set by the example of the owner and this is done through repetition, thus aligning business practices with being socially responsible. Lastly, connection to people helps build relationships, while being cognizant of initiatives to protect the environment, thus Going Green initiatives. After the research, the researcher developed the Small Business Community Involvement model (SBCI), based on the themes. This model can help small business leaders looking to partake in socially responsible activities. This study is significant because it will improve understanding of social responsibility in the small business sector.

Throughout the nineties a range of factors, not least the series of suicides at Cornton Vale women's prison, highlighted concerns about how the criminal justice system deals with female offenders in Scotland. There has been a review of community-based disposals and the use of custody for women (Scottish Office, 1998a), an Inspection of Cornton Vale was conducted (HMI, 2001), and a Ministerial Group on Women's Offending was set up (Scottish Executive, 2002a). Despite this concern the numbers of female offenders being sentenced to custody has continued to rise. This study sought to examine the nature of criminal justice social work services delivered to female offenders and the way in which ideological and policy shifts have impacted on it. Differences relating to gender, with regard to both practitioners and clients, within the context of criminal justice social work in Scotland,w ere considered.T his included a consideration of the impact of the policy shift from the "welfare" to the "justice" model. Thirty-five interviews were conducted with criminal justice social work staff and material was drawn from 420 Social Enquiry Reports. The study examined practices and policies which relate to how women are supervised, how these relate to the presentation of information in social enquiry reports, and in turn how this may relate to the final court disposal imposed. A discrepancy between policy and practice was identified in that the latter draws on the "welfare" model more than is endorsed by formal policy. This greater emphasis on the "welfare" model applies to work with female offenders in particular. There were concerns amongst criminal justice social work staff that such a difference in approach might be discriminatory. A new "welfare" model of supervision appears to have been adopted in the supervision of female offenders. This model emphasised the importance of the working relationship, between supervisor and client, within which women offenders should be allowed scope for negotiation. Information on female offenders derived from both interviews with criminal justice staff and the data obtained from SERs is used to review social control theory (Hirschi, 1969), as it exists, as an explanation of female offending. Carlen's study (1988) of female offenders suggested that integral to their involvement in offending was a rejection of the controls to which they are subjected and of their gender roles. By contrast the profile of women offenders as identified in this study suggests that women are offending partly in an endeavour to conform to, or at least cope with, their gender roles. Female offenders were reported as having experienced greater adversity and this appears to havee licited a protective response from social workers. This protection began in women's childhoods and is evident in their treatment as adults. The organisation of community service is considered by female social workers to have an inherent gender bias which renders it less suitable for female offenders. These concerns appear to have foundation in terms of an apparent gender bias in the operation of community service schemes. Female offenders sentenced to community service were more likely to have had their SERs compiled by male SER writers, while female offenders sentenced to probation were more likely to have their SERs compiled by female SER writers. Female social workers specifically appear to adopt a stronger welfare orientation when compiling reports on female offenders apparently motivated by an inclination to protect. This has implications for gender specific allocation of work. The effect is not protection if reports arc undermining community service as a possible alternative to custody for women, as appears to be the case when the SER writer is female.

Previous research has indicated that social capital and social effectiveness may have positive influences on entrepreneurial venture success. While the concept of social capital has been a popular topic in research fields, including both social science and economics, few empirical studies have considered the effect of both social capital and social effectiveness in conjunction with the success of ventures created by entrepreneurs. The Young Presidents’ Organization (YPO) is a worldwide organization created in 1950 to provide education and support for executives who found themselves in leadership positions with few peers. Today that organization has grown to over 18,000 members. This study surveyed the members of YPO and examined their social capital structure and their social effectiveness utilizing the Political Skills Inventory instrument, and compared both variables with various levels of success metrics. The research first looked at demographic characteristics of these entrepreneurs and compared them to components of success. Next it examined the various components of the founders’ social capital for strength, mix, and density and any correlations with the metrics of success. Then it administered the Political Skills Inventory to determine the respondents’ social effectiveness, which was then analyzed for correlations with success metrics. Finally, the research compared demographics, respondents’ social capital, and their social effectiveness with the success metrics to seek out any statistically significant correlations.

This study does provide some additional empirical support for the idea that social effectiveness can help further an entrepreneur’s success in his/her business venture. The statistical results indicated that higher levels of social effectiveness in 2 core components (social astuteness and interpersonal influence) are positively correlated to venture success. And even though no correlations were found between social capital, social effectiveness, and venture success, previous literature and common sense would indicate that they may still exist.

Social Security Administration (SSA) managers and leaders are facing an unprecedented challenge to understand 3 to 5 generations of employees, and value the diversity of each group (Glass, 2007). Perceived lack of recognition has resulted in low morale and job satisfaction, leaving employees not feeling valued. The purpose of this qualitative, phenomenological research study was to explore, identify, and examine the lived experiences and perceptions of SSA employees to determine how managers and leaders can contribute to employee valuation. The central question and subquestions were designed to determine whether generational theory accurately described the lived experiences and perceptions of the subjects' value to the organization. Data collection included in-depth interviews with 15 employees of SSA, 5 from each of the most represented generational groups: Baby Boomers, Generation Xs, and Generation Ys. Key findings of a thematic analysis were that employees of differing generations feel valued in different ways. It was found that appreciation for each generation should be shown in a way that is meaningful to that generation, and does not reflect discrimination of another group. The results of this study contribute to positive social change by clarifying the relationship between generational differences and perception of value and provides specific recommendations to SSA managers and leaders. This guidance is an important contribution to the existing literature and will enhance social change initiatives through valuing all employees for the skills and talents they bring to the organization irrespective of age.

Employee turnover continues to be an issue in federal organizations, including the Social Security Administration (SSA). While issues such as retiring baby boomers and budget constraints are beyond the control of any agency, retaining employees is critical to maintain essential services. The purpose of this transcendental phenomenological study was to explore SSA employee's lived experiences of job satisfaction and employee turnover to uncover motivators and satisfaction strategies. The conceptual framework for the study was based on Maslow's human needs and Herzberg's two-factor theory. Data were collected from 20 SSA frontline employees using 6 open-ended interview questions. The data were analyzed using a modification of van Kaam's method of analysis of phenomenological data and NVivo 11 Pro. Study results revealed that time, stress, pay and benefits, public service, and interoffice relationships were the prime intrinsic and extrinsic factors participants perceived as directly related to their job satisfaction. They highly valued job enrichment programs, cohesive teams, and pay and benefits, which override daily stressors inherent to the public demands strategies for the agency. Conducting the study in depressed socioeconomic areas might also provide significant insights, particularly since stress and workload were essential dissatisfiers. SSA provides critical services to many vulnerable groups. Strategies that employees perceive as motivating enhance the quality of services and benefits to eligible American citizens, many of whom rely on these services for quality of life, thereby reducing the burden of local communities to support these individuals if SSA services fail.

Mexican migration to the United States is not a new phenomenon, but through increased globalization, labor migration became more flexible and more common. With the rise in migration flows, remittances also experienced a considerable growth. For a long time, these large flows of money have been mostly disregarded. Today they are one of the largest financial flows to developing countries. Therefore, in the last years, more and more research on this topic popped up. Remittance flows are considered to be relatively stable. In the case of Mexico, they seem to behave in a countercyclical way and are ra-ther compensatory than opportunistic in nature. Their mostly altruistic motivation and the end use of remittances influences the economic and social impacts they have on the overall country. There are several channels through which remittances may directly or indirectly impact economic development. In literature, there are primarily two extreme positions present. The positive approach is that remittances enhance investment in physical and human capital, thus promote economic growth. Remittances are considered to have a positive impact on Mexico´s overall financial development and capital accumulation. Further-more, the balancing effect on the balance of payments is positive, since trade deficits can be counterbalanced through the entry of foreign currency. In contrast, advocators of the negative approach say that remittances seem not to have an overall positive impact on economic growth, because their negative impacts outstrip the positive ones. A real exchange rate appreciation caused by remittances that lead to a less competitive tradable sector (Dutch disease effect) is one of the main negative effects associated with remit-tance flows. Furthermore, remittances are considered to cause moral hazard problems, which lead recipients to neglect labor market efforts and spend more time on leisure. Moreover, remittances are predominantly used for consumption rather than for produc-tive investment, thus not promoting long-run economic growth. Concerning the social impacts, scientists agree on the positive effect remittances have on poverty reduction. In contrast, remittances seem to have an equalizing effect on in-come distribution in regions with long migration history. But, non-migration seems to equalize income distribution even more. The difficulty is to benefit the most from remittances´ positive impacts and to reduce their negative consequences in order to ensure their developmental effect.

This thesis aims at critically examining the specific place of the "
critical"
and "
radical"
theories within both the theory of public administration and political theory, particularly in terms of the discursive participatory framework they offer. The fundamental question dealt with is whether or not the power and dependence analyses of these approaches (which are treated as '
marginal'
in the field) is convincing for an egalitarian, comprehensive and socially transformative democratic governance. Since a discussion of this sort essentially problematizes the reduction of political equality to a proceduralist and abstract philosophical equality, not to commit a similar fallacy of "
apriorism"
, the study incorporates the observations on LA-21 Turkey processes as a local governance program, in terms of a concrete contribution to theoretical discussion. In the light of direct observations, interviews and data obtained from secondary resources regarding the participatory practices, the level of organization and current capacity of political representation are inferred to be also decisive on the capacity to participate, owing this decisiveness substantially to the economic and social resources in the real social formation, hence the conditions of production of local knowledge are consequently identified as far from reflecting a democratic environment purified from power relations. Highlighting the risk for the notion of self-governance to gain a hegemonic functionality for bourgeoisie democracy concealing and perpetuating social inequalities, the thesis argues for shifting the inquire for the dominant class, from solely political-administrative sphere to civil society, and the maintainable and reproductive conditions and mechanisms of dominance between these two spheres.

Contemporary social issues, such as poverty, inequality, and climate change, exceed the capacity of a single sector to solve and require the collaboration of the public, private, and nonprofit sectors. In this context, universities play a unique and increasingly comprehensive role in educating students, generating new knowledge, and advancing the social and economic conditions in their communities.

Over the past decade, explosive growth has occurred in social entrepreneurship and social innovation initiatives on university and college campuses. Whether offered through a center, initiative, or program, a groundswell of curricular, co-curricular, and convening activities has emerged that educates and engages students, faculty, and a range of stakeholders in the pursuit of solving pressing social issues in innovative ways.

Using qualitative research methodology and a grounded theory approach, the purpose of this study was to explore the broad phenomenon of and the proliferation of university-based social impact centers in the United States. Through the perspectives and lived experiences of 43 social impact leaders, from multiple higher education institutions, this study developed a grounded theory model which explains the forces driving the emergence and evolution of the university-based social impact centers. The phenomenon can be explained by these “windows of opportunity” where internal, external, and cultural forces intersect, interact, and overlap with one another, within institutional-specific contexts, to produce new centers. While each institution boasts a unique culture and contextual characteristics, the data demonstrated that mission-driven students, market pressures on higher education institutions, and donor support were the most significant forces driving the expansion of social innovation on college campuses. Akin to the double-bottom line, it was both mission and markets that catalyzed the university-based social impact phenomenon.

While the social impact phenomenon initially evolved out of elite graduate business schools, it has expanded cross-campus into public policy schools and central administrative units, and across all institutional types. Social impact education now expands across and down the curriculum and co-curriculum. Some universities now even have multiple social impact initiatives within their own institutions. Participants described the need to differentiate themselves and to compete for resources, students, and attention given the plethora of existing civic and socially-oriented programs on their campuses.

This study filled a distinct gap in the literature by studying university-based social impact centers, framed in the broader historical context of the evolutionary role of university engagement in their communities, coupled with the recognition of the realities of contemporary market pressures on higher education institutions. Social impact centers exhibit the intersectionality of a host of issues plaguing higher education, such as resource constraints, access, academic silos, specialization, and bureaucracy versus innovation. Finally, social impact centers are a microcosm of the tension that exists between the marketization of higher education and the pressure to hold true to public purposes—and ultimately, whether or not institutions can effectively mediate those two pressures.

The central interest of this thesis is the emergence of social  ventures. In this regard, it investigates two types of questions: what regional factors influence the emergence of social  ventures? and what  types of interaction may emerge between the emergence of social  ventures and the demography (entry,  exit  and migration) of commercial ventures in a region? The thesis also aims to adopt a macro-oriented approach to studying the research questions. To  answer  those  questions, this  thesis  applies  both  theoretical  and empirical  analysis.  For the theoretical analysis, instead of a single theory it applies three middle-range theories: theory of organisational ecology, market failure theory, and the demand and supply theory of  entrepreneurship. The empirical analysis is based on two large-scale databases from  Sweden  and  the U.S. The Swedish database includes nonprofit social ventures and commercial ventures for the 1990-2014 period from all of the 290 municipalities across Sweden, while the database from U.S. includes 88 counties in the State of Ohio between 2003-2007. The answers to the research questions are presented in the form of six papers. Paper 1 provides an overall picture of the different possible functions of social ventures within communities and  their contributions to regional development. With this overall view, Papers 2 and 3 answer the  first  research question, that is the factors influencing the emergence of social ventures. Thus, while  Paper 2 provides a review of previous research, Paper 3 empirically examines some of  the  regional factors that may influence the emergence of social ventures in a region. The  results of Paper 3 revealed that factors such as gender, education, entrepreneurial role models, wealth, unemployment rate, age, and urbanisation positively influence the emergence rate of the of social venture in a region. Papers 4, 5 and 6 are dedicated to answering the second type of research question, in other  words the interaction between the emergence of  social ventures and the demography (entry, exit and migration) of commercial ventures. As such, Paper 4 studies how the emergence of social ventures is influenced by the entry and exit of commercial ventures, Paper 5 investigates how the emergence of social ventures influences the entry of commercial ixventures, and Paper 6 examines how the emergence of social ventures influences the migration of commercial  ventures. In summary, the results of these three papers reveal that while the emergence of social ventures negatively influences the commercial ventures inside a region, it has a positive  influence on the commercial ventures outside the region. Paper 6 further investigates the influence of the emergence of commercial ventures on the migration of commercial ventures.  The results show that while the emergence of social ventures attracts commercial ventures from outside into a region, the emergence of commercial ventures repels them from moving into the region.

Vid tidpunkten för disputationen var följande delarbeten opublicerade: delarbete 3 accepterat, delarbete 5 accepterat, delarbete 6 manuskript.

At the time of the doctoral defence the following papers were unpublished: paper 3 accepted, paper 5 accepted, paper 6 manuscript.

De l’Etat-providence à l’Etat social actif, l’accès aux droits sociaux s’est complexifié et individualisé. Depuis les années 1980, la puissance publique, soucieuse de mieux cibler le droit vers les situations singulières et de faire bon usage des deniers publics en sollicitant des contreparties des administrés, a en effet fait surgir de nouveaux dispositifs qui ont tout à la fois multiplié et restreint le profil des bénéficiaires. Et si cette transformation éloignait les populations vulnérables du droit ? Pour analyser comment l’accès aux droits sociaux s’effectue concrètement dans ces circonstances, cette thèse approche de près les pratiques d’écriture qui accompagnent la constitution de dossiers administratifs personnels. Elle s’appuie sur plusieurs enquêtes ethnographiques effectuées au guichet d’un service municipal de logement, auprès d’un bailleur HLM, dans une association pour personnes surendettées, dans un cabinet ministériel, dans une mairie d’arrondissement, dans un service social et au domicile des administrés. Se classer dans un formulaire de demande de HLM, prouver son surendettement à l’aide de pièces justificatives, exercer un recours gracieux auprès d’un ministre : dans ce travail, la « paperasse » apparaît comme une activité protéiforme qui mobilise des manières hétérogènes de s’écrire et de se penser dans le droit, et qui s’exerce auprès de plusieurs guichets à la fois. Lorsque le sens des catégories juridiques se transforme d’un cadre institutionnel à un autre, comment établir une éligibilité au sein d’un dossier ? En suivant les administrés dans leur traversée d’un espace administratif différencié, cette thèse met en lumière l’immense travail cognitif, juridique, émotionnel et biographique que la démarche administrative suppose et engendre, et, ce faisant, pointe les écueils possibles de l’accès au droit
In the wake of the transformation of the French welfare state, the conditions for gaining access to social rights have changed. Since the 1980s, social policies target smaller populations and increase the control over the “good use” of public money by making greater demands on individuals in return for subsidies. The question is whether this transformation creates distance between vulnerable populations and social institutions? In order to describe how individuals gain eligibility to social law under these new circumstances, this thesis takes a close look at the practices of writing that are meant to establish a “good record”. The ethnographic fieldwork was conducted in the archives and at the counters of a municipal administration, at a social housing office, at an association for over-indepted citizens, at a welfare office, at the state secretary for poverty, as well as with overindepted families. Filling out forms, gathering papers to prove over-indeptedness, and appealing to a decision before the state secretary: “paperwork” is a multiform activity, drawing on various ways of thinking about oneself and about legality. As legal categories can change their meaning and implications from one institutional frame to another, how do individuals establish coherence within their file? By following citizens and files through a highly differentiated administrative landscape, this thesis highlights the immense amount of cognitive, emotional, biographical and legal work necessary to gain access to social rights

For over four decades, the outdoor clothing company Patagonia has promoted environmentalist ideologies though essays and photographs published in their print media. This strategy offers an eco-friendly narrative that resonates with many brand consumers, but the art of constructing and publicizing a corporate narrative with social purpose (i.e. corporate social narrative) has yet to be explored. In this thesis, Patagonia's corporate social narrative is reviewed in light of Fisher's narrative paradigm theory, the principals of corporate social marketing, social exchange theories, and the idea that visual imagery holds significant power in consumer markets. Major themes in Patagonia's environmental narrative are identified and explored via narrative analysis of promotional material published by the company between the years of 1972-2013, with a focus on product catalogs published after 1991. The narrative research delves into how the themes of journey, calculated risk, minimalist struggle, and a connectedness to nature help Patagonia create a self-proclaimed uncommon culture and explores how this culture is used to promote behavioral change in outdoor enthusiasts who purchase from the company. Lastly, lessons from Patagonia's social narrative are detailed along with recommendations on how corporate social narrative can be used effectively in other consumer markets.

Social enterprises have been emerging to support the growing need to address social challenges in society. However, it is not clear how social entrepreneurs create large-scale change. This research examines the emergence of a new organizing approach, social entrepreneurship networks (SEN), for enacting social innovation.

The premise is individual social enterprises may be limited in their ability to scale, while a network of social enterprises can create greater opportunities for impact. The problem is researchers have tended to focus more on the entrepreneur's human attributes. However, social entrepreneurship networks require an understanding of the interaction between social actions and institutional conditions that support social value creation. This research addresses a gap in understanding the nature of this interaction and how these networks emerge to enable social entrepreneurs the means to harness the complexity to achieve their ends of social change.

This research found the emergence of a network of entrepreneurs over time, which created novel social patterns. These patterns co-evolved to enable a SEN. This new organizing form was studied through the requisite conditions and social mechanisms necessary to create and scale social value. The conditions included the constraints and influences imposed upon particular agents by course-grained social structures. The social mechanisms identified as fine-grained interactions included the sets of internal assumptions that specified how people would interact and connect with each other. These structures and interactions created a set of dynamical tensions that enabled the emergence and sustainment of the SEN.

It was concluded that fine-grained interactions are enabled through networks, which provide the social mechanisms needed to lower the probability of failure and increase the level interactions. In addition, course-grained structures are ratcheted—holding on to what works-- as a result of fine-grained interactions that enable knowledgeable actors to change the structures. Lastly, dynamical tensions create opportunities for hyper-emergence –a form of kick-starting—a social entrepreneurship network. Social entrepreneurship networks simulate collective impact, which holds the promise of sustainable social innovation.

This qualitative research study examined higher education administrators experience with social media as it pertains to their profession and work. As social media use among students and the general public continues to grow, this new technology has found its way into universities in administrators’ professional and private lives. The relatively young age of social media as a technology has raised many questions for administrators about how to adapt and adopt it as a tool to ultimately improve the student experience at colleges. In this qualitative study, eight administrators at California State University, Long Beach were interviewed to explore their views, concerns, and challenges related to social media. Findings from this study show that administrators had privacy concerns utilizing social media and faced challenges navigating the dual relationships that could form on social media platforms. Administrators see the need for social media competency training that can increase the effective use of social media on a college campus. The results of this study clearly call for universities to assist administrators with adopting and adapting to new technologies, and for further research to be done on how student-teacher relationships are changing due to social media. Implications include social media use by administrators improving the universities relationship with the community, as well as developing online privacy training sessions for administrators.

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to explain the effect of trust, knowledge, and control on privacy concerns on mobile social media platforms. Methodology: This paper used a quantitative research approach with a Cross Sectional Research Design, in form of a survey, to collect a number of 76 responses. The sample consisted primarily of swedish respondents in the ages of 18-25 with high school education living in a household earning below 19 999 SEK. Findings: Our study found significant negative relationships between trust and privacy concerns and knowledge and privacy concerns. This furthers the research field for trust that Milne and Boza (1999), Proudfoot, et al. (2018) and Wenjing and Kavita (2019) laid the foundation on. This also applies to knowledge, by confirming the results of Smit, Van Noor and Voorveld (2014) and Aguirre, et al. (2016). We provide a model where trust and knowledge is described to negatively affect privacy concerns on mobile social media. We also document a so-called privacy paradox from the results. Research Implications: Our results suggest that in order for managers to reduce privacy concerns on mobile social media platforms, increasing the levels of trust or knowledge can moderately alleviate such concerns. Knowledge to a slightly larger degree than trust. However, for such companies to customize visible cues only to appear reliable, as per Aguirre, et al (2015), can thereby be argued of little use as this would have little impact on the level of privacy concern displayed in mobile social media users. Originality/Value: This paper tests findings from Nowak and Phelps (1995), Milne and Boza (1999), Taylor, Davis and Jillapalli (2009), Smit, Van Noor and Voorveld (2014), Gu, et al. (2017), Proudfoot, et al. (2018), Nam (2018) and Wenjing and Kavita (2019) within a previously yet to be tested context, mobile social media platforms. Keywords: Privacy, Concerns, Violations, Social Media, Mobile, Platforms, Facebook, Trust, Knowledge, Control

Bakgrund: Företag har idag stort inflytande på samhället och därmed påverkar de ävensamhällsutvecklingen. I dagens samhälle ställs det högre krav på företag när det kommertill deras ansvarstagande gentemot samhället, i takt med att konsumenter blir merengagerade och uppmärksammade i frågan. Syfte: Vårt syfte med uppsatsen är att förstå hur verksamheter arbetar med socialhållbarhet. Vi vill även undersöka närmre varför arbetet med social hållbarhet inte harkommit så långt i sin utveckling och om det finns en koppling mellan verksamheternaskunskap om social hållbarhet och deras arbete med social hållbarhet. Metod: I denna studie har vi använt oss av en kvalitativ ansats eftersom vi vill få en djupförståelse kring hur företag jobbar med social hållbarhet i deras verksamhetsstyrning.Vi har även använt oss av en abduktiv metod då vi anser att den passar bäst i förhållandetill utformningen kring vårt syfte med studien. Slutsats: Verksamheterna som studerats arbetar med social hållbarhet, men uppföljningoch struktur för arbetet förekommer inte i den utsträckning som den ekologiska ochekonomiska hållbarheten. Att social hållbarhet inte har uppmärksammats och nått likalångt i utvecklingen när det kommer till hållbarhetsdiskussionen anser vi är kopplat tillatt det inte finns något tydligt tillvägagångssätt för verksamheterna att mäta och följaupp arbetet med social hållbarhet.
Background: Companies today have a large impact on society and thus they also influence society's development. As consumers become more engaged and aware of the issue higher demands are placed on companies, when it comes their responsibility towards the society. Purpose: Our purpose of this study is to understand how businesses work with social sustainability. We also want to examine why the work with social sustainability has not come further in its development and if there is a connection between companies knowledge about social sustainability and their work with social sustainability. Method: We have in this study used a qualitative approach, to better understand how companies work with social sustainability in their business management. We have also used an abductive method, hence we find it more useful, in relation to the design and purpose of our study. Conclusion: The companies that we have studied all work with social sustainability, but the follow-up and structure of the work does not occur to the extent of ecological and economic sustainability. The fact that social sustainability has not been addressed and reached the same level of development when it comes to sustainability discussion we believe are linked to the fact that there is no clear approach for the companies to measure and monitor work on social sustainability.

At the beginning of the twenty first century, there was an ongoing debate concerning the role of corporate social responsibility (CSR) in achieving sustainable competitive advantage (SCA). While external stakeholders required corporations to balance economic, social and environmental dimensions, research indicated a considerable gap about how CSR initiatives could be used to contribute to the community and the corporation’s SCA. The specific problem that was addressed in this study is how CSR initiatives can be used to contribute to the community in the form of sustainable development and the corporation’s SCA. The purpose of this qualitative study, utilizing a single embedded descriptive case study research design, was to achieve a deeper understanding on how CSR initiatives are planned, aligned and implemented in large MNCs in the cement industry and how these initiatives may contribute to the community in the form of sustainable development and the corporation’s SCA. The study used stakeholder theory as the theoretical framework and was based on semi-structured interviews with 24 participants: six executive managers from three MNCs in the cement industry and 18 employed community inhabitants in the areas corresponding to three study corporations. Corporations and participants were purposively selected. The study findings clearly indicated that the strategic approach to CSR (i.e., aligning the corporation goals with the goals of the community) may balance economic value creation with the expectations of local communities. These findings revealed that corporate leaders may likely develop “mutually beneficial” relationships with potential stakeholders. As a result, the corporation can improve reputation and access to finance, capital, market and resources, as well as reduce operational risks and attract better employees. On the other hand, the community can get safe and affordable products and services, access to better job offerings, clean environment and a better quality of life. Understanding how CSR initiatives are planned, aligned and implemented in large MNCs in the cement industry may positively impact the community and the corporation’s SCA. Future research was recommended to explore the elements of organizational culture (i.e., values and beliefs) that affect the sustainable management practices of large MNCs.

In the last decade or so, the marketing world has taken over the internet and with that,social media. Social media platforms sell advertisements to promoters of any kind allowingthe reach of these promotions to grow much larger than those of TV or newspaperadvertisements. To be more precise, music, and music marketing through artists and socialmedia influencers have grown significantly, which leads us to the purpose of the research.This study will provide a solid foundational understanding of the issues covered in thestudy with the help of descriptive statistics and future studies can carry on from where thisstudy left, to produce advanced statistical analysis of the matter.The purpose of this quantitative research is to find the optimal social media platform andthe type of content that is desired by the public regarding the marketing activities for music.The thesis aims to provide reasoning as well as insight to what kind of content is wantedand on which platforms is it most applicable by the social media users that listen to music.The research question addressed in the thesis is: “What are the most lucrative social mediaplatforms and content types to efficiently promote musical artists' most active social mediauser demographic?”.The research was conducted through an online survey, which was sent to over 120 peoplebetween the ages of 18 and 29 to gain an understanding of what this demographic wantsfrom the artist and the promotion. The demographic was chosen as this age group listens tomost music of adults. Another reason for the choice was the ease of receiving validresponses. The survey received 120 valid responses, fairly evenly distributed between menand women. The survey consisted of 18 questions that were designed to spot differencesbetween platforms, ages, and attitudes towards advertisements on each platform. Thesurvey had questions relating to prior research on the subject, one of which was theHoneycomb of social media (Kietzmann et al. 2011). In addition to that, other theories andprevious research were compared to see the validity of the answers as well as questionprevious results.The results of this research were quite straightforward. We conclude that Instagram is themost used platform overall and that advertising through Instagram is the most beneficialaction if one chooses to engage in social media advertising. Furthermore, the content of theposts on social media should be a combination of lifestyle, pictures of the artiststhemselves, and video clips to the music. Finally, we found that the perception of socialmedia and its advertisements are very dependent on the individual and are very subjective,however, a trend of Instagram and YouTube being superior to the others was apparent. Toconclude, music marketing on social media is seen as influential, and thus should beevaluated carefully. A combination of platforms and content types is the optimal approach,but it is important to at least include the most liked and used platforms: Instagram andYouTube.3

The problem this study addresses is the extent to which social-emotional learning programming is effectively implemented. Since social-emotional learning programming has emerged as a significant aspect of U.S. education, man states have included social-emotional standards and programming as an essential part of the curriculum. Researchers have found that effective reform includes not only emphasis on academic and standardized test scores, but also on social-emotional influences. As a school reform initiative, a Social Emotional Learning (SEL) program is being implemented at a Midwestern high school. The purpose of this qualitative descriptive interview study was to explore the perceived effectiveness of the implementation. The conceptual framework was drawn from Fullan's 6 assertions that serve as a guide to monitor school success when implementing education reforms. The study's guiding questions concerned teachers' perceived supports and challenges in the process of implementation, as well as any perceived role changes they experienced during the process. Eight high school teachers who had taught the SEL classes were interviewed. Data were transcribed, coded for themes using Hatch's typology, and thematically analyzed. The key findings included that participants were supported by the counselors and their peers. However, they encountered implementation challenges including the class schedule, lack of student buy-in, and the need for ongoing supports to facilitate social emotional learning. This study contributes to social change by informing school leaders of best practices necessary to ensure the implementation and sustainability of SEL practices. Social-emotional learning initiatives that implemented with fidelity can improve both the academic and personal success of students.

Companies experience a problem implementing corporate social responsibility reporting standards due to geographical differences, an over-abundance of guidelines, regulatory disparities, and varying levels of stakeholder requirements. These diverse conditions result in inadequate reporting of sustainability efforts and a lack of consistency of what actually gets reported. This exploratory, qualitative case study was based on a theoretical framework consisting of Freeman’s stakeholder theory, Suchman’s legitimacy theory, and Spence’s signaling theory. The sample consisted of six respondents from a research population of 100 multinational corporations (MNCs) with successful reporting practices. The instrument used was a researcher-developed questionnaire. The study addresses three research questions: How did leadership identify sustainability reporting standards, guidelines, or frameworks that would be appropriate for their company; how did the needs of the company’s stakeholders for reporting differ from the standards selected; and what CSR activities, indicators, or disclosures are not being included in the guideline that the company might want to report based on the needs of the stakeholders? Based on the results, nine themes emerged: (a) External motivational factors and stakeholders are critical to deciding which reporting guideline to use; (b) the CSR reporting method chosen is selected in order to meet the needs of the most influential actors; (c) companies augment reports with self-created KPIs based on influential actors and situational requirements; (d) the CSR reporting process requires greater internal collaboration within an organization; (e) changes to business strategy and resource allocation may be necessary; (f) both external and internal stakeholders are a source of valuable input and feedback regarding the produced reports; (g) collecting material and nonmaterial data is useful in producing reports and improving transparency; (h) companies want to see the impacts of their use competitors’ CSR activities and to use their reports to improve their own CSR activities and reports; and (i) standardization of reporting guidelines would benefit all stakeholders by allowing companies to become more transparent, improve comparisons between companies, and provide incentive to improve CSR processes. This research contributes to the growing body of knowledge on CSR reporting and allows companies to better understand CSR reporting process in their own environments.

Social class has become increasingly popular in the organizational sciences. Recent studies have found that one’s social class influences phenomena ranging from decision-making, to pro-social behavior, and interpersonal interactions. Despite the burgeoning interest in this topic, there remains a great deal of ambiguity concerning the conceptualization and operationalization of social class. For instance, scholars have used income, education, as well as subjective ratings to measures one’s social class. In order to improve the conceptual clarity of social class, I develop and present a model that draws on the dominant theories of social class from both sociology and psychology, while organizing their key principles to explain how social class influences an individual’s thoughts, feelings, and behaviors. By using this model as a framework, this dissertation attempts to refine the conceptualization of social class by testing core research questions pertaining to the construct validity of this construct. Based on a comprehensive, interdisciplinary literature search, which yielded nearly 4,000 effect sizes, I used meta-analytical structural equation modeling to test the proposed research questions and hypotheses. The findings offer clear support for two distinct components of social class (i.e., objective and subjective) that are both highly related to one another and associated with other micro-level constructs (i.e., job attitudes). Given the timeliness and importance of social class, the findings of this conceptual review and empirical meta-analysis offer a means of summarizing this large, interdisciplinary literature while guiding future management research on this critical topic.

This research study examined the ecological damage in the Niger Delta area of Nigeria for the past over 50 years, which has resulted from oil exploration activities. It presents a detail review and analysis and a partial solution to the crisis that has metamorphosed from the neglect and abject environmental destruction the Niger Delta of Nigeria. The toll of environmental damage brought to the indigenes of the Niger Delta was investigated as well as the clamor of the indigenes against Shell Petroleum Development Company (SPDC) of Nigeria. The study’s objective was to identify the gap that exists between corporate social responsibility programs (CSR) of SPDC and the needs and aspirations of the indigenes of the oil producing communities of the Niger Delta and the reason that the Niger Delta has become unfriendly with the SPDC. The research unveils this gap as the absence of holistic management and suggests how a holistic concept in management could significantly add to the solution of the existing conflict between the indigenes and SPDC. The researcher conducted a qualitative research that focused on stakeholders’ perceptions, which succinctly sifted the reasons for the consequential unrest in the Niger Delta area of Nigeria. In order to address the prevailing problems, the researcher used descriptions, interpretations and transparency techniques for the purpose, analysis, and conclusions.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Indiana University, Kelley School of Business, 2006.
Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 67-06, Section: A, page: 2222. Advisers: Laureen Maines; Joseph Fisher. "Title from dissertation home page (viewed June 21, 2007)."

Background and problem discussion: The concept of Lean Production comes from Toyota's way of building cars with higher quality and efficiency. The concept is that you want to create continuous improvements by rationalizing your work and trying to reduce waste. The Lean concept was founded in production, but Lean has recently begun to be used in other industries and operations, including Lean Administration. Lean has become more common in public activity, and can be a way to work more efficiently and provide citizens with better service. Purpose: The purpose of our study was to create a greater understanding of the extent to which Lean Administration is applied in the 10 largest municipalities in Sweden, how this application looks and what similarities and differences exist between the municipalities' way of working with Lean. Methods: We have conducted a survey, where the ten largest municipalities have been asked about their Lean work. We have used a combined method where the survey was based on multiple choice questions and open questions, ie both quantitative and qualitative approaches. Conclusion: Our study shows that half of the municipalities in question are working with Lean to some extent. The study also shows that three of the municipalities who answered no to the question of working with Lean use the Lean approach without naming it as Lean work. The municipalities are satisfied about their Lean improvements.
Bakgrund och problemdiskussion: Begreppet Lean Production kommer från Toyotas sätt att bygga bilar med högre kvalitet och effektivitet. Konceptet går ut på att man vill skapa ständiga förbättringar genom att rationalisera sitt arbete och försöka minska slöserier. Konceptet Lean grundades inom produktionen men på senare tid har Lean börjat användas inom andra branscher och verksamheter, bland annat Lean Administration. Lean har blivit allt vanligare i offentlig verksamhet, och kan vara ett sätt att arbeta mer effektivt och ge medborgarna en bättre service. Syfte: Syftet med vår studie var att skapa en större förståelse för i vilken utsträckning Lean Administration tillämpas i de 10 största kommunerna i Sverige, hur denna tillämpning ser ut och vilka likheter och skillnader som finns mellan kommunernas sätt att arbeta med Lean. Metod: Vi har genomfört en enkätundersökning där de tio största kommunerna har fått berätta om sitt Lean-arbete. Vi har genomfört en kombinerad metod där undersökningen byggde på flervalsfrågor och öppna frågor, dvs både kvantitativ och kvalitativ ansats. Slutsats: Vår studie visar att hälften av de tillfrågade kommunerna arbetar med Lean i någon form. Studien visar också att tre av de kommuner som svarade nej på frågan om de arbetar med Lean använder sig av Lean-synsättet utan att benämna det som Lean-arbete. Kommunerna är nöjda med förbättringarna som Lean-arbetet lett till.