The covid-19 pandemic plunged the world into an experiment in work-from-home without any collective experience in how to manage this situation. During a crisis characterised by social distancing and blurring lines between home and work, providing support to employees is important. Middle managers, being in-between upper management and subordinates, were in a special situation of having to balance new demands from both sides. In light of this, the purpose of our study was to investigate how middle managers handled the challenge of supporting their subordinates during the pandemic. To achieve the purpose of this study, a qualitative research methodology was applied. We investigated middle managers experiences of supporting their subordinates during the pandemic. The data was collected through 8 semi-structured interviews with middle managers working in Sweden. Our results show that during the pandemic middle managers had to adopt empathic behaviour as leaders and adapt their way of leading to each subordinates needs.

Remote work was already an ongoing trend amongst software developers, but the sudden and unexpected occurrence of the COVID-19 pandemic made it normal due to the obligations for many people to stay and work from home.  To go from the safeness of the work office with an always-working Internet connection and colleagues around to exchange ideas with, to working from home can be a big change from one day to another. Without a good structure or adjustment from the organization, this would lead to a decrease in good work results, communication issues and difficulty for managers to keep track of what is done and by whom. To facilitate this, commonly used methods are the Agile Methodologies. Beck et al. (2001) make it significant in the 12 principles of Agile that the most efficient and effective method of conveying information is by face-to-face conversation for the best results. Investigating the work that was done face-to-face previous to the pandemic but is now done remotely from home within agile teams is therefore of much relevance today. This thesis was intended to investigate and learn how the use of agile methodologies has facilitated the sudden transition to remote work from home and affected the aspects of communication and work results within an agile development team. The study was conducted using the qualitative method with interviews consisting of seven open-response and two closed-response questions with respondents in agile teams from a software development company in Sweden. The analysis was made thematically in relation to Bridge’s Transition Model, and in relation to previous research. The study identified three themes to answer the research question based on the theoretical framework; The Change, Communication and Work Results. The results of the study show that the use of Agile Methodologies indeed has simplified the sudden transition to remote work from home, which was called The Change, as many of the agile practices already were done online previous to the pandemic. The study has also concluded that the use of Agile Methodologies has positively affected the aspects of communication and work results in an agile team, as it was found that forms of communication became more creative as they occurred more frequently while working from home, and it ultimately led to more valuable end-results. / Distansarbete var redan en pågående trend bland mjukvaruutvecklare, men den plötsliga och oväntade förekomsten av COVID-19-pandemin gjorde det normalt på grund av restriktionerna för många människor att arbeta hemifrån. Att gå från arbetskontorets säkerhet med en alltid fungerande internetuppkoppling och kollegor runt om för att diskutera idéer med, till att arbeta hemifrån kan vara en stor förändring från en dag till en annan. Utan en bra struktur eller anpassning från organisationen skulle detta leda till en minskning av goda arbetsresultat, dålig kommunikation och svårigheter för chefer att hålla reda på vad som görs och av vem. Vanliga metoder att använda för att underlätta detta är de agila metoderna. Beck et al. (2001) gör det tydligt i de 12 principerna för Agile att den mest effektiva metoden för att förmedla information i ett projekt är genom konversationer face to face, för bästa resultat. Att undersöka det arbete som innan pandemin gjordes face to face men nu görs på distans hemifrån inom agila team är därför av stor relevans idag. Denna studie var avsedd att undersöka och få kunskap om hur användningen av agila metoder har underlättat den plötsliga övergången till distansarbete hemifrån och påverkat aspekterna av kommunikation och arbetsresultat inom ett agilt utvecklingsteam. Studien genomfördes med hjälp av den kvalitativa metoden med intervjuer bestående av sju öppna frågor och två slutna svarfrågor med respondenter i agila team från ett mjukvaruutvecklingsföretag i Sverige. Analysen gjordes tematiskt i förhållande till Bridge’s Transition Model och i förhållande till tidigare forskning. Studien identifierade tre teman för att besvara forskningsfrågan utifrån det teoretiska ramverket; The Change, Communication och Work Results. Resultaten av studien visar att användningen av agila metoder har förenklat den plötsliga övergången till distansarbete hemifrån, eftersom många av de agila aktiviteterna redan gjordes online före pandemin. Studien har också dragit slutsatsen att användningen av agila metoder har påverkat aspekterna kommunikation och arbetsresultat positivt i ett agilt team, eftersom det visade sig att kommunikationsformer blev mer kreativa eftersom kommunikationen blev mer frekvent inträffande när de arbetade hemifrån, och det ledde slutligen till mer värdefulla slutresultat i projekt.

The purpose of this thesis is to explore the impact of the situation imposed by the spread of COVID-19 on people working in creative industries and their creative processes, and analyse the role of media in reconstructing their work and leisure spaces at home. The research topics include handling of this change by the creatives, the role of media in reconstructing creatives' homes and the impact of this situation on their creativity. The methodology for gathering data is centred around interviews with the representatives of the group of people working in the creative industries. The empirical data is analysed with the help of the theoretical framework. Among the theories, the six most important topics are: Connectivity versus connectedness, Front region and back region, Boundary theory, Transformations between regions, Reasons to disconnect from media, and Influences on creativity. On one hand, the conclusion of this thesis is that creatives were handling the change of their work environment mostly well, possibly, perhaps creativity is usually influenced by internal factors, and as such the changed work environment as an external factor doesn't influence it as much as the social isolation situation due to COVID-19 as a whole. On the other hand, for many creatives the changed work environment provided calmer conditions for work and offered more time for leisure, although the majority of the participants were working more in this new situation than before. Due to the fact that all of the interviewees had to use their digital technologies and internet in order to work, the escape to the offline world often served as a place for relaxation. Moreover, the majority of the interviewees' devices was used for multi-functional purposes, for both work and for relax. Ultimately the impact on the creatives and their work was studied from different perspectives, offering a snapshot of creative work in extraordinary times.

Talent Management (TM) is a well-used practice to identify, attract, develop, and retain the most valuable resource in an organisation: talented employees. The concept TM emerged when organisations started to detect increased demands and technological changes in the business market. Additionally, due to the retirement of baby boomers, organisations have started to experience a shortage of talents creating “The War for Talent” (Chambers et al., 1998). However, ethical aspects create a demand for an inclusive approach of TM which includes all employees, as opposed to only focusing on a selected few. Responsible Talent Management (RTM) considers talent to be obtained and developed within the organisation. Employees who experience job satisfaction and commitment are more likely to stay in the organisation (Deery, 2008), whereas work-life balance, employee well-being, leadership, and learning have become important factorsfor increasing job satisfaction and commitment as well as employee retention (Radda et al., 2015: Deery, 2008). Especially due to new challenges associated with the working environment and social relationships in this new remote working context. Researchers express the need for further research regarding RTM as well as the inclusive approach. This thesis, therefore, aims to understand how an organisation work with TM practices to retain talented employees in a remote working context. Based on the scientific issue and the purpose, a qualitative case study was conducted. Eight employees within the HR department were interviewed using semi-structured interviews. The analysis of the empirical data identified a great need for genuine social relationships. Regardless of which TM retainment practices used, supporting employees with tools and opportunities to build and nurture social relationships may be an instrumental driver to retain talented employees in a remote working context. / Talent Management är ett välanvänt begrepp för att identifiera, attrahera, utveckla och behålla den mest värdefulla resursen i en organisation: talangfulla medarbetare. Begreppet TM blev uppmärksammat när organisationerna upptäckte ett ökat krav och teknologiska förändringar på marknaden. På grund av att generationen “babyboomers” har börjat gå i pension har organisationer börjat uppleva en brist på talang, vilket har skapat ”The War for Talent” (Chambers et al., 1998). Dock skapar de etiska aspekterna ett krav på ett inkluderande synsätt på TM som inkluderar alla anställda och inte bara fokuserar på ett fåtal utvalda. Begreppet Responsible Talent Management (RTM) anser att talang kan erhållas och utvecklas inom organisationen. Anställda som upplever jobbnöjdhet och engagemang är mer benägna att stanna kvar i organisationen (Deery, 2008), medan balans mellan arbetsliv och privatliv, anställdas välmående, ledarskap och lärande har blivit viktiga faktorer för att öka jobbnöjdhet och engagemang samt att behålla de anställda (Radda et al., 2015: Deery, 2008). Framförallt med tanke på de nya utmaningarna gällande arbetsmiljön och de sociala relationerna i den nya kontexten av distansarbete. Forskare uttrycker ett behov av vidare forskning gällande RTM och det inkluderande synsättet. Syftet med uppsatsen är att förstå hur en organisation arbetar med aktiviteter inom TM för att behålla talangfulla medarbetare i en kontext av distansarbete. Baserat på forskningsproblemet och syftet har en kvalitativ fallstudie utförts. Åtta anställda tillhörande HR-avdelningen har intervjuats genom semistrukturerade intervjuer. I analysen av empirin identifierades ett stort behov av genuina sociala relationer. Oavsett vilka aktiviteter inom TM som organisationen använder för att behålla talanger, så uppfattas organisationens stöd i termer av olika verktyg och möjligheter för att skapa och vårda sociala relationer, vara en stark drivkraft för att behålla talangfull kompetens i en kontext av distansarbete.

Introduktionsprocessen är en viktig komponent för att underlätta de nyanställdas acklimatisering, samt för att skapa de bästa förutsättningarna för att integreras i arbetsgruppen och prestera arbetsmässigt. Som en följd av Covid-19 pandemin har distansarbete varit en åtgärd som tvingat många organisationer att ställa om för att stoppa smittspridningen och skydda medarbetarnas hälsa. Det blir därför kritiskt att förstå hur de nyanställda upplever introduktionsprocessen när den genomförs på distans, vilket också är syftet med den aktuella studien.Studien utgår från en kvalitativ ansats och det empiriska materialet har samlats in genom sex semistrukturerade intervjuer. Resultatet har analyserats utifrån Nahapiet och Ghoshals (1998) modell om socialt kapital som innefattat tre dimensioner: strukturellt, socialt och kognitivt.Resultatet visar att distansarbete försvårar den spontana kommunikationen mellan den nyanställda och de etablerade kollegorna, vilket gör att arbetsrelationerna tar längre tid att bygga på distans. Vidare visar empirin att sociala aktiviteter för att bygga gemenskap har satts på paus under distansarbete och även att tillgängligheten till andra kollegor för socialt utbyte varierar. Det i sin tur påverkar informations- och resurstillgången eftersom de informella mötena och de spontana interaktionerna inte förekommer på samma sätt vid distansarbete. Slutligen har studien samlat in värdefull information som kan bidra med möjligheter att förbättra introduktionsprocessen för nyanställda som introduceras på distans i framtiden. / The onboarding process plays a central role to facilitate newcomer adjustment’. As a result of the Covid-19 pandemic, several organizations have been faced with the challenge to rapidly shift and work from home in order to prevent the spread of the Corona virus and protect the health of their employees. This study aims to understand the experiences of new employees as the onboarding process is carried out virtually, which becomes crucial considering these circumstances.The study takes on a qualitative approach, where data has been collected through six semi-structured interviews. The results have been analyzed from a social capital perspective, inspired by Nahapiet and Ghoshal's (1998) framework, which includes three dimensions: structural, social and cognitive.Findings in this study indicate that everyday communication between new employees and their coworkers is during telework highly constrained. Meaning it takes longer time to build established relationships due to the unordinary setting and initiating a conversation on a digital platform. Furthermore, the empirical evidence shows that social activities for the purpose of building camaraderie is no longer a priority during telework and the access for social exchange is also strongly limited in certain cases. This in turn affects the resources of information since informal interactions occur less frequently when the onboarding process is implemented on a digital platform. Lastly, this study provided useful information on possible improvements for future onboarding processes for new employees during telework.

The Covid-19 pandemic has made a major impact on organizations around the world since the outburst at the beginning of 2020. This has led the organization to let their employees work remotely from home. This situation has brought challenges for the employees which in turn have been forced to adapt to a new working environment. The uncertainty of the event may impact employee motivation. is to construct a model of not yet linked theoretical understandings that supports a simulation of potential future outcomes. Specifically, this paper draws a link between current understandings of employee motivation, employees’ adaptability to change. In order to simulate the current situation of the Covid-19 pandemic, this paper invites the notion of time and uncertainty into the equation. This to be able to demonstrate and understand how a new phenomenon can affect employees' motivation when they work from home for an extended period. The model proposes time as a non-self-healing process that instead risks impairing motivation if (a) self-regulatory activities are supporting the current motivation, and/or (b) the employee denies the change. In other words, there is no indication that the old saying 'time heals all wounds' fits in this context. In addition, the model indicates that the uncertainties derived from unexpected events drive employee's individual restraining forces. This paper contributes to the existing literature on employee motivation which previously lacked a framework for how motivation can be affected through unexpected change and extended work from home. This framework can also be used for future research where it will benefit from empirical data to further strengthen or develop the model.

Background: COVID-19 is a dangerous contagious infection which was declared as a global pandemic by World Health Organisation (WHO) in March 2020. It was rapidly spreading worldwide, forcing the world to move into isolation and the software developing companies to change their work settings into remote working. Quality of the software is a significant attribute that determines the success of a project. Code reviews are an essential software development practice and are the first step towards improving the quality of the software. Objectives: The main objective of this research study is to list the challenges that the developers are facing while working from home and investigate the impact of challenges on code review practices. Methods: A multiple case study has been conducted in 5 organizations to understand and analyze the effect of transition on the code review process. We achieved this by conducting semi-structured interviews and participant observation with developers involved in code review practices of each organization considered for the study and qualitatively analyzed the gathered data using thematic analysis. Results: The results indicated challenges concerning team collaboration, infrastructure, productivity and burnout in the early stages of the pandemic. However, later, organizations’ mitigating strategies have helped them cope with the situation, and no significant impact due to working from home were observed on the code review process. Conclusions: Our findings highlight that there is no considerable impact of the challenges factored in due to working from home on the code review process. The major reasons behind that was the modernization of the tools used for code reviews and timely implementation of mitigation strategies by organizations. Based on the mitigation strategies taken by the organisations we formulated guidelines, which can be taken into consideration by the organisations still suffering with the transition to work from home.

Bakgrund: På grund av spridning av covid- 19 viruset så har den svenska regeringen infört restriktioner för landets medborgare för att minska denna. Dessa restriktioner innefattar att de som kan ska jobba eller studera hemifrån. Det finns en bristande kunskap huruvida människor som till följd av restriktioner under hösten år 2021 på grund av covid-19 pandemin och som tvingats jobba eller studera hemifrån, uppfattar sin hälsa med utgångspunkt för fysisk aktivitet. Syfte: Syftet med studien var att undersöka upplevelser av hälsa kopplat till fysisk aktivitet hos individer som behövt jobba eller studera hemifrån till följd av covid-19 pandemin under hösten år 2021. Metod: En kvalitativ metod med semistrukturerade intervjuer valdes för att uppfylla studiens syfte. Sju informanter inkluderades i studien. Kvalitativ innehållsanalys har använts för bearbetning av data. Efter genomgång av materialet har två domäner med underliggande kategorier identifierats. Dessa domäner var: vanor och hälsa. Under domänen vanor finns dess underkategorier: ”Rutiner viktiga för att fysisk aktivitet ska utföras” samt ”Socialt sammanhang viktigt för att fysisk aktivitet ska utföras”. Under domänen hälsa finns dessa underkategorier: ”Fysisk aktivitet viktigt för välmående”, ”Socialt sammanhang viktigt för välmående” ”Fysisk hälsa påverkad av jobb- och studier hemifrån” samt ”Psykisk hälsa påverkad av jobb- och studier hemifrån”. Resultat: Studien visade att studiens deltagare fått förändra sina rutiner för fysisk aktivitet till följd av jobb eller studier hemifrån. Den fysiska aktiviteten hade för de flesta informanter minskat i sin mängd eller ändrat sin karaktär från att ha utövats inne till ute. Individernas uppfattning om hälsa från en utgångspunkt i fysisk aktivitet var att denna är en viktig del i ett hälsosamt leverne, dock resonerade våra informanter att hälsa är ett brett begrepp som innefattar många delar. Majoriteten av informanter berättade att de tyckte att deras psykiska hälsa påverkats mest under tiden för jobb eller studier hemifrån vilket i sin tur har påverkat deras nivå av fysiska aktivitet. / Background: Due to the spread of covid-19 virus, the Swedish government has introduced restrictions to reduce this spread. These restrictions include that people who can, should work or study at home. There is a lack of knowledge about how individuals who, because of restrictions due to the covid-19 pandemic in the fall of 2021, had to work or study at home, experience their health with focus on physical activity.  Aim: The purpose of the study was to explore experiences of health linked to physical activity in individuals who have had to work or study from home as a result of the covid-19 pandemic. Method: A qualitative design with semi-structured interviews was chosen for this study. Seven informants were included. Qualitative content analysis was used for analyzing the data.Based on the collected data, two domains were identified with associated main categories. The domains were: habits and health. The main categories underlying the domain habits were: ”Routines important for implementations of physical activity” and ” Social context important for implementation of physical activity”. The main categories underlying the domain health is: ”Physical activity important for wellbeing”, ”Social context important for wellbeing”, ”Physical health affected by work or studies at home” and ”Psychological health affected by work or studies at home”   Results: The study showed that the study participants had to change their routines for physical activity as a result of work or studies from home. For most informants, physical activity has decreased in quantity or changed its character from being exercised indoors to outdoors. Physical activity proved to be an important part of a healthy life according to our informants, however, they also reason that health is a broad concept that includes many parts. The majority of informants said that they think that their mental health has been most affected during the time of work or studies from home, which in turn has affected their level of physical activity.

Aim: This thesis aims to investigate the varying needs and perceptions of employees in different positions within a single organization in Brazil with regard to flexiblework arrangements. Methodology: The study selected eight employees from diverse positions within the organization through purposive and snowball sampling techniques. The datacollection process employed a semi-structured interview approach, using an interview guide exploring the perception and needs of the employees regarding flexible work arrangements. The primary objective of the interviews was to offer valuable insights into employees' experiences and viewpoints, which aids in understanding the workforce's needs and requirements. Findings: The analysis found that employees across the different hierarchies in the organization exhibited a shared inclination towards remote work due to its advantages. However, the choices made by the employees were influenced by the team and managerial dynamics, client demands, and peak periods of activity. The findings disclosed that the advantages of flexible working arrangements are multifaceted encompassing work-life balance, quality of life, and cost savings. Conversely, challenges in the form of limited communication and relationship building opportunities, hierarchical complexities, and the high commuting costs incurred by hybrid workers were identified. The findings, therefore, emphasized the importance of fostering support, collaboration, and a positive work environment. Conclusion: Overall, the organization actively promotes adaptability to remote work, offering incentives and the necessary equipment to facilitate work-from-home arrangements. This research, therefore, underscores the need to embrace remote work and advocate for an enabling environment that addresses the diverse needs and challenges encountered by employees engaging in flexible work practices.

Det har skett en stor ökning av distansarbetet i samband med Covid-19 pandemin. Ekonomyrket är ett av de yrken som har haft möjlighet till denna omställning från kontorsarbete till distansarbete. Att arbeta på distans ställer prov på den anställde och dennes motivation.  Syftet med studien är att bidra till förståelsen för hur redovisningsekonomer upplevt omställningen från traditionellt kontorsjobb till distansarbete och hur det har påverkat arbetsmotivationen.  För att uppnå studiens syfte har en kvalitativ metod använts där tio redovisningsekonomer i södra Sverige intervjuades. Empirin analyserades sedan med koppling till Self-determination theory och Herzbergs tvåfaktorsteori för att besvara frågeställningarna.  Studiens visar att det har varit en stor omställning av arbetsmiljön för redovisningsekonomer vid distansarbete. Det har visat en stor påverkan på arbetsmiljön och således på motivationen, där inre motivationsfaktorer var av större vikt vid arbete på distans. / There has been a large increase in telework due to the Covid-19 pandemic. The economist is one of the professions that has had the opportunity for this transition from office work to telework. Teleworking presents challenges to the employee and his motivation. The purpose of this study is to contribute to the understanding of how economists have experienced the transition from traditional office work to telework and how it has affected their work motivation. To achieve the purpose of the study, a qualitative method was used where ten accounting economists in southern Sweden were interviewed. The empiric was then analyzed in connection with Self-determination theory and Herzberg's two-factor theory to answer the questions. The study shows that there has been a major change in the work environment for accounting economists in teleworking. It has shown a great impact on the work environment and thus on motivation, where internal motivational factors were of greater importance when working at a distance.