Abstract Title: Communicating diversity – A study about communication and involvement in The National Council of Swedish Youth Organizations. Number of pages: 58 Author: Frida Samuelsson Tutor: Peder Hård af Segerstad Course: Media and Communication Studies C Period: Autumn 2006 University: Division of Media and Communication, Department of Information Science,Uppsala University Purpose/Aim: The general purpose of this essay is to analyse how the member organizations of LSU – The National Council of Swedish Youth Organizations, see the communication,activities and their influence over the organization. I aim to do an analysis of the target group to find out if the lack of involvement in LSU is caused by communication problems. Material/Method: The method of this essay is quantitative and is based upon a web-survey.The chairmen of the member organizations have been asked to answer a survey about the communication in LSU. To get an idea of how widespread different opinions about LSU are the empirical data has been made into graphs to show the frequencies and also cross tabulations to find out if there are any correlations between the variables. Main result: This study has shown that the problem with involvement in LSU is only partly a communication problem. One important result is that many member organizations feel that LSU doesn’t listen to their opinions and they express a wish to have more influence over the organization. The broad target group is both a strength and a weakness to the organization. It is a hard task to communicate in such a differentiated organization, since the members have many views on LSU and have different degrees of involvement. But it is also a strength to be able to create meeting points where different organizations can learn from each other. Keywords: Communication problems, internal communication, involvement, non-profit, organizations, umbrella organization, youth organizations.

Abstract Title: Effective internal communication –A case study on communication between a manager and the employees in a sportsclub. Number of pages: 40, without enclosures Author: Susan Andersson Tutor: Peder Hård af Segerstad Course: Media and Communication Studies C Period: Second term 2005 University: Division of Media and Communication, Department of Information Science, Uppsala University Purpose/Aim: I aim to do a case study of a work situation, where there is no natural or direct form of feedback between the manager and the employees, and compare the purpose of the information efforts with how it is perceived by the employees. Material/Method: Qualitative research method, including an assembling method in the form of interviews, and a processing method of those interviews. Main results: All the used channels combined together (except one channel) seem to have created the right condition so that the content of the information can be perceived and used as the way it was supposed to, even though there’s no direct feedback of the information. The manager gets feedback indirectly and can therefore adapt the messages, or the information efforts, to the receivers. Keywords: Organizational communication, Internal communication, Information, Feedback.

Abstract Title: Internal communication at IKEA – A functional analysis of IKEA Uppsalas internal communication (Intern kommunikation på IKEA – En funktionsanalys av IKEA Uppsalas interna kommunikation) Author: Fredrik Johansson Aim: The purpose of this study is to analyze the internal communication at IKEA Uppsala. Are the channels of communication working efficiently? How is the information received by the employees? Finally I will make a few suggestions on how the internal communication can be improved. Method/Material: The method used in this study is quantitative. The internal communication at IKEA Uppsala is analyzed based on the results of a questionnaire. 75 employees at three different divisions were given questions on how they appreciate the communication channels at IKEA in Uppsala. 50 answers were received. Main results: The results clearly show that even though the internal communication at IKEA seems to work well in general, a few of the channel needs to be improved. A major difference between the channels has been observed and firstly, the internal e-mail is not used as it could be. Secondly, the Intranet is also used by very few of the respondents. However the verbal communication from the nearest manager is regarded by over 50 per cent of the respondents as very much practical indeed. Also the IKEA staff paper, Arosposten is read by many and is regarded as a useful source of information. Number of pages: 63 Course: Media and Communication Studies C University: Division of Media and Communication, Department of Information Science,Uppsala University Period: Autumn 2006 Tutor: Göran Svensson Keywords: Information, communication,internal communication, information channels

Charities struggle with scarce marketing and branding resources, as do many non-profits, but nevertheless they need to communicate a trustworthy external brand. A strong internal brand is suggested to enhance the external brand and storytelling is addressed as an established tool for internal branding. As charities seem to have a natural asset of corporate stories, we believe storytelling in terms of internal branding is of great use for the charity sector in order to create strong and competitive brands. The aim of this paper is hence to investigate what role storytelling could have on internal branding in the context of the charity industry. To do this, a qualitative case study with four different charities is conducted. A theoretical framework on internal branding and storytelling guides the data collection consisting of several interviews with managers, employees and volunteers. The findings indicate that both founder stories and recent stories play an important role for organizational culture, core values and internal communication. We conclude that storytelling can be strategically implemented in charities’ internal branding as stories have the possibility to embrace and include the entire organization, which is crucial for trustworthy and competitive brands.

This thesis concerns the subject of social media in the internal communication, how it can function to improve the communication among the coworkers. Good Old has been the web agency of our case study, through them we have gained understanding of the phenomenon. Media and communication theories and interviews have given us the foundation of the thesis.Our conclusion shows that it is beneficial to use social media internally in the type of company that Good Old is. Furthermore, the result shows that it can improve the communication, increase organizational learning and unity among coworkers. Finally social media can make organizations more effective.

Even though companies are facing a continuously changing environment, far from all businesses manage to succeed with their organizational changes. (Olson, 2008) If wanting to meet market demands and avoid unnecessary costs it is important to ask the question if we can, in some way, predict, understand or influence the process of change. (Ahrenfelt, 2001) The purpose of this thesis is to determine if life-cycle theories can be used exclusively when planning and managing a process of change. To answer the purpose, the thesis is based upon a qualitative case study at Consafe Logistics group. Theobjective with the empirical studies, executed through nine interviews with various managers, was to determine whether or not life-cycle models and organizational culture can be of assistance when managing change. The studies showed that the opinions differ between the respondents and that the topics internal communication and documentation were frequently brought up during the interviews. Theoretically, this thesis addresses different life-cycle change theories and an alternative model for implementing change through organizational culture. Furthermore the theoretic section considers the areas Project organization, Leadership in processes of change, Knowledge, competence & education, Internal communication and Documentation. The thesis showed that applying life-cycle theories to a change can be of limited use since there are big difficulties in placing the different activities throughout the change in achronological order. The theories can be used however to highlight the relationship between activities which can be useful for making time savings. Irrespective of the order activities are managed in a process of change, measurable goals, feedback and support throughout the process are central for the change’s outcome. This thesis has resulted in a general life-cycle model for managing organizational change based upon existing theoriesand empirical studies. Finally, culture and inertia are described as two factors that either facilitate or inhibit the success of the change depending on how they are managed.

The purpose of this study is to create understanding for how social media affects the relationship between employees and leaders in organizations, and how social media could be used to improve internal communication. We also want to explore how this type of internal communication could be implemented in large organizations. From a theoretical perspective our ambition is to see how our findings relate to the theoretical field of internal communication and human resource management. The empirical findings in this study were gathered by conducting an interview with the CEO to reveal his intentions, methods and practices when working with social media. A questionnaire was then developed by using the knowledge gained from the interview with the CEO, as well as by using theories regarding communication, social media and corporate culture, this questionnaire was filled out by company employees. The empirical data that was gathered was analyzed in the light of relevant theory. We also checked the various data variables for correlation. This was done so we could study what factors determine why an employee follows the blog, and also so we could study which factors are impacted by the employee reading the blog. The results of this study show that social media as a communication tool has enormous potential to transcend geographical barriers and to flatten the organizational hierarchy in a way that is not possible through the usage of conventional communication methods. Social media can affect the relationship between a leader of an organization and its employees and has the power to spread values, practices, routines and build corporate culture. Social media however, has a sensitive nature and factors such as accessibility, target group characteristics and planning are directly relevant to the outcome when a CEO uses social media to communicate with the employees. Accessibility problems can result in some employees having a hard time being reached by social media communication and the lack of a proper integration plan can cause disturbance in the communication, employees may not be aware of the purpose of the CEOs efforts or maybe not even be aware that the CEO has started using social media tools. However the individuals who do follow the CEOs practises are likely to gain a better relationship with their leader. The informal nature of social media is a great way for CEOs to show more of their personalities and in that way form a closer bond with the employees. We believe that if planned and used in the right way, CEO social media communication has even more potential than this study reveals.

Both as leader and employee you need a perception of the organisational identity. The purpose of this thesis is to identify leaders’ perception of using communication to develop and implement the organisational identity with the employees and also to identify how the internal work with the organisational identity can contribute in making the employees good ambassadors for the organisation. Data has been gathered through qualitative interviews with four leaders at a future large organisation. By connecting and analysing the empirical findings with relevant theories we came to the conclusion that the leaders’ percept the communication as vital and that they consider creating the foundation of the organisational identity as their responsibility. They value co-creation and an open communication with the employees. We make the conclusion that ongoing communication is essential for including employees in the development of the organisational identity and in making these good ambassadors.

Intresset i denna studie låg i huruvida organisationsstruktur påverkar den interna kommunikationen. Studien utfördes i samarbete med Region Halland. Avgränsningen gjordes till HR-verksamheten centralt, personalchefer och förvaltningschefer, där syftet med undersökningen var att beskriva och analysera upplevelsen av kommunikationen däremellan. Alla organisationer behöver kommunikation för att existera, det är kommunikation som utgör grunden och framgången för en organisation (Falkheimer & Heide, 2007 15-33). Genom kvalitativa samtalsintervjuer och inläsning på teorier om kommunikation besvarades nedanstående frågeställningar:   Hur sker kommunikationen mellan HR-verksamheten centralt, personalcheferna och förvaltningscheferna? Hur påverkar organisationsstrukturen kommunikationen och hur upplever medarbetarna att organisationsstrukturen påverkar kommunikationen? Går det att identifiera eventuella kommunikationsproblem och i så fall vilka? Vad upplevs som effektiv kommunikation och vad upplevs fungera bra idag? Vem upplevs ha ansvar för att information skall nå fram till den eller de som är tänkt?   Resultatet visade bland annat en upplevd otydlighet gällande information, svårighet med samordning, problematik kring förvaltningarnas storlek samt resurser på varje enskild enhet och svårighet att se organisationen ur ett helhetsperspektiv.

Problem: Rebranding in the services is a recent trend, which brings focus to the impor-tance of the employees in this process. Their attitudes, perceptions and views need to be considered by the management when creating the internal communication strategy related to the rebranding in order to direct the employees to the desired brand image. This raises the problem as how employees perceive the management`s rebranding efforts. Purpose: This study aims to focus on how rebranding is executed and communicated in-ternally to the employees of the company. It is interesting to find out how the employees evaluate the communication strategy that the management implements and how they perceive the new image of the company. In order to get insight to the internal rebranding process the correlation between the perceived image by the employees and the components of the internal communication strategy is presented. Methodology: The empirical approach is a case study of the Bulgarian telecommunication company Vivacom. The research includes two interviews with the management of the company and a questionnaire based on the interviews and the relevant literature, which was sent to the employees of the company. Moreover, company`s documentation and website were used to complement the information. Conclusions: The results helped us identify the decisions that the management made re-garding the rebranding and the internal communication. The quantitative data indicated the relatively positive attitudes and views of the employees for the management`s rebranding efforts. They also showed good knowledge and awareness of the new brand elements.