During the global covid-19 pandemic most organisations, in this case the banking industry, have had to adapt to the many government imposed restrictions to stop the spread of the virus. This means that there have been significant changes in how organisations conduct their communicative businesses and internal communication. Research has shown that a digitally based work environment is good for employees and managers to effectively execute tasks and communicate more smoothly, but a lack of physical presence in work has also had negative side-effects on communication in the workforce.This study aims to identify the changes in communication and the internal communicative consequences of the altered communication in one of Sweden’s major banks. Based on literature regarding pedagogy, communication and social distance consequences for organisations, several individuals who worked at the bank were interviewed by phone or by Zoom-meetings and were asked to respond to questions about how the communication at work was conducted and what the effects of the changed communications were. A thematic analysis of the answers from the participants demonstrated that over all work efficiency had been unchanged or changed for the better, but there were regularly gaps in the internal communication that was a result of the lack of physical presence when conducting tasks or meetings. A purely digitally based work environment has its positive aspects when increasing the effectiveness and flexibility of the workforce since most organisations conduct their businesses online, but when information about a task needs deeper explanation or concretization about accountability for tasks, information distributed online might be insufficient. / Under covid-19-pandemin har de flesta organisationer, i detta fall bankväsendet, varit tvungna att anpassa sig efter regeringens beslut om restriktioner i syfte att stoppa vidare spridning av viruset. Det innebär att det har skett märkbara förändringar i hur organisationer genomför sina uppgifter och hur den interna kommunikationen har påverkats. Tidigare forskning har visat att organisationer gynnas av digital kommunikation då medarbetarna blir utbildade inom att hantera teknologi och att effektivt kommunicera, men en minskad fysisk kommunikation har inneburit att den interna kommunikationen har fått särskilda negativa sidoeffekter. Denna studie har som syfte att identifiera de kommunikativa förändringarna och konsekvenserna hos den förändrade interna kommunikationen hos en bank i Sverige. Flera medarbetare blev intervjuade via telefon eller zoom-möten och fick besvara frågor som var relaterade till den förändrade kommunikationen och dess upplevda konsekvenser. Intervjuerna var baserade på litteratur inom pedagogik, kommunikation och konsekvenserna för organisationer under en pandemi. Genom en tematisk analys av resultatet visade det sig att deltagarna upplevde att den allmänna kommunikationen var mer begränsad till det digitala och arbetsprestationen var oförändrad eller förändrad till det bättre. Men det skedde ofta missar i kommunikationen som var konsekvenser av att ingen fysisk kommunikation hade genomförts. En digitalt baserad arbetsmiljö har sina positiva effekter när det kommer till att göra sina medarbetare mer effektiva och flexibla då de flesta organisationer genomför sina verksamheter online, men om en uppgift kräver mer extensiv information eller ansvarstagande av uppgifter behöver konkretiseras så är digitalt distribuerad information ibland otillräcklig.

World health organization (WHO) har listat tio hot mot världshälsan varav två av dessa är pandemier och vaccinskepticism. Enligt forskare kommer pandemier drabba mänskligheten samtidigt som vaccinskepticismen ökar. Individer som är kritiska till vaccin tillhör antivaccinationsrörelsen och de menar på att vaccin är ett sätt att skada befolkningen. Antivaccinationsrörelsen använder sociala medier för att sprida sitt budskap. Idag pågår covid-19 pandemin och på kort tid har vaccin tagits fram och befolkningen erbjuds möjligheten att vaccinera sig. Det finns personer som är kritiska till vaccinet och de restriktioner som regering och riksdag infört för att minska smittspridningen av SARS-CoV-2. Studiens syfte är att få en förståelse för hur antivaccinationsrörelsens arbete tar sig uttryck i sociala medier och hur antivaccinationsrörelsen agerar för att påverka människor. Den metod som ligger till grund för arbetet är netnografi och syftet med en sådan studie är att studera sociala och kulturella sammanhang på internet. För att samla in empiri har inlägg på Twitter studerats genom en icke-deltagande observation. För att analysera inläggen har Anthony Giddens begrepp tillit och expertsystem samt Ulrick Becks begrepp risksamhället använts. Studiens resultat visar på att individer som uttrycker sig negativt om vaccinet besitter ett lågt förtroende för de experter som uttalar sig gällande SARS-CoV-2 och vaccinet som utvecklats. De som är kritiska till vaccin menar på att vaccinet mot SARS-CoV-2 och de restriktioner som finns på grund av covid-19 pandemin är ytterligare ett sätt att begränsa människor fri- och rättigheter. De individer som är kritiska till vaccin menar vidare att covid-19 pandemin är skapad för att the big pharma ska tjäna pengar. Vaccinet mot covid-19 anses vara farligare än att genomgå sjukdomen och det är en anledning till att inte vaccinera sig. / The World Health Organization (WHO) has listed ten threats to the world health, two of which are pandemics and vaccine skepticism. Scientist agree that pandemics will affect humanity andat the same time people are being more skeptical about vaccine. Individuals who are critical of vaccine belongs to the anti-vaccination movement and believe that vaccines are a way of harming the population. The anti-vaccination movement use social media to spread their message. The ongoing pandemic is called covid-19 pandemic, vaccines have been developed in a short time and the population is offered the opportunity to be vaccinated. There are people who are critical of the vaccine and the restrictions that the government and the parliament hade decide about to reduce the spread of the SARS-CoV-2. The purpose of this study is to establish an understandig of how the work of the anti-vaccination movement is expressed on social media and how they act to influence people. The method for this study is netnography and it is used to study social and cultural contexts on the internet. To gather empirical data posts on Twitter have been studied through a non-participatory observation. Anthony Gidden’s concepts of trust and expert systems as well as Ulrich Beck’s concepts of the risk society have been used to analyze the posts. The results of this study show that individuals who express themselves negatively about vaccines have a low level of trust in the experts who are commenting about SARS-CoV-2 and they believe that vaccines are a way to control people. They believe that the restrictions that exist due to covid-19 pandemic are another way to restrict people’s freedom and that it was the big pharma that created the covid-19 pandemic. The anti-vaccination movement considered that the vaccine against the SARS-CoV-2 is more dangerous than the disease.

The still ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has thrown a wrench into the works of conventional classroom teaching. Efforts taken to limit the spread of the virus have consequently led to school closures, moving lessons from a physical environment to an online equivalent. The present study investigates how and to what extent three English teachers in the Swedish upper secondary school perceive the effect of emergency remote teaching (ERT) has had on their pupils, with the aim to gain insight as to which motivational factors may have been impacted as a result of teaching moving online. Further, the study also aims to explore how the teachers’ approaches to motivating students had changed with the introduction of a sudden online learning environment, as well as how the teachers’ own motivation was impacted by teaching ERT. The topic was explored through qualitative interviews with participants using the three central aspects of Self-Determination Theory (SDT) as the main analytical tool. The results demonstrated that teachers perceived that their learners’ motivation had been impacted during ERT due to lack of autonomy that had possibly been reinforced over time due to development and use of digital tools. In addition, competence may have been affected due to teachers implementing a high degree of structure in their lessons, and relatedness had been negatively impacted due to a lack of social interaction between students. Moreover, the approach for motivating students had changed for two of the three teachers, and that teachers’ own motivation has also been impacted in different ways by teaching remotely. In summary, this study concludes that schools and governing bodies alike need to review and implement new strategies for digital education in the future and must utilise previous experiences to evaluate and subsequently determine how to work with approaches that more productively considers student motivation and wellbeing. As such, this study could be useful to schools, teachers and educators when developing digital strategies in the future.

The Covid-19 pandemic has changed the way of working for employees and companies around the world. An important part of an organization is the salesforce since they are building relations with customers and making sales. It is therefore important for the salesforce to be motivated in order to be productive and contribute to the organization's increased sales.  This thesis is a qualitative study regarding salesforce motivation and how to motivate salesforce further in the future based on the Covid-19 pandemic changed way of working. We have studied the Middle East regional office of a Swedish B2B company within the security sector called Gunnebo Group. The research was conducted through interviewing seven respondents whom comes from seven different nationalities and based in four different countries. All the respondents are working within the salesforce at the researched organization with the title of Sales Directors. Through the interviews we have gathered data about four different perspectives that can have an impact on the salesforce motivation. These aspects are motivation in general, culture, leadership, and the changed way of working due to Covid-19. In this study we have taken these perspectives in consideration when answering our research question and trying to fulfil the research purpose.  The purpose of this research is to create an understanding of what can motivate the salesforce at Gunnebo Middle East post-pandemic and/or going into 2022. Further, we want to contribute with new knowledge that will help organizations develop as well as prepare for a post-pandemic way of approaching motivation regarding salesforce.  The conclusion of this study is, in order to motivate salesforce further in the future, B2B companies within the security sector need to continue to work with the changes that the Covid-19 pandemic has created and not go back to a pre-pandemic way of working. Further, companies need to maintain the changes and develop the changed way of working through educational programs regarding the use of technological tools as well as customer interaction to increase motivation and performance. It is crucial that the organization does not lose focus on the importance of face-to-face interaction.

Covid-19-pandemin har resulterat i en påskyndad och plötslig implementering av digitala verktyg och distansarbete, något som för många verksamheter inneburit stora förändringar. Uppsatsen utgår från en kvalitativ metod där semistrukturerade intervjuer har utförts på sju gruppchefer inom en svensk myndighet. Syftet med denna studie var att få en fördjupad förståelse för chefers upplevelser av att leda en oplanerad förändringsprocess. För att uppfylla syftet formulerades forskningsfrågorna; ”hur beskriver intervjupersonerna omställningen till distansarbete?”, ”hur kan intervjupersonernas upplevelser förstås i enlighet med begreppen kommunikation, information och delaktighet?” och ”vilka möjligheter respektive utmaningar kan identifieras i den genomförda omställningen?”. Vidare analyserades det insamlade materialet med grund i tidigare forskning och teorier inom ämnena organisationsförändring, kommunikation, information och delaktighet.  Resultatet visar att den plötsliga omställningen till distansarbete som konsekvens av Covid-19-pandemin har inneburit stora förändringar för många av verksamhetens funktioner. Det påvisasatt kommunikation, information och delaktighet är faktorer som anses vara av stor vikt under tider som denna, präglade av kriser och förändring. Det implementerade distansarbetet tycks även ha resulterat i en närmare relation mellan chefer och medarbetare, då dessa fått mer sändningstid tillsammans. Slutligen framkommer det att distansarbetet uppskattas av intervjupersonerna och är något som kan komma att bli en fråga i huruvida verksamheten anses vara en attraktiv arbetsplats eller inte i framtiden.

This thesis understands loneliness as a challenge to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. The aim is to foster remote social connectedness among young adults experiencing loneliness in the context of a pandemic. The exploration is approached through literature review on loneliness, belonging, social connectedness, including remote communication as a disconnect. The Double Diamond model guided the design process, and design research resulted in insights into loneliness, remote communication challenges for interpersonal settings, and which forms of affection are valued for connectedness. Research findings suggest that openness, attentiveness, and listening are deemed essential for interpersonal connections. Therefore, the concluding design idea targets the dimension of closeness, contact quality, and knowing each other’s experiences to enrich existing social connections. The thesis contributes with insights into what is desired and valued in social connections. Moreover, it proposes a communication tool that could foster social connectedness among young adults experiencing loneliness in the COVID-19 pandemic.

Background: The Covid-19 pandemic has impacted all of society, and businesses are faced by having to close or adapt to the new regulations and laws by pursuing digital transformation. As companies are transitioning to remote work, leaders are now met with the obstacle of taking in-person, face-to-face leadership and putting it through digital transformation. Due to all these unforeseen changes employee motivation is at risk as employees are working remotely in isolation with leaders adopting new leadership styles.    Purpose: This research aims to investigate the change in leadership styles resulting from remote work and investigate if it has affected employee motivation.   Method: This research is an exploratory qualitative study conducted, focusing on multiple cases where semi-structured, and in-depth interviews were held with nine participants from three companies, with one leader and two employees from each company. A thematic analysis was used to investigate the primary data. Conclusion: The empirical findings and the analysis provide two areas that have been found during this conducted research: 1) Leaders realized that instead of focusing on performances-oriented approaches with heavy monitoring and supervision, it was more important to tend to human-centric care and being more open and nurturing to alleviate stress for employees. 2) Employee motivation has generally been negatively impacted due to employees and leaders experiencing communication difficulties, loneliness, lack of support and easily accessible distractions. With a few exceptions of employees coping better with a more balanced supervision and higher level of isolation acceptance.

The purpose of this study is to examine users ́ opinions regarding the Swedish management of the covid-19 pandemic in two echo chambers, consisting of the comment fields in two ideologically different news pages on Facebook, Aftonbladet and Samtiden. Using a quantitative content analysis in different steps, the study will attempt to answer the following questions: - What opinions are expressed in two eco-chambers regarding the pandemic management in Sweden? -To what extent are these common or not between the echo chambers? The empirical material consists a total of 696 comments which will be analysed and compiled into a result. The result will then be set against two opposing theories, the theory of the Public Sphere and the theory of echo chambers, where these disagree upon whether the two different news pages lead to polarization. Depending on the outcome, the result can be said to be in agreement with one or both of the theories. The result of the study shows that the opinions of the users in the echo chambers are mainly the same which supports the theory of the Public Sphere and the idea of a need for a common consensus in order to maintain a functioning democracy. The opinions concern the subjects Sweden, the Swedish government, the Swedish state epidemiologist Anders Tegnell, the Restrictions and statistic rapports about the death toll in Sweden. The results provide information about the effects of echo chambers in an ongoing pandemic and the overall complexity around the definition of the term.

Syftet med studien är att undersöka hur projektdeltagare upplever övergången till distansarbete som skedde i och med Covid-19 pandemin och om de upplever att det hade inflytande på kunskapsöverföringen i projekt. Genomen en kvalitativ ansats genomfördes semistrukturerade intervjuer med 10 projektdeltagare som sedan tematiskt analyserades. De teman som uppträdde var ”Ett tveeggat svärd”, ”Kompass i mörkret” samt ”Kalejdoskop av framtiden”. Resultatet visar att distansarbetet i hög grad uppskattas och att motivationen till kunskapsöverföring förblev oförändrade. De största utmaningarna är att den sociala aspekten i viss mån försvinner och det är svårare att tolka kroppsspråk och ansiktsuttryck. Slutsatsen är att oavsett digitala verktyg är det fortfarande människan som står i centrum, och digitala verktyg ska anpassas till att passa in i sin kontext och sitt syfte för att kunskapsöverföringen ska kunna bibehållas vid distansarbete. / The purpose of this study is to examine how project participants experience the transition to remote work that took place with the Covid-19 pandemic and whether they experience that it had an influence on the knowledge transfer within projects. Through a qualitative approach, semi-structured interviews were conducted with 10 project participants, which were then thematically analyzed. The themes appeared were “A double-edged sword”, “Compass in the darkness” and “Kaleidoscope of the future”. The results show that remote work is greatly appreciated and that the motivation for knowledge transfer remained unchanged. The biggest challenges are that the social aspect disappears to some extent and it is more difficult to interpret body language and facial expressions. The conclusion is that regardless of digital tools, it is still the human beings who is at the center, and digital tools must be adapted to fit into their context and purpose so that the knowledge transfer can be maintained in remote work.

The objective of my study is to contribute with knowledge of how the Coronavirus pandemics may have bestowed restrictions, or alternatively, possibilities for the learning, development, and well-being of the children in the selected preschool unit which this study targets. In it, I identify how the teachers in this preschool unit interpret and approach the frame factors that are determined outside the teaching processes and how those frames are perceived as opportunities or limitations for the preschool quality in terms of attained goals as set out in national preschool educational curriculum – both before and during the pandemics. The empirical data comprises nine qualitative interviews of preschool teachers from different preschools in the selected preschool unit. I have chosen to make use of frame factor perspectives to analyze the results of my study. The results of my study show that external economic and political frames such as, time, the children group, the physical preschool setting, teacher density, the teachers’ competence, and different steering documents – which all are perceived by preschool teachers to be external and political frames that impact the preschool teachers’ working conditions and organisation for the diverse preschool educational processes. The Corona pandemics has shaped a number of new external frames for preschool teachers and their work. New resources in terms of staff competence training, clear-cut recommendations from health authorities and political leaders with regard to safer work establishment has been seen as required for the entire pandemics. Staff concerns about contagion, compounded work-loads, teaching-staff animosity vis-à-vis outdoor teaching as well as absence of well-defined frames, are all factors which are perceived as limitations to staff motivation and to a joint concerted action in transforming the adaptive preschool way of working – which results in a worsening educational quality for the preschools in this unit during the Coronavirus pandemics. The preschool group that conducts children education exclusively outdoors have thus been less impacted.