Date: 2022-06-01 Level: Bachelor thesis in Business Administration, 15 cr Institution: School of Business, Society and Engineering, Mälardalen University Authors: Rahaf Alkhadra  & Jessika Melander  Title: Organisational Change in The Pervasive Digitalization Era Supervisor: Konstantin Lampou Research question: How is digital transformation as an organizational change implemented in organizations and how is it perceived by the individuals within the organization? Purpose: The purpose of this study is to obtain a comprehensive understanding of the dynamic digital changes within organizations, by investigating the process of implementing digital transformation and how it impacts organizational structure on both organizational and individual levels. Therefore, the practice of digital transformation, in which it is manifested as individuals’ perceptions of the change process will be pursued to better equip the notion of contemporary organizations when addressing organizational change. Method: Since the goal is to interpret a pervasive phenomenon, an abductive approach along with a qualitative design were followed to enable an accurate clarification of the subject. The data has been collected from 16 participants through semi-structured interviews with different organizations. Conclusion: The implementation process of DT contains three main phases (sensing, sizing, and transforming), where the transforming phase is where individuals’ perceptions can be comprehended since it is the key element of ensuring the goals of digitalization. Also, the duality of individuals’ perceptions manifested in the reasoning and sensemaking of the change and not in the digitalization per se.  Keywords: Organizational change, digitalization, digital transformation, contingency theory, individuals perceptions.

Purpose - The aim of this study is to bridge the gap regarding digital transformation challenges and common pitfalls for low-tech SMEs. In doing so, we provide a framework presenting common pitfalls in digital transformations for low-tech SMEs and five mitigation strategies to aid in avoiding them and thus, enabling a higher success rate of digital transformations. Method - To answer the research questions, a thematic analysis was conducted based on data collected through three waves of semi-structured interviews. In total, 17 interviews were held with informants such as industry experts, the case company, and low-tech SMEs that had already successfully performed a digital transformation. Findings - The analysis resulted in 22 common pitfalls within four areas: Strategy, digital maturity, resources, and resistance to change. These built the foundation of the five mitigating strategies: Create mutual goals, break down changes into steps, spread the competence, change to improvement, and prioritize business development. Theoretical contribution - This study adds to existing literature by identifying the low-tech perspective of a digital transformation and presenting that SMEs’ difficulties are closely related to their size, lacking digital maturity, and an absence of transformational strategies. Furthermore, our findings enhance previous studies in suggesting a shift in perspective where digital transformation should be viewed as a business development method rather than only a change of the daily processes. Practical implications - This study maps out key risks and common pitfalls for managers in low-tech SMEs about to perform a digital transformation. Moreover, five mitigation strategies are presented aiming to aid organizations in their strategic work. Limitations of the study - The research has focused on one low-tech SME in the automotive industry. Data collection focused on gathering depth rather than quantifying findings, and thus, the generalizability might be limited. Future studies could benefit from validating the findings in another industrial context. / Syfte - Målsättningen med denna studie är att minska gapet gällande utmaningar vid digitala transformationer och addressera vanliga fallgropar för lågteknologiska SMEs. Därigenom presenterar vi ett ramverk som kartlägger vanliga fallgropar vid digitala transformation för lågteknologiska SMEs samt fem förebyggande strategier för att undvika fallgropar. Därmed bidrar studien till att bolag ökar sina chanser att lyckas med sin digitala transformation. Metod - För att besvara forskningsfrågan har en tematisk analys används på data från tre vågor av intervjuer. Totalt genomfördes 17 intervjuer med informanter som exempelvis industriexperter, case-företaget och lågteknologiska SMEs som redan lyckats med sin digitala transformation. Upptäckter - Analysen resulterade i 22 vanliga fallgropar inom fyra områden: Strategi, digital mognad, resurser samt förändringsmotstånd. Dessa utgjorde grunden för de fem förebyggande strategierna: Skapa en gemensam målbild, genomför förändring stegvis, sprid kunskap, gå från förändring till förbättring samt prioritera affärsutveckling. Teoretiskt bidrag - Denna studie bygger vidare på existerande litteratur genom att identifiera ett lågteknologiskt perspektiv för digitala transformationer och presenterar att SMEs problem är nära besläktade med deras storlek, bristande digital mognad samt avsaknad av strategi för digitala transformationer. Vidare har resultatet byggt på tidigare studiers bidrag om att föreslå ett perspektivskifte där digitala transformationer bör ses som affärsutveckling snarare än bara en förändring i de dagliga processerna. Praktiskt bidrag - Studien kartlägger kritiska risker och vanliga fallgropar för ledare i lågteknologiska SMEs inför genomförandet av en digital transformation. Vidare har fem förebyggande strategier presenterats med målet att hjälpa organisationer i deras strategiska arbete. Studiens begränsningar - Studien har fokuserat på ett lågteknologiskt SME i bilindustrin. Datainsamlingen fokuserade på att nå djup snarare än kvantifiering av fynd och därför kan generaliserbarheten vara begränsad. Framtida studier skulle med fördel kunna validera resultatet i en annan industriell kontext.

Due to today’s digital transformation, traditional ways of communication are increasingly replaced by virtual and digital communication channels. The challenge for leaders in this digital environment is consequently to reach out to their followers to the same extent as in physical meetings. Leadership is about influencing people to strive towards a desired direction and leaders’ aims are thereby to impact their followers both cognitively but also emotionally in order to stimulate motivation. Emotional intelligence revolves around the necessity of understanding and reading others’ emotions and how to act upon that in order to successfully interact with others. By reason of the current Covid-19 pandemic, we have the rare opportunity to explore the interaction between leaders and followers during the time of a global pandemic and understand how the accompanying social distance may impact the emotional aspects in leadership. The research question for this thesis is thereby: How can emotional value be created in the interaction between leaders and followers in today's digitalized world? The theoretical framework that constitutes the basis of the thesis is divided into four main concepts which are: the relational perspective of leadership, emotional intelligence, creating emotional value and the digital transformation in the business world. The study has an exploratory purpose and is of a qualitative approach. In order to collect empirical data, semi-structured interviews were held with eight participants whereof four leaders and four followers. The findings could be divided into four themes which are: Human touch and individual need, Social skills and individual adaptation, Work satisfaction and motivation and Future strategies. The result of the study shows that emotional value is highly important in the interaction between leaders and followers in order to maintain engagement, satisfaction and motivation in a digital work environment. The conclusion is however that emotional value indeed can be created through digital communication but that it has to be created in a quite different way than in physical meetings.

Background: While technologies are progressing exponentially and inevitably becoming an essential as a means for business to adapt and survive, no exception is the finance division. Digitalization activities have become do or die tasks for many companies and have been a challenging process for finance departments. Yet, in the context of Finance 4.0 it is barely researched. Due to evolving understanding of how finance departments should look, the Chief Financial Officer (CFO) as the leader of the whole finance division is going through a lot of changes surrounded by uncertainty. The expectations for CFO and finance department are increasing and it becomes unclear what financial specialists should actually deliver for business. Hence, this paper aims to identify how CFO’s role is changing because of Finance 4.0, otherwise known as finance function digitalization, and what skills will be needed to successfully work as CFO in the new environment that seeks to become fully digital and automated. Purpose: The purpose of this master thesis research is to identify and analyze how the CFO’s role is changing because of Finance 4.0 and what skills will be required in future for the CFO position.  Method: A qualitative study with interpretivism philosophy, inductive approach and narrative inquiry strategy is taken as the best options for this particular study. Semi-structured interviews with Chief Financial Officers (CFOs) is a method for primary data collection as well as thematic data analysis for gathered data analysis are chosen in order to answer research questions. Conclusion: This research investigates how Finance 4.0 is changing the role of CFO as well as explores what future skills are required for the profession. The research clearly reveals that digitalization is affecting CFO’s role significantly and brings more uncertainty. Research results show that fundamental responsibilities of a CFO will not undergo changes any time soon as well as the skills required for work will remain largely the same. This is because the professional skills of a CFO directly reflect the responsibilities and working tasks, and, moreover, the finance departments are not completely undigitized. However, even though the foundation of the CFO role remains the same, digital disruption causes expansion and increased complexity. While existing academic knowledge is focused mostly on the change process itself and the benefits of digitalization, CFOs revealed what is challenging for them during this digital journey and what negative effect they have experienced.

Background: The advancement and spread of digitalization is reshaping the commercial landscape for firms, executing proper and adequate digital transformations have therefore become a necessity in order to thrive in the digital era. Existing literature has indicated that the unique and distinctive characteristics that family businesses possess may shape the way such firms handle various change efforts. However, research of how family firms handle digital transformations is heavily undeveloped, where the non-financial aspects’ influence on such transformations has yet to be assessed. Purpose: The purpose of this thesis is to investigate how non-financial aspects could influence a digital transformation process in family businesses. By fulfilling this purpose, additional insights can be contributed and enable a more thorough understanding of how non-financial aspects influence digital transformations in a family business. Method: This qualitative and exploratory thesis, guided by an inductive approach, has utilized a multiple case study containing four different cases in order to generate more insights and create a better understanding regarding the topic at hand. Eleven semi-structured interviews have been conducted and a thematic analysis has served as guidance when interpreting and analyzing the data. Conclusion: The results of the research reveal that four non-financial aspects were identified through the multiple case study. However, merely three of the four non-financial aspects identified were found to influence digital transformations in family businesses, encompassing both advantages and challenges which consequently affect a digital transformation. Additionally, the results show that one of the non-financial aspects solely had a positive influence on digital transformations, while the other two had both a positive and negative influence.

Background: The Covid-19 pandemic has impacted all of society, and businesses are faced by having to close or adapt to the new regulations and laws by pursuing digital transformation. As companies are transitioning to remote work, leaders are now met with the obstacle of taking in-person, face-to-face leadership and putting it through digital transformation. Due to all these unforeseen changes employee motivation is at risk as employees are working remotely in isolation with leaders adopting new leadership styles.    Purpose: This research aims to investigate the change in leadership styles resulting from remote work and investigate if it has affected employee motivation.   Method: This research is an exploratory qualitative study conducted, focusing on multiple cases where semi-structured, and in-depth interviews were held with nine participants from three companies, with one leader and two employees from each company. A thematic analysis was used to investigate the primary data. Conclusion: The empirical findings and the analysis provide two areas that have been found during this conducted research: 1) Leaders realized that instead of focusing on performances-oriented approaches with heavy monitoring and supervision, it was more important to tend to human-centric care and being more open and nurturing to alleviate stress for employees. 2) Employee motivation has generally been negatively impacted due to employees and leaders experiencing communication difficulties, loneliness, lack of support and easily accessible distractions. With a few exceptions of employees coping better with a more balanced supervision and higher level of isolation acceptance.

Dagens teknik fortsätter att utvecklas varje dag och organisationer behöver anpassa sig till en ständigt utvecklade miljö där det hela tiden sker förändringar. För att klara av utvecklingen krävs det att dessa organisationer inför system och applikationer som klarar det och anpassar sitt arbetssätt därefter. Vid införande av dessa nya teknologier, vet inte alla hur det kommer påverka organisationen i fråga. En omställning, eller digital transformation, innebär organisatoriska förändringar och en del vet inte vad de kan förvänta sig. Studiens syfte är att undersöka dessa organisatoriska förändringar som sker vid en digital transformation, och samspelen förändringarna emellan. Även eventuella stöd till en digital transformation har funnits till syfte att undersöka i uppsatsen. Tidigare forskning som berör organisatoriska förändringar vid en digital transformation, samspelen mellan dessa och stöd, har undersökts i denna studie. Det finns inte mycket tidigare forskning inom området och av den anledningen blev detta en explorativ studie. En tematisk analys ägde rum av den tidigare forskningen och de mest återkommande temana inom varje nivå i nivåmodellen identifierades tillsammans med teman inom stöd. Till varje tema identifierades subteman för att underlätta förståelsen kring innehållet. Teorin har kompletterats med kvalitativa, semistrukturerade intervjuer med 5 oberoende konsulter inom digitalisering och digital transformation. Resultatet inom systemutvecklingsnivån visar att IT-stödens förändringar innefattar molnlösningar samt automatisering och integrering av system. Förändringar sett till IT-användningen blir därmed en automatiserad användning med integrerad information. Arbetet blir i mer prediktivt än reaktivt syfte och datatillgången ökas i organisationen. Inom kundbehov visade sig att kundernas kunder får ökad viktighet, kundportaler blir allt vanligare och att analysera data för att förutse kundbehoven görs. Inom verksamhetsutvecklingsnivån och då processledningen sker förändringar på bland annat processlogiken, och innebär förändrade processer sett till att de blir mer automatiserade. Ny kompetens krävs för att ständigt utveckla processerna och system, och därmed krävs också en förändringshantering för att anpassa sig efter förändringarna. Infrastrukturlogiken ändras i de fall det går mot en molnbaserad lösning, annars krävs det även här en ständig utveckling av IT-infrastrukturen efter en transformation. Agentlogiken förändras på så sätt att anställdas roller förändras och att ny ledarskap krävs i den digitala världen. Sett till skapande av värde i affärsmodeller, under affärsutvecklingsnivån, handlar det idag mycket om servitisering. Den nya tekniken innebär även andra affärsmöjligheter, bland annat genom den omfattande dataanalysen som är möjlig. Leveransen av värde beror mycket på huruvida ledarskapet driver verksamheten framåt och om nytänkande uppmanas. Fångandet av värde visar att tydliga informationskällor är viktiga och att många företag går mot att göra datadrivet beslutsfattande. Samspelet mellan nivåerna, och temana, är viktigt för att transformationen ska få en betydande och ihållande effekt. Även här trycks det på ledningens förmåga att driva förändringsarbete. Resultatet av studien visade också digital strategi, Chief Data Officer, organisatorisk kultur och digital mognad som stöd till en digital transformation.

The fourth industrial revolution is the latest revolution that has emerged within the industrial sector. The concept has become more known in recent years and with the different technologies it brings to the companies, it creates a race around the world for companies in order to be among the first to implement the new technologies. With the growing interest in industry 4.0 and the implementation of the new technologies, it has created a need to rethink on how to be successful in this transformation. To be successful in implementing industry 4.0 it is important to involve all the different aspects of a company’s supply chain. This qualitative study aims to investigate how industry 4.0 affects the digital transformation at a large manufacturing company in Sweden. The thesis includes five different technologies within industry 4.0: Internet of things, the cloud, simulations, autonomous robots and big data and analytics. The five technologies are then investigated on how they affect the digital transformation of the chosen company. The results of the findings shows that industry 4.0 has an affect on the digital transformation of the company after it was implemented. However, the results also shows that some technologies have had a greater impact to the digital transformation then others, but there isn´t one technology that has not affected the transformation at all. Additionally, the results shows that the part of digital transformation that is affected the most from industry 4.0 is the changes it creates in the value creation of the company. This thesis aims to create a better understanding about industry 4.0 and how it affects the digital transformation of a large manufacturing company.

The objective of this exploratory thesis has been to study how leaders incorporate innovations into the business processes with the help of technical solutions and their competencies. The study takes into consideration the best practices of consulting companies, multinational manufacturing companies, and digitally creative consultant companies where leaders are able to bring innovation with the help of technical solutions. It deals with questions on what technical solutions help leaders to implement innovations, and also, what are the skills and competencies required by leaders to bring innovation with the help of digitalization. The findings of the research aim to develop a profound understanding on the concepts of leadership, innovation and also digitalization in the modern era. The thesis was carried out in light of semi- structured interviews, to understand the study areas, and proceed further with the data processing, empirical findings, analysis and conclusions. Owing to the rapid development in technologies, and the innovative ways of working, organisations lose their competitive advantages with the growing times if their leadership doesn’t evolve with the advancement that prevails. There has also been previous literature on how digitalization helps leadership to bring innovation and transformation within business organizations, however, there has been lack of studies and research gap to show that leadership has its extensive role to bring innovation within organizations with the help of digitalization and leadership competencies. Therefore, this master thesis worked to combine previous research on leadership, digitalization along with the modern insights based on empirical data. The research has used one qualitative method of semi-structured interview, revealing insightful findings on the data collected for our thesis. Moreover, this Master thesis will serve as a foundation for the future studies and research within the areas of leadership, innovation and digitalization.

Bakgrund och problem: Den digitala transformationen har drastiskt påverkat hur bankernaskunder genomför sina bankärenden och de spenderar mindre tid på bankkontoret än tidigare.Samtidigt som bankerna vill att kunden ska bli mer självständig med sina bankärenden i ettlönsamhetssyfte vill de fortfarande ha en stark relation med kunden. Det är en utmaning förde lokala bankkontorscheferna att skapa långvariga kundrelationer när kunden interegelbundet kommer in till det lokala kontoret och om det lokala bankkontoret inte anpassarsitt arbetssätt riskerar de att kunderna blir mer flyktiga. Syfte: Syftet med denna studie är att undersöka hur lokala svenska bankkontor styr för attuppnå starka kundrelationer. Anledningen är att vi vill få en ökad förståelse för hur lokalabankkontor arbetar med kundrelationer i en alltmer digital värld och vad de intervjuadecheferna anser är rätt tillvägagångssätt för att lyckas med detta. Vi vill därmed bidra medkunskap om hur kundrelationer kan hanteras under denna delen av den digitalatransformationen. Metod: Studien har genomförts med en induktiv ansats och en kvalitativ metod.Semistrukturerade intervjuer genomfördes med lokala bankkontorschefer i Kalmar Län.Medverkande banker var Handelsbanken, Häradssparbanken och Ölands Bank. Slutsats: Fem styrningsaktiviteter med tillhörande utmaningar har identifierats som hjälpertill att förklara hur det lokala bankkontoret arbetar för en stark kundrelation. De femstyrningsaktiviteterna är att kontoret ska vara proaktiva, skapa en kundfokuseradorganisationskultur, skapa mervärde, vara tillgängliga samt ha en säker personligidentifiering.