Syfte med min studie är att undersöka specialpedagogers uppdrag i tre olika elevhälsoteam i samma kommun och hur specialpedagoger upplever arbetet med digitala journalsystem. Studien tar sin utgångspunkt i ett sociokulturellt perspektiv där synsättet är att lärande och kunskapsutveckling sker i interaktion med andra. Studien har en kvalitativ ansats där semistrukturerade intervjuer använts som metod med fyra specialpedagoger och en rektor. Med ett hermeneutiskt synsätt har jag försökt tolka och förstå de resultat som framkommit. Resultatet av denna studie visar att administration med planering och förberedande av ärende inför elevhälsoteamens möten och dokumentation av pedagogiska dokument är vanligt förekommande uppdrag för specialpedagoger i de i studien ingående elevhälsoteam. Det specialpedagogiska perspektivet att finna alternativa vägar och lösningar för inlärning är liksom anpassad undervisning på framförallt individnivå men även gruppnivå uppdrag som genomförs ofta. Samarbete mellan specialpedagog och rektor eftertraktas av specialpedagoger i studien men det faktiska samarbetet varierar stort. Digitala journalsystem har skapat möjligheter som tidigare inte fanns och ordet tillgänglighet har fått en bred betydelse i form av tillgänglighet till arkiv, mallar och stödmaterial. Nackdelen med det digitala journalsystemet är att tillgängligheten endast gäller för medlemmar i elevhälsoteamen och inte för övrig personal som arbetar nära elever. / The purpose with my research is to investigate special educators’ tasks in three different student wellness teams and how special educators experience their work with digital journal systems. The study has a qualitative approach where semi-structured interviews were used as the method with four special educators and a principal. A hermeneutic approach is applied as the interpretative analysis of the interview data. The result of this study shows that administrative tasks and preparation of cases before student wellness teams meetings and educational documentation are common tasks for special educators for those partaking in this study. The special educator’s perspective to find alternative ways and solutions to learning is common as well as adaptive teaching, especially on an individual level but also in groups. Cooperation between special educator and principal is sought after by special educators in this study but the actual cooperation varies heavily. The digital journal system has created previously unavailable opportunities and the term availability has become a broader meaning by way of archives, templates, and support materials. The downside with the digital journal system is that availability only applies to members of the team and not to others working closely with students.

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Servitization describes the trend amongst companies of supplementing tangible product offerings with services. A case in point is the cloud computing which represents a paradigm shift of servitization in the IT industry as it allows physical products to be delivered entirely remotely as a service. Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) constitutes a delivery business model of cloud computing which allows customers to access a supplier's application through a cloud infrastructure and is seen as a disruptive innovation. Despite the growing market for cloud computing services, the concept is claimed not to be very understood by many businesses. When transitioning from product-oriented to service-oriented value propositions, successful companies have for instance put efforts on the education of their sales personnel. Such employees could be seen as change agents whose goal is to influence the adoption decision making processes of the organization’s clients. Furthermore, as economies have become more knowledge-intensive, Knowledge management has become more critical. Previous research has put little attention to how Knowledge management relates to the diffusion rate of innovations. This study, therefore, explores how management of change agents' knowledge can facilitate the mediation of innovations. A case study was conducted of an IT company experiencing a servitization transition towards SaaS offerings to achieve the purpose of this study. The study is delimited to the diffusion of SaaS as an innovation within the financial industry in Sweden. 12 employees within the Case Company and six clients were interviewed regarding the subjects previously mentioned. The results suggest that the mediation of SaaS is done through personal communication, presentations, and distribution of sales material. The study has found that change agents need to be clear in their mediation efforts of SaaS solutions as the understanding of what SaaS includes sometimes differs between clients and suppliers. Furthermore, customers considered SaaS solutions for systems that they view as not being directly value-adding and for those systems they prefer standardization as it allows cost-efficiency. SaaS allows multi-tenant environments and is therefore suitable for standardized offerings, as standardization corresponds well to the business logic appropriate for a codification Knowledge Management strategy. The Case Company already conducts a codification strategy. However, the finding of this study suggests that they should strengthen it since a focused KM strategy is preferable to attain more of its benefits and to increase the organizational knowledge creation capabilities. Conducting a codification strategy is something they have good capabilities of pursuing and is suggested to facilitate the change agents' mediation of innovations. Sales material at the Case Company is identified as dependent on personal performance and standardizing the material would thereby ensure an even quality. Making a variety of standardized material easily accessible would further allow the change agents to select material with appropriate messages aimed at specific types of customers, which is important since the customers are found to have different preferences / Molntjänster representerar ett paradigmskifte inom tjänstefierings-trenden (servitisering), då IT-företag kan erbjuda fysiska produkter som tjänster via internet. Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) är en affärs- och leveransmodell inom molntjänst-konceptet vilken ger användare tillgång till applikationer via molnlösningens infrastruktur, och ses fortsättningsvis som en innovation. Trots den växande marknaden för molntjänster är kunskapen angående konceptet fortfarande låg inom många företag. Vid övergång från produkt- till serviceorienterade värdeerbjudanden har framgångsrika företag bland annat fokuserat på utbildning av säljpersonal. Sådan personal kan ses som förändringsagenter vars mål är att influera beslutsprocesser hos för organisationens kunder. Fortsättningsvis har kunskapshantering (Knowledge Management) blivit allt viktigare då världsekonomierna har blivit mer kunskapsintensiva. Tidigare forskning har dessutom sällan lagt fokus på hur kunskapshantering relaterar till spridningen av innovationer. Den här studien undersöker därför hur kunskapshanteringen av förändringsagenters kunskap främjar medlingen av innovationer. För att uppnå syftet utfördes en fältstudie på en IT-organisation genomgår en tjänstefieringstransformation. 12 anställda hos IT-organisationen och 6 kunder intervjuades angående de tidigare nämnda områdena. Studien resultat visar att medlingen av SaaS lösningar sker genom personlig kommunikation, presentationer samt distribution av säljmaterial, och att förändringsagenterna behöver vara tydligare i sin medling då förståelsen utav SaaS tjänster skiljer sig åt mellan kunder och leverantörer. Fortsättningsvis efterfrågar kunder SaaS till de system som inte anses bidra med iv direkta konkurrensfördelar. De vill därför ha standardiserade lösningar hellre än kundanpassade lösningar för att dra nytta utav kostnadsfördelarna som standardiserade lösningar möjliggör. SaaS lämpar sig för standardiserade lösningar då flera användare kan koppla upp sig till samma applikationsmiljö, vilket ligger i linje med en kodifierings-kunskapsstrategi. Företaget som undersöktes i fallstudien använder redan en kodifieringsstrategi, men rekommenderas stärka den eftersom en mer fokuserad strategi skulle leda till en högre realisering av dess fördelar samt öka organisationens kapacitet att utveckla sin kunskap. Fallföretaget har bra förutsättningar att få till en mer fokuserad kodifieringsstrategi, vilket skulle kunna förbättra förändringsagenternas medlande av innovationen. Säljmaterial är ibland för personberoende och standardisering av sådant material skulle därav försäkra en jämnare kvalité. Att dessutom förbättra tillgängligheten av standardiserat material skulle fortsättningsvis ge förändringsagenterna större möjlighet att välja det mest passande budskapet till specifika kunder, vilket är fördelaktigt eftersom kunder visade sig ha olika preferenser.

Bakgrund: I dagens volatila omgivning är organisatoriska förändringar något som företag ständigt måste arbeta med. På grund av detta är organisatorisk förändring något som av forskare fått mycket uppmärksamhet. Något som krävs för att genomföra dessa förändringar är förändringsagenter, en person som leder förändringen. Dessa individer beskrivs som mycket viktiga under organisatorisk förändring, och blir därför något värt att undersöka. Något som har undersökts i nära relation till detta är genus på arbetsplatsen, vilket gör att det finns ytterligare utrymme att undersöka dessa delar tillsammans. Det finns tidigare forskning som beskriver på vilket sätt förändringsagenter bör arbeta. Tidigare forskning finns även om stereotypiska könsegenskaper samt hur en förändringsagent bör agera i förändring. Däremot finns det färre studier som undersöker dessa saker tillsammans, vilket denna studie har gjort.    Syfte: Studiens syfte är att skapa en ökad förståelse om hur förändringsagenter driver förändringar med ett genusperspektiv med fokus på könsspecifika egenskaper.    Metod: Det här är en kvalitativ studie som har haft ett hermeneutiskt perspektiv och en iterativ forskningsansats.  Studiens empiriska material har samlats in med hjälp av semistrukturerade intervjuer hos åtta olika förändringsagenter som är verksamma inom IT-branschen.    Slutsats: Studien visar att sättet förändringsagenter väljer att arbeta med organisatoriska förändringar verkar vara hyfsat i linje med vad tidigare forskning har sagt, sammanfattningsvis används kommunikativa, informativa, inkluderade, tydliga och analytiska arbetssätt hos förändringsagenterna. Studien visar att förändringsagenter tenderar att arbeta på sätt där egenskaper som anses vara stereotypiskt feminina framkommer, men även stereotypiskt maskulina egenskaper lyfts fram. Framför allt verkar dessa egenskaper tillämpas i kombination med varandra. Oavsett vilket biologiskt kön en person har kan den arbeta som en förändringsagent, oberoende av den tidigare synen. Den här studien kan med dess resultat utmana den historiska bilden om vad som krävs för att arbeta med förändring och vad som anses vara stereotypiskt maskulint och feminint. / Background: In today’s volatile environment, organisational change is something that companies constantly must deal with. Because of this, organisational change has received attention from researchers in the past. Something that is required to implement these changes are change agents, individuals who lead the change. These individuals are described as crucial during organisational change, and therefore worth investigating. Another subject that has been researched in relation to this is gender in the workplace, which provides additional room to explore these aspects together. Previous research describes how change agents should work, and there is also existent research about stereotypical gender characteristics and how a change agent should act during change. However, fewer studies examine these aspects together, which this study has done. Purpose: The aim of the study is to create a better understanding of how change agents drive change from a gender perspective with a focus on gender specific characteristics. Methodology: This is a qualitative study that has adopted a hermeneutic perspective and an iterative research approach. The empirical material of the study has been collected through semi structured interviews with eight different change agents, working in the IT-industry. Conclusion: The study shows that the ways change agents choose to work with organizational change in ways that are reasonably aligned with what is stated in previous research. In summary, change agents employ communicative, informative, inclusive, clear and analytical approaches. The study reveals that change agents tend to work in ways where characteristics considered stereotypically feminine emerge, but stereotypically masculine characteristics are also highlighted. Above all, these characteristics seem to be applied in combination with each other. Regardless of a person’s biological gender, they can work as a change agent, regardless of previous perceptions. With the results from this study, the historical image of what is required to work within change and what is considered stereotypically masculine and feminine can be challenged.

The main aim of the research project was to develop a change agent identification framework, to be used by organisational change management specialists to identify change agents more effectively in large organisations moving forward. To date, little research has been conducted regarding the role and identification of change agents in large organisations. In the context of the research project, the sample of change agents used, referred to employees affected by the change, spread across the organisation, assisting in communicating key messages and ensuring that their peers become change ready. A thorough 12-step empirical research process was followed, which included both a qualitative and quantitative approach. The qualitative process consisted of the development of a change agent identification framework, comprising of four dimensions, each with supportive information and/or items. The aim of the quantitative process was to empirically test the personality trait dimension of the framework with a sample group of 27 change agents and 135 employees influenced by a transformation process. This was to determine which change agent personality traits has a positive impact/effect on employee change readiness levels during transformation. Through a rigorous analysis process, only the phlegmatic, persuasive and optimistic personality traits resulted in having some positive effect on employees during a transformation process. In support of these findings, the literature study findings as well as the qualitative empirical research findings indicated that the persuasive and optimistic personality traits need to form part of a change agents’ personality profile. The phlegmatic personality trait was not evident throughout all literature findings. The literature and empirical results contributed towards a comprehensive understanding of the way in which individuals should be identified as change agents in large organisations. The developed framework should assist industrial and organisational psychologists in the future to identify individuals as change agents, more efficiently. Recommendations were made on the future expansion of a knowledge base for organisational change agents. / Industrial and Organisational Psychology / D. Com. (Industrial and Organisational Psychology)

The purpose of this study was to investigate two underlying questions related to welfare reform and its impact on participants in the Cumberland Plateau Region: (1) What are the training and other noneducational needs of the participants in the VIEW program? and (2) What is the projected success of the impact of the training on the lives of the participants? The research study included 47 interviews with four distinct groups of individuals--VIEW participants, case managers, administrators, and trainers. Three focus group interviews were conducted with individuals who were participants in the VIEW program or professionals actively involved in the administration and implementation of the program. All the individuals interviewed in the study identified four difficulties to the successful implementation of the VIEW program: (1) the lack of economic development in the region, (2) the abbreviated time frame for the implementation of VIEW, (3) an excessive amount of paperwork, and (4) the lack of transportation. The participants cited the following difficulties: (1) child care, (2) inappropriate dress for interviews, (3) attitudes and busyness of case worker, (4) penalties associated with securing employment, and (5) limited opportunities for training. The training personnel identified three areas posing difficulties for participants: (1) motivation, (2) attitudes of the participants, and (3) leadership development. In summarizing the responses of all the individuals interviewed in this study, the two viable remedies emerged as options available to assist participants: (1) seeking additional help from family members or friends, and (2) taking the initiative to investigate other avenues of assistance outside the scope of the Departments of Social Services. The training component of the VIEW program was considered the most favorable among all the individuals interviewed in this study. The-proposed outcome of the training received for all participants in the VIEW program was the attainment of full-time or part-time employment. All the interviewees felt to varying degrees that the VIEW program would assist participants in securing employment. The administrators and case managers ultimately viewed the employment as the measure of success of the training. However, most of the participants were very unsure if they would secure employment in the Cumberland Plateau Region.

The main aim of the research project was to develop a change agent identification framework, to be used by organisational change management specialists to identify change agents more effectively in large organisations moving forward. To date, little research has been conducted regarding the role and identification of change agents in large organisations. In the context of the research project, the sample of change agents used, referred to employees affected by the change, spread across the organisation, assisting in communicating key messages and ensuring that their peers become change ready. A thorough 12-step empirical research process was followed, which included both a qualitative and quantitative approach. The qualitative process consisted of the development of a change agent identification framework, comprising of four dimensions, each with supportive information and/or items. The aim of the quantitative process was to empirically test the personality trait dimension of the framework with a sample group of 27 change agents and 135 employees influenced by a transformation process. This was to determine which change agent personality traits has a positive impact/effect on employee change readiness levels during transformation. Through a rigorous analysis process, only the phlegmatic, persuasive and optimistic personality traits resulted in having some positive effect on employees during a transformation process. In support of these findings, the literature study findings as well as the qualitative empirical research findings indicated that the persuasive and optimistic personality traits need to form part of a change agents’ personality profile. The phlegmatic personality trait was not evident throughout all literature findings. The literature and empirical results contributed towards a comprehensive understanding of the way in which individuals should be identified as change agents in large organisations. The developed framework should assist industrial and organisational psychologists in the future to identify individuals as change agents, more efficiently. Recommendations were made on the future expansion of a knowledge base for organisational change agents. / Industrial and Organisational Psychology / D. Com. (Industrial and Organisational Psychology)