Title: A municipality among others? A case study of Skellefteå kommuns selfpresentation This essay is a case study aimed to explore how a Swedish municipality portrait itself in its external communication. Increased competition due to bigger autonomy have made it more important for Swedish municipalities to appear attractive in relation to businesses, investors and potential immigrants. However, municipalities are big and complex organizations with many different stakeholders, which makes it difficult for them to appear as unique brands. The specific municipality targeted by this case study is Skellefteå kommun. Skellefteå kommun is considered particularly interesting in relation to the purpose of this study because they have high ambitions to grow, and as result of this invest heavy in, among other things, industry and housing. This presumably means that the municipality has a need to communicate this to the outside world, and that they actually have something concrete to position themselves against.  The theoretical framework of the essay consists of legitimacy, isomorphism, promotional culture, reputation management and brand communication. Further, to achieve the purpose of the essay a discourse-theoretical approach was applied to selected texts from the website of Skellefteå kommun, with the aim to make visible the values and meanings that Skellefteå kommun constructs about itself. In the analysis, growth was identified as a particularly important discourse, which largely affects the meanings the municipality constructs about itself. The result of the essay also indicates, like previous research, that it is difficult for municipalities to appear as unique. Skellefteå kommun build its brand around a number of universally applicable core values, and in addition to this growth and industrial investments appears as two particularly important competitive advantages. Nevertheless, the municipality’s communication, even in relation to the aforementioned competitive advantages, tends to result in vague formulations and abstract visions about the future.

Studien ämnar att undersöka hur Crisis Management kan användas vid utformning av kriskommunikation samt om det går att skilja kommunikation och kriskommunikation åt. I syfte att uppnå detta genomför studien en fallstudie av två svenska företag som är verksamma i fastighetsbranschen under nyproduktionskrisen 2018 (Oscar Properties och Aros Bostad). Fyra kvalitativa semistrukturerade intervjuer med verksamma experter inom kriskommunikation har genomförts i syfte att underbygga och utveckla studiens analytiska grund. Efter genomförd studie har författarna sammanställt och presenterar en modell baserat på Crisis Managements tre olika faser med bidrag från Expressiveness Quotient-modellen. Modellens uppbyggnad är förändrad till att vara cirkulär och ser kriser istället likt ett kretslopp utan några tydliga avgränsningar mellan de olika krisfaserna, eftersom studien visar på svårigheter att skilja dessa åt. Syftet med en modell likt den är att påminna sig och organisationen om att den inte verkar i ett sammanhang skiljt från omvärlden utan att de faktorerna kan komma att spela in på organisationen. Ett exempel från studien och fastighetsbranschen är regeringens införande av amorteringskrav, en extern faktor som organisationerna var tvungna att förhålla sig till och kom att påverka marknaden. Ett annat sådant exempel på en extern faktor som är svår att planera och förutse är mediebevakningen. / The aim of this thesis is to examine how Crisis Management can be applied when formulating crisis communication, and whether there is a distinct difference in how regular communication is built. This thesis consists of a case study subsidized by two companies in the housing industry, Oscar Properties and Aros Bostad, during the crisis on the housing development market 2018. Four qualitative semi-structured interviews with active experts in crisis communication are carried out with the aim of supporting and developing the analytical basis of the study. After completing the study, the authors have compiled and presented a model based on Crisis Management's three different phases and combined it with dimensions from the Expressiveness Quotient-model. The models structure has changed to be circular and defines crises like a cycle. The cycle is carried out without any clear delimitations between the different crisis phases, since the study shows difficulties in distinguishing these. The purpose of a model like this is to remind the organization that they do not operate in a context separate from the outside world but that these factors may affect the organization anyhow. An example from this study and the housing development industry is the government's introduction of amortization requirements, an external factor that the organizations had to consider and came to influence the market. Another example of an external factor which is difficult to plan and predict, is media coverage and how it will affect the organization's reputation.