Arbetet omfattar två delar. Den första delen kommer att fokusera på den kommunikationsprocess som genomfördes under projekttiden för Malmö universitets byggnad Niagara samt de kommunikationsverktyg som nyttjades i kommunikationsprocessen. Den andra delen handlar om hur resultatet blev efter bytet av kontorstyp, personalens upplevelser och påverkan av arbetsmiljön. För att undersöka detta gjordes en fallstudie av byggnaden Niagara på Malmö universitet. Studien visar även hur kommunikationen såg ut under projekttiden, d.v.s. från arkitekttävlingens start 2009 till invigningen 2015. En litteraturstudie har pågått under arbetets gång och legat som grund till framtagning av relevanta intervjufrågor och har även används för att styrka och belysa aspekter som behandlas i diskussionen. För att få ett övergripande sammanhang användes flera metoder för att ge en mer rättvisande grund för analysen under den belysta tidsperioden, dessa var: enkätundersökningar, intervju och offentliga dokument.Resultatet visar att ett skifte mellan olika kontorstyper tar lång tid att organisera för att behålla en välfungerande arbetsmiljö. Det finns ingen mall för valet av kontorstyp utan det bör anpassas till den verksamhet som använder den, eftersom arbetsuppgifterna spelar stor roll för hur arbetsmiljön bör utformas. Arbetsmiljöns utformning påverkar hur kommunikationen sker, där fysiska förhållanden som privat eller publik tillgänglighet, rumslig öppenhet och avskildhet samt psykosociala förhållanden som samarbete, sociala kontakter och hälsa, spelar roll. Öppna kontorsmiljöer bygger på digitalisering, där material sparas elektroniskt och utrymmet för analog förvaring försvåras. Den akademiska världen verkar inte vara helt mottaglig för ett papperslöst utvecklingsskede än. / This study contains two parts. The first part will focus on the communication process that were present during the project period for the Malmö University building Niagara and the communication tools that were used in the communication process. The second part is about the result that the office type change brought, the staff experiences and the impact of the work environment. To investigate this, a case study of the Niagara building was made at Malmö University. The study also shows how communication looked like during the project period, i.e. from the start of the architectural competition in 2009 to the opening of 2015.A literature study has been ongoing during the course of the work and has been the basis for the development of relevant interview questions and has also been used to strengthen and highlight aspects discussed in the discussion. To get an overall context, several methods were used to provide a more accurate basis for the analysis during the illuminated period of time, such as: surveys, interview and public documents.The result shows that a shift, between different office types, takes a long time to organize to be able to maintain a well-functioning work environment. There is no template for the choice of office type, but it should be adapted to the activity that uses it, as the tasks play a major role in the way the work environment should be designed. The design of the work environment affects how communication takes place, where physical conditions such as private or public accessibility, spatial openness and seclusion and psychosocial conditions such as cooperation, social contracts and health, play a role. Open office environments are based on digitalization, where materials are stored electronically and the space for analog storage gets aggravated. The academic world does not seem to be completely receptive to a paperless development stage yet.

Background: Professional services firms (PSFs) face unique challenges when internationalisingdue to their intangible services and the need to adapt to local markets. Digital technologies havemade internationalisation more efficient since firms utilise digital communication tools (DCTs).However, PSFs still struggle to internationalise due to the need to establish a local presence tocreate competitive advantages where language plays an important role integrated fully into thetargeted countries. Problem: The internationalisation of PSFs is a complex process that involves interrelated researchstreams, such as the utility of digitised tools and the importance of language strategy. However,the research is fragmented and lacks a multidimensional discipline that incorporates all factorsapplied when PSFs internationalise. Therefore, there is a need for more efforts to broaden theconceptualisation of the PSF internationalisation process. Purpose: Provide a multidimensional perspective on the practical and theoretical knowledge PSFsrequire when expanding internationally. The aim is to explore the phenomenon’s complexity tointernationalise as PSFs and the interrelationships with factors such as DCTs and language. Method: The research is a qualitative multiple-case study using semi-structured interviews toretrieve primary data. Triangulation is applied to guarantee an in-depth inquiry, combining primarydata and secondary data consisting of scanning social media platforms of the case companies andnon-responsive textual data in the form of company reports, websites, etc. The data was analysedusing thematic and cross-cage analysis. Conclusion: The results show the importance of relationships when PSFs internationalise and aneed to adapt locally. PSFs perceive the utility of DCTs as an enabler of internationalisation butdiscovered a limitation of DCTs where the importance of relationships and physical meetingscreate a gap when establishing relationships. In addition, language is strategically selected to meetthe market’s needs and increase local adaptiveness by using the local language. We can furtherconclude that the “fluffier stuff decides the game” when PSFs internationalise due to underlyingfactors such as language, cultural context and relationships, guiding how PSFs expand into foreignmarkets.

No description available.

Submitted in fulfilment of the requirement for the Masters Degree of Technology: Public Relations Management, Durban University of Technology, 2013. / In South Africa, the competition between shopping centres has increased significantly over the years due to the increase in the number of shopping centres and the changing shopping behaviour. The success of any shopping centre depends on the revenue generated by customers who frequent the mall to make purchases or use the services of the retail/entertainment outlets. To attract customers to shopping centres, management has to ensure that malls are effectively promoted to relevant stakeholders. Communication is important in any promotional, public relations or marketing activity and should be effective, persuasive and managed in a formal and structured way which fits into the overall goals of the mall. Shopping centre management may use a number of communication tools such as (and are not limited to) advertising, sales promotions, public relations, personal selling and sponsorship. However, do these strategies play a role in generating revenue to promote the overall success of a shopping centre? This dissertation, therefore, sets out to identify and examine the communication tools used by shopping centre managers within the greater Durban area in South Africa. It does so by interviewing marketing managers and the tenant mix of five competitive shopping centres within the greater Durban area in South Africa. Data will be collected from the respondents through questionnaires and an interview schedule. One of the significant results emerging from this study is that the function of tenant relations; promotions; publicity; and public relations plays an integral part in the effective functioning of a shopping centre.

Changing and development characterize all areas of life in contemporary world, also businesses have begun to move from traditional marketing approaches to relationship marketing which is a customer based approach. New marketing strategies and application have developed for reaching more customers and keeping existing customers. Marketing communication tools are one of these marketing strategies. However, the application of these strategies like marketing communication tools is based on enterprises ́ budget. In this context,small enterprises are more influencedthan large organizations as relating to high costs. This study examines a fundamental issue using marketing communication tools by small businesses, i.e., the functions such toolsto build new customers or keep existing customers. I argue that small firms face some challenges applyingmarketing communication tools such as, financial limitations and lack of marketing experience. In addition, the fact that small firms struggle with theselimitations has been studied through this study. A qualitative research strategy has been applied with the semi-structured interviews to collect the data for this study. In order to collect data for this study appropriate sampling strategy was used and this study includes primary data about three micro and small restaurants that are available and accessible in the environment that is in northern Sweden, Umeå. The interviews have been structured based on the previous theories identified in marketing communication tools. To summarize, basing on analyzingfindings the most used marketing communication tools advertising, Internet and sales promotion by three small restaurants and financial limitations have been most important barriers to applymarketing communication tools by small restaurant businesses. Because of this reason, small sized restaurants have not used marketing communication tools according to their needs. The results of this study also show that although the importance of marketing communication tools is known by small firms, but these businesses cannot encourage for improving their marketing activities because of challenging limitations. For improving the known potential efficiency of marketing communication tools for small firms, marketing communication tools should be used as professionally by small firms and small firms should separate budget to use these tools.

Globaliseringens och digitaliseringens framväxt har givit upphov till att människor har fått större tillgång till information. I syfte att underlätta hanteringen av massinformation kan bland annat tekniska hjälpmedel användas. Inom organisationer används bland annat tekniska kommunikationsverktyg för att underlätta informationsspridningen inom verksamheten. Fungerar inte kommunikationsverktygen i enlighet med sitt syfte och verksamhetens kommunikationsbehov kan de istället försvåra kommunikationen inom verksamheten. Vid en förstudie som har genomförts på företaget Briab har det visat sig att medarbetare upplevt att de interna kommunikationsverktygen inte fungerat tillräckligt väl för att underlätta företagets interna kommunikation. Utifrån resultatet av förstudien har denna studien har genomförts i syfte att ta fram förbättringsåtgärder för de interna kommunikationsverktygen på Briab. Förhoppningen var att effekterna av förbättrade interna kommunikationsverktyg även skulle bidra till att förbättra företagets interna kommunikation. Studien avgränsades till att undersöka de fyra centrala interna kommunikationsverktygen på Briab: intranätet, Briab Studio, Microsoft Teams och Microsoft Outlook. För att uppnå syftet med studien har en enkätundersökning genomförts på hela företaget. Resultatet av enkätundersökningen kartlade medarbetarnas kommunikationsbehov samt hur de deras upplevelse av respektive kommunikationsverktyg. Resultatet har visat att respondenterna upplever brister hos alla verktyg, men främst hos intranätet och Briab Studio. Respondenterna har bland annat beskrivit att det finns allt för mycket information som inte är uppdateras, att information inte har förmedlats på ett tillfredställande sätt och att det saknats kunskap för hur man ska använda vissa kommunikationsverktyg. Utifrån enkätsvaren har en analys genomförts genom släktskapsdiagram, där svaren kategoriserades och kartlade vilka två huvudproblem som respektive kommunikationsverktyg hade. I syfte att ta fram effektiva åtgärder har grundorsakerna för huvudproblemen hos kommunikationsverktygen kartlagts genom en workshop tillsammans med representanter från företaget. Grundorsakerna var bland annat bristande informationsägandeskap, kategorisering av information och riktlinjer för internkommunikation. Problemen hos de interna kommunikationsverktygen gav upphov till att bristande delaktighet hos Briabs medarbetare, informationsöverflöd resulterade i att medarbetare missade viktig information och bristande riktlinjer gjorde att medarbetare använde kommunikationsverktygen på olika sätt. Utifrån grundproblemen, teorier och medarbetarnas förslag på lösningar, har en åtgärdsplan tagits fram. Genom åtgärdsplanen uppnådde studien sitt syfte att ta fram förbättringsåtgärder för de interna kommunikationsverktygen. Briab har rekommenderats att vidare implementera åtgärderna och följa upp dess effekter för att förbättra de verktygen och förhoppningsvis den interna kommunikationen på företaget. / The globalization and digitalisation have made information more avalible. In order to handle a huge amount of information, technical tools may be used. Within organizations, technical tools are at times used to facilitate dissemination of information. However, if the technical tools are not functioning for its purpose, the tool might insted aggravate the dissemination of information. A pilot study, accomplished at a company named Briab, showed that employeed felt unsatisfied with the technical communication-tools used within the company. Based on the result from the pilot study, this study has been done with the purpose to chart actions of impovements for the internal communcation-tools at Briab. The prospect of improved internal communication-tools was to contribute to improvement of the internal communication as a hole. The study was delimited to the four central communication-tools within Briab; the intranet, Briab Studio, Microsoft Teams and Microsoft Outlook. In order to achieve the purpose of the study, a survey was preformed upon the hole company. The result of the survey identified the needs for internal communication and the oponions regarding the internal communication-tools. The survey result showed that the respondents experianced defects regarding all of the internal communication-tools, yet mostly regarding the intranet and Briab Studio. The respondents did, among other, describe that to much information were not updated, that information were not mediated in a satisfying way and that the company lacked knowledge for how to communicate internally. Based on the results from the survey, analysis were done by the means of affinity diagrams, where the answers were categorised and the two main problems, of the respective communication-tools, were charted. In order to provide effective actions of improvements, the main causes of the problems were identified through a workshop together with representatives of the company. The main causes were identified as a lack of information-ownership, categorisation of information and guidelines for internal communication, among others. The problems with the internal communicaiton-tools generated in a lack of concern within the employees at Briab, overload of information resulted in employees missing out on important information and the lack of guidelines for internal communication opened to employees using the communication-tools in various ways. Based on the main problems, theories and the employees suggestion of improvement, an action plan of improvements was made. Through the action plan, the purpose of the study was achieved by charting actions of improvements for the internal communication-tools. Briab has been recomended to implement and follow up on the effect of the actions, in order to improve the communication-tools and hopefully improve the interal communication within the company.

The video game industry is one of the fastest growing markets in the world today. The fact that playing video games has become such a popular recreational activity among youths and adolescents has created a need for research investigating the effects of video game playing. Because of the role of the English language as a global lingua franca, most video games are released in English. Since most video games are released in English, many believe that the utilization of video games can help learners of English to improve their knowledge of how to utilize the English language. The aim of this study is to investigate whether video game playing does positively influence the English receptive vocabulary level of ESL learners. In addition, the present study also investigated the influence of other factors, such as the utilization of online communication tools, the average time spent playing video games, and the type of video games played, on English receptive vocabulary level. The study was conducted using quantitative research methods. Since the aim of the study was to investigate the relation between two separate aspects, the study had to utilize two separate elicitation methods for the data collection: one questionnaire (that was supposed to determine each informant’s video game habits) and one vocabulary test (that was supposed to get an approximation of each informant’s receptive vocabulary level). When the data had been collected, the tests were corrected, and the participants were categorized according to the previously mentioned variables. The mean scores of the categories were later examined and compared to each other. Differences between groups that were of high importance were further examined, with a t-test, to determine whether the difference was statistically significant or not. The results of the study show that the vocabulary level difference between ESL learners that do play video games and ESL learner that do not play video game is insignificant. The results further show that the utilization of online communication tools while playing video games positively influences vocabulary level, as the mean score difference on the vocabulary test between OCT users and OCT non-users was revealed to be significant by the t-test. The analysed data thus show that the influence of the utilization of online communication tools on English receptive vocabulary level are more significant that the influence of playing video games.

No description available.

The purpose of this bachelor paper is to analyze the different technologies used for supporting inter-organizational project work and how these technologies influence the project’s overall success. The results of this research have proved that the main impact ePM tools (e-Project Management tools) have upon inter-organizational projects are in terms of time-savings and easiness of communication when in need for communicating abroad with different business partners. Various types of collaboration tools can help the communication process between organizations and provide the project participants with the means of creating and supporting a collaborative environment. Other perceived benefits of ePM tools have been resulted including: reduce project costs due to time-savings and quality of information which lowers the risks for deficiency occurrences; improve the decision-making process; improve internal and external communication; facilitate knowledge sharing and expertise exchange; and create an agile business environment characterized by innovation, flexibility, faster market reaction and ability to work efficiently. Global time zones and communication skills are challenges to creating an efficient collaborative inter-organizational environment.

<p>The purpose of this bachelor paper is to analyze the different technologies used for supporting inter-organizational project work and how these technologies influence the project’s overall success. The results of this research have proved that the main impact ePM tools (e-Project Management tools) have upon inter-organizational projects are in terms of time-savings and easiness of communication when in need for communicating abroad with different business partners. Various types of collaboration tools can help the communication process between organizations and provide the project participants with the means of creating and supporting a collaborative environment. Other perceived benefits of ePM tools have been resulted including: reduce project costs due to time-savings and quality of information which lowers the risks for deficiency occurrences; improve the decision-making process; improve internal and external communication; facilitate knowledge sharing and expertise exchange; and create an agile business environment characterized by innovation, flexibility, faster market reaction and ability to work efficiently. Global time zones and communication skills are challenges to creating an efficient collaborative inter-organizational environment.</p>