The return to in-person schooling post-COVID-19 pandemic has brought increased pressure on educators to ensure academic success for students. This study examines the school climate of 40 elementary and middle schools in California's Central Valley and its impact on academic performance and attendance, comparing pre-pandemic (2018-2019) with post-pandemic (2021-2022 and 2022-2023) data. Additionally, the study explores the influence of positive student-teacher relationships on academic outcomes and chronic absenteeism. Utilizing the PLUS School Climate Survey, this research sought to identify significant differences in survey scores pre- and post-pandemic, as well as examining the predictive power of student-teacher connectedness on academic performance and chronic absenteeism. This research found statistically significant differences among 6th-8th grade students regarding perceptions of school connectedness throughout the years. There was a significant increase from the 2019-2020 to 2021-2022 school years followed by a significant decrease from 2021-2022 to the 2022-2023 school year. The 2019-2020 and 2022-2023 school year data on school connectedness was not significant. Results also indicate there was a significant positive relationship between students and teachers and their academic performance. In the 2022-2012 school year, when the students had a positive view of their relationship with teachers and staff at school, the student’s ELA and math scores increased. This analysis also examined the relationship between the student’s relationship with teachers and their chronic absenteeism. There were not statistically significant results. These findings aim to provide insights for educational stakeholders to implement targeted interventions to improve school climate and enhance student success amidst post-pandemic challenges.

The pandemic knocked over traditional ways of working in the office context, yet it is questionable whether, a couple of years after the pandemic, organizations have learned to utilize the workplaces in an efficient way, resulting in high employee experience. There was a transition of working practices from using offices before pandemic to remote work in pandemic and then start to settle in hybrid ways of working after pandemic. During this transition, flexible ways of utilizing and sharing workspaces were lost and activity-based workplaces may no longer be used as intended. A pilot project was conducted at one of the sections of a department of global Swedish organization to find behavioral gaps present when it comes to utilization of workspaces. This project’s aim was to develop and plan behavioral interventions to enhance effective utilization of activity-based workplaces. This thesis project focuses to contribute to knowledge regarding human behaviors’ impact on the utilization of workspaces and how tailor made solutions in form of behavioral interventions can be developed or created according to needs of workplaces facing similar challenges as the department of this case study. Results of this project points out the post-pandemic ways of working and the underlying reasons of behavioral gaps when it comes to utilization of activity-based workplaces’ workspaces at one of the sections of a department of a global Swedish organization. Based on these results and different stakeholders’ feedback, a package of behavioral interventions was suggested with an expectation of their positive outcome on utilization of workspaces. The study concludes that behavioral gaps or issues can be a reason for underutilization of workspaces in the activity-based workplaces and to improve the situation tailor made behavioral interventions should be developed. This study also gives recommendations for enhancing utilization of activity-based workplaces and what should be next steps at the department of this case study to improve the situation with long term positive outcomes on utilization of workspaces. / Pandemin störtade traditionella sätt att arbeta på kontor, men det är tveksamt om organisationer ett par år efter pandemin har lärt sig att använda arbetsplatser på ett effektivt sätt, vilket resulterat i en hög medarbetarupplevelse. Det skedde ett skifte i arbetsmetoder från att använda kontor före pandemin till att arbeta på distans under pandemin och sedan börja sätta sig in i hybrida sätt att arbeta efter pandemin. Under denna övergång förlorades flexibla sätt att utnyttja och dela arbetsytor och aktivitetsbaserade arbetsplatser får inte längre användas som avsett. Ett pilotprojekt genomfördes vid en av sektionerna på en avdelning av en global svensk organisation för att hitta beteendeklyftor som finns när det gäller nyttjandet av variationer av arbetsplatser. Detta projekts syfte var att utveckla och planera beteendeinsatser för att förbättra nyttjande av aktivitetsbaserade arbetsplatser. Detta examensarbete fokuserar på att bidra till kunskap om det mänskligt beteendets påverkan på nyttjandet av arbetsytor och hur lösningar i form av beteendeinsatser kan utvecklas eller skapas efter behov av arbetsplatsers med liknande utmaningar som på den här avdelningen. Resultatet av detta projekt visar arbetsvanor under den post-pandemiska eran och de bakomliggande orsakerna till beteendeklyftor när det gäller nyttjandet av aktivitetsbaserade arbetsplatsers på den undersökta sektionen . Baserat på dessa resultat och de anställdas och ledningsgruppens återkoppling föreslogs ett paket med beteendeinsatser med en förväntan om deras positiva resultat på användningen av arbetsytor. Studien drar slutsatsen att beteendeklyftor eller problem kan vara en orsak till underutnyttjande av arbetsytor och för att förbättra situationen bör beteendeinsatser utvecklas. Denna studie ger också rekommendationer för att förbättra nyttjandet av aktivitetsbaserade kontor och vad som bör vara nästa steg för avdelningen på global svensk organisationen för att förbättra situationen med långsiktiga positiva resultat för nyttjande av arbetsytor.

Distansarbetet under COVID-19-pandemin påskyndade den digitala transformeringen av arbetslivet och förskjutningen mot ökat hybridarbete. När arbete på heltid på ett fysiskt kontor utmanas som norm kan yteffektiviserande och flexibla kontorslösningar, t.ex. aktivitetsbaserat arbetssätt, bli mer attraktiva för arbetsgivare. Organisationer av idag hanterar därmed två trender samtidigt, dels att utforma hybridarbete i det ”nya normala” i dagens arbetsliv och dels att anpassa framtida kontorslösningar för flexibla arbetssätt. Chefer som leder hybridarbete behöver balansera närvaro på ett fysiskt kontor med distansarbete parallellt med styrning från organisationen och medarbetarnas individuella preferenser. Hybridarbete kan medföra inbyggda motsättningar (paradoxer) för chefer. Syftet med undersökningen är att öka kunskapen om hur chefer i offentlig sektor leder och hanterar utmaningar i att kombinera hybridarbete med ett aktivitetsbaserat kontor. En kvalitativ fallstudie har genomförts genom 14 semi-strukturerade intervjuer med chefer i en större svensk kommun som i samband med återgången efter pandemin infört både hybridarbete och aktivitetsbaserat arbetssätt. En teoretisk modell om paradoxala ramverk tillämpas i denna studie på chefer som leder medarbetare i hybridarbete. Utifrån fem paradoxala ramverk: arbete-privatliv, avstånd-närhet, formell-informell, information-kommunikation samt kontroll-tillit, undersöks hur chefer hanterar inbyggda motsättningar i hybridarbete genom tre olika kognitiva processer, integrering, differentiering och polarisering. Studien visar att chefer hanterar motsättningar på olika sätt i respektive paradoxalt ramverk. Studien visade också på kopplingar mellan de paradoxala ramverken. Slutsatsen är att chefer gör balanserade avvägningar mellan flera paradoxala ramverk inom ramen för organisationens styrning av hybridarbete och medarbetarnas preferenser. En integrerad modell för chefer som leder hybridarbete föreslås som förenar de paradoxala ramverken med motsättningarna individ-grupp och organisation-grupp för att på en organisatorisk nivå undvika t.ex. suboptimering vid nyttjande av lokalerna och kunna nå målen med aktivitetsbaserad kontorsmiljö. Resultaten i studien bekräftar även i stort tidigare forskning om möjligheter och utmaningar med arbete på distans i kontexten av hybridarbete och aktivitetsbaserat arbetssätt. / Teleworking during the COVID-19-pandemic speeded up the digital transformation of work and the shift towards increased hybrid work. When full time work at a physical office is challenged as a norm, space efficient and flexible office solutions, for example activity-based working, can become more attractive to employers. Organisations of today are therefore managing two trends at the same time, on the one hand how to shape hybrid work in the “new normal” of today’s work life, on the other hand how to design future office solutions. Managers leading hybrid work need to balance work in the office with teleworking parallel with guidelines from the organisation and employees’ individual preferences. Hybrid work can entail inherent contradictions, paradoxes, to managers. The purpose of this study is to gain knowledge on how managers in the public sector lead and manage challenges with hybrid work in an activity-based office. A qualitative case study has been conducted through 14 semi-structured interviews with managers in one of Sweden’s largest municipalities, in which both hybrid work and activity-based working have been implemented after the pandemic. A theoretical model on paradoxical frameworks in hybrid work is in this study applied on managers leading employees in hybrid work. Using five paradoxical frameworks, work-life, remoteness-closeness, formal-informal, information-communication and control-trust, the study investigates how managers handle inherent contradictions in hybrid work through three different cognitive processes, integration, differentiation and polarisation. The study,shows that managers who lead hybrid work handle contradictions differently in each of the paradoxical frameworks. The results also showed connections between the paradoxical frameworks. The conclusion is that managers make balanced trade-offs between multiple paradoxical frameworks within the framework of the organisation’s guidelines for hybrid work and employees’ preferences. An integrated model för managers leading hybrid work is suggested which combine the paradoxical frameworks with the contradictions individual-group as well as organisation-group in order to avoid for example suboptimization in office use and to reach the goals with an activity based office. The study’s results also to a large extent confirm previous research on opportunities and challenges with teleworking in the context of hybrid work and activity-based work.

The aim of this paper is to explore contemporary trends in the field of urban planning in Stockholm, Sweden, especially in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. The aim is furthermore to, from an urban justice perspective, investigate the potential application of the “15-minute city” in Stockholm, a planning model with the central premise of residents having no longer than 15 minutes to basic services and functions by foot or bicycle. A variation of the concept is the “one-minute city”, used to describe the street transformation projects Framtidsgatan and Street Moves. The findings suggest that the pandemic has more or less confirmed the strategic direction of the city, rather than changing it. The 15-minute city model is not explicitly mentioned in any strategies or planning documents, but the city’s planning seems to be guided by principles in line with those of the model, for instance in the centering of components such as proximity, density and (physical) diversity. The 15-minute city model and relevant street transformation projects further primarily seem to address justice issues through spatial redistribution. On the street level, this entails transforming space intended for cars into recreational space, to the benefit of pedestrians and cyclists. On the regional level, it entails a restructuring of the built form in compliance with components such as proximity, density and diversity, in order to bridge the gap in accessibility to basic services and functions between different social groups. The analysis suggests that spatial changes in accordance with the 15-minute city model can have some positive effects in furtherance of justice but that this is highly dependent on these measures being implemented in socio-economically vulnerable areas as well as there being measures in place to assure that local residents are not displaced through gentrification, among other things.