A structured procedure for materials planning during production transfer

This paper explores materials planning procedures to ensure the materials’ availability during production transfers. The paper defines a production transfer as the preparation, physical transfer and start-up of relocated production. A structured procedure of materials planning during production transfer is developed based on theory, and then validated and refined based on the analysis of four case studies. The paper shows that there is a need for a structured procedure of materials planning during production transfers. It also explains the importance of activities that create prerequisites for the materials’ availability during production transfer, such as updating and adapting documentation, planning and control systems, and describes the activities that ensure the materials’ availability, such as preventive and corrective actions. A valid estimation of the time needed to reach a steady state and a combination of several preventive actions improves the ability to ensure that materials are available. The cases showed differences across company size, because large companies took more and farther-reaching preventive actions.     

Impact of a Reform Towards Shared Parental Leave on Continued Fertility in Norway and Sweden

Population Research and Policy Review - It has been argued that a generous family policy aimed at a gender-equal division of childcare and economic responsibility will have a positive impact on...     

Market Segmentation in Scientific Publications: Research Patterns in American vs European Management Journals1

Ideal science should conform to certain criteria or goals, among them the goals of universalism and commonality. Realization of these goals may be limited, however, through the dividing up of researchers in terms of geographical borders. In this study the general hypothesis is tested that there is a segmentation of the society of management researchers into a North American (US) and a European (E) segment, a segmentation which is furthered by differences in incentive schemes and in paradigms. Four leading management journals from North America and from Europe, respectively, and the 242 articles they contained published in 1993 were selected to represent the different geographical segments. The results provide: support for the existence of two such segments; support for differences in incentive schemes influencing the articles; support for their being paradigm differences between the two segments; and support for a paradigm effect being stronger in US-journals than in E-journals, US-authors are more willing, however, to conform to the E-paradigm than vice versa. We argue for methodological pragmatism in order to reduce the presumed counter-productive effects of paradigmatic rigidity.     

Resistance training is linked to heightened positive motivational state and lower negative affect among healthy women aged 65–70

Resistance training (RT) improves overall health, but the psychological effects of RT in healthy old adults have not been tested. The aim of this study was to investigate a sample of 65–70-year-old healthy and physically active women to assess their sense of coherence, health-related quality of life, hope, and affect, before and after taking part in a 24-week RT intervention (N = 14), compared to controls (N = 18). Findings showed a significant increase in hope (p = 0.013) and a significant decrease in negative affect (p = 0.002). Starting RT after age 65 does not appear to negatively impact on women’s psychological health but seems to be associated with important psychological health benefits.     

Pregnant women’s choice of birthing hospital: A qualitative study on individuals’ preferences

Objective

To investigate pregnant women’s decision making in relation to their choice of birthing hospital and, in particular, their priorities regarding hospital characteristics.

Re‐Forming the School: Taking Swedish Lessons

In the context of government decentralisation and integration of services, over the last 15 years Sweden has been developing an all‐day school based on inter‐professional teamworking and adopting a holistic approach to working with children. The article describes these recent educational reforms in Sweden, which have sought to re‐structure the school and develop new ways of working, offers some evaluative comments on this process and considers possible implications of these reforms for other countries. It compares Swedish school reforms with recent English policy developments intended to make ‘extended schools’ a universal provision by 2010.     

Who runs the mill? The distribution of power in Swedish social service agencies

The aim of the article is to describe how significant actors in Swedish social service agencies perceive their own and other groups' influence over central areas of their agencies, and also to investigate the correspondence between these actors' perceptions of influence and what is said about the distribution of influence in the legislation and in the literature on social service organisations. The investigation is based on a questionnaire sent to politicians, managers and social workers in Swedish municipalities.

The analysis shows a concordance between the actors' own perceptions of their influence, and the ‘real’ distribution of influence, as perceived by the same actor groups. The general picture is that the politicians feel they have a strong influence on policy, delegation and, partly, also on organisational issues, but it is noteworthy that the top managers feel they have a stronger influence over all these areas. Social workers' influence is limited to the choice of working methods and operational procedures. The results indicate that some core elements of the New Public Management (NPM) model of governance exist in Swedish municipalities and seem to be generally accepted among significant actors. However, the results raise important questions about who should be held accountable for neglect and mismanagement and for failure in implementation of reforms in the social services.     

Bridging the Gap: How do EU-Based Civil Society Organisations Acquire Their Internal Representation?

In recent decades, the emergence and development of pan-European civil society organisations have been prominent, including those representing interests of marginalised groups and raising related social issues. Typically composed of national and European level umbrella organisations, some of these organisations have grown as important interlocutors between EU institutions and civil society, and derive legitimacy for their advocacy and lobbying activities by claiming broad representativeness. Through a comparative study of five principal EU-based civil society organisations, the present article analyses how these organisations, operating at multiple levels with their membership based on extensive geographical areas, acquire internal representation of members and beneficiaries.     

Vocational or academic track? Study and career plans among Swedish students living in rural areas

This ethnographic study explores how rural lower secondary school students reflect on study and career choices, focusing on the choice between vocational and academic upper secondary programs. Applying a spatial perspective, we analyze individual students’ reflections about study and career choices within a variety of rural regions, and compare patterns in the regions. The results indicate complex interactions between structural factors and individual dispositions. In places where education levels were low and the local labor market predominantly offered unskilled manual and service work, there was a stronger tendency to choose vocational programs than in places with higher education levels and access to a more varied labor market. Likewise, there was an association between strongly gendered labor markets and gender-typical choices. However, individual students positioned themselves actively in relation to the local place, its local labor market and social relations; their choices were place-bound to varying degrees, and chose upper secondary programs and presented ideas about prospective careers that were harmonious with the local labor market in some cases, but discordant in other cases. The results are discussed in the framework of individuals’ horizon for actions.