Utredning av förfrågningsunderlag gällande byggandet av trästomme med fokus på offentlig upphandling

In the mid 1990s a previous prohibitions against multi-story buildings higher than two floors with a wooden frame was changed. Today multi-storey buildings are being built in Skellefteå, Sundsvall, Växjö, and Stockholm with others. Despite this only one of five houses being built today has a wooden frame. Since the municipality is a key force to get projects with wooden frames, this papers purpose is to improve tender document for the opportunity to submit bids and building with wooden frames. To help us forward with our work three questions were formulated. 1) What is the basis from a wooden constructions company perspective, of which they determines if they can place a bid or not? 2) What is the difference between tender documents made by a municipality compared to a private buyer? 3) How can tender documents be improved to create an opportunity to place a bid containing an alternative frame system? To answer these questions a literature study was carried out. The literature study is the basis of this paper. To obtain empirical data a document analysis of tender documents was carried out. The result of the study shows that wood frames are hard to adapt to an already finished technical specification, or to a tender document containing an extensive technical specification. To obtain alternative solutions, the buyer should focus on object design, form and function, or a general technical specification. Instead the technical specifications should be drawn up by the supplier, or in collaboration with them. The tender evaluation should be made by the most economically advantageous rather then the lowest price. Then the buyer can evaluate the offers against each other, rather then choosing the lowest price. This also gives the possibility for suppliers to make a bid containing an alternative solution. As a continuation of this paper, we recommend a study on which impact a general technical specification has on the project final cost.  Furthermore a study exploring which possibilities partner procurement can have alternative solutions in the Swedish procurement act. This report deal exclusively with how tender documents should be formulated. Life cycle analysis, carbon dioxide emissions and strength calculations will not be executed. 

The complexity in the implementation process of empowerment-based chronic kidney care: a case study

Background: This study is part of an interactive improvement intervention aimed to facilitate empowerment-based chronic kidney care using data from persons with CKD and their family members. There are many challenges to implementing empowerment-based care, and it is therefore necessary to study the implementation process. The aim of this study was to generate knowledge regarding the implementation process of an improvement intervention of empowerment for those who require chronic kidney care. Methods: A prospective single qualitative case study was chosen to follow the process of the implementation over a two year period. Twelve health care professionals were selected based on their various role(s) in the implementation of the improvement intervention. Data collection comprised of digitally recorded project group meetings, field notes of the meetings, and individual interviews before and after the improvement project. These multiple data were analyzed using qualitative latent content analysis. Results: Two facilitator themes emerged: Moving spirit and Encouragement. The healthcare professionals described a willingness to individualize care and to increase their professional development in the field of chronic kidney care. The implementation process was strongly reinforced by both the researchers working interactively with the staff, and the project group. One theme emerged as a barrier: the Limitations of the organization. Changes in the organization hindered the implementation of the intervention throughout the study period, and the lack of interplay in the organization most impeded the process. Conclusions: The findings indicated the complexity of maintaining a sustainable and lasting implementation over a period of two years. Implementing empowerment-based care was found to be facilitated by the cooperation between all involved healthcare professionals. Furthermore, long-term improvement interventions need strong encouragement from all levels of the organization to maintain engagement, even when it is initiated by the health care professionals themselves.

Critical pedagogy theory and the family business

In contemporary times family business research has been dominated by three theoretical perspectives; principal-agent theory, stewardship theory, and resource-based view theory (Siebels 2012) but at the same time scholars argue that what still needs further attention is how underlying processes and phenomena can be explained (Melin, Nordqvist & Sharma  2014). In order to understand themes such as repression or relations of asymmetry the suggestion in this chapter is to move towards a critical stance of thinking which involves problematizing the obvious issues in family firms (Alvesson & Deetz 2000) and moreover allowing the critical perspective to destabilize assumptions made within earlier research (Freire, 1974). By discussing critical theory in general but foremost the Freirean  (1970, 1974) critical pedagogy specifically, the arguments in the chapter revolves around how critical pedagogy can open up for a more novel view on family business. The purpose is via critical pedagogy discuss family business from a limited situation perspective, and to argue for a Freirean (1970) dialogue as means of developing a critical consciousness for family members in the family business context. The chapter concludes with some recommendations on platforms or common grounds in which dialogue and raising of consciousness can occur in which the concept can open up possibilities for interesting learning transfer and bring multidimensional knowledge into the family firm.