Over the past decade, digitalization has played an increasingly important and prominent role in the competitiveness of businesses. The pace of digitalization is not slowing down and has only intensified rapidly over recent years. Because of this, businesses that invest a significant amount of resources toward digitalization could increase and strengthen their competitive advantage and develop their digital maturity, which can be described as the technological functions and visions available for a firm. In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, the pace of digitalization was intensified further, and many businesses were forced to adapt their business activities through digital channels to stay operational. Furthermore, a specific field affected by the governmental restrictions was B2B sales interactions, which has caused several problems for firms that do not have sufficient technological functions to adapt to digital channels, the digital capabilities can be described as sufficient. To counteract the pandemic effects, organizational resilience is an aspect that is activated to aid companies in parrying the effects of the sudden shock, in this case, caused by COVID-19 and can be described as the resources made available by management to respond and adapt to unexpected events. Hence, the purpose of this study is to investigate how sales interactions were impacted, by investigating the level of digital maturity and organizational resilience of one specific company, during the COVID19 pandemic. This was conducted through an exploratory single case study of a global biomaterials company where digital maturity was measured through a survey followed by an in-depth interview to assess the company’s organizational resilience.The findings suggest a clear link between the digital maturity level of a firm and how well it can be utilized in organizational resilience efforts when re-shaping the business landscape. Furthermore, the study highlights that digitalization is becoming a prominent factor in the way businesses and sales are conducted and even more in the times of crisis, thus, highlighting the importance of digital maturity. Based on the insights gained from the in-depth interview, a conceptual framework called digital activation of resilience within sales interactions was constructed. This framework highlights what was discovered in this single case to be the main influences on sales interactions and how digital maturity aids the activation of resilience. / Under det senaste årtiondet har digitalisering fått en allt mer betydande roll inom företagande för att behålla konkurrensfördelar där takten av digital utveckling har accelererat frekvent. Detta har lett till att företag har investerat signifikanta summor i digitala hjälpmedel för att förbättra sina konkurrensfördelar och öka sin digitala mognad, där den digitala mognaden beskrivs som de tekniska resurser och vision som är tillgängligt för företaget. Till följd av pandemin fick intensiteten av digitalisering en massiv ökning då många företag tvingats att ställa om sin verksamhet och kommunikation till digitala kanaler. Ett affärsområde som drabbats hårt var försäljningsaspekten mellan företag (B2B) som till följd av regeringens direktiv tvingats ställa om sitt sätt att interagera med sina kunder. Företag som inte hade en väl utvecklad digitaliserad verksamhet drabbades hårt av detta. För att kunna hantera denna externa chock mot sin verksamhet krävs organisatorisk motståndskraft, som kan beskrivas som de resurser som finns tillgängliga för att hantera oförutsedda kriser och händelser som består av åtgärder som kan parera effekterna av kriser som COVID-19. Denna fallstudie var en undersökande studie där, en global koncern inom produkter och biomassa skulle generera svaren som behövdes för att mäta digital mognad och organisatorisk motståndskraft. Den digitala mognaden av företaget togs fram med hjälp av en enkät och svaren angående deras organisatoriska motståndskraft genererades med hjälp av en personlig intervju. Syftet med denna studie är därför att undersöka hur sälj interaktioner har förändrats baserat på grad av digital mognad och organisatorisk motståndskraft under pandemin. Resultatet av denna studie hänvisar till ett samband mellan nivån av digital mognad hos ett företag och hur väl denna mognad kan komma till nytta vid aktioner via organisatorisk motståndskraft när det kommer till utformandet av affärs interaktioner. Vidare så bidrar studien till att visa hur digitalisering är på väg att bli en vital faktor i genomförandet av affärer och sälj interaktioner i framtiden och därav framhäver vikten av att besitta god digital mognad. Baserat på insikten som uppkom från den djupgående intervjun så skapades en modell som lyfter fram de beståndsdelar av modellerna som påvisats ha en påverkan på sälj interaktioner och hur digital mognad stödjer den organisatoriska motståndskraften

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Modern manufacturing organizations exist in the most complex and competitive environment the world has ever known. This environment consists of demanding customers, enabling, but resource intensive Industry 4.0 technology, dynamic regulations, geopolitical perturbations, and innovative, ever-expanding global competition. Successful manufacturing organizations must excel in this environment while facing emergent disruptions generated as biproducts of complex man-made and natural systems. The research presented in this thesis provides a novel two-sided approach to the creation of resilience in the modern manufacturing organization. First, the systems engineering method is demonstrated as the qualitative framework for building literature-derived organizational resilience factors into organizational structures under a life cycle perspective. A quantitative analysis of industry expert survey data through graph theory and matrix approach is presented second to prioritize resilience factors for strategic practical implementation.

The outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic shook the global economy to its core, enforcing wide-ranging working from home (WFH) movements in addition to traditional working from office (WFO) structures. As the debates continue over how to permanently embed WFH into the work reality, to do so successfully, the components of changing work venues must be evaluated. Hence, there is a growing urgency to adapt to the new ways of working through focused organizational and managerial intervention. Utilizing the grounded theory, the analysis of qualitative interview data from Germany and Sweden formed the foundation of the paper’s research on changing work venues concerning individual and organizational resilience. Here, young professionals shared experiences of WFH during the pandemic in conjunction with their time WFO before and after COVID-19 restrictions. Through the theoretical framework of resilience as practice, this paper establishes three processes that have a major impact on the quality of home office in relation to resilience: (1) adapting to WFH, (2) acknowledging the advantages and disadvantages of WFO and WFH, and (3) emphasizing individual preferences and differences. The study suggests that the more structured and faster the company adapted to WFH during the transitional period, the less pronounced the employee’s possible negative experiences were. Concerning the benefits of different work venues and individual preferences, this paper concludes that WFH is a substantial supplement to traditional work on-site with the potential to increase individual and organizational resilience.

Includes bibliographical references (leaves 181-198) / The research explored the partnership of Namutamba Rehabilitation Centre (NRC) in Uganda with its main donor, the Neukirchener Mission (NM). The review of the literature focused on empowerment, NGO partnerships and organisational sustainability. The achievements and challenges of the partnership of the NRC with the NM regarding the organisational sustainability of the NRC were identified by evaluating documents of both partners, individual interviews and focus group discussions of stakeholders of NRC. In brief, the relationship of NRC with the NM was characterised as a dependent partnership due to the power imbalance between the partners and the resource dependency of NRC. It was recommended that the NRC and the NM focus on creating greater self-reliance of NRC while attempting to develop an authentic partnership. This might have wide reaching consequences not only for the sustainability of NRC but also for the services offered to persons with disabilities in Central Uganda. / Development Studies / M.A. (Development Studies)