Distributed- work has introduced challenges for both employees and managers alike. Maintaining a form of supervision and discipline remains then necessary as control is the ultimate means for the hierarchy to bridge the issue of distance. With regard to the unprecedented changes generated by the significant development of ICTs in organizations, we expressed the necessity to analyze how control is reconsidered within the managerial breakdown introduced by distributed-work. Our theoretical reasoning finally led us to use the works of French philosopher Gilles Deleuze as a basis for a more relevant conceptual framework. Data coming from 49 interviews and 7 days as non-participant observer enabled us to provide evidences for the disruption of management practices due to the reconsideration of control in distributed-work. Both for managers, evolving from a supervisory to a facilitator status, and distributed-workers themselves, whose activities will mainly be directed by the management of their visibility, responsiveness and modulation. Ultimately, this PhD dissertation provides concrete managerial manifestations for Deleuzian societies of control.

A potential solution to producing quality software in an acceptable time frame may be found by using the newer, innovative methods, such as collaborative software development. The purpose of this dissertation is to examine the individual developer characteristics, developmental settings, collaborative methods and the processes during development that impact collaborative programming performance and satisfaction outcomes. Understanding individual differences in performance in the collaborative development setting is important, since it may help us understand how the collaborative setting may raise the lowest level of performance to much higher levels, as well as how to select individuals for collaborative development. Exploring the impact of the virtual setting on collaborative development processes is important as it may help us improve performance outcomes in different work settings. Investigating how adaptations of pair programming impact collaborative processes may assist in implementing changes to the method that enhance quality and individual satisfaction. A multi-phase methodology is used, consisting of an intensive process study (Study 1) and two laboratory experiments (Studies 2 and 3). Study 1 illustrates that collaborative programming (pair programming) outcomes are moderated by both individual developer differences and the processes used during development. While cognitive ability and years of IT experience are important factors in performance, the impacts of conflict and the faithful appropriation of the method are highlighted. Distributed cognition is used as a theoretical foundation for explaining higher performance. Study 2 findings suggest that while collaborative programming is possible in a virtual setting, performance is negatively impacted. Face-to-face programmers have significantly higher levels of task performance, as well as satisfaction with the method, when compared to virtual programmers. Study 3 results suggests that the use of structured problem solving (preparing test cases before writing code) may be a key factor in producing higher quality code, while collaboration may be indusive to higher levels of developer satisfaction.By understanding how, why and when collaborative programming techniques produce better performance outcomes and what factors contribute to that success, we add to the body of knowledge on methodologies in the MIS domain.

L’émergence du travail à distance a causé l’apparition de nombreux challenges pour les managers et leurs subordonnés. Par conséquent, maintenir une forme de surveillance s’avère plus que jamais nécessaire, notamment car le contrôle représente un moyen significatif pour réduire la problématique de la distance. Au regard du bouleversement conséquent amené par ce développement exponentiel des technologies, il convient de s’interroger sur la façon dont les processus de contrôle ont été remis en question dans le cadre de la rupture managériale introduite par le travail à distance. Notre réflexion théorique nous a finalement conduit à solliciter les travaux du philosophe Gilles Deleuze comme base conceptuelle. Les données issues de 49 entretiens et 7 journées d’observations nous permettent de démontrer le bouleversement significatif des pratiques de gestion lié à la reconsidération du contrôle dans le travail à distance. A la fois pour les managers qui voient leur rôle évoluer d'un statut de superviseur à facilitateur, et leurs subordonnés, dont l'activité sera majoritairement guidée par le management de leur visibilité, réactivité et modulation. Cette thèse de doctorat constitue finalement une illustration concrète en Management du concept Deleuzien des sociétés de contrôle / Distributed- work has introduced challenges for both employees and managers alike. Maintaining a form of supervision and discipline remains then necessary as control is the ultimate means for the hierarchy to bridge the issue of distance. With regard to the unprecedented changes generated by the significant development of ICTs in organizations, we expressed the necessity to analyze how control is reconsidered within the managerial breakdown introduced by distributed-work. Our theoretical reasoning finally led us to use the works of French philosopher Gilles Deleuze as a basis for a more relevant conceptual framework. Data coming from 49 interviews and 7 days as non-participant observer enabled us to provide evidences for the disruption of management practices due to the reconsideration of control in distributed-work. Both for managers, evolving from a supervisory to a facilitator status, and distributed-workers themselves, whose activities will mainly be directed by the management of their visibility, responsiveness and modulation. Ultimately, this PhD dissertation provides concrete managerial manifestations for Deleuzian societies of control

Both distributed work and DevOps are on an upward trend. There is a slight resemblance between the problems that DevOps is trying to find answers to, the solutions, and the common problems that geographically distributed work faces. Mainly, they are related to isolated environments that have difficulties in mutual understanding and communication, collaboration. All this leads to inefficiencies and costs that affect the overall efficiency of companies. This report identifies how DevOps engineering principles and implementations provide solutions to common problems in globally distributed work environments. It uses a literature systematic literature search and review to extract the recent and relevant academic data in the scope of the two research questions. Then, a proof-of-concept is implemented for DevOps, which confirms the literature. In parallel, a survey addressed to Swedish companies provides subject-related data from the professional environment, which largely supports the literature and brings extra knowledge. All of this is considered in data analysis and formulation of conclusions, showing DevOps features that can improve and support work in globally distributed environments and outlining the importance of the tailored organizational culture for the modern need of large-scale distributed work.

Enabled by advanced information technologies, the distributed work environment has become a choice of organizations. When employees and supervisors work in geographically separate locations, management challenges emerge. Performance improvement may become an issue. Performance may be improved by identifying, studying, and improving factors that affect work performance. Two factors–feedback and goal setting–were chosen for this study because of the strong evidence of the effects of these components. Positive effects of feedback and goal setting are commonly accepted in the literature concerning the traditional work environment. This study focused only on knowledge work because most work in the distributed work environment may be knowledge work. The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of feedback and goal setting on knowledge work performance in the distributed work environment. A laboratory experiment was conducted using 36 student subjects. The experimental design was a 3 X 2 factorial design consisting of three levels of feedback (i.e., no feedback, task feedback, and task feedback with comparisons with others) and two levels of goal setting (i.e., no goal setting and goal setting). Subjects were randomly assigned to various combinations of these two variables. The evidence did not outright support the claim that feedback and goal setting improve task performance; task performance of the subjects was improved only under certain conditions. Task feedback did not improve task performance because of its added pressure, especially in the presence of goals. Task performance was higher for the subjects who received both task feedback and information about others’ performance than for the subjects who received task feedback only. Overall, feedback was not found to improve task performance. The study did not support the hypothesis that specific and difficult goals improve task performance. The added pressure of having difficult goals was found to have demotivating effects. The notion that the co-presence of feedback and goals is necessary to improve task performance was not supported because of the combined pressure that both components created. The subjects who had feedback and/or goals did not perform better than those who had neither feedback nor goals. / Ph. D.

Inom området informationsdelning, det vill säga hur tillgång till informationen möjliggörs, hur den delas samt hur den arkiveras, finns det många studier och forskningsartikar. Under det senaste året har en ny situation uppstått i många verksamheter och organisationer i och med att distansarbete har blivit vanligare under pågående pandemi. Denna studie belyser hur informationsdelning upplevs av medarbetarna i en organisation och hur det fungerar i praktiken efter att en organisation har infört distansarbete. Studien genomfördes med hjälp av enkäter som en kvantitativ metod samt en fritextfråga för att ge en rikare empiri gällande ämnet. Resultatet visar att distansarbete medför höga krav gällande informationsdelning för att uppnå tillräcklig kunskap hos medarbetarna och att de upplever sig vara informerade. Detta gäller både viljan och benägenheten att dela information och tillgång till digitala verktyg för informationsdelning samt arkivering av information. Denna kombination gällande distansarbete och informationsdelning är inte utforskat i någon större utsträckning hittills och därmed kan denna studie bidra till ny kunskap inom dessa områden. / In the area of ​​information sharing, that is how access to the information is made possible, how it is shared and how it is archived, there are many studies and research articles. During the past year, a new situation has arisen in many businesses and organisations as distributed work has become more common during the ongoing pandemic. This study sheds light on how information sharing is experienced by the employees in an organisation and how it works in practice after an organisation has introduced distributed work. The study was conducted using questionnaires as a quantitative method and a free text question to provide a richer empiric regarding the subject. The results show that distributed work entails high demands on information sharing in order to achieve sufficient knowledge among employees and that they feel informed. This applies to both the willingness and the tendency to share information and access to digital tools for information sharing and information archiving. This combination of distributed work and information sharing has not been explored to any great extent to date and thus this study can contribute to new knowledge in these areas.

The most common approach in system development is agiledevelopment methods that are based on the team membersworking physically close to each other and face-to-facecommunication. Which contributes to increased efficiency andimproved team cohesion and motivation to work for each other.Although agile system development methods are best suited forteams that are co-located, many organizations apply the agileapproach even if they work distributed. Distributed work is anestablished form of work that is used all over the world to createthe opportunity for a flexible way of work where geographicallimitations are reduced. Due to the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020several agile development teams were forced into distributedwork, which meant working from home and face-to-facecommunication became more difficult as the team was spread outin different places. As the restrictions ceased after the Covid-19pandemic, people began to return to their workplaces, severalpeople wanted to continue working from home if the opportunityarose. A hybrid form of work is considered to be the new way ofwork, which means a flexible way of working where the workplaceis site-independent and employees can choose whether they wantto work from the office, work from home or other locations.The purpose of this study was to identify factors that affect theagile work process of hybrid teams. To fulfill the purpose aqualitative approach where used and semi-structured interviewswere conducted with five respondents from an IT company incentral Sweden. The identified factors were, Work ethic,Communication, Cohesion, Adaptability, Work environment andWell-being. These impact factors contribute to how the workprocess within hybrid teams works. By taking all the impact factorsinto consideration, the conditions can increase to achieve asuccessful work process in hybrid teams and increase efficiencywithin the team / Agil systemutveckling anses vara det vanligaste arbetssättet inomsystemutveckling. Agil systemutveckling anses kunna bidra tilleffektivare resultat genom att teammedlemmar arbetar fysiskt näravarandra och kommunicerar med varandra ansikte mot ansikte.Trots att agila systemutvecklingsmetoder lämpar sig bäst för teamsom är samlokaliserade är det många organisationer som tillämpardet agila arbetssättet även om de arbetar distribuerat. Distribueratarbete är en etablerad arbetsform som används över hela världenför att skapa möjligheten till ett flexiblare arbetssätt därgeografiska begränsningar minskar. På grund av Covid-19-pandemin som utbröt år 2020 tvingades flera agila utvecklingsteamtill distribuerat arbete, vilket innebar att arbeta hemifrån ochkommunikation ansikte mot ansikte försvårades då teamet blevutspritt på olika platser. Allt eftersom restriktionerna upphördesom Covid-19-pandemin medfört och människor börjat återgå tillsina arbetsplatser är det flera som vill fortsätta arbeta hemifrån ommöjligheten finns. En hybrid arbetsform anses vara det nyaarbetssättet som innebär ett flexibelt arbetssätt där arbetsplatsen ärplatsoberoende och medarbetare får välja om de vill arbeta frånkontoret, hemifrån eller från annan plats.Syftet med denna studie var att identifiera faktorer som påverkarhybrida teams agila arbetsprocess. För att uppfylla syftet användeskvalitativ ansats där semistrukturerade intervjuer genomfördesmed fem respondenter från ett IT-företag i mellansverige. Sexpåverkansfaktorer identifierades, Arbetsmoral, Kommunikation,Gemenskap, Anpassningsbarhet, Arbetsmiljö och Välmående.Dessa påverkansfaktorer bidrar till hur arbetsprocessen inomhybrida team fungerar. Genom att ta samtliga påverkansfaktorer ibeaktning kan förutsättningarna öka för att ett hybridteamsarbetsprocess ska fungera samt öka effektiviteten inom teamet.

Information sharing is fundamental in supply chain networks. How information is enabled, kept, and shared is referred to as information sharing. A new predicament occurred for organizations and businesses because of the Covid-19 pandemic. Distributed work was soon implemented, posing additional issues. Employees altered their work habits, and more and more work were completed digitally. Companies resumed to work on site once the virus was no longer recognized as a socially harmful illness. From the standpoint of employees, the study compares how information sharing is experienced before and after dispersed work. A survey was used to perform the research, which included both quantitative questions and open free text questions. The answer options for the quantitative questions are based on a five-point Likert scale. The open free text questions are analyzed using thematic analysis. The findings reveal that following the distributed work, access, sharing, and storage of work-related information has improved. More meetings are being held virtually, and digital technologies have become more prevalent. Furthermore, the findings reveal that employees have improved their ability to use digital technologies, which has resulted in them feeling more confident in their job roles following the distributed work. / I försörjningskedjor så är informationsdelning en central del. Informationsdelning syftar till hur information möjliggörs, lagras och delas. En ny situation uppstod för organisationer och företag i logistikbranschen till följd av Covid-19 pandemin. Distansarbete infördes hastigt och medförde nya utmaningar. Medarbetare fick förändrade arbetssätt och mer arbete utfördes digitalt. När viruset inte längre klassificerades som en samhällsfarlig sjukdom återgick organisationer och företag till arbete på plats. Studien behandlar hur informationsdelningen upplevs innan jämfört med efter distansarbete ur ett medarbetarperspektiv. Undersökningen utfördes genom en enkätundersökning som innehåller både kvantitativa frågor och öppna fritextfrågor. För kvantitativa enkätfrågorna utgår svarsalternativen utifrån en femgradig Likertsskala. De öppna enkätfrågorna är fritextfrågor som analyseras genom en tematisk analys. Resultatet visar tendenser till att tillgång, delning och lagring av arbetsrelaterad information blivit bättre efter distansarbetet. Fler möten anordnas digitalt och digitala verktyg har blivit bättre anpassade för verksamheten. Vidare visar resultatet även att medarbetarna blivit bättre på att använda digitala verktyg efter distansarbetet, detta har i sin tur medfört att de trivs bättre i sin arbetsroll.

The purpose of the study was to investigate the conditions of new employees during a digital onboarding process and the effects the digital format have on the results of the onboarding process. We performed a qualitative case study with semi-structured interviews. The study was conducted in an IT department in the public sector that worked consciously with a formal onboarding structure and whose work was mainly carried out remotely during COVID-19. We found that the organization succeeds well in communicating resources and information about the organization digitally and that the biggest challenges lay in communicating organizational culture, social connections and informal knowledge in distributed work. When new employees find it difficult to create interpersonal connectivity, they lose informal knowledge and social support that had been available for on-site work, which also leads to difficulties in understanding the organizational culture. Based on our results, we recommend increased work with social meeting points to enable interpersonal connectivity and informal information exchange, compilation of common systems, programs and abbreviations for new employees to more quickly understand the organization's language, increased work with pre-onboarding to use the important first time to strengthen employee experience and more opportunities for concrete practice together with, for example, a mentor or colleagues to more quickly acquire knowledge and get a clearer picture of what is expected in the new work role and informal knowledge in distributed work.

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