Bakgrund: Ledare behöver ofta ta ställning till och hantera nya digitala verktyg. Oftast faller de företag som inte hänger med i digitaliseringens snabba svängar mellan stolarna. Även ledarskapet genomgår en omvandling i och med digitaliseringen. Enkelheten i att kommunicera och dela information bidrar till att utmana hierarkier och funktioner i organisationer. Nu ökar användningen av teknik, inte minst på grund av den pågående Covid-19-pandemin. Det krävs av ledare att hitta nya sätt att fatta beslut på när arbetssituationen inte längre ser likadan ut som tidigare. Med hjälp av scenarioplanering kan ledare förbereda sig på de mer komplicerade besluten. En scenarioplanering handlar om att planera för möjliga utfall i framtiden baserat på det man vet i nuläget. Genom att skildra möjliga utfall hinner ledare planera och förbereda sig om något av dem inträffar. Syfte: Syftet med uppsatsen är att närmare undersöka vilken påverkan den ökade digitaliseringen kommer få på framtidens ledarroll samt att bidra till en ökad förståelse för hur digitaliseringen förändrar synen på ledarskap och rollen som ledare. Frågeställning: Hur kommer digitaliseringen påverka framtidens ledarskap? Hur kan ledare fatta beslut för att anpassa sig till digitaliseringens utveckling? Hur kan scenarioplanering användas som verktyg för att underlätta ledares beslutsfattande? Metod: Arbetet utgår från en abduktiv ansats med växelverkan mellan teori och empiri. Det empiriska resultatet är framtaget genom kvalitativa semistrukturerade intervjuer som sedan transkriberats och genomgått en form av tematisk analys där likheter och skillnader i intervjuerna pekats ut. Empiri och resultat: Empirin utgörs av intervjuer av experter respektive ledare. Expertintervjuerna bidrog till skapandet av scenariokorset och ledarintervjuerna bidrog med ett arbetslivsperspektiv på scenarierna. De fyra scenarier som tagits fram baseras på drivkrafterna kontroll och användning av framtida teknik. När scenarierna diskuterades med ledarna tog de bland annat upp att de hade föredragit mellanvarianter på scenarierna framför ett renodlat scenario. Slutsats: Genom att skapa scenarier svarar uppsatsen på hur digitaliseringen kan påverka framtidens ledarskap. Ledarna såg hellre en kombination av två scenarier istället för att ett scenario inträffar. Med kontinuerligt arbete kan scenarioplanering vara ett effektivt verktyg i den strategiska planeringen och beslutsfattandet. / Background: Leaders often need to take a stand on and manage new digital tools. Most often, the companies that do not keep up with the rapid turns of digitalization fall between the cracks. Leadership is also undergoing a transformation with digitalization. The simplicity of communicating and sharing information helps to challenge hierarchies and functions in organizations. Now the use of technology is increasing, not least due to the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic. Leaders are required to find new ways to make decisions when the work situation no longer looks the same as before. With the help of scenario planning, leaders can prepare for the more complicated decisions. Scenario planning is about planning for possible outcomes in the future based on what is known at present. By depicting possible outcomes, leaders have time to plan and prepare if any of them occur. Purpose: The purpose of the essay is to investigate in more detail the impact that increased digitalization will have on the future leadership role and to contribute to an increased understanding of how digitalisation changes the view of leadership and the role as a leader. Issue: How will digitalization affect future leadership? How can leaders make decisions to adapt to the development of digitalization? How can scenario planning be used as a tool to facilitate leaders' decision-making? Method: The work is based on an abductive approach with an interaction between theory and empiricism. The empirical result is produced through qualitative semi-structured interviews which then were transcribed and underwent a form of thematic analysis where similarities and differences in the interviews were pointed out. Empirical data and results: The empirical data consists of interviews with experts and leaders. The expert interviews contributed to the creation of the scenario cross and the leader interviews contributed with a working life perspective on the scenarios. The four scenarios developed are based on the driving forces of control and use of future technology. When the scenarios were discussed with the leaders, they mentioned, among other things, that they had preferred intermediate variants of the scenarios over a pure scenario. Conclusion: By creating scenarios, the essay responds to how digitalisation can affect future leadership. Leaders would rather see a combination of two scenarios instead of one scenario occurring. With continuous work, scenario planning can be an effective tool in strategic planning and decision-making.

Background: While technologies are progressing exponentially and inevitably becoming an essential as a means for business to adapt and survive, no exception is the finance division. Digitalization activities have become do or die tasks for many companies and have been a challenging process for finance departments. Yet, in the context of Finance 4.0 it is barely researched. Due to evolving understanding of how finance departments should look, the Chief Financial Officer (CFO) as the leader of the whole finance division is going through a lot of changes surrounded by uncertainty. The expectations for CFO and finance department are increasing and it becomes unclear what financial specialists should actually deliver for business. Hence, this paper aims to identify how CFO’s role is changing because of Finance 4.0, otherwise known as finance function digitalization, and what skills will be needed to successfully work as CFO in the new environment that seeks to become fully digital and automated. Purpose: The purpose of this master thesis research is to identify and analyze how the CFO’s role is changing because of Finance 4.0 and what skills will be required in future for the CFO position.  Method: A qualitative study with interpretivism philosophy, inductive approach and narrative inquiry strategy is taken as the best options for this particular study. Semi-structured interviews with Chief Financial Officers (CFOs) is a method for primary data collection as well as thematic data analysis for gathered data analysis are chosen in order to answer research questions. Conclusion: This research investigates how Finance 4.0 is changing the role of CFO as well as explores what future skills are required for the profession. The research clearly reveals that digitalization is affecting CFO’s role significantly and brings more uncertainty. Research results show that fundamental responsibilities of a CFO will not undergo changes any time soon as well as the skills required for work will remain largely the same. This is because the professional skills of a CFO directly reflect the responsibilities and working tasks, and, moreover, the finance departments are not completely undigitized. However, even though the foundation of the CFO role remains the same, digital disruption causes expansion and increased complexity. While existing academic knowledge is focused mostly on the change process itself and the benefits of digitalization, CFOs revealed what is challenging for them during this digital journey and what negative effect they have experienced.

Background: Digital technologies have been revolutionizing the corporate world during the last few decades. Companies that want to keep their competitive positions are forced to adapt. The digitalization of the corporate Human Resource function is of special importance in this regard due to the increasing role of digitalized HRM for business success. The existing research on the digital HRM implementation environment and the factors that shape it is limited to bigger companies operating in developed economies, with nascent research available for small and medium-sized firms operating in emerging economies. Purpose: The purpose of this study is to explore how individual-, firm-level and environmental context-specific factors shape HRM digitalization in SMEs in emerging economies context with Russia as an example. Method: To achieve an in-depth understanding of the research phenomenon, a qualitative study with an exploratory design was conducted. Empirical data was gathered through semi-structured interviews with ten professionals with extensive experience in HRM digitalization in SMEs, chosen by purposive sampling method. An abductive research approach enabled establishing the connection between obtained empirical insights and existing knowledge from the literature on HRM digitalization. Conclusion: As a result, the following factors were identified as the most influential for the implementation of digital HR tools in Russian SMEs. At the individual level, it is top executives digital awareness and innovativeness that facilitate implementation. At the firm level, it is SME’s resource munificence, innovation-friendly corporate culture, low hierarchical structure and developed IT infrastructure that enables implementation. Finally, among context-specific factors, the following appeared to shape the implementation: declining national economy, unpredictable business environment, highly competitive business environment, IT vendors' market specificity, governmental policy in terms of digitalization, labour market specificity. Most of the contextual factors contributed to the disabling environment for HRM digitalization, with a few exceptions.

Title: The major banks digital customer relationships - a qualitative study of the impact of  digitalization on customer relationships in the banking sector.  Author: Emelie Fernholm and Emma Finnhult.  Keywords: Swedish banks, digitalization in the banking sector, digital customer relationships.  Aim: The aim of this study is to describe how banking clerks experience the impact of digitalization on customer relationships. Furthermore, the study aims to investigate whether the older generation has been affected harder by increased digitalization in the banking sector comparison with the younger generation and whether video chats is a successful complement to other digital channels to include more senses in customer conversation.  Theoretical reference frame: The theoretical frame of reference consists of the subject areas digitalization, digitalization in the banking sector, generations, customer relationships, customer loyalty and asymmetric information flows. The theory further presents several models. These models describe the impact of digitalization on the business, various relationship programs to create a good relationship with the customer and an alternative database for evaluating customer relationships. The theory chapter ends with an “understanding model” that connects the entire theoretical frame of reference.  Method: This study is based on a qualitative research method. Eight bank clerks have been interviewed from Sweden's major banks in a small municipality, a medium-sized municipality and a large municipality. The answers have been analyzed with the help of an intra- and interval analysis.  Conclusion: The theoretical frame of reference and the empirical material have finally resulted in four conclusions. The study shows that bank clerks customer relationships have been affected more positive than negative as a result of increased digitalization, that long-term customer relations have not become less important in Sweden's major banks as a result of increased digitalization, the problem that the older generation is affected by digitalization is explained much worse in the theoretical frame of reference compared to what bank clerks believe and video chats is a good complement to other digital channels to include more senses in the customer conversation.

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The Covid-19 pandemic is changing the international business environment. This global event has forced the world into an unbalance, which influences how Swedish SMEs interpret their international operations. Through the international fluctuations, the digitalization has come to partake as an important factor in order to enable the possibility of maintaining an international presence. Therefore, the aim of this thesis is to explore how the Covid-19 pandemic influences the digitalization within Swedish SMEs international operations.        In order to provide a sustainable foundation of the subject, this research have utilized the qualitative strategy. Collecting the data through semi-structured interviews enables a vast set of data, which have been comprehended in relation to chapter 2 Literature review. Through analyzing all gathered data, the outcome of the research illustrates how the pandemic influences the digitalization as well as firms’ international operations. Finally, the thesis conclude that the Covid-19 pandemic accelerates the digitalization within firms, which further influences how firms maintain an international presence. Conclusively, it is contemplated that the Covid-19 pandemic further creates what the authors call “The New Normal”.

For as long robotics has been a research topic, their impact on the traditional manufacturing industry have been discussed. Several theories have been presented through the years in how robotics will change the business climate. The Chinese labor market is facing big transitions and the question of what the effects on employment rate and economy will be remains uncertain.  In this thesis, the focus in this thesis is to present the positive and negative effects of robotics in manufacturing industry and how it will affect the labor market. This is conducted by analyzing empirical findings from interviews and second-hand interviews. The collected findings will be compared with previous research regarding digitalization and robotics in China.  The outcome of this thesis will show the positive and negative effects of robotics and manufacturing industry and its impact on the Chinese labor market. The thesis will show the correlation between robotics, education, quality, labor and the Chinese economy.

Geografiämnets komplexa sammansättning gör att det vidrör många aspekter av våra liv och för att detta ska avspeglas i geografiundervisningen måste särskild uppmärksamhet riktas mot livet utanför klassrummet och hur det kan plockas in i undervisningen. Denna studie syftar därför till att undersöka hur och varför geografilärare använder sig av medier i undervisningen. Genom en kvantitativ anonymiserad enkätundersökning för yrkesaktiva geografilärare, har författaren ämnat utforska de didaktiska och pedagogiska val geografilärare gör när de implementerar olika medier i undervisningen. Studien finner att geografilärare främst använder medier i samband med lärarledda moment och då för att förklara och synliggöra svårgripbara fenomen samt att motivera sina elever. Studien visar att elevdelaktighet och elevinflytande tas i beaktande i mycket liten utsträckning då medieanvändandet i undervisningen inte utgår ifrån elevernas egna medieanvändande. För att göra en reell koppling mellan klassrum och verklighet i geografiundervisningen rekommenderas därför att elevernas medieanvändning ska ligga till grund för kopplingen mellan klassrum och verklighet. / The complex composition of the geography subject makes it reach many aspects of our lives, for this to be reflected in geography teaching, special attention must be put on life outside of the classroom and how this can be incorporated in the teaching. The aim of this study is therefore to explore how and why geography teachers use media in their teaching. Through an anonymized quantitative survey with geography teachers, the author’s intentions were to explore the didactic and pedagogical choices made by teachers when using media in their teaching. The study found that geogra-phy teachers mainly use media as a tool in teacher-led activities to explain and make visible abstract phenomena and to motivate their students. The study also shows that student participation and student influence is rarely taken into consideration due to the media-related geography teaching not being based on the students’ own media usage. The author thus recommends student media usage be the foundation in media-usage geography teaching in order to make a palpable connection between classroom and reality.

Digitaliseringen ökar och tar allt större plats i vårt samhälle, vilket ställer krav på att bankbranschen måste anpassa sig till utvecklingen och erbjuda sina kunder nya digitala tjänster. Bankbranschen har utvecklats i takt med digitaliseringen för att kunna effektivisera arbetssätt och erbjuda kunderna en ökad flexibilitet då kunderna inte behöver besöka ett bankkontor, utan kan sköta sina ärenden hemifrån via exempelvis sin mobiltelefon. Bankmedarbetarna kommer att påverkas av den digitala utvecklingen på olika sätt. Medarbetare kan exempelvis uppleva osäkerhet och hot kring att förlora sitt jobb i samband med att nya digitala arbetsuppgifter tillkommer. Studien utgår från en vald svensk bank och syftet med studien är att undersöka vad den pågående digitaliseringen av arbetsmiljön påverkar bankmedarbetare och hur det nya arbetssättet upplevs. I studien har tretton intervjuer genomförts med medarbetare på banken med en befattning inom kundservice samt privatrådgivare, där alla använder sig av digitaliseringen. De olika respondenterna visade på både positiva och negativa tankar och attityder kring digitaliseringen. Respondenterna ser digitaliseringen som en utvecklingsmöjlighet som effektiviserar deras arbetssätt, men digitaliseringen gör det även svårare att skapa en personlig kontakt med kunder. Majoriteten av respondenterna upplever också en ökad stress då digitaliseringen bidrar till att kontrollmöjligheterna från Finansinspektionen har ökat, vilket påverkar kraven på medarbetarna. / Digitization is increasing and taking up more and more space in our society, this requires the banking industry to adapt to developments and offer its customers new digital services. The banking industry has developed in step with digitalization in order to streamline working methods and offer customers increased flexibility as they do not have to visit a bank, instead they can handle their affairs from home via, for example, their mobile phone. Bank employees will be affected by the digital development in various ways. Employees may, for example, experience uncertainty and worries about losing their job due to the addition of new digital tasks. The study is based on a Swedish bank and the purpose of the study is to investigate how the ongoing digitalization of the work environment affects bank employees and how the new way of working is experienced. In the study, thirteen interviews were conducted with employees at the bank with a position in customer service or financial advisers, where everyone is affected by digitalization to some extent. The different respondents showed both positive and negative thoughts and attitudes about digitalization. The majority of the respondents also experience increased stress as digitalization contributes to increase the control capabilities from the Swedish Financial Supervisory, which in turn affects the demands on employees.

The objective of this exploratory thesis has been to study how leaders incorporate innovations into the business processes with the help of technical solutions and their competencies. The study takes into consideration the best practices of consulting companies, multinational manufacturing companies, and digitally creative consultant companies where leaders are able to bring innovation with the help of technical solutions. It deals with questions on what technical solutions help leaders to implement innovations, and also, what are the skills and competencies required by leaders to bring innovation with the help of digitalization. The findings of the research aim to develop a profound understanding on the concepts of leadership, innovation and also digitalization in the modern era. The thesis was carried out in light of semi- structured interviews, to understand the study areas, and proceed further with the data processing, empirical findings, analysis and conclusions. Owing to the rapid development in technologies, and the innovative ways of working, organisations lose their competitive advantages with the growing times if their leadership doesn’t evolve with the advancement that prevails. There has also been previous literature on how digitalization helps leadership to bring innovation and transformation within business organizations, however, there has been lack of studies and research gap to show that leadership has its extensive role to bring innovation within organizations with the help of digitalization and leadership competencies. Therefore, this master thesis worked to combine previous research on leadership, digitalization along with the modern insights based on empirical data. The research has used one qualitative method of semi-structured interview, revealing insightful findings on the data collected for our thesis. Moreover, this Master thesis will serve as a foundation for the future studies and research within the areas of leadership, innovation and digitalization.