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Syftet med studien är att undersöka hur detaljhandelsföretag arbetar med affärsmodellinnovation för att acklimatisera sig till nya förutsättningar i anpassningsfasen efter Covid-19-pandemin. Det görs genom en kvalitativ studie av två detaljhandelsföretag i Sverige. Det teoretiska ramverket utgörs av en teori om anpassningsfasen efter en kris, och en teori om affärsmodellinnovation inom detaljhandeln. Data har samlats in genom semistrukturerade intervjuer med personer som arbetar inom affärsutveckling och innovation på företagen samt sekundära källor. Studiens resultat visar att det har skett förändringar i kundernas köpbeteende och förväntningar i samband med Covid-19-pandemin, som har föranlett affärsmodellinnovation inom båda detaljhandelsföretagen i anpassningsfasen efter pandemin. Studien visar att affärsmodellinnovation har förekommit i alla tre komponenter inom det ena företaget, och i två av komponenterna inom det andra företaget. Framtida studier kan undersöka affärsmodellinnovation i kontext av andra krissituationer, eller inom andra branscher.

Since the Covid-19 pandemic, teleworking has gone from an unusual working form to standard practice in everyday life. Continuous studies have shown that there are a lot of advantages related to productivity from teleworking. Needless to say, productivity is a complex concept and hard to measure, especially in a service company. Therefore, the purpose of this essay is to research this further, how teleworking under the Covid-19 pandemic has affected productivity. To gather empiric data a company was chosen, they gave us their statistics measurement of their productivity, in their customer service department. This was referred to as the actual productivity. Another way to gather empiric data was interviews with the employees on how they felt teleworking affected their productivity, referred to as the experienced productivity. There were eight interviews and they were semi-structured, an interview guide was used, it was based on the theoretic framework. The study also aims to gather information about which work environment factors are most important to promote productivity, which was also studied in the interviews.  This study produces information about the different work environment factors of what promote productivity, both in a general sense and from teleworking. A factor that was both recurring in our study and the ones before us was that the lack of social interaction, this was seen as a negative factor of working from home. A positive factor from working from home was the silence and the calm, this made it easier to focus. One thing all the respondents had in common was that a combination of working from home and in the office would be the optimal solution. When it came to actual and experienced productivity, there were some differences. The employees thought that their productivity was greater from teleworking, though the actual productivity showed barely any difference. There could not be an exact reason for this incidence, one theory was that the employees have overestimated their productivity when working from home.

Studien syftar till att få en djupare förståelse för varför anställda frivilligt valt att avsluta sin anställning och påbörja en annan under covid-19 pandemin. Pandemin resulterade i flera rekommendationer, restriktioner och nedstängningar vilket bidrog till en helt ny vardag. Anställda blev antingen permitterade eller varslade, medan andra blev tvungna att arbeta hemma för att minska smittspridningen. Trots denna oroliga tid samt en mer osäker arbetsmarknad visar undersökningar nu på att fler personer går i tankarna att byta jobb. Vi fann därför ett intresse av att undersöka varför personer frivilligt valt att byta arbete samt om pandemin påverkat deras val. Studien är genomförd utifrån anställdas perspektiv men vi anser att det arbetsgivare som har användning för studiens resultat.  Studiens teoretiska referensram uppmärksammar i stora drag orsaker till varför anställda väljer att lämna sin arbetsplats samt vad som motiverar och skapar ett missnöje i ett arbete. Vidare redogörs det även för externa faktorer i form av balansen mellan arbete och privatliv samt pandemin. Metoden i vår studie är en kvalitativ ansats och vårt empiriska material har samlats in utifrån nio intervjuer. Respondenterna är personer som frivilligt valt att byta arbete under pandemin mellan perioden 2020–2022. Vårt insamlande material har sedan analyserats med hjälp av en innehållsanalys. I studiens resultat framkommer det olika faktorer till varför personer valt att byta arbete under pandemin. Majoriteten återger således en kombination av flera faktorer inom både tidigare arbetsplats samt den nya. Det är svårt att dra någon generell slutsats om pandemins påverkan på de anställdas val att byta arbetsplats. Men delar av det empiriska materialet tyder på att pandemin förändrat deras arbetssituation och således förstärkt vissa aspekter och åsikter inom deras arbete. Vi kan se att det framkommer att pandemin förstärkt vissa missnöjesfaktorersåsom arbetsuppgifternas utformning, uppfattningen av företaget, samt den ekonomiska ersättningen. Några respondenter reflekterar samt beskriver att pandemin påskyndat deras arbetsbyte till följd av detta. Vår uppsats avslutas sedan men diskussion gällande studiens resultat, metod samt förslag på framtida forskning.

Denna studie syftar till att ge en inblick i vilka utmaningar ledare i en offentlig verksamhet ställdes inför i samband med covid-19 pandemin i slutet av 2019. Många företag mötte oförutsedda situationer där ledarskapet sattes på prov och ledare ställdes inför nya utmaningar. Sex personer med ledarroll har deltagit i form av semistrukturerade intervjuer där empiriska material har samlats med hjälp av en kvalitativ metod. Resultatet visar att kommunikation och den sociala interaktionen mellan kollegor är det som har påverkats mest när organisationen ställde om sig till distansarbete och digitala verktyg. En ökad och förtydligad kommunikation, tillit, flexibiletet samt interaktion har varit fyra huvudteman i ett framgångsrikit distansledarskap.

Thesis advisor: Belle Liang / Adolescent girls have reached unprecedented levels of success in today’s society. Simultaneously, many adolescent girls face adversities and their mental health remains a concern (Schramal et al., 2010; Spencer et al., 2018;). Positive Youth Development scholars continues to explore how society can best support adolescent girls as they navigate key developmental milestones (Lerner et al., 2005; Damon, 2004). Importantly, research has solidified a number of benefits of Youth Purpose (i.e., a long-term, committed, directed aspiration, with a prosocial desire). Youth Purpose is considered a key developmental asset, and contributes to thriving. Indeed, having a sense of purpose can serve as a protective factor for individuals and help bolster their overall well-being (Liang et al., 2018; Liang et al, 2017; Damon et al., 2003). Youth purpose along with Post Traumatic Growth can positively impact individuals facing adversities (Kashdan & McKnight, 2009; Tedeschi & Lawrence, 2004). Similarly, mentoring relationships are associated with numerous positive outcomes including the development of purpose (Dubois & Rhodes, 2006; Lerner, 2004; Liang et al., 2017). While youth purpose is well documented (Damon et al., 2003; Hill et al., 2010), there is limited research on purpose development for adolescent girls from marginalized backgrounds. Given the profound benefits of purpose, additional research is warranted on how purpose is cultivated in marginalized adolescent girls. This dissertation sought to expand the literature and better understand how adversity relates to purpose development, during the adolescent years and how mentoring relationships can contribute to this development. Additional research is needed to focus on one of the most vulnerable populations, adolescent girls from marginalized backgrounds, and to discover ways to help protect their mental health and well- being as they continue to thrive in society. This study included 13 interviews with adolescent girls from marginalized backgrounds. Thematic analysis was used to analyze the data and five major themes emerged. Analyses suggested that while these participants experiences endured adverse experiences, they maintained a positive outlook on life, and their future. With the help of their mentors, and through the development of critical consciousness, participants were able to utilize adverse experiences to help inform their sense of purpose. Data was collected during the COVID-19 pandemic. This crucial time period allowed for the collection of exemplary data, which revealed how adolescent girls utilized the pandemic as a time for self-growth, and how they conceptualized their purpose with respect to the pandemic. / Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2023. / Submitted to: Boston College. Lynch School of Education. / Discipline: Counseling, Developmental and Educational Psychology.

The covid-19 pandemic forged a more intensely digital world, complicating civil society actors’ menu of options for channeling and framing their advocacy goals. As both a product and study of pandemic-era politics, this dissertation is concerned with understanding how the internet and social media shape associational life in Kazakhstan. I draw on three forms of ethnographic data collected online between October 2020 and February 2022, including semi-structured interviews, visual analysis of social media posts, and digital participant observation. I demonstrate how Kazakhstani civil society actors devise strategies to pursue reform, how they debate theories of political change, and how they exercise agency in a political system that seeks to control the public sphere. I argue that civil society groups use social media platforms to leverage power differentials across levels of administration to advance rights claims and negotiate for reform. Activists and rights defenders flock to various social media platforms because of each site’s unique technological infrastructure. They leverage different logics of visibility and bridge physical and digital forms of contentious politics to demand accountability from an authoritarian government. In addition to providing a more complete understanding of civil society dynamics in Kazakhstan, this study suggests that, in repressive contexts, civil society actors who opt for within-system engagement have not necessarily been coopted and activists do not always take dissent underground. This dissertation is an example of digital political ethnography, which stands to grow not only as a standalone method, but also a bridge to big data analysis in political science. I demonstrate the importance of an ethnographic sensibility while approaching the internet as a site of inquiry to understand political subjectivity.

Första linjens chefer har stora krav på sig, både från överordnade och anställda. Under covid-19-pandemin blev arbetsbelastningen extrem för många linjechefer inom äldreomsorgen i Sverige. Höga sjukantal, utsatta äldre, många nya arbetsuppgifter, ständigt förändrade rutiner och riktlinjer skapade stor stress. Denna studie syftar till att undersöka stresshanteringen för enhetschefer på särskilda boenden inom äldreomsorgen i en större kommun i norra Sverige samt om man kan förbättra befintliga rutiner för stresshantering. Datainsamlingen gjordes via enkäter till enhetscheferna. Resultatet från studien visade att många chefer upplevt stress i relation till sitt arbete under pandemin. Det visade också att man känt sig överväldigad av sin arbetsbelastning, inte haft tillräckligt med tid för sina arbetsuppgifter samt att man inte kunnat ta pauser eller återhämta sig på sitt arbete / First-line managers have high demands on them, both from superiors and employees. During the COVID19 pandemic, the workload became extreme for many line managers in elderly care in Sweden. High sickness rates, vulnerable elderly, many new tasks, constantly changing routines and guidelines created great stress. This study aims to investigate the stress management of unit managers in specialized housing in elderly care in a large municipality in northern Sweden and whether existing routines for stress management can be improved. Data collection was done through questionnaires to the unit managers. The results of the study showed that many managers experienced stress in relation to their work during the pandemic. It also showed that they felt overwhelmed by their workload, not having enough time for their tasks and not being able to take breaks or recover at work.

At California State University, Los Angeles and California Polytechnic University, San Luis Obispo, a longitudinal survey was created in response to the COVID-19 pandemic for students within their respective engineering departments. A combination of nonparametric and longitudinal analysis is performed to evaluate the impacts of the transition to a virtual educational environment and the stressors brought on by the global pandemic. Additional qualitative evaluation is performed to gain insight and make program recommendations to enhance the resilience of individuals in the academic systems. Results demonstrate a large shift in circumstances immediately at the start of the pandemic, with a variety of significant trends across the survey cycles and topics. A comparison of the two institutions both qualitatively and quantitatively demonstrate how different institutional responses and student bodies impacted the overall student experience.

BACKGROUND: Telehealth is a healthcare delivery platform that allows for clinicians to deliver care via the phone or computer. The public health restrictions associated with the Covid-19 pandemic have shown how telehealth could be used as a platform to deliver care. With state-wide stay at home orders and the associated suspension of elective medical procedures telehealth rose as an option to deliver care to patients. Prior authors described that telehealth usage increased at the start of the pandemic and then decreased once the reopening processes in several states commenced in the May to June period. Although these studies have provided valuable information regarding telehealth, many of these did not look beyond the June time frame. In addition, the implications from the range of telehealth policies remain largely unexplored. OBJECTIVE: We sought to assess policies and other drivers of telehealth use. In order to achieve this, we described the change in telehealth usage over the year of 2020, identified potential drivers of increased telehealth usage at the patient and policy level, and explored the heterogeneity of state policies. METHODS: We performed a retrospective cohort study of 417,963 de-identified individuals with healthcare visits between December 2019 to December 2020. This data was extracted from HealthJump, which contains Electronic Health Record data sourced from participating members of its network. Visits were labeled telehealth by using CPT billing codes. We explored national and state-level trends in telehealth use, as well as patient-level drivers such as demographics, medical diagnoses, and Covid-19 status. RESULTS: Telehealth usage increased at the onset of the pandemic across the nation, different age groups, and various health diagnoses. The relaxation of state policies led to a decrease in telehealth usage across the nation and individual states but was higher than pre-pandemic conditions. Telehealth was used more by those with conditions deemed “at-high-risk” for Covid-19 as well as medical specialties that were more feasible for the virtual platform. Patients who were Covid-19 positive used telehealth more in the latter part of the year. Patients who were 65 and older did use telehealth, even though it was at a lower volume than the other age group (under 65). CONCLUSION: The Covid-19 pandemic has shown how telehealth can be an effective alternative to in-person visits for medical needs that are elective or non-life-threatening. Although telehealth may not be used in the same capacity as it was during Covid-19, the results show that people are willing to use it and that looking into the future Telehealth can be implemented into the healthcare system.