The use of digital communication has become more interesting for organizations since the rise of globalization and liberation of markets. It allows employees within multinational companies to communicate effectively with each other. The use of digital communication when managing global, IT-enabled change is, however, an area that has not received much attention from scholars. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to investigate use of digital communication in a global IT change project. Iveroth (2010) argues that a high degree of willingness to change is achieved when employees understand the intended change, accept the meaning of the change, have an interest in changing and finally act accordingly towards the new intended state (behaviour). Thus, a research question needed to be addressed: How do employees perceive digital communication and what impact does this communication have on their willingness to change? The study was carried out within a global organization that performed an IT change project in which a content management system (CMS) was updated from an old to a new platform. With support from the chosen theoretical framework, empirical data was then collected through interviews, observations and document analysis during a 10-week internship. To grasp the full complexity of IT change, a meta-framework was used as the theoretical framework of this study. Since the meta-framework focuses on how change leaders can manage successful IT change, and does not solely focus on communication aspects within an IT change initiative, extensions of relevant organizational change communication theories were included in the framework. The result showed that when change leaders use digital communication in an IT change initiative, it has a strong effect on how employees perceive communication. In general, we found patterns indicating that the use of digital communication can create a certain amount of understanding for a global IT change initiative among employees. However, reaching meaning, interest and behaviour among employees is more complex.

Change management är ett område som fått allt större uppmärksamhet underde senaste decennierna. Det finns ännu inga exakta svar för hur en förändringbör genomföras då komplexa förhållanden omöjliggör ett definitivt svar. Istället måste varje organisation hitta sitt egna framgångsrecept. Under arbetet intervjuades ett antal personer med olika positioner från två olika industriföretag, Atlas Copco och Seco Tools, som de senaste fyra åren genomgått betydandeförändringsprocesser med positiva resultat. Kotter (2014); Lewin (1947) och Manktelow et al. (2016) har alla givit värdefullabidrag till forskningen inom Change management, och i arbetet finner vi att de två industriföretagen valt olika riktning under respektive förändringsprocess. Detta trots att målet med förändringarna varit detsamma och att båda företagenarbetat med Lean production under förändringsprocessen.

Aim: The aim of this study is to gain deep understanding on how organizational changes are managed and implemented in small firms.   Method: The data for this study is collected by doing an extensive literature study and by conducting semi-structured face-to-face interviews with respondents from one single case company. This data was then sorted by topic and analyzed accordingly. The management’s perspective is presented by statements and quotes and the employee’s perspective is presented in summarized essay form.    Result & Conclusions: The study showed that change is an ever-present future of the small firm business environment and must be seen as an ongoing process. Firms have to take a thorough approach when implementing change, where gaining enough support for a change initiative is essential for its success.  Suggestions for future research: Since this study is only focused on a single case, the suggested framework needs more validation. Also the author recommends further research on the topic of change implementation at small firms in general.  Contribution of the thesis: More case studies are needed to further validate the research outcomes since this study was a first attempt to discover the field of change implementation in small organizations.

Information Systems (IS’s) have provided organisations with huge efficiency gains and benefits over the years; however an outstanding problem that is yet to be successfully tackled is that of the troublesome maintenance phase. Consuming vast resources and thwarting business progression in a competitive global market place, system maintenance has been recognised as one of the key areas where IS is failing organisations. Organisations are too often faced with the dilemma of either replacement or the continual upkeep of an unwieldy system. The ability for IS’s to be able to adapt to exogenous influences is even more acute today than at any time in the past. This is due to IS’s namely, Web Information Systems (WIS’s) increasingly and continually having to accommodate the needs of organisations to interconnect with a plethora of additional systems as well as supporting evolving business models. The richness of the interconnectivity, functionalities and services WIS’s now offer are shaping social, cultural and economic behaviour on a truly global scale, making the maintenance of such systems and evermore pertinent issue. The growth and proliferation of WIS’s shows no sign of abating which leads to the conclusion that what some have termed as the ‘maintenance iceberg’ should not be ignored. The quandary that commercial organisations face is typically driven by two key aspects; firstly, systems are built on the cultural premise of using fixed requirements, with not enough thought or attention being paid to systems abilities to deviate from these requirements. Secondly, systems do not generally cope well with adapting to unpredictable change arising from outside of the organisations environment. Over the recent past, different paradigms, approaches and methods have attempted to make software development more predictable, controllable and adaptable, however, the benefits of such measures in relation to the maintenance dilemma have been limited. The concept of flexible systems that are able to cope with such change in an efficient manner is currently an objective that few can claim to have realised successfully. The primary focus of the thesis was to examine WIS post-development change in order to empirically substantiate and understand the nature of the maintenance phase. This was done with the intention to determine exactly ‘where’ and ‘how’ flexibility could be targeted to address these changes. This study uses an emergent analytical approach to identify and catalogue the nature of change occurring within WIS maintenance. However, the research framework design underwent a significant revision as the initial results indicated that a greater emphasis and refocus was required to achieve the research objective. To study WIS’s in an appropriate and detailed context, a single case study was conducted in a web development software house. In total the case study approach was used to collect empirical evidence from four projects that investigated post-development change requests in order to identify areas of the system susceptible to change. The maintenance phases of three WIS projects were considered in-depth, resulting in the collection of over four hundred change requests. The fourth project served as a validation case. The results are presented and the findings are used to identify key trends and characteristics that depict WIS maintenance change. The analytical information derived from the change requests is consolidated and shown diagrammatically for the key areas of change using profile models developed in this thesis. Based on the results, the thesis concludes and contributes to the ongoing debate that there is a discernable difference when considering WIS maintenance change compared to that of traditional IS maintenance. The detailed characteristics displayed in the profile models are then used to map specific flexibility criteria that ultimately are required to facilitate change. This is achieved using the Flexibility Matrix of Change (FMoC) tool which was developed within the remit of this research. This tool is a qualitative measurement scheme that aligns WIS maintenance changes to a reciprocal flexibility attribute. Thus, the wider aim of this thesis is to also expand the awareness of flexibility and its importance as a key component of the WIS lifecycle.

The purpose with this thesis is to analyze how culture in an organization influences the communication process during a major organizational change and to give examples of this. The empirical study was carried out at Karlstads University where an organizational change took place during 2004-2005. My first starting point for this study was the extensive research that shows how closely connected the organizational culture is to all communication in an organization. As a consequence communication practitioners plan communication actives bases on this culture and the employees, the receivers, interpretate the messages based on the existing culture norm in the organization. The second starting point was research that showed the importance of dialogue between managers and employees to create meaning consequently a successful change process. To be able to exemplify how culture is a key variable in the communication process the research questions asked is in what way dialog and sense making was used when communicating the organizational change and also in what way the culture influenced the communication between employees and management.   The theoretical framework in this thesis comes mostly from the Public Relations field. Initially theories regarding the strategic level of communication professionals in the organization, leaders and managements responsibility to communicate and initiate dialog to ensure an effective change process is presented. Different research perspectives on culture and organization are presented with a special focus on communication as part of building and retaining the culture. Finally theories in connection to communication as a crucial part of a successful change process are presented.   The empirical material was collected by using focus group interviews. The result shows that culture has influenced both the receiver and the sender in the communication process. For example several respondents have indicated that the culture at the University doesn’t encourage dialog between management and employees. Another cultural aspect is the employees’ lack of acceptance for the line organization and with that problem trying to use middle management as a communication channel to employees. Further more the study shows that management see communication as transmission of information and not as construction of meaning. / Syftet med uppsatsen är att analysera hur organisationskulturen på en arbetsplats påverkar kommunikationen vid en förändringsprocess och ge konkreta exempel på detta. Undersökningen genomfördes vid Karlstads universitet där en omfattande organisationsförändring genomfördes 2004-2005. Den första utgångspunkten för uppsatsen är den omfattande forskning som visar hur kulturen vid en arbetsplats är nära kopplad till all kommunikationen. Detta innebär att de som ansvarar för kommunikationsplaneringen utgår från denna kultur vid planeringen samt att de anställda, de vill säga mottagarna, tolkar budskapen utifrån den rådande kulturen. Den andra utgångspunkten är forskning som visar på vikten av att skapa dialog mellan ledning och anställda för att skapa förståelse och därmed en lyckad förändringsprocess. För att kunna beskriva och exemplifiera på vilket sätt organisationskultur är en variabel i kommunikationsprocessen har jag arbetat utifrån två frågeställningar. Dels i vilken omfattning har kommunikationen präglats av dialog och delaktighet i samband med omorganisationen vid KAU. Dels hur organisationens kulturella påverkat villkor kommunikationen mellan ledning och medarbetare.   Teorier som behandlas kommer främst från det så kallade Public Relations-fältet. Inledningsvis redovisas teorier kring informatörens roll som kommunikationsstrateg, ledningens och chefens kommunikativa ansvar och vikten av dialog för att säkerställa en effektiv förändringsprocess. Därefter redovisas teorier kopplade till organisationskultur där flertalet kommunikationsforskare lyfter fram kommunikationens roll vid byggande och upprätthållandet av en organisationskultur. Avslutningsvis behandlas teorier kopplade till förändring och kommunikation som en avgörande faktor för att skapa en lyckad förändring.   Fokusgrupper används för insamlingen av undersökningens empiriska material. Resultatet visar att kulturen påverkat både mottagare och sändare i kommunikationsprocessen. Bland annat anger flertalet respondenter att det inte finns en kultur vid universitetet som stimulerar till dialog. Inte heller mellanchefen som kommunikationskanal har fungerat då det i kulturen vid universitet inte finns en förståelse och acceptans för linjeorganisationen. Vidare så visar undersökningen att ledningen ser kommunikation som överföring av information och inte en möjlighet till förankring och förståelse.

Digital Transformation (DT), being the latest trend for business transformation and organizational change, synchronizes business processes and integrates information technology leading to operational efficiency and innovation which contributes to overall business strategy. However, aligning technology and processes with people within the organization and the customers remains a challenge. Studies have concluded that the main focus of implementation towards the technical aspect rather than human aspect of the project brings to failure. Thus, it leads to the necessity of integration project management and change management practices to develop holistic approach and the aim for this research to answer the question: How can project management and change management be integrated and facilitate the implementation of digital transformation projects? In order to fill in the research gap on integrated PM and CM and also DT project implementation, the researchers embarked on a qualitative study, explored the literature and conducted semi-structured interviews with five organizations implementing DT project. It included project managers and business analysts from digital services consulting firms and multinational companies. Using thematic analysis, the researchers developed an integrated PM and CM framework that will help facilitate the implementation of DT projects. It can serve as a guideline for coordination and managing both technological and human side of the project during digital project delivery or implementation. In answering the research question, the study recommends four creative ways to integrate PM and CM as inspired by the developed framework. First, integrate the principles, processes, tools & techniques of PM and CM into a holistic approach at certain phases of the DT project lifecycle to achieve the DT deliverables, thus balancing the technical and human aspect of the project. Second, focus PM and CM methodologies and techniques that have emphasis towards promoting customer centric approach or creating value towards end users of the software such as the Agile Methodology. Third, create a smart tool or software that automatically captures both the PM and CM tools, such gantt chart and project communication updates that can be easily shared online to the rest of the stakeholders. And finally, include CM to PM’s knowledge area and PMO’s creation of CM owner or team to facilitate the implementation of DT project.

This thesis explored the management of change, from a British model of Design and Technology (D&T) curriculum to the Botswana model intended for senior secondary schools. There is little research on the management of change in D&T education especially at senior secondary school level. The study employs the ADKAR (Awareness, Desire, Knowledge, Ability, and Reinforcement) change model, originally designed for business and industry as the theoretical framework to assess the nature of change and use insights gained to identify gaps in the implementation and make proposals for more effective implementation. The study employed a multi-phase case study as a data collection strategy, which was mainly qualitative and situated within a post-modernist inquiry paradigm. A multi-method approach was adopted for data collection, which included questionnaires, individual and group interviews as well as literature review. The data were collected from in-service officers and teachers because of their role as change managers and implementers respectively. Data analysis employed a thematic analysis approach for qualitative data while descriptive statistics were used for quantitative data. The findings of the study revealed the following issues affecting the curriculum: limited implementation strategy. limited participation by key stakeholders. weak coalition for change. limited administrative support especially in terms of provision of resources. and a limited teacher support system as well as weak reinforcement mechanisms to sustain the change. The findings showed that the existing D&T curriculum included new advanced technological content areas to align it with the country s vision of moving away from the traditional agro-based economy to the industrial one. These findings suggest that the technology content areas were barely taught in secondary schools primarily due to limited teachers expertise and inadequate provision of equipment. The study proposes a school-based continuous professional development (CPD) model, which recognises that teachers are change agents and a vital resource that can be developed to build the necessary change capability. The premise of this framework is that the current regional management system was not effective considering the constraints of limited implementation capacity and resources, the vastness of some regions as well as the fact that schools operated under different contexts. The envisioned CPD recognises the uniqueness of school and teachers input into the design and development of CPD programmes. The proposed CPD model promotes also research-based evidence that ensures that it is not a mere skill upgrading exercise, but one that integrates teachers professional development needs, with those of the curriculum and students. This thesis contributes to the field by providing some insights into some of the dynamics of implementing and coping with change within the context of Botswana. The ADKAR framework employed in this study is an original contribution in the field of D&T education. This framework will be of particular use to other countries undertaking D&T curriculum innovation in terms of guiding change management activities such as: readiness assessment; resource provision; developing communications strategies; identifying gaps in terms of training needs for teachers; creating enabling structures; resistance management and reinforcement strategies.

This study attempts to investigate one of the most cited reasons for the failure of organisational change efforts: individual resistance to change. It also seeks to determine what personal manifestations need to exist in order for an organisation to adequately establish the extent to which a proposed change effort will yield a successful outcome. This was evaluated through the job constructs of communication, job-insecurity, participation, procedural justice and trust. The research also Management and Change Agent roles within the change process to determine whether this had an impact on the individual change experience at a cognitive and behavioural level. In a South African Motor Manufacturing company data was obtained from 306 respondents. The findings clearly indicate that a positive experience of the job constructs is likely to result in positive individual change which will result in a successful implementation and sustainability of the change initiative.

Information and communication technology is rapidly transforming the world of business. It in particular has played a significant role in globalisation, the ramifications of which South Africa can ill afford to ignore. A key facet of emerging innovative technologies and globalisation is the environmental uncertainty, complexity and turbulence it has engendered. Traditional strategic management paradigms and practice are largely founded on the assumption of environmental predictability, a reality that is rapidly being eroded. This thesis attempts to determine to what degree strategic management theory still correlates with contemporary strategic management practice. Various levels of environmental uncertainty are defined in order to gain clarity as to strategic management processes that are best suited for dealing therewith. Three key determinants are identified as having a significant impact on the strategic realignment of business institutions within a global business environment, namely information and communication technology, business systems, and change management. A central tenet that emerges from the study is the need for a framework to integrate the first two mentioned determinants at strategic and operational levels, while taking due cognisance of the human resources implications involved. Human emotions, feelings, relationships, fears, values, beliefs and aspirations collectively assume relevance as dimensions that can either inhibit or facilitate the strategic realignment process. These dimensions are analysed with reference to the concepts “emotional intelligence” and “organisational culture” in order to gain a greater understanding of the role they play in strategy formulation and implementation. Leadership is also identified as being business critical in managing strategic realignment. The findings of this study serve as a source of reference for researchers and practitioners who are attempting to formulate and implement strategy within contexts that are best described as being uncertain, complex and subject to discontinuous change. / Prof. N. Lessing

M.Com. (Economics) / Please refer to full text to view abstract