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In order for businesses to increase their chances of survival in the global market, adaptable organizations and competent change leaders are required. Leadership and change management are becoming increasingly important, with a particular emphasis on engaged and transformative leadership. Despite the proven ability of female leadership to facilitate transformative change, it is often overlooked. This qualitative study examines the knowledge gap regarding key factors for successful change leadership, characteristics of successful change leaders, and the significance of gender. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with participants who have held or currently hold leadership positions and have implemented change processes. The study explores the importance of gender in successful change leadership, differences among successful leaders, and the role of gender. Participants included both men and women in leadership positions with experience in driving change. The results showed that clear, direct, and honest communication tailored to the recipient is crucial for managing change. The study emphasizes the need for change leaders to possess communication and social skills in order to thrive in a dynamic global market. Employee involvement and heterogeneous groups were also identified as important factors that increase the likelihood of success. A good leader is outward-facing and engages with individuals who have diverse and stimulating tasks. The findings of the study revealed that female leaders are often not recognized as a success factor, despite their ability to implement transformative changes. Gender itself does not differentiate successful change leaders from others; rather, individual characteristics play a significant role., För att verksamheter ska öka sina överlevnadschanser i den globala marknaden krävs det att organisationen är förändringsbenägen och innehar kompetenta förändringsledare. Ledarskap och förändringsarbete blir allt viktigare, med särskild vikt för engagerat och transformativt ledarskap. Denna kvalitativa studie undersöker det forskningsgap som identifierats kring viktiga faktorer för framgångsrik förändringsledning och egenskaper hos framgångsrika förändringsledare. Vidare undersöker studien könets betydelse hos framgångsrika förändringsarbeten. Studiens frågeställningar har besvarats genom semistrukturerade intervjuer av deltagare som varit i ledarskapspositioner och genomfört förändringsprocesser. Studien undersöker könets betydelse för framgångsrik förändringsledning och skillnader mellan framgångsrika ledare samt könets roll varför studiens deltagare bestått av både män och kvinnor i ledarskapspositioner med förändringserfarenhet. Resultaten visade att tydlig, direkt och ärlig kommunikation anpassad till mottagaren är avgörande för att hanteringen kring förändringar. Förändringsledare behöver enligt studiens resultat sådana typer av egenskaper som främjar kommunikations- och sociala färdigheter för att verksamheten ska överleva på en föränderlig global marknad. Studiens resultat påvisar att en bra ledare är utåtriktad och socialiserar med människor med varierande och stimulerande uppgifter. Medarbetarinvolvering och heterogena grupper är ytterligare faktorer som ökar också chanserna till framgång. Könet hos en ledare i sig skiljer inte framgångsrika förändringsledare från andra, utan det är de individuella egenskaper hos ledaren som spelar en betydande roll.

The healthcare sector is facing several challenges. One of them is that administrative tasks are being pushed into the core operation. This has led to a new concept arising, called “elevation”. This concept has not been analyzed from the field of information systems (IS) before, therefore the aim of the research is to investigate how the distribution of administrative work changes when introducing a new information system in the healthcare sector. To further understand the transformation brought by the introduction of a new IS, this study has also investigated the routine changes for healthcare staff. This study has been conducted using a case study with a regional government in Sweden. Hospital sites and the IT support function have been part of the case. The findings show that the new IS has digitized and slightly changed routine. Furthermore, the new IS has contributed to elevation. By making work easier, flexible and creating more shared responsibility, simpler, administrative tasks have been handed over to core staff. The research contributes to a deeper understanding of what happens to the distribution of administrated tasks when introducing a new IS.

År 2021 trädde en ny lag om barnfridsbrott i kraft, vilket innebär att det är straffbart att barn bevittnar brott i nära relationer. Studiens syfte var att undersöka socialsekreterares upplevelser och erfarenheter av hur barnfridsbrottslagen påverkat det praktiska arbetet med barn som har bevittnat våld i nära relationer. För att uppnå syftet valdes en kvalitativ ansats och sju semistrukturerade intervjuer med socialsekreterare genomfördes. Empirin analyserades med hjälp av en kvalitativ innehållsanalys. Som teoretisk utgångspunkt för analysen valdes organisationsteori ur ett Human Resource-perspektiv samt begreppen “barnperspektivet” och “barnets bästa”. Resultatet tolkades även mot bakgrund av tidigare forskning om barnfridsbrottslagen och socialtjänstens praktiska arbete med barn som upplevt våld. Resultatet visade att ett fåtal av socialsekreterarna upplevde sig ha tillräckligt med kunskap om lagstiftningen och majoriteten önskade mer kunskap. De mest påtagliga förändringarna i arbetet efter införandet av lagen var att socialsekreterare bör överväga om polisanmälan ska göras, det blir tydligare i kommunikation med föräldrar att det är brottsligt för barn att bevittna våld samt att lagen möjliggör att kunna bryta det våldsamma mönstret. De mest framträdande utmaningarna var att det krävs ett grundbrott, att det är svårt att närma sig våldsproblematiken med både föräldrar och barn samt att polisförhör tenderar att dröja. Förbättringsmöjligheter som socialsekreterare önskade var tydligare beskrivningar på; centrala begrepp och ansvarsfördelningar mellan olika professioner. Slutsatsen var att socialsekreterare är i behov av mer stöd och resurser för att kunna arbeta med barnfridsbrottslagen på bästa sätt och för att de ska kunna ha en samsyn kring arbetet., In Sweden, since 2021, it is illegal to let children witness domestic violence. In this qualitative study, we investigate social workers’ experiences regarding the question of how the respective law affects their work with children and adolescents. We conducted seven semi-structured interviews with social workers. The data was analyzed through a qualitative content analysis. The theoretical starting point of the analysis was organization theory from a Human Resource-perspective and the concepts “child perspective” and “best interest of the child”. We also refer to previous research on the new law and the practical work of the social services. The results of the study show that a few social workers feel that they have enough knowledge of the legislation and the majority wish for more knowledge. The most obvious change is that social workers need to consider filing a police report, that it can be clearly communicated that it is criminalized to let children witness domestic violence and a possibility to break the violent pattern. Challenges with the law was that a fundamental crime is required, to approach the problem of violence with parents and children and that police interrogation tends to be delayed. Suggestions for improvements are clearer descriptions of central concepts and distribution of responsibilities between different professions. The conclusion was that social workers need additional support and resources to be able to work with the new law in the best way to be able to have a consensus regarding the work.

Title: Digitization in accounting Introduction: Digitization has shaped society in recent decades, which has had significant effects on corporate financial reporting. The work role has changed as new accounting systems have been introduced and become an aid for ongoing accounting. The accounting systems are not completely easy to implement in companies, which has meant that smaller companies risk lagging behind in the digitization of their tasks. Purpose: The purpose of the study is to describe how the accounting economist's tasks with ongoing accounting in smaller companies have changed as a result of digitalization. Method: This study has an abductive approach, which was chosen because it was considered most relevant to this essay and to gain a deeper understanding of how the accountant's duties have changed. A qualitative method was used where the interviews were semi-structured. Conclusion: Based on the study, it appears that the accounting economists' manual tasks in smaller companies have been digitized, but that they still do a lot themselves. Digitization has led to their work tasks becoming more efficient, productive and flexible. However, none of the respondents have digitized their processes to 100 percent and none of them have automated any work tasks to a greater extent., Titel: Digitalisering inom redovisning Inledning: Digitaliseringen har format samhället de senaste decennierna, vilket har fått betydande effekter på företags ekonomiska redovisning. Arbetsrollen har förändrats i takt med att nya affärssystem införts och blivit ett hjälpmedel för den löpande redovisningen. Affärssystemen är dock inte helt enkla att implementera i företag, vilket har gjort att mindre företag riskerar att halka efter i digitaliseringen av sina arbetsuppgifter. Syfte: Syftet med studien är att beskriva hur redovisningsekonomens arbetsuppgifter med löpande redovisning i mindre företag har förändrats till följd av digitaliseringen. Metod: Denna studie har en abduktiv ansats, vilket valdes för att det ansågs mest relevant till denna uppsats för att få en djupare förståelse kring hur redovisningsekonomens arbetsuppgifter har förändrats. En kvalitativ metod användes där intervjuerna semistrukturerades. Slutsats: Utifrån studien framgår det att redovisningsekonomernas manuella arbetsuppgifter i mindre företag har digitaliserats men att de fortfarande gör mycket själva. Digitaliseringen har lett till att deras arbetsuppgifter har blivit mer effektiva, produktiva och flexibla. Däremot har ingen av respondenterna digitaliserat sina processer till 100 procent och ingen av dem har automatiserat några arbetsuppgifter i större utsträckning.

With activities engendering tremendous socio-ecological impacts, the fashion system is increasingly spotlighted as one of the most unsustainable industries. In this context, many actors in the fashion system, including brands and retailers, have implemented corporate sustainability strategies. Yet, sustainability can be understood and interpreted through different logics, which requires organizations working with it to be consistent in how they approach it across their operations to optimize value creation. The present research study aims to examine these different logics of sustainability and how they are reflected in the execution of the strategy. Specifically,this research focuses on Boozt, a Nordic technology company selling fashion and lifestyle products online, as the main case study. The study is built on insights from in-depth interviews with ten directors who report directly to different C-level executives at Boozt. We explore their sustainability logic, organizational and mental barriers, and desired outcomes, through the lens of the green innovation games framework proposed by Lampikoski et. al (2014). The research study, firstly, reveals that from an individual level, directors mostly engaged with the most ambitious game (i.e. Clarity game) or the least ambitious game (i.e. Rational game); however, from an organizational level, their approach turns to belong to the Collaboration game. Secondly,we found that when executing sustainability projects, directors engage more frequently with the Rationality game. Directors highlight further the lack of skills and lack of permission to try and fail that impedes them from playing a more revolutionary game. Finally, we discussed the findings around three main points: the polarization of sustainability, the roles and logics of different stakeholders in institutionalizing sustainability within the business, and the competencies needed to surpass the organizational and mental barriers that lead to advancing the corpor

År 2020 är året då Covid-19 bröt ut och företagare kom till insikt att den digitala transformeringen är viktigare än någonsin. Det har medfört att allt fler företag eftersträvar att anpassa sig efter det ”nya normala” genom att digitalisera snabbt. Företagen är därmed mycket angelägna att på ett framgångsrikt sätt genomföra affärssystemsinföranden. Den digitala transformeringens framfart och fokuseringen på att införa affärssystem har kommit att ge IT-avdelningen en central roll inom verksamheten. Detta har i sin tur bidragit till att en fungerande interaktion mellan IT-avdelningen och verksamheten är viktigare än någonsin. Det är vanligt förekommande att verksamheten inte upplever att IT-avdelningen levererar i den takt och kvalité som motsvarar förväntningarna. Detta tenderar till minskad tilltro och samarbete. Vid en dysfunktionell interaktion mellan IT-avdelningen och verksamheten är risken stor att felaktiga beslut och förfaranden blir till verklighet. Det är därför viktigt att företagen skapar goda förutsättningar för en fungerande kommunikation och undersöka vilka faktorer som kan minska de tvetydigheter som kan uppstå mellan olika parter i verksamheten. Kandidatuppsatsens huvudsyfte är att identifiera och beskriva framgångsfaktorer för att minska tvetydigheter vid kommunikation mellan systemutvecklingsavdelning, produktägare och redovisningsekonomer under affärssystemförändringsprojekt. Baserat på huvudsyftet är bisyftet att föreslå ett förbättrat kommunikationssätt som främjar att de tre parterna kan arbeta holistiskt vid affärssystemsförändringsprojekt. Vid utförande av denna studie har en litteraturstudie genomförts, en litteraturbaserad analysmodell och fallstudiemetoden tillämpats. Dessutom har fem personliga intervjuer med medarbetare som representerar den interna triaden på fallföretaget har utförts. Uppsatsstudiens viktigaste slutsatser är; ledningens förmåga att inneha transparens vad avser viktig verksamhetsinformation, att den interna triaden in

Den snabba teknikutvecklingen har lett till att allt fler fysiska butiker läggs ner eller backar i vinstsiffror, vilket lett till att de klassiska mellanhänderna har hamnat i en problematisk situation. Butikschefer har märkt av denna förändring och även ledningsfunktioner inom större koncerner som exempelvis H&M. Därför har denna studie som mål att analysera varför butikskedjor i högre grad inte ställt om till Internethandel, samt hur butikschefer ser på framtiden för de fysiska klädbutikerna.Tidigare forskning har visat att många faktorer påverkar en konsuments shoppingvanor i dagens konsumtionssamhälle och hur dessa vanor ändras över tid. Forskare påstår även att en djupt rotad företagskultur kan göra nödvändiga organisationsförändringar svåra om det är nödvändigt. Vi har valt att göra intervjuer med butikschefer för att sedan tolka och analyserahur dessa bemöter förändringen inom klädbranschen på grund av utvecklingen med ehandel. Totalt intervjuades 8 butikschefer vars respons på intervjufrågorna analyserades.Slutsatsen är att butikscheferna har hög tilltro till sin egen verksamhet trots utvecklingen med e-handeln, då butikscheferna anser att e-handeln inte kan konkurrera med kundvärdet som servicen ger i butik. Vårt antagande är att även organisationerna som helhet har levt med denna tro, och att detta kan vara anledningen till att mellanhänderna inte ställt om till e-handel tidigare., The rapid technology advancement has led to more and more physical stores closing down or backing in profit figures. In turn, this has led the classical intermediaries into a problematic situation. Store managers have noticed this change of events, and also top management within larger groups, such as H&M, are aware of this. Therefore, this study aims to find out why stores have not changed to e-commerce to a greater extent, and how store managers look to the future of the physical clothing stores.Previous research has shown that many factors affect a consumer’s shopping habits in today's consumer society, how these shopping habits change over time, and how a deeply rooted corporate culture can make necessary organizational changes difficult. In this study, we have done in-depth interviews with store managers, and then interpret and analyze whatthese managers said, to get a good overview how these store managers deal with the changes that are occurring in the clothing industry due to e-commerce. In total, 8 store managers were interviewed and whose responses were analyzed with an analysis model formed in a thematic order in contrast with the theories we used in the study.We can conclude that the store managers have high faith in their own business despite the development of e-commerce. The store managers firmly believe that e-commerce cannot compete with the value that services provides in stores. Our assumption is that the organizations as a whole have lived with this belief, and that this may be the reason why the intermediaries have not switched to e-commerce earlier.

The study was conducted in collaboration with Volvo Cars in the spring of 2019. The study examined the leadership of workshop managers in Sweden, Spain, Italy, Brazil, Chile, Mexico, Belgium and Poland. The purpose of the study was to investigate how leadership can be developed to increase the possibilities for successful implementations of Volvo Personal Service and to investigate which parts of Lean Leadership are required for Volvo Cars to be able to run and develop the leadership of VPS workshops successfully. Selected questions for the study would generate which pitfalls could be identified in the workshop managers' leadership based on research and how Volvo Cars would develop the leadership of these workshops in order for them to be more in line with Lean Leadership. The aim of the study has been to generate a written document for Volvo Cars regarding how the company should guide or develop the existing leadership to lay the foundation for successful implementations and continued development of VPS. The thesis is based on a pilot study in which five areas of improvement were mapped to finally decide that the leadership of the workshop managers was the area of improvement that should be investigated deeper. Volvo Cars has noted that the implementation of VPS not always is successful in all workshops and wanted to investigate whether the problem could lie with the workshop managers in Volvo workshops. Case study was chosen as a research strategy for the study, since only one research unit would be investigated, that is, connect Volvo workshops and their workshop managers. The survey was conducted with a qualitative design because the research questions and chosen research strategy were supplemented with a mixed form of data collection to deliver the best possible results for the study. Personal interviews and web surveys were chosen as methods for the data collection. During the pilot study, it emerged that there was suspicion that the leadership conducted by th, Undersökningen har genomförts i samarbete med Volvo Cars under våren år 2019. Vid undersökningen har ledarskapet hos verkstadschefer i Sverige och på marknaderna Spanien, Italien, Brasilien, Chile, Mexiko, Belgien och Polen undersökts. Undersökningens syfte var att undersöka hur ledarskapet kan utvecklas för att öka möjligheterna till lyckade implementeringar av Volvo Personal Servicesamt undersöka vilka delar av Lean Leadership som krävs för att Volvo Cars ska kunna driva och utveckla ledarskapet i VPS-verkstäder på ett framgångsrikt sätt. Valda frågeställningarför undersökningen skulle genera vilka fallgropar som gick att identifiera i verkstadschefernas ledarskap utifrån forskning samt hur Volvo Cars skulle utveckla ledarskapet hos dessa verkstäder för att de ska ligga mer i linje med Lean Leadership. Måletmed undersökningen har varit att undersökningen skulle generera i ett underlag till Volvo Cars gällande hur det ska vägleda eller utveckla det befintliga ledarskapet för att lägga grund för lyckade implementeringar och fortsatt utveckling av VPS. Examensarbetet grundar sig i en förstudie där fem förbättringsområden kartlades för att slutligen besluta om att verkstadschefernas ledarskap var det förbättringsområde som skulle undersökas djupare. VolvoCars har uppmärksammat att implementeringen av VPS inte blir lyckad i alla verkstäder och ville undersöka om problemet kunde ligga hos verkstadscheferna i anslutna Volvo-verkstäder. Fallstudie valdes som forskningsstrategi för undersökningen eftersom enbart en undersökningsenhet skulle undersökas, det vill säga ansluta Volvo-verkstäder och deras verkstadschefer. Undersökningen genomfördes med en kvalitativ design av anledningen att forskningsfrågorna och vald forskningsstrategi skulle kompletterats med en mixad form av datainsamling för att leverera bästa möjliga resultat för undersökningen. Personliga intervjuer och webbenkäter valdes som metoder för datainsamlingen. Vid förstudien framkom det att det rådde misstanka

Summary: Although temporal issues affecting organizations and leaders have been researched, time orientation (preference for one or more of the present, past, and future time frames) and visioning ability of change agents within organizations remain open for additional investigation. This exploratory survey study compared self-reported time orientation (TO) and visioning ability ratings of administrators and faculty at a community college. The research added to the extant literature by contextualizing the measures of the key constructs and extending the research to a novel setting. Scores for all three time frames were assessed in contrast to studies that emphasize future orientation. In addition, TO measures were obtained using an instrument constructed specifically for organizations (Fortunato & Furey, 2009). An adapted version of a visioning ability by Thoms and Blasko (1999) was constructed to address a specified time depth (the distant future) and domains relevant to higher education. Administrators reported significantly higher ratings than faculty on Future TO and visioning ability measures. Future TO scores for faculty were lower in relation to scores on the other two TO scales, but no within-group TO differences were found for administrators. A multiple regression model indicated that Future TO was the best predictor of visioning ability. Faculty teaching in the Associate of Science areas had higher Present TO scores than those teaching in the Associate of Arts programs. TO and visioning ability did not change as a function of gender, age, culture, and years of experience in higher education. The interpretation of the findings was limited by the lack of benchmarks that allow for meaningful comparisons across organizations, and by a continued need to establish construct and predictive validity for the key measures. The research has implications for hiring decisions, for staff development, and for temporal profiling in organizations interested in envisioning, 2017, Includes bibliography., Degree granted: Dissertation (Ph.D.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2017., Collection: FAU Electronic Theses and Dissertations Collection

In today’s busy and complex world, leaders can become mired in action and activity driven by a strong desire to achieve. Increasingly this drive for action and achievement coupled with the pace of life can preclude–or severely limit–time for reflection, which, in turn, can impact adversely on the quality of decisions made and on the lives of people at work. I have been involved for over a decade in designing and facilitating training programs to improve reflection and leadership skills. Much has been written about the practices of reflection and leadership, and reflection as a practice of leadership, with a wide community of researchers and practitioners using different lenses and traditions. As a leadership consultant, I came to realise that while there is much written and taught about the topics, leaders seem to practise associated reflection skills to a limited extent once they leave the boundaries of the training program. I also noticed, eventually, that in my professional and personal life, my own behaviour was enacting those very behaviours that I was encouraging leaders to change, bringing to mind the phrase, ‘You teach best what you most need to learn’ (Bach 1977). As I became aware of my own habits I also realised there is limited research chronicling the iterative journey of the practitioner attempting to model and learn from the practice of reflection as a leader, whilst simultaneously enabling such a process for other leaders. This doctoral research is, therefore, essentially a self-study of my own learning about being a leader and a reflective practitioner, within the context of designing and facilitating programs to improve leadership via reflective practice for senior managers in corporate organizations. In essence, it reports how I have approached the task of emulating and representing what I encourage others to do as leaders and reflective practitioners. To explicate the objective of analysing my own reflective practice I decided to explore two rese

Stuckedness can be described as the taken-for-granted advocacy of the continuance with a practice even when such a performance is counter-productive, not fruitful, or non-generative. Indeed, most people will be familiar with experiences of stuckedness as such practices are to be found in acts such as the staunch dismissal of the issue of climate change despite evidence to the contrary, the repeated choice to stay in toxic relationships, the careless pursuit of profit by corporations, the choice to persist with a habit that is likely to result in degenerative disease, etc. It is also likely that most people will at some point become acquainted with feelings of chagrin towards such practices. Yet, the characterization of practices of tacit forbearance as stuckedness remains largely unproblematized and this thesis seeks to understand how and why a social practice reveals itself as stuckedness. Drawing on the work of Foucault, and then using genealogical and ethnographic methods, namely the techniques of action nets, a reporting style, and problematized confessional tales, I excavate how and why certain elements come together to be problematized by my respondents in those terms which had become for me an index of stuckedness. This research draws on data from the specific spatio-temporal field of a costly government-funded innovation trial within the energy sector, operating within a continuously complex environment. Focusing on expressions of taken-for-granted advocacy of recursive self-control or unchanging replication, I make connections between different observable elements (power/knowledge relations, historical and cultural conditions, human and non-human agencies, and the practices under scrutiny) to detail and problematize the justification and utility on which the endurance of practices of stuckedness depends.

Title: Why do some municipalities stop using the balanced scorecard? - A case study in three Swedish municipalities. Seminar date: 2014-06-05 Course: FEKH69 Authors: Denice Klytsareff, Pär-Ola Olsson, Hanna Tengeborg Advisor: Mikael Hellström Key words: Balanced scorecard, not for profit, municipality, management control, organizational change. Purpose: To describe and analyze why some Swedish municipalities chose to stop using The Balanced Scorecard. Methodology: We have used a qualitative method, in the form of telephone interviews, to investigate why different municipalities chose to waive the balanced scorecard. To increase the quality of the study, we conducted interviews in three different municipalities: Mariestad, Sigtuna and Vetlanda. Theoretical perspective: First, we present theory regarding the balanced scorecard on a general level and then we specify the theory to focus on the balanced scorecard in public organizations. Then follows theory of organizational change. And finally, we describe the reasons for introducing and abandoning management innovations. Empirical foundation: Our empirical foundation is based on two interviews in each of the three municipalities. The chapter is present in three categories: Mariestads municipality, Sigtuna municipality and Vetlanda municipality. Conclusions: In the paper we arrive at three conclusions. First, the municipalities that were interviewed all used the services of consultants while introducing the BSC. We do not think that they adopted the model for reasons of efficiency, and therefore the model was not the most optimal for their particular organization. Second, the municipalities handled the model carelessly. This, we believe has contributed to dysfunctional management control, thus leading to the end of the use of BSC. Thirdly, we present the idea that there are reasons why the balanced scorecard does not suit municipalities. It is our opinion that the fact that the model does not fit municipalities may have