The financial difficulties following the Covid-19 pandemic have been many. Typically in situations of financial distress, firms are incentivized to utilize earnings management techniques to alter the picture of their financial situation, due to market-based pressure. However, studies have shown that in times of crisis, institutional and macroeconomic factors may be more influential as increased scrutiny and an acceptance of abnormal results may make it less attractive to engage in such practices. The purpose of this study is to explore the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on the use of earnings management with a sample of 942 firms, amounting to 5 652 firm-year observations between the years of 2015-2020. The results show a statistically significant increased amount of income-decreasing accrual-based earnings management, indicating the use of “big bath” accounting. This suggests that managers were incentivized to utilize earnings management techniques in an attempt to present boosted earnings to the market in future periods, by exploiting the pandemic and reporting worse than necessary numbers. However, the study does not find any significant changes in the use of real earnings management, which could be due to managerial limitations in making operational decisions during severe financial distress.

The phenomenon of technostress can also be seen as a worldwide pandemic (Boyer-Davis, 2020). The transition to e-learning due to the sudden COVID-19 pandemic outbreak has created new demands on teachers and students and their interaction with technology (Galvin et al. 2021). Previous research has discovered higher levels of technostress for both students and teachers when using technology at home. The aim of this study was to investigate the potential effects of the implemented distance-based form of teaching that was enforced on students and teachers at Uppsala University during the pandemic outbreak. The study collected data from students and teachers on a survey comprising eight questions related to technostress and the use of technology. The data were then linked to different stressors introduced by Tarafdar et al. (2007) and Nimrod (2017) to explain the effects of e-learning. The P-E Fit theory was then used to further explain why various effects were prominent. The study found that teachers experienced high levels of primarily techno-overload, with an example being more preparation before lectures. Students experienced a more mixed result, where they saw techno-invasion as the highest effect, while techno-complexity and techno-overload were also prominent. An example of an effect related to techno-invasion that students experienced was the lack of balance between time reserved for studies and free time.

Covid-19 pandemin har kommit att göra en global påverkan och risken för mäns våld mot kvinnor i nära relationer har således ökat. Syftet med denna studie är att undersöka hur kvinnojourers arbete och insatser, samt deras samverkan med socialtjänsten, har kommit att påverkas och förändras av covid-19 pandemin och om nya insatser har implementeras. Studien utgår från kvalitativ ansats där åtta kvinnojourer, placerade i Skåne, blivit intervjuade. Tillsammans med den insamlade empirin och studiens teoretiska val, samt en tematisk analysmetod, ämnar jag att uppmärksamma kvinnojourernas berättelser om pandemins påverkan. Följaktligen ämnar jag att belysa deras tillvägagångssätt för upprätthålla och förändra sitt arbete för att nå sitt mål och fortsätta hjälpa våldsutsatta kvinnor och således förebygga mäns våld mot kvinnor i nära relationer. Resultaten påvisar att det blivit svårare för kvinnojourerna att utföra sitt arbete och sina insatser på grund av rädslan pandemin medfört, samtidigt som de observerar en ökning gällande antalet våldsutsatta kvinnor som kontaktar dem. Kvinnojourerna beslutar sig för att förändra och utöka sina tidigare insatser, men även implementera nya, som de tillsammans med sitt nya tankesätt sedan väljer att kvarhålla när samhället börjar öppna upp igen. Kvinnojourernas samverkan med socialtjänsten påverkas och förändras då de inte längre kan samtala och besöka varandra som de tidigare gjort. Utöver problematiken kring deras samtal med socialtjänsten så observeras även att färre kvinnor placeras av socialtjänsten i kvinnojourernas skyddade boenden. Denna uppsats belyser vikten i kvinnojourernas arbete kring förebyggandet av mäns våld mot kvinnor i nära relationer och hur väsentligt det är att besitta kunskap om krishantering när osäkra tider, som covid-19 pandemi, uppstår. / The Covid-19 pandemic has made a global impact and the risk of domestic violence against women has thus increased. The purpose of this study is to examine whether the work and actions of women’s shelters, as well as their cooperation with the social services, has been affected or changed by the covid-19 pandemic and if new actions have been implemented. The study is based on a qualitative approach where eight women’s shelters, located in Skåne, have been interviewed. Together with the collected empirical data and the study’s theoretical choices, as well as a thematic analysis method, I aim to illuminate the women shelter’s stories concerning the pandemic’s impact. Furthermore, I intend to illumine their course of action to maintaining and changning their work to achieve their goal and continue to help abused women and thus prevent men's violence against women in close relationships. The results demonstrate that it has become more difficult for women's shelters to carry out their work and actions due to the fear caused by the pandemic, while at the same time observing an increase regarding the number of women exposed to violence who contact them. The women's shelters decide to change and expand their previous actions, but also to implement new ones, which they, together with their new way of thinking, then choose to retain when society begins to reopen. The women's shelters' cooperation with the social services is affected and changed as they can no longer talk and visit each other as they previously did. In addition to the problems concerning their communication with the social services, it is also observed that fewer women are placed by the social services in the women's sheltered housing. This essay enlightens the importance of women shelter's work in regards to the prevention of men's violence against women in close relationships and how essential it is to possess knowledge about crisis management when uncertain times, such as the covid-19 pandemic, arise.

Uppsatsarbetet syftade till att undersöka hur konsumenters handelsbeteenden förändrats till följd av Covid-19 pandemin samt ta reda på vilka konsekvenser detta medför i svenska stadskärnor. Studien tar avstamp i e-handelns expansion före och under pandemin och har sin utgångspunkt i Värmlands län. Studiens frågeställningar lyder: Hur har konsumenters handelsbeteenden, med fokus på e-handeln, förändrats under Covid-19 pandemin? Vilka konsekvenser medför förändringarna på svenska stadskärnors innehåll och utbud? Studien har undersökt vad tidigare forskning redovisat när det gäller förändrade handelsbeteenden. Metoden som använts är en kvalitativ intervjustudie, för att få svar på studiens syfte och frågeställningar. Intervjuerna genomfördes med både privatpersoner och personer med yrkeskompetens inom stadsutveckling och näringslivsutveckling.  Resultatet från intervjuerna visade på att många konsumenter under pandemin kände oro över att handla i fysisk butik och därmed valde att i större utsträckning handla sina nödvändigheter på nätet. En annan orsak till att respondenterna valde e-handel var på grund av flexibiliteten och bekvämligheten med att få varorna hemlevererade. Samtliga respondenter förutspådde att många av de fysiska butikerna i stadskärnan förmodligen kommer att konkurreras ut på grund av e-handelns expansion. Därmed kommer restauranger, kaféer och barer ta större plats i stadskärnan i framtiden. Dessutom framkom även att det troligtvis kommer bli ett ökat fokus på social samvaro i stadskärnan. Slutsatsen som kan dras från studien var att fler konsumenter övergick till att handla mer via e-handeln före och under pandemin. Konsekvenserna för svenska stadskärnor kommer troligtvis av den anledningen bli att de fysiska butikerna tvingas stänga ned i framtiden. / The purpose of this study is to investigate how consumers´ shopping habits have changed as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic as well as to investigate the consequences this has had on Swedish city centers. The basis in this study is the expansion of e-commerce before and during the pandemic and are focusing on Värmlands county. The study's research questions are: How has consumers´ shopping habits, with focus on e-commerce, changed during the Covid-19 pandemic? What consequences have the changes resulted in as regards the business mix as well as the range of products and services in Swedish city centers? The study has investigated what previous research has said about changes in shopping habits. The method used to answer the purpose of the study and its research questions was a qualitative interview method. The interviews were conducted with both private individuals and persons with qualifications and experience in urban and business development.  The results from the interviews indicated that consumers were concerned about shopping in physical stores during the pandemic and therefore chose in a larger degree to shop their necessities online. The respondents also chose to shop online because of the flexibility and comfort with home delivery. All the respondents predicted that the physical stores in the city center would probably go out of business because of the expansion of e-commerce. Therefore restaurants, cafés and bars would take more place in the future city center. Furthermore, there would probably be an increased focus on social interaction in the city center. The conclusion of the study was that more consumers started to shop more by e-commerce before and during the pandemic. The consequences for the Swedish city centers would probably therefore be that the physical stores are forced to close in the future.

This study seeks to advance the understanding of the development of public trust in the EU during the Covid-19 pandemic (from its beginning to March 2022). The importance of this study lies in the relevance of public trust in institutions in impacting their legitimacy and success, e.g. of policies. It is found that the EU has lost trust during the pandemic among a majority of especially central- and Northern- European member states. Four factors relating to public trust, namely trust in national governments as well as the vaccine, perceived job insecurity, and the receiving of additional financial aid from EU institutions were explored as potentially correlating variables in a mixed-method multi-stage research design. Based on the Eurofound data set titled “Living, Working and Covid-19 Data”, a high substantive but negligible statistical significance was identified regarding all four variables. In narrowing in on the negative outlier cases Austria and Germany through newspaper analysis, a correlation between the sentiment of newspaper reportings and the development of public trust was identified and the statistical findings were strengthened for all variables but trust in the vaccine.

Fler länder har under Covid-19-pandemin rapporterat att deras restriktioner har inneburit en ökning av våld i nära relation. I Sverige har socialtjänsten det yttersta ansvaret att erbjuda stöd och hjälp till en våldsutsatt kvinna. Under pandemin förväntas socialtjänsten att ge ett likartat stöd som innan pandemin trots de uppmaningar och restriktioner som utfärdats. Syftet med denna studie är således att undersöka hur socialsekreterare upplever sitt arbete med kvinnor som utsätts för våld i nära relation under rådande pandemi. Studien är baserad på material från åtta semistrukturerade intervjuer med socialsekreterare från olika kommuner i Sverige. Michael Lipskys (2010) teori om gatubyråkrati används för att undersöka och förstå socialsekreterarnas handlingsutrymme i relation till den våldsutsatta kvinnan under rådande pandemi. Vidare används Randall Collins (2004) teori om interaktionsritualer för att förstå sammanhanget som studiens socialsekreterare och de våldsutsatta kvinnorna befinner sig. Studiens resultat visar att socialsekreterarnas arbete karaktäriseras av flera aspekter, bland annat av den betydelse som motivations- och informationsarbetet har för att etablera en första kontakt med den våldsutsatta kvinnan samt hur en hög grad av handlingsutrymme krävs för att både kunna ge rätt stöd och upprätthålla en interaktionsritual med klienten. Covid-19-pandemin har förändrat socialsekreterarnas arbete genom att de inte längre kan ha fysiska möten i samma utsträckning som tidigare, vilket visar sig vara en förlust i deras yrkesroll. / Several countries have reported an increase in intimate partner violence during the Covid-19 pandemic due to their restricted measures to control the spread of the virus. In Sweden, the social services have the responsibility to offer services in the form of support and help to a woman subjected to intimate partner violence. During the Covid-19 pandemic, the social services are expected to provide similar services as before the pandemic, despite the issued exhortation and restrictions. The purpose of this study is to examine how social workers experience their work with women who are subjected to intimate partner violence during the Covid-19 pandemic. The study is based on data from eight semi-structured interviews with social workers from different municipalities in Sweden. Michael Lipsky’s (2010) theory about street-level bureaucracy is used to examine and understand the social workers’ discretion in relation to the abused women during the current pandemic. Furthermore, Randal Collins’ (2004) theory about interaction rituals is used to understand the context in which the social workers in this study and the abused women find themselves.  The results of the study show that the work of social workers is characterized by several aspects, including the importance of motivational and information work to establish a first contact with the abused woman and how a high degree of room for maneuver is required to both provide the right support and maintain an interaction ritual with the client. The Covid-19 pandemic has changed the work of social workers in that they can no longer have physical encounters to the same extent as before, proving to be a loss in their professional role.

Purpose – The unexpected yet drastic influence of the COVID-19 pandemic resulted in a rapid transition of education to be conducted in digital environments. Replacing face-to-face classrooms with synchronous online learning requires a number of appropriate adjustments which were heavily restricted by the urgency of this global change taking place. With theobserved issues of student participation and involvement in online learning, the purpose ofthis research was to investigate the potential that digital collaborative tools have and if theycan improve the quality of online group discussions among students aged 12 to 16 years old. Method – This study employs a quantitative data collection approach and makes use of the Community of Inquiry framework. A close-ended questionnaire based on the Community of Inquiry survey tool was used to collect students’ impressions and attitudes after they hadparticipated in the experimental study. The experiment consisted of control and experimental groups that partook in online group discussions as part of a regularly scheduled lesson. Findings – Digital collaborative tools were found to change the way in which students experience online group discussions. The attained rates of the Community of Inquiry were overall higher among students in the experimental group. Our findings tested to be statistically significant together with the effect size falling between medium to large extent. This further supports the notion that digital collaborative tools bring in a positive difference into online group discussions and have a potential to increase the quality of online learning when implemented carefully and thoughtfully. Implications – This study emphasizes the importance of developing a clear strategy of how to implement suitable digital collaborative tools into online learning in the most optimal manner that would increase the quality of online learning. This paper can be considered as a startingpoint for future research that could construct further knowledge within the field and extend our findings by investigating other aspects that have an influence on and can have beneficial effects for younger students in online education.

Thus far the research on how schools have managed the sudden transition to distance education due to the COVID-19 pandemic has mainly focused on the experiences of teachers, and the voices of school librarians have gone unexplored. This study aims to explore the transition to distance education from the perspectives of secondary school librarians in Sweden. The study focuses on how this transition affected school librarians’ working practices and the factors that impacted their abilities to rebuild their usual activities and services in new formats. This study uses an infrastructural perspective to analyse the school library as a part of the wider school infrastructure, and considers the enforced transition to distance education as a kind of infrastructural ‘breakdown’. School libraries are treated as multifaceted infrastructures with material, structural and relational/cultural factors which all may contribute to their success. Through a thematic analysis of semi-structured interviews with 14 librarians at 12 secondary schools in Sweden, I identified four themes in the ways informants talked about the transition process:  1.     Most well-established practices, relationships and collaborations could be adapted.  2.     The library room had social functions that could not be fully rebuilt online. 3.     Systematic integration, strong relationships and a culture of library use contributed to successful transitions. 4.     Work to make libraries more accessible and visible became more important. This is a two years master's thesis in Library and Information Science. / Hittills har forskningen om hur skolor har hanterat den plötsliga övergången till distansundervisning på grund av COVID-19-pandemin fokuserat till största delen på lärares erfarenheter, och skolbibliotekariers röster har inte utforskats. Denna studie syftar till att utforska övergången till distansundervisning utifrån svenska skolbibliotekariers perspektiv. Studien fokuserar på hur denna process påverkade skolbibliotekariers arbetspraktiker, och de faktorer som påverkade deras förmåga att återskapa sina vanliga verksamheter i nya format.  Studien använder ett infrastrukturellt perspektiv för att analysera skolbiblioteket som en del av en bredare skolinfrastruktur, och betraktar den påtvingade övergången till distansundervisning som ett slags “infrastrukturellt sammanbrott”. Skolbibliotek behandlas som mångfasetterade infrastrukturer, med materiella, strukturella och relationella/kulturella faktorer som alla kan bidra till deras framgång. Genom tematisk analys av semi-strukturerade intervjuer med 14 bibliotekarier på 12 gymnasieskolor i Sverige identifierade jag fyra teman i hur informanterna pratade om övergångsprocessen:  1. De mest väletablerade praktikerna, relationerna och samarbetena kunde anpassas. 2. Biblioteksrummet hade sociala funktioner som inte helt kunde återskapas på nätet. 3. Systematisk integrering, starka relationer och en kultur av biblioteksanvändning bidrog till framgångsrika övergångar. 4. Arbetet för att göra biblioteken mer tillgängliga och synliga blev viktigare.

Aim. The purpose of this degree project was to assess the impact of the sudden, historically-unique COVID-19 workplace restrictions on the knowledge management and interrelated ICT utilization of a knowledge-intensive SME in Germany. Based upon the outcomes of this assessment, suggestions for future advancement were to be developed.Research Approach. The research approach entailed a qualitative case study addressing a single IT company with 42 employees. The research itself was conducted via triangulation, with the semi-structured interviews of four purposely sampled company executives serving as the focal part. Fundamental aspects of these interviews were further substantiated through four exploratory meeting observations and a company-wide questionnaire contributing 14 employee responses.Findings. Subject to the pandemic-related workspace restrictions, this company was forced to transition to predominantly virtual operations. The organization responded through the introduction of a new, integrated ICT for employee collaboration while simultaneously expediting the codification of tacit knowledge across two existing knowledge repositories. This focus on only a few essential ICTs led to a reduction of prior systems clutter and the company-wide accessibility of explicit knowledge – a quantum leap in terms of efficiency. Along with the primary collaboration via ICTs, a new interaction etiquette developed amongst employees, and IT-related staff was found to cooperate more actively than in the previous on-site environment. Given these insights, this German IT house is recommended to continue its emergently hybrid knowledge management strategy and consider the benefits of both the physical and virtual spaces for an office redesign past the COVID-19 limitations.Originality. Academic references attending to knowledge management during forced workplace restrictions were de facto nonexistent. Adding to it, previous studies on virtual knowledge management indicated a deterioration of performance as compared to on-site operations. This case study is hence not only unique by its pandemic link, but also countering apparent academic presupposition.

Covid-19 pandemin, en kris som varit aktuell sedan början av år 2020, förändrade den geografiska platsen för arbetets utförande till följd av restriktionen gällande hemarbete. Syftet med denna studie var därför att undersöka vad som skiljt platsförlagt arbete och hemarbete åt med avseende på faktorerna motivation, kommunikation och sammanhållning. Dessa faktorer är centrala delar av arbetsmiljön och vi ville därför se om de påverkats när arbetsmiljön förändrat. För att kunna utreda valt problemområde nyttjades den kvalitativa datainsamlingsmetoden, med ansatsen semistrukturerad intervju. Under genomförande fanns ett flertal förutbestämda frågor med utrymme för respondenterna att tillägga information som var av värde för studien. Metoden valdes då vi ville få respondenters åsikter och erfarenheter kring hur faktorerna skiljt sig åt beroende på den geografiska platsen för arbetets utförande. I den teoretiska referensramen presenteras de valda faktorerna motivation, kommunikation och sammanhållning utförligt. I analysavsnittet kopplas teori och empiri samman, samt jämförs med tidigare studiers resultat. Studien visade på att Covid-19 haft störst påverkan gällande motivation vid hemarbete, men även förändrat vissa delar vid platsförlagt arbete. Kommunikationen påverkades positivt vid hemarbete men negativt vid platsförlagt arbete, slutligen påverkades sammanhållningen negativt enligt respondenterna. Avslutningsvis ges fyra rekommendationer för att förbättra arbetsmiljön. / The Covid-19 pandemic, a crisis that has been relevant since the beginning of 2020, changed the geographical location of the work performance as a result of the restriction which introduced work from home. The purpose of this inquiry was therefore to study how work from the original workplace and work from home differed regarding motivation, communication and cohesion. These factors are central parts of the work environment and therefore we wanted to see if they were affected by the change of work environment. In order to be able to investigate the selected problem area, the qualitative data collection method was used, with the semi-structured interview approach. During implementation, there were a number of predetermined questions with room for the respondents to add information that was of value to the study. The method was chosen because we wanted to obtain the respondents experiences and opinions regarding how the factors differed depending on the geographical location of the work performance. In the theoretical frame of reference, the selected factors motivation, communication and cohesion are presented. In the analysis section, theory and empiricism are contextualized with previous studies. The study showed that Covid-19 had the greatest impact on motivation regarding work from home, but also affected certain parts of work from the workplace. The communication had a positive effect on work from home but a negative effect on work from the workplace, and finally the respondents experienced a negative effect on cohesion. Finally, four recommendations were given to improve the work environment.