Report-in-lieu-of-Thesis (M.P.H.)--University of North Texas Health Science Center at Fort Worth, 2008. / Title from title page display. Bibliography: p. 58-61.

Internal communication is the heart in all actions in every organization and plays a key role in a successful change project. Volvo Cars is a global company in an implementation phase of the change project ”One Finance”. The purpose of the change project is to standardize the financial processes which will change the organization structure in the financial departments. Since this is a global change project there are several factors that can affect the internal communication and can result in affecting the success of a change project. The purpose of this thesis is to study the internal communication during a global change project and to analyze what factors are affecting the internal communication from a global perspective. The thesis will also include what impact internal communication has on the organization. The study will mainly be on the internal communication between the headquarter in Gothenburg and the developing financial department in America. Collecting primary data in terms of semi-structure interviews has provided an understanding about Volvo Cars internal communication. Using electronic communication channels and cascade-communication model the organization has informed well about the concept and the purpose of the change. Some respondents are still requesting information about how they should work according to the change. Overall the acceptance of this change has created job-satisfaction and increased the engagement for employees, this can lead to business success. All respondents agree that there are factors that affect the internal communication during this global change project. Organization culture, multi-cultured organizations, organization change, power structures and globalization are all affecting the internal communication in ways of how to communicate, the amount of internal communication, and the currents of the internal communication and can create misunderstandings. The thesis is including an internal communication matrix that gives a clear overview of how different internal stakeholders are working with the internal communication at different levels within the organization. This is creating an effective internal commutation system.

This thesis employs qualitative research with focus on corporate information technology strategy which is perceived as a tool used to build and maintain reputation in Slovak companies. The newly generated knowledge is then used to develop a new information technology strategy and implement it to a company using the best organization development and change practices.

Yes / Automated tools to speed up the process of evidence synthesis are increasingly apparent within health behaviour research, however, frameworks to evaluate the development and implementation of such tools are not routinely used. This commentary explores the potential of the Non-adoption, Abandonment, Scale-up, Spread and Sustainability framework (NASSS; Greenhalgh et al., 2017) for supporting automated evidence synthesis in health behaviour change by applying it to the ongoing Human Behaviour-Change Project, which aims to revolutionise evidence synthesis within behaviour change intervention research. To increase the relevance of NASSS for health behaviour change, we recommend i) terminology changes (‘condition’ to ‘behaviour’ and ‘patient’ to ‘end user’) and ii) a that it is used prospectively so that complexities can be addressed iteratively. We draw three conclusions about i) the need to specify the organisations that will use the technology, ii) identifying what to do if interdependencies fail and iii) even though we have focused on automated evidence synthesis, NASSS would arguably be beneficial for technology developments in health behaviour change more generally, particularly for invention development (e.g. for a behaviour change app).

Abstract The purpose of this dissertation is to describe and increase understanding of hospital change project actuality. Project actuality means various level social processes that go on in hospital change projects and through which people in project perceive reality. A way to capture hospital change project actuality is to focus on little-studied project participants’ lived experiences, i.e., reflexive actors’ situational thinking. Approaching hospital change project participants’ lived experiences through a Weickian sensemaking perspective, this dissertation investigates hospital change project actuality in one university hospital in Finland. Sensemaking means a process through which people generate meanings for their experiences and it provides a well-grounded perspective to focus on lived experiences in hospital change projects. The study is a qualitative case study consisting of three sub-studies, which consist of four interrelated articles. The first sub-study explores hospital change projects as a context for sensemaking from mid-level nurse managers’ viewpoint. The second sub-study investigates the role of emotions in the process of nurse managers’ sensemaking of change in a hospital project. The third sub-study examines different project participants’ discursive sensemaking of their lived project work experiences in hospital and introduces a discursive sensemaking perspective as a conceptual framework to study lived experiences through discourses. The primary data consist of 37 interviews, which were analyzed deploying different qualitative analysis methods, so deductive content analysis, discourse analysis and narrative analysis. The first sub-study shows that hospital projects provide a reasonable context for sensemaking of change, however, hierarchy between different professions may obscure it. The second sub-study indicates that poorly experienced change facilitation maintains negative emotions influencing also plausibility of the organizational change in hospital project. The third sub-study suggests that high expectations regarding project-based work seem not to realize in practice in hospital. All in all, the study shows that hospital change projects actualize as paradoxal processes that are characterized by tensions between collaboration, competition and control. / Tiivistelmä Väitöskirjan tarkoituksena on kuvailla ja lisätä ymmärrystä sairaalan muutosprojektien aktuaalisuudesta. Aktuaalisuudella tarkoitetaan eritasoisia sosiaalisia prosesseja, joiden kautta sairaalan muutosprojektien toimijat hahmottavat todellisuutta ympärillään. Sitä voidaan tarkastella projektiin osallistuvien ihmisten kokemuksellisuuden eli refleksiivisten toimijoiden tilanteisen ajattelun kautta. Väitöskirjassa tutkitaan sairaalan muutosprojektien aktuaalisuutta Weickiläisen merkityksellistämisen näkökulman kautta yhden yliopistosairaalan kontekstissa Suomessa. Merkityksellistäminen tarkoittaa prosessia, jonka kautta toimijat kehittävät merkityksiä kokemuksilleen voidakseen toimia mielekkäästi. Se tarjoaa perustellun näkökulman sairaalan muutosprojektien aktuaalisuuden tarkasteluun. Tutkimus on laadullinen tapaustutkimus koostuen kolmesta osatutkimuksesta, jotka puolestaan koostuvat neljästä artikkelista. Ensimmäinen osatutkimus tarkastelee sairaalan projekteja merkityksellistämisen kontekstina ylihoitajien näkökulmasta. Toinen osatutkimus tutkii osastonhoitajien tunteiden roolia muutoksen merkityksellistämisen prosessissa sairaalan projektissa. Kolmas osastutkimus tarkastelee sairaalan muutosprojektiin osallistuvien eri toimijoiden projektityön kokemuksellisuutta esitellen diskursiivisen merkityksellistämisen konseptuaalisena viitekehyksenä, jonka avulla voidaan tarkastella kokemuksellisuuden merkityksellistämistä diskursseihin yhdistettynä. Väitöskirjan pääaineisto koostuu 37 haastattelusta, joita on analysoitu kvalitatiivisilla analyysimenetelmillä, kuten teorialähtöistä sisällönanalyysiä, diskurssianalyysiä sekä narratiivista analyysiä, hyödyntäen. Väitöskirjan ensimmäinen osastutkimus osoittaa, että sairaalan projektit tarjoavat mielekkään kontekstin muutoksen merkityksellistämiselle, joskin eri ammattikuntien hierarkkisuus saattaa haitata sitä. Toinen osatutkimus viittaa siihen, että heikkona koettu muutosprosessin tukeminen ylläpitää negatiivisia tunteita vaikuttaen myös negatiivisesti organisaatiomuutoksen uskottavuuteen sairaalan projektin kontekstissa. Kolmas osatutkimus viittaa siihen, että korkeat odotukset projektityötä kohtaan eivät usein todennu käytännössä. Kaiken kaikiaan väitöskirja osoittaa, että sairaalan muutosprojektit aktualisoituvat paradoksaalisina prosesseina, joita luonnehtii jännitteisyys yhteistyön, kilpailun ja kontrollin välillä.

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Alla organisationer förändras, antingen omedvetet eller som en del av en utarbetad plan. Planerade förändringar inom organisationen kan drivas som projekt och blir då ett internt förändringsprojekt som syftar till att skapa bättre förutsättningar för organisationens verksamhet. Ett internt förändringsprojekt kan drivas av en projektgrupp under ledning av en projektledare. För att resultatet av projektet ska bli lyckat är det viktigt att projektmedlemmarna känner sig motiverade och presterar för att nå målet. Att skapa motivation och arbetsprestation i projektet faller på projektledaren. Syftet med föreliggande studie är att bidra med kunskap om hur projektledare i interna förändringsprojekt kan arbeta för att motivera deltagare i projektgruppen. Studien har en kvalitativ forskningsmetod. För att besvara forskningsfrågan har en fallstudie genomförts genom att intervjua Lean-coacher som arbetar med att hjälpa företag inom lantbruksnäringen att införa Lean i sin verksamhet. Data har samlats in från respondenterna med hjälp av semistrukturerade intervjuer. Materialet har analyserats med hjälp av en teoretisk bas utifrån Teresa Amabiles Progressprincip. Utifrån respondenternas berättelser om handlingar och arbetsätt och hur dessa kan påverka faktorer från Progressprincipen presenteras empiri och analys enligt sju teman. Analysen visar att coachernas arbetsätt och handlingar påverkar flera delar ur Progressprincipen och därför har möjlighet att påverka individers motivation och prestation positivt. Coachernas arbetsätt fokuserar tydligast på att möjliggöra Progress och att Tillåta självständighet/självstyre samt på att skapa Klara målsätningar. / All organization goes through change, either unintentional or as part of scheduled plan. Planned changes within the organization can be managed as projects and is then categorized as an internal change project aimed at creating better conditions for the organization's operations. An internal change project can be completed by a project team led by a project manager. If the outcome of the project is to be successful it is important that team members are motivated and high performing. To create motivation and work performance in the project is the responsibility of the project manager. The aim of this study is to contribute knowledge about how project managers who is responsible for internal change projects can work to motivate the project group. This study has been made using qualitative research. To answer the research question a case study has been conducted by interviewing Lean coaches who are working to help companies in the agricultural sector to implement Lean in their operations. Empirical data was collected from respondents using semi-structured interviews. The empirical data were analyzed using a theoretic framework based on Teresa Amabile and her work on The Progress Principle. Based on respondents' stories of their work and actions, and how these can affect The Progress Principle, the empirical data and analysis are presented as seven different themes. The analysis shows that the coaches' work and actions affect several parts of The Progress Principle and therefore have the ability to have a positive influence on individuals' motivation and performance. The coaches' work has a clear focus on enabling Progress and Allowing autonomy and Setting clear goals.

Municipal urban management and the democratic flexible guardian – a study concerning the officials’ changing work in the urban management process in the municipality of Norrköping. The purpose of this study is partly to analyse how implement measures in a change project (in the municipality of Norrköping) may impact the officials, linked to the urban management process, in their work practices. The study also aims to problematize a political science theory by Professor Lennart Lundquist (from 1998) that states how officials should relate to their office. The reason behind this problematizing stems from a shift in the municipalities’ responsibilities over the last 20 years. They have gone from having a more exclusively administrative responsibility to focus more on societal investment. The analysis of this study shows that a lot of the implement measures have a positive impact on the officials’ work practices, although some risks were found. The study also indicates that the imbalance between economical and democratic values (that is addressed in Lundquist’s theory) tend to even themselves out in order for a more sustainable development to be achieved.

The thesis The principal's role in improving the quality of school involved in the project "We help schools towards success" focuses on roles of the school principal as a leader and manager, that influence the improvement of school quality. The thesis is divided into a theoretical and practical part. The theoretical part focuses on school quality, its indicators, management areas and evaluation criteria. It also brings theoretical knowledge about the school principal, his competence in his role of a leader and manager and about the project "We help school towards success" The practical part investigates which criteria parents considered while selecting a school for their children and what they understand by the term "quality school". It also analyzes what activities carried out by the school principal in his role of a leader and manager are in the eyes of teachers and parents the most important ones for the improvement of school quality and how the respondents assess the contribution of school involvement in the project "We help schools towards success". KEYWORDS: school quality, school principal, competence, principal's role, manager, change management, innovation, project

Background: In today’s fast-moving society organizational changes have become absolutely essential for long-lasting success. A great challenge is to create the internal support for change projects among the employees in order to avoid failure. The underlying problem to this study focuses on the perception towards change under the aspect of a new generation which more and more represents today's workforce.  Research Question: Are there relations between distinct characteristics of Generation Y and their attitude towards change and does this result in new approaches for practical implementations? Purpose:         The purpose of this study is to scrutinize typical characteristics of Generation Y and find out if they influence their attitude (“Readiness for change”, “Commitment to change”, “Openness to change” and “Cynicism about change”) towards change projects. This enhances existing knowledge about the attitude towards change and how this interrelates with specific characteristics. The authors aim is to find out which characteristics can be identified as beneficial for change and how that can be useful for collocating successful change project teams.  Method:          A qualitative research method with an abductive approach was used in this study. The authors were conducting two phases of qualitative interviews. The first interview phase composed of eight respondents with distinct expertise in change projects and the second phase composed of nine (three respondents each from Generation Y, Generation X and Baby Boomers) interviews. The respondents had no specific knowledge in the field of change but experience in working with Generation Y which assisted to expose their specific characteristics. Theoretical Framework:   The underlying theories consist of employees’ general attitude towards organizational change as well as the distinct characteristics of Generation Y. For a more practice-oriented evaluation of the implementation of organizational change, the theory about change project teams is presented as well.   Findings:       The study revealed that members of Generation Y are well equipped with a set of distinct characteristics that positively influence their attitude towards organizational change. Characteristics like “Informationalization”, “High level of education”, “High level of flexibility”, “Critical Thinking” and “Globality” were evaluated as having positive effects on their “Openness to Change”, “Readiness for Change”, “Commitment to Change”, and “Cynicism about Change”. Furthermore, those findings enhance existing selection processes when it comes to the collocation of change projects teams.