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Dagens konkurrenskraftiga arbetsmarknad har lett till att företag snabbt anpassar sig till förändringar i dynamiska miljöer. Projekt som arbetsform har blivit allt vanligare i verksamheter. Till varje projekt tilldelas en projektledare för att driva projektet. På grund av brist på personal anlitar organisationer konsulter som exempelvis projektledare, för att analysera och lösa specifika problem samt driva projekt. Studiens syfte är att undersöka vilka utmaningar uthyrda projektledare upplever. För att besvara undersökningens frågeställning och syfte har en kvalitativ metod använts. Genom semistrutkurerade intervjuer med tio olika uthyrda projektledare inom ett tekniskt konsultföretag utreds vilka utmaningar de upplever. Intervjuerna har därefter analyserats med hjälp av en tematisk analys och relevanta teman har identifierats. Undersökningen har visat att utmaningar som tekniska uthyrda projektledare upplever handlar om begränsad handlingsförmåga, där struktur, befogenheter, tillgång till budget samt rätt resurser, förhindrar uthyrda projektledare att utföra sitt arbete och driva ett projekt. Andra utmaningar som upplevs gäller identitetskris och känslan av tillhörighet, där tillhörighet till konsultföretaget och kundföretaget samt skillnaderna mellan uthyrda projektledare och anställda, inte har stor påverkan på projektledningen i sig utan inverkar på projektledaren som individ. / Today's competitive labor market has led companies to swiftly adapt to changes in dynamic environments. Projects such as work methods have become increasingly common in businesses. Each project is assigned a project manager to manage the project. Due to a lack of staff, organizations employ consultants such as project managers, to analyze and solve specific problems and manage projects. The purpose of the study is to investigate the challenges experienced by the consultant project manager. In order to answer the main question and the purpose of the study, a qualitative method has been used. Through interviews with ten different consultant project managers within a technical consulting company, the challenges they are experiencing investigated. The interviews have been analyzed by using a thematic analysis and relevant themes have been identified. The study has shown that challenges experienced by technical consultant project managers are about limited ability to act, where structure, authority, access to budget and the right resources prevent consultant project managers from carrying out their work and manage a project. Other challenges are about identity crises and the feeling of belonging, where relationship to the consulting company and the clients, as well as the differences between consultant project managers and employees, do not have a major impact on the project management itself, but affect the project manager as an individual.

Abstract Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to investigate the success of a consulting agency’s KMS, examine the relationships between the factors constituting to its success, and explore possible effects of the knowledge management strategies codification and personalization on these correlations. Design/methodology/approach – This paper is a case study researching a Swedish consulting company’s KMS success using a KMS success model by Wu & Wang (2006). The survey’s results were interpreted using standard multiple regression analysis, which helped to investigate and interpret the correlations between the dimensions constituting KMS success. Findings – The findings in this paper suggest that personalization and codification have an influence on the quality of the correlations between the KMS success dimensions leaving the overall structure intact. Additionally the influence of System Quality on Perceived KMS Benefits and User Satisfaction on System Use were not found significant. Research limitations/implications – This study ‘s main limitiation is a sample size and the case study approach, which limit the generalizability of the results to other contexts. Practical implications – The most important implication of this research is the importance of the user for KMS success. A company needs to focus on improving the benefits a user receives from a KMS, which can mainly be achieved by improving the knowledge made available through the KMS, and by providing a proper basis for the KMS, in order to ensure a minimum level of System Quality. Other factors influencing the success of a KMS are incentives, which can help to increase system use and the quality of system use. Originality/value – The paper shows that when researching KMS success one should take the structure of the company’s knowledge management strategy into consideration. It further proves the applicability of the model in different contexts and its validity for accurately measuring KMS success.

<p>Abstract</p><p><strong>Purpose – </strong>The purpose of this paper is to investigate the success of a consulting agency’s KMS, examine the relationships between the factors constituting to its success, and explore possible effects of the knowledge management strategies codification and personalization on these correlations.</p><p><strong>Design/methodology/approach – </strong>This paper is a case study researching a Swedish consulting company’s KMS success using a KMS success model by Wu & Wang (2006). The survey’s results were interpreted using standard multiple regression analysis, which helped to investigate and interpret the correlations between the dimensions constituting KMS success.</p><p><strong>Findings – </strong>The findings in this paper suggest that personalization and codification have an influence on the quality of the correlations between the KMS success dimensions leaving the overall structure intact. Additionally the influence of System Quality on Perceived KMS Benefits and User Satisfaction on System Use were not found significant. <strong></strong></p><p><strong>Research limitations/implications – </strong>This study ‘s main limitiation is a sample size and the case study approach, which limit the generalizability of the results to other contexts.</p><p><strong>Practical implications – </strong>The most important implication of this research is the importance of the user for KMS success. A company needs to focus on improving the benefits a user receives from a KMS, which can mainly be achieved by improving the knowledge made available through the KMS, and by providing a proper basis for the KMS, in order to ensure a minimum level of System Quality. Other factors influencing the success of a KMS are incentives, which can help to increase system use and the quality of system use.<strong></strong></p><p><strong>Originality/value – </strong>The paper shows that when researching KMS success one should take the structure of the company’s knowledge management strategy into consideration. It further proves the applicability of the model in different contexts and its validity for accurately measuring KMS success.<strong></strong></p>

In the theoretical part of the thesis focuses on the general definition of the recruitment and selection, mainly the methods, which are used. Furthermore, it defines the area work in public administration with a focus on employment and workers. Also, try to determine the difference between the acquisition employees in the public and private sectors. The work is then engaged in recruitment agencies and HR consulting companies, their history, the legislative definition and the question whether it is advantageous to work with recruitment agencies. Afterwards, the method of work is engaged in executive search, its history, use, and especially how it is itself the recruitment method. The practical part contains specific case of HR consulting company that deals with executive search method. Here is then analyzed in the procedure of recruitment executive search method and success by getting employees the company achieved in 2011. This part of the thesis is based on long-term observations of the author, who was an employee of the staffing and consulting company so he could observe the whole process of executive search methods in practice. Using a questionnaire survey, this work investigates how executive search method is used in the private and public sectors and what are the respondents as the main advantages and disadvantages of the method. At the end of this section for recommendations on how to use executive search method in the public sector, and problems are defined here, why not in the sector executive search method does not use too much.

<p>Organizational Loyalty is a concept which is becoming increasingly important to discuss in today‘s society; employment agencies and consulting companies are losing staff by the hour however if that is a consequence of not being loyal to the employer, implies that people know what the term Organizational Loyalty actually means. Or not. This thesis‘s purpose was to investigate what Organizational Loyalty is within the consulting trade, to sensitize for the consulting business‘s the different factors that seem to influence loyalty and to give recommendations as to what might be done in order to make employees who work as consultants within the consulting trade experience more loyal to the organization which they are employed at. The analyzed material managed to reveal that loyalty is more than just a word within the consulting trade; it is an important mean of delivering high quality services to a company‘s customers and the only way for employers to attempt making employees more loyal to the organization is by respecting different factors that seem to influence loyalty to the organization and reinforcing these when they are in contact with the employees. By and large, the results suggest that there is a significance of defining Organizational Loyalty as something more than just a term within the consulting business; it is the underlying dimensions that together create the actual meaning of what it is and by knowing what the significance of Organizational Loyalty is, employers might be able to work better for reinforcing loyalty among their employees.</p>

Organizational Loyalty is a concept which is becoming increasingly important to discuss in today‘s society; employment agencies and consulting companies are losing staff by the hour however if that is a consequence of not being loyal to the employer, implies that people know what the term Organizational Loyalty actually means. Or not. This thesis‘s purpose was to investigate what Organizational Loyalty is within the consulting trade, to sensitize for the consulting business‘s the different factors that seem to influence loyalty and to give recommendations as to what might be done in order to make employees who work as consultants within the consulting trade experience more loyal to the organization which they are employed at. The analyzed material managed to reveal that loyalty is more than just a word within the consulting trade; it is an important mean of delivering high quality services to a company‘s customers and the only way for employers to attempt making employees more loyal to the organization is by respecting different factors that seem to influence loyalty to the organization and reinforcing these when they are in contact with the employees. By and large, the results suggest that there is a significance of defining Organizational Loyalty as something more than just a term within the consulting business; it is the underlying dimensions that together create the actual meaning of what it is and by knowing what the significance of Organizational Loyalty is, employers might be able to work better for reinforcing loyalty among their employees.

Research shows that customer involvement is an important factor affecting project outcomes in agile system development projects but the phenomenon is in practice less studied. The study aims to build an understanding of customer involvement in practice and the factors that influence the phenomenon. The study has been carried out as a case study at a Swedish consulting company active in the IT industry. Through interviews with participants in product teams for five system development projects, data has been collected regarding two themes, work methods and customer involvement. The analysis was based on the theoretical framework used in the study. In the discussion, this was compared to the purpose of the study. Conclusions were drawn in relation to theory, purpose and research questions. The study provides insights into the practical application of customer involvement in relation to its theoretical benefits, and presents factors that may affect its application. The study's conclusions describe what customer involvement can look like in practice based on the projects studied, as well as factors that have been found to affect involvement. Furthermore, problems associated with generalising an approach to the phenomenon are also discussed. The study has found that customer involvement was crucial to the outcome of the studied projects and the study's conclusions can be used to promote customer involvement in future projects. Lessons learnt from the studied projects and their outcomes can contribute to a better understanding of the design of customer involvement initiatives. / Forskning visar att kundinvolvering är en viktig faktor som påverkar projektutfall inom agila systemutvecklingsprojekt men fenomenet är i praktiken mindre beforskat. Studien avser att bilda en förståelse kring kundinvolvering i praktiken och de faktorer som påverkar fenomenet. Studien har utförts som en fallstudie på ett svenskt konsultföretag verksamt inom it-branschen. Genom intervjuer med deltagare i produktteam för fem systemutvecklingsprojekt har data samlats in gällande två teman, arbetssätt och kundinvolvering. Analysen grundades på den teoretiska referensram som använts i studien. I diskussionen ställdes detta mot studiens syfte. Slutsatser drogs i förhållande till teori, syfte och frågeställningar. Studien bidrar med insikter kring praktiskt förankrad kundinvolvering i förhållande till dess teoretiska fördelar, och redovisar faktorer som kan komma att påverka dess tillämpning. Studiens slutsatser beskriver hur kundinvolvering kan se ut i praktiken utifrån de projekt som studerats, samt faktorer som funnits påverka involveringen. Vidare diskuteras även problematik kopplad till att generalisera ett tillvägagångssätt för fenomenet. Studien har funnit att kundinvolvering varit avgörande för utfallet av undersökta projekt och studiens slutsatser kan användas för att främja kundinvolvering i framtida projekt. Lärdomar från studerade projekt och dess utfall kan bidra till bättre förståelse kring utformning av insatser gällande kundinvolvering.

Bakgrund: Efter utbrottet av covid-19 har många branscher upplevt ökat behov av distansarbete. I synnerhet hos IT-konsultbolag efterfrågas distansarbete ännu mer bland IT-konsulterna. Vid distansarbete har formella styrmedel, det vill säga resultat- och beteendekontroll, visat sig användas i en större utsträckning eftersom att distansarbete försvårar kontroll över de anställda. Teknisk innovation, som är kritiskt för IT-konsultbolags överlevnad efter pandemins utbrott, riskerar däremot att bli hämmat av formella styrmedel. Dock finns det inte många undersökningar om hur formella styrmedel vidare påverkar teknisk innovation när IT-konsultbolag inför mer distansarbete. Därmed blir detta intressant att undersöka.  Syfte: Studien syftar till att skapa förståelse för hur pandemin har påverkat användning av styrmedel och styrmedlens påverkan på innovation när distansarbete har införts.  Metod: Studien genomförs med en kvalitativ forskningsstrategi och utgår ifrån ett hermeneutiskt perspektiv. Därtill används en abduktiv forskningsansats. En flerfallsstudie har utförts där empirisk data samlats in via semistrukturerade intervjuer från tre IT-konsultbolag. Däribland intervjuades nio respondenter med positionerna IT-konsult, projektledare och chef och dessa har förståelse för företagets formella styrmedel och teknisk innovation.  Slutsats: Uppsatsen kommer fram till att pandemin delvis påverkat formella styrmedel via de tre studerade faktorerna produktivitet, förtroende och kommunikation. Produktivitet har ökat vid distansarbete, förtroende har bibehållits på samma nivå och kommunikationen fungerar generellt sett lika bra. Det leder till att resultatkontroll används på samma sätt och beteendekontroll används i något högre utsträckning. Vidare påverkas teknisk innovation av formella styrmedel via de tre faktorerna motivation, kortsiktigt tänkande och flexibilitet efter utbrottet av pandemin. För att uppnå ökad motivation och större flexibilitet bör företagen sträva efter att införa tight resultatkontroll och lös beteendekontroll. Vidare har inte tight resultatkontroll lett till något hot för teknisk innovation via varken kortsiktigt tänkande eller minskad motivation. Dessutom verkar den fortsatt lösa beteendekontrollen ha bidragit till goda möjligheter till teknisk innovation eftersom det möjliggjort stor flexibilitet och ökad motivation. / Background: Following the outbreak of covid-19, many industries have experienced an increased need for telework. Particularly with IT consulting companies, teleworking is even more in demand among IT consultants. When working remotely, formal control systems, i.e result and action control, have been shown to be used to a greater extent because teleworking makes it difficult to control employees. Technological innovation, which is critical for the survival of IT consulting companies after the outbreak of the pandemic, risks being hampered by formal control systems. However, there are not many studies on how the formal control systems affect technological innovation when more teleworking is introduced in IT consulting companies. Thus, this becomes interesting to investigate. Purpose: The study aims to create an understanding of how the pandemic has affected the use of formal control systems and the control systems' impact on innovation when teleworking has been introduced.  Methodology: The study is carried out with a qualitative research strategy and is based on a hermeneutic perspective. In addition, an abductive research approach is used. A multiple case study has been performed where empirical data was collected by semi-structured interviews from three IT consulting companies. Among them, nine respondents were interviewed with the positions IT consultant, project manager and manager and they had an understanding of the company's formal control systems and technological innovation. Conclusion: The pandemic has partly affected formal control systems through the three factors studied: productivity, trust and communication. Productivity has increased, trust has stayed the same and communication generally works just as well. This leads to result control being used similarly and action control being used to a somewhat greater extent. Further, technological innovation is influenced by formal control systems by three factors: motivation, short-term thinking and flexibility after the outbreak of the pandemic. To achieve increased motivation and greater flexibility, companies should strive to introduce tight result and loose action control. Tight result control has not led to any threat to technological innovation through either short-term thinking or reduced motivation. The continued loose action control seems to have contributed to good opportunities for technological innovation as it has enabled great flexibility and increased motivation.

Efter att jag har genomfört en litteraturgenomgång fann jag ett forskningsgap som berör chefers yrkesidentitet och deras reflexivitet. Studiens syfte är därför att bidra med mer kunskap om hur chefer beskriver sin yrkesidentitet och hur de reflekterar kring sitt ledarskap. Min ambition är att fylla ett forskningsgap som berör chefers yrkesidentitet och deras reflexivitet. Kvalitativ metod användes för att undersöka hur respondenterna tänker och beter sig i olika situationer som berör yrkesidentitet och reflektion. Narrativa semistrukturerade intervjuer tillämpades som kvalitativ forskningsmetod för att samla in data. Totalt intervjuades åtta chefer från olika nivåer i företagshierarkin i ett IT konsultföretag med minst 200 anställda. En teoretisk analysmodell och tidigare forskning tillämpades för att kunna analysera och tolka empirin. Empirin består av två kategorier och sex innehållskategorier som är strukturerade utifrån studiens två forskningsfrågor. Den första forskningsfrågan som lyder "Hur beskriver chefer sinyrkesidentitet i ett företag?" är relaterad till kategorin yrkesidentitet och de tre innehållskategorierna: hur ledarskap utövas, företagets struktur och vad som påverkarledarskapet samt när ledarskap inte utövas. Medan den andra forskningsfrågan som lyder "Hur reflekterar chefer kring sitt ledarskap i ett företag?" är kopplad till kategorin reflektion och de tre innehållskategorierna: situationer som leder till reflektion och icke-reflektion, skapa goda förutsättningar för anställda och att förbättra sig samt tidens roll vid mest respektive minst reflektion. Studiens slutsatser är att respondenterna ville lyssna på sina medarbetare innan respondenterna tog ett beslut och vara allmänt öppna för feedback. Företagets struktur, aspekter inom och utanför företagets kontext kunde påverka ledarskapet. I de fall ledarskap inte utövades var för att exempelvis medarbetare skall kunna utvecklas. Reflektion kring ledarskapet kan utlösas i form av utvärderingar med underställda, innan en tuff sak skall framföras och sättet att kommunicera med underställda. Reflektion kring sitt ledarskap var framträdande kring att utveckla sina medarbetare och underlätta deras arbete. Respondenterna reflekterar och tänker kritiskt kring sitt ledarskap mest efter arbetsdagen och minst under arbetsdagen. De som var reflexiva på arbetet var oftast meta-reflexiva. / After I conducted a literature review, I found a research gap that concerns managers' professional identities and their reflexivity. The purpose of the study is therefore to contribute with more knowledge about how managers describe their working identity and how they reflect on their leadership. My ambition is to fill a research gap that affects managers' working identity and their reflexivity. Qualitative method was used to examine how the respondents think and behave in different situations that affect working identity and reflection. Narrative semi-structured interviews were applied as a qualitative research method to collect data. A total of eight managers from different levels in the company hierarchy were interviewed in an IT consulting company with at least 200 employees. A theoretical analysis model and previous research were applied to analyze and interpret the empirics. The empirics consist of two categories and six content categories that are structured along the study's two research questions. The first research question that reads "How do managers describe their working identity?" is related to the category of working identity and the three content categories: how leadership is exercised, the company's structure and what affects the leadership and also when leadership is not exercised. While the second research question is "How do managers reflect on their leadership in a company?" is linked to the category of reflection and the three content categories: situations that lead to reflection and non-reflection, create good conditions for employees and to improve yourself and also the role of time in most and least reflection, respectively. The conclusions of the study are that respondents wanted to listen to their employees before the respondents took a decision and be generally open to feedback. The company's structure, aspects within and outside the company's context could affect leadership. In cases where leadership was not exercised where for example so employees could be developed. Reflection on leadership can be triggered in the form of evaluations with subordinates, before a tough thing is to be presented and the way of communicating with subordinates. Reflection on their leadership was prominent in developing their employees and facilitating their work. The respondents reflect and think critically about their leadership most after the working day and least during the working day. Those who were reflexive at work were usually meta-reflexive.