Questo lavoro di tesi illustra un progetto di ricerca volto ad esplorare i processi di creazione della conoscenza, dell’apprendimento e del cambiamento organizzativo in un’azienda for profit appartenente al settore automotive. L’attenzione iniziale della committenza era focalizzata sulla possibilità di migliorare la soddisfazione dei dipendenti, ma un’analisi approfondita di questa richiesta ha permesso di progettare un intervento che contribuisse in maniera significativa alla ricerca applicata ai topic di interesse organizzativo sopra menzionati. Il primo studio illustra un’analisi estensiva dei processi di cambiamento organizzativo in questa azienda. Viene progettato e implementato un intervento di tipo formativo e partecipativo mutuando dalla letteratura i concetti di authorship e di expansive learning. Grazie all’utilizzo di metodologie qualitative, il top management e i dipendenti vengono attivamente coinvolti nell’intervento che esita nell’individuazione di un obiettivo comune a tutta l’azienda: identificare un nuovo metodo di management. Il secondo studio è invece volto a descrivere come si instauri una relazione di fiducia tra il dottorando e i partecipanti alla ricerca (la popolazione aziendale in questo caso) e come questa possa facilitare la co- produzione di conoscenza organizzativa. Viene utilizzato l’approccio autoetnografico come cornice metodologica e vengono descritte cinque vignette autoetnografiche. / This PhD thesis illustrates a research project aimed at exploring the multifaceted process of organisational knowledge creation, organisational learning and organisational change in a for- profit automotive corporation. The initial focus of the top management was on increasing the employee satisfaction, but a deep analysis of this request allowed us to design a project aimed at giving a wider contribution to the topics of organizational knowledge, learning and change. This first study illustrates a comprehensive analysis of organisational change in an intervention carried out in this company. A participatory and formative intervention is designed, based on the notion of authorship and expansive learning. Using participative qualitative methods, the top management and all the employees are actively involved in a process that leads to shape a shared object and a common goal: to devise a new management method for the company. The specific purpose of the second study is to describe how the process of the establishment of a trust and legitimacy relationship between the PhD student and the participants in the research happens and how it facilitates the co- production of knowledge in the organisation. The autoethnographic approach is used as methodological framework and five autoethnographic vignettes are presented.

The purpose of the study has been to investigate how leadership can support organisational change by empowering Project Managers and Team Leaders to encourage organisational change into a Lean/Agile organisation. Lean is a management philosophy based on measuring flow efficiency instead of resource efficiency. To be able to create flow there are certain basic principles to be followed such as minimising waste, working in a team and constantly strive for improvement. It has in several studies been pointed out that leadership is an important factor in creating a successful organisational change that lasts. We have in our study strengthen the implementation of Lean by focusing on visual planning, feedback and leadership connected with theories on organisational change. This was done by providing by coaching leadership during the workshops and also a study visit for one of the pilot groups that consisted of Team Leaders and Project Managers from two of the divisions at Saab Technologies. In conclusion, the study has shown that leadership is a necessary factor to succeed with a reorganisation irrespective of what level in the company is being reorganised. The Management Teams have to lead with visions and create long-term goals. Based on these goals, clear milestones should be created that are implemented and then evaluated in short intervals, these milestones then sipper down the to the levels below in the organisation where the milestones and goals are translated from vision into action. The picture of that a reorganisation changes the company overnight needs to be erased in benefit of creating small continuous changes that in the long run will lead to a new organisation. The Project Managers and Team Leaders also have to lead their projects and teams for the reorganisation to evolve and not stagnate. Furthermore, the leadership has to be adapted to every situation, keeping in mind that teams and projects are in different stages just as a reorganisation. Visual planning has worked as a translator and as something reachable in the reorganisation and also as an anchor to be able to continue the implementation of Lean within the organisation. / Syftet med studien har varit att undersöka hur ledarskap kan stödja organisationsförändring genom att ge makt till projekt- och teamledare att främja organisationsförändringen till en Lean/Agil verksamhet. Lean är en management filosofi som baseras på att mäta flödeseffektivitet istället för resurseffektivitet. För att skapa flöde finns vissa grundprinciper som att minimera slöseri, arbeta i team och att ständigt stäva efter att förbättra. Ledarskap har i flera studier poängterats som en viktig faktor för att få till en lyckad organisationsförändring som består. I vårt examensarbete har vi stärkt implementeringen av Lean genom att fokusera på visuell planering, feedback och ledarskap sammankopplat med teorier om organisationsförändring. Detta har skett genom att vi har tillhandahållit ett coachande ledarskap under workshops och ett studiebesök för en pilotgrupp, bestående av teamledare och projektledare vid två Divisioner inom Saab Technologies. Slutsatsen av studien är att ledarskap är en nödvändig faktor för att lyckas med en omorganisation oavsett på vilken nivå av företagets organisation. Ledningsgruppen måste leda med visioner och skapa långsiktiga mål. Utifrån dessa mål bör sedan tydliga hållpunkter skapas som implementeras och utvärderas i korta intervall, de hållpunkterna sipprar sedan neråt i organisationen och översätter mål och vision till aktion. Bilden av att en omorganisation förändrar företaget över en natt behöver suddas ut till förmån för att skapa små kontinuerliga förändringar som i det långa loppet leder till en ny organisation. Även projektledare och teamledare måste leda sina projekt och team för att omorganisationen ska gå framåt och inte stagnera. Ledarskapet måste i sin tur anpassas till varje situation, att leda med tanken på att ett team och projekt befinner sig i olika faser precis som en omorganisation. Visuell planering har fungerat som en översättningsfunktion och som någonting greppbart i omorganisationen samt fungerat som ett ankare för att fortsätta implementera Lean i organisationen.

Syftet med studien är att undersöka hur ett multinationellt företag arbetar med att förankra en omorganisation hos sina medarbetare och att motverka negativa attityder.. Ett strategiskt urval användes där åtta kvinnor och män i olika åldrar valdes ut, samtliga intervjupersoner har haft en aktiv roll i planeringsgruppen för organisationsförändringen. Studien var kvalitativ där insamlad data analyserades med induktiv tematisk analys. Resultatet av studien stämmer överens med tidigare forskning om förändringsarbete och medarbetarnas attityder där ledarskap, information och kommunikation samt delaktighet var de teman som framkom. Det framkom dock att delaktigheten var något bristande för medarbetarna i denna process, något som kan ha orsakat negativa attityder och bidragit till ökad personalomsättning inom organisationen under förändringsprocessen. / The purpose of the study was to investigate how a multinational company is going to anchor a reorganisation towards its employees to counteract negative attitudes. A strategic selection was used where eight women and men of different ages were selected, all interviewees having had an active role in the planning group for the organisational change. The study was qualitative where collected data were analysed with inductive thematic analysis. The results of the study were consistent with previous research on change work and employees' attitudes, where leadership, information and communication as well as participation were the themes that emerged. However, it emerged that participation was somewhat lacking for employees in this process, something that may have caused negative attitudes and contributed to increased staff turnover within the organisation during the change process.

The world has been challenged by the COVID-19 pandemic since 2020. The pandemic affected all businesses, and the banking sector was no exception. Within this context, efficient change management (CM) is crucial to keep up with the changing business environment. Previous research has extensively covered the planned and emergent approaches to CM. However, the authors found that the perspective of complex organisations and their effect on change was missing. The purpose of the study was to develop a deeper understanding of how the internal processes were challenged during the COVID-19 pandemic, following a Scandinavian bank in their change to open a sister department in Vilnius. To study this, the authors conducted 12 semi-structured interviews with employees of Bank XYZ, from Vilnius and Stockholm. Kotter’s 8-step model and the complexity theory were combined and used as the conceptual framework.  The conclusion shows that the pandemic challenged three different aspects, communication, motivation, and new ways of working. These aspects challenged the traditional view of CM, which is viewed as static. The nonlinearity of CM processes is more present in disruptive changes such as the COVID-19 pandemic.

The public cultural sector in Sweden has been facing the challenges of digitalization over the last decade. The Swedish government has over these past years introduced various strategies and visions for taking advantage of the opportunities that digitalization provides. Due to the implications of the pandemic, many public cultural sector organisations were forced to go through some form of rapid digitalization. However, it is not known how these rapid digital efforts will affect the public cultural sector going forward. Digitalization is not a one-time event, a change in organisational strategy, processes and culture need to happen for digital transformation to occur. The case study of Malmö Opera examines the digitizing activities between 2017 - 2022 in the context of digital transformation. The results of the study showed that although digital efforts had been made prior to the pandemic, a rapid period of digitization occurred during the pandemic years. During 2020 and 2021 the organization took substantial strides in digital progress speed up by the impacts of the pandemic. After the restrictions lifted, digital developments in Malmö Opera were at a slow down due to a lack of dedicated recourses that had be available during the pandemic. The findings of this theses suggests that digital transformation is one way to face the challenges that digitalisation provides. By applying a framework or process for the digital transformation journey this provides a tool for decision makers for how to approach digital transformation on an organisational level.

Mergers have become a common feature for South African organisations since the dawn of democracy in 1994. There are several studies completed internationally and locally on how to handle mergers in general. There is limited research however on the role played by communication in this process. In this regard, this study aims to analyse the role of communication during a merger in an information communication technology (ICT) organisation, underpinned by Nudge’s Change Theory, which asserts that employees should be involved in the merger process, thereby making it possible to take their views into consideration. Quantitative and qualitative approaches were employed in this study to gain insight on the role communication plays before, during, and after a merger. Primary data was collected from employees based at the organisation’s Head Office in Pretoria, through online questionnaires and semi-structured interviews. Descriptive statistics and thematic analysis was used to analyse data. Results of the study show that communication with employees before, during and after merger was poor, resulting in high levels of uncertainty among employees. Furthermore, management did not provide adequate feedback to employees during the process. This caused panic among employees and a lack of confidence in the success of the merger. Based on these findings, it is recommended that top management investigates ways of enhancing channels of communication to ensure that communication with employees during mergers is not only meaningful but effective. The findings confirm recommendations made by Nudge’s Change Theory of the need to equip both management and employees during times of uncertainty. In this regard, further research to be conducted with different companies in the sector on the role employee communication plays during mergers to see if similar perceptions are maintained or changed. / Communication Science / M. A. (Communication)

The automotive industry has seen revolutionary changes in the past two decades. Vehicles are starting to incorporate within themselves a significant amount of electronic and software based components, due to which the industry has seen rapidly changing customer requirements. The traditional work processes that automotive companies have ever so often employed, with excessive documentation, inefficient work teams and redundant reporting have proven to be insufficient in the newer fast-paced environment. Agile project management methods, as the name suggests, could be a tool that these companies can utilise in order to tackle such concerns. Agile methods, until a few years ago, had constrained themselves to dynamic software development applications, but they are now slowly starting to penetrate the automotive sector. This study, hence, tries to identify the factors that contribute to an automotive organisation’s decision to transform itself into an Agile based organisation, the challenges they encounter during the change process and the subsequent impact they see post transformation.   This thesis takes the form of a case study that has been conducted within the Swedish commercial vehicle company Volvo Trucks, a subsidiary of AB Volvo. Empirics were gathered in the form of interviews and surveys to get a deeper understanding of the internal processes and the transformational journey that helped Volvo Trucks become an agile based organisation. The collected empirical data is then further interpreted through the lens of theories pertaining to change and change management. Our findings suggest that the need for a transformation from traditional methods of management to agile can be driven by forces that are both internal and external, where the forces can present themselves at the same time. The internal factors here being, the inherent dysfunctions of the traditional methods. Significant challenges faced during transformation are of an organisational nature, where a partially agile organisation struggles to coordinate between its agile and non-agile departments. Lastly, a boost in worker morale and operational advantages such as increased planning efficiency and project transparency have been seen as major benefits post transformation.

The need to transition the global economy to net zero greenhouse gas emissions is clear. Commitments made by the majority of the world’s governments declare that a global net zero economy should be achieved by the middle of the century. What is less clear is how this transition should take place, or how these commitments impact companies. This paper explores senior management perspectives on a net zero transition, identifying drivers, enablers, and barriers to transitioning effectively. In line with Kurt Lewin’s work, we collectively refer to these as forces. Through 11 in-depth interviews and a quantitative survey to managers across several industries and geographies, we identify, rank, and visually conceptualise 26 forces that act on companies in the context of a net zero transition. The strongest driving force is ‘Societal awareness of climate change and net zero targets’, while the biggest current constraining force is ’Business priorities’. The force considered to have the single biggest potential impact is ‘government disincentives and bans’. Based on the collective analysis of our findings, there are possible policy implications that could be explored further in order to successfully manage a transition to net zero.

[ES] Las organizaciones no son espacios neutrales al género y, por tanto, están reproduciendo múltiples desigualdades y procesos generizantes. Así, el género es entendido dentro de un sistema complejo de opresiones entrecruzadas que da forma a la norma y hegemonía socioeconómica, y que está presente, también, en las organizaciones de Economía Solidaria. Esta investigación se fundamenta en la Economía Feminista, las Teorías Feministas de la Organización y las teorías de Género en el Desarrollo para analizar dos procesos de cambio organizacional feminista en la Red de Economía Alternativa y Solidaria (REAS) del País Valencià y de Euskadi. A través del estudio de casos interpretativos con una metodología de investigación-acción feminista, se analizan los cambios que los procesos de transformación organizacional feminista generan en las entidades, así como los factores que impulsan o limitan esta transformación. Esta tesis contribuye al impulso de procesos de cambio organizacional feminista y a la construcción de conocimiento y propuestas de economía feminista. Además, aporta claves para la construcción de organizaciones habitables. / [CA] Les organitzacions no són espais neutrals al gènere i, per tant, estan reproduint múltiples desigualtats i processos generitzants. El gènere s'entén dins d'un sistema complex d'opressions entrecreuades que dona forma a la norma i hegemonia socioeconòmica, i que està present, també, en les organitzacions d'Economia Solidària. Aquesta investigació es fonamenta en l'Economia Feminista, les Teories Feministes de l'Organització i les teories de Gènere en el Desenvolupament per tal d'analitzar dos processos de canvi organitzacional feminista en la Xarxa d'Economia Alternativa i Solidària del País Valencià i d'Euskadi. A través de l'estudi de casos interpretatius amb una metodologia d'investigació-acció feminista, s'analitzen els canvis que els processos de transformació organitzacional feminista generen en les entitats, així com els factors que impulsen o limiten aquesta transformació. Aquesta tesi contribueix a l'impuls de processos de canvi organitzacional feminista i a la construcció de coneixement i propostes d'economia feminista. A més, aporta claus per a la construcció d'organitzacions habitables. / [EN] Organizations are not gender-neutral spaces and, therefore, are reproducing multiple inequalities and generating processes. In this research, gender is understood within a complex system of intersecting oppressions that shapes the norm and socioeconomic hegemony, and so, it also interacts within the Solidarity Economy organizations. This research is based on Feminist Economics, Feminist Theories of Organization and Gender in Development theories to analyze two processes of feminist organizational change in the Alternative and Solidarity Economy Network (REAS) in Spain, in Valencian region and Euskadi. Through the study of interpretative cases with a feminist action research methodology, we analyze the changes that the processes of feminist organizational transformation generate in the organizations, as well as the factors that boost or limit this change. This thesis contributes to the promotion of processes of feminist organizational change and the construction of knowledge and proposals of feminist economics. In addition, it provides keys for the construction of livable organizations. / Maicas Pérez, M. (2023). Cap a organitzacions habitables. Anàlisi de processos de canvi organitzacional feminista en organitzacions d'Economia Solidària [Tesis doctoral]. Universitat Politècnica de València. https://doi.org/10.4995/Thesis/10251/194807

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