Background: In the beginning of 2020 as the Covid-19 pandemic started to spread around the world, banking organisations were forced to move their whole working operations to a remote context. Thus, challenging the traditional management theories since these were developed to be implemented in a stable, physical context. Hence the research will make use of existing motivational management theories, putting them in a forced remote context in order to investigate how managers within the banking industry have utilised them in order to motivate their subordinates during the pandemic.  Purpose: The study aims to investigate how managers within the banking industry motivate their subordinates during a forced remote working environment, making use of existing motivational management theories, putting them in a remote context.  Method: An abductive qualitative approach was adopted, where data was gathered from theoretical conceptualizations, existing literature and through semi-structured interviews. A comparative approach including five managers within four different organisations that operates within the banking sector were implemented. The findings and analysis were conducted using a thematic approach. Which later resulted in contributions on existing motivational management theories. Conclusion: The authors were able to provide several contributions related to four existing theories derived within four themes: communication, trust in employees, delegation of responsibility and giving rewards that best answer the research question on how managers motivate their subordinates in a forced remote working environment.

Background: The pandemic Covid-19 has led to large-scale changes globally; in the workplace setting, it has entailed a distinct increase in remote work. For individuals to deal with organizational changes in the workplace has historically been considered a significant challenge. Therefore, it is essential to understand how individuals cope with these changes and drive themselves while working remotely. Purpose: The purpose of this qualitative study was to develop a deeper understanding of how respondents in different organizations in Sweden coped with the change to remote work caused by Covid19 by viewing their coping strategies from a self-leadership perspective. In addition, the main affecting factors of this change process will be identified. Method: | Ontology: Relativism | Epistemology: Social Constructionism | Research Approach: Inductive | Data Collection: 12 Semi-Structured Interviews | Sampling: Purposive / Convenience | Data Analysis: Thematic Analysis | Conclusion: This study has developed a new terminology; Self-leadership coping strategies that showcase how the respondents of this study reacted, acted, and proactively coped with the change in the workplace setting due to Covid-19. Subsequently, challenging the passive view individuals have been assigned in previous literature and provided coping strategies in a new and highly relevant context. Additionally, three paradoxical affecting factors are presented and problematized.

Ledare har på grund av pandemin Covid-19 i stor utsträckning tvingats till ledarskap på distans eftersom landets organisationer i möjligaste mån ska möjliggöra distansarbete (Folkhälsomyndigheten, 2021). Syftet med denna studie är att bidra med en djupare förståelse för hur ledaren ser på ledarskap på distans. För att kunna besvara syftet har studien genom kvalitativa intervjuer undersökt vilka möjligheter och utmaningar det finns med ledarskap på distans samt vilka tekniska hjälpmedel som används.Studier visar att det transformativa ledarskapet är att föredra framför det transaktionella vid ledarskap på distans (Antonakis et al., 2016; Wright et al., 2011). Den transformativa ledarens egenskaper enligt Hoch och Kozlowski (2014) är att skapa motivation hos medarbetarna vilket leder till ökad arbetstillfredsställelse. Enligt Alward och Phelps (2019) är ledarens tillit och förtroende till medarbetarna viktigt vid ledning på distans. Forskning visar att ny teknik kan vara en framgångshämmare (Olson & Olson, 2009) och att det är viktigt att ledaren kommunicerar med sin röst till medarbetarna (Offstein et al., 2010).Studiens metodval har kvalitativ karaktär med inspiration från empirisk fenomenologi. Med hjälp av en hermeneutisk tolkning har studien genom ett abduktivt förhållningssätt tolkat resultatet. Studiens datainsamlingsmetod har varit semistrukturerade intervjuer från sju enhetschefer inom hemtjänsten.Det empiriska resultatet visar att tillgänglighet och kommunikation anses vara viktigt vid ledarskap på distans. Detta styrks delvis av teorin men visar även att fenomenet ledarskap på distans är relativt outforskat och att vidare forskning erfordras kring fenomenet ledarskap på distans kopplat till tillgänglighet. / Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, leaders have been largely forced to lead remotely, since organizations in the country have been expected to facilitate remote work as much as possible (Folkhälsomyndigheten, 2021). The purpose of this study is to contribute to a deeper understanding of how leaders view remote leadership. In order to answer the question, qualitative interviews were conducted to find out what opportunities and challenges there are with remote leadership and what types of technical aids are used.Studies show that transformative leadership is preferable to transactional leadership when leading remotely (Antonakis et al., 2016; Wright et al., 2011). According to Hoch and Kozlowski (2014), the transformative leader's qualities are to create motivation among employees, which leads to increased job satisfaction. According to Alward and Phelps (2019), a leader’s trust and confidence are important for remote management. Research shows that new technology can be a success inhibitor (Olson & Olson, 2009) and that it is important that leaders communicate with their voice to employees (Offstein et al., 2010).The study uses qualitative methods that are inspired by empirical phenomenology. The study is hermeneutical, interpreting the results using an abductive approach. The study's collection method has been semi-structured interviews of seven home-care unit managers.The empirical results show that accessibility and communication are considered important when leading remotely. This is partly supported by the theory, but this also shows that the phenomenon of remote leadership is relatively unexplored and that further research on the phenomenon of remote leadership linked to accessibility is needed.

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.

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.

Organizational culture is a widely known concept and is something that has increasingly become a subject of importance as many argue for its relation to an organization’s overall performance and business. The idea for this study was born in the context of the global COVID-19 pandemic that broke out during the year of 2020. The authors’ interest in the subject of organizational culture and the identified lack of research on the area culminated in the research question to what extent does remote work affect organizational culture? The aim with our study was to deepen our knowledge on remote work and its effects on culture because of the widespread discussion on a more flexible attitude towards it even after the COVID-19 pandemic. The theoretical framework in this study was based on a three- perspective-approach that consists of three different perspectives on how to study organizational culture. The research was based on a qualitative case study and nine semi- structured interviews were conducted. The results showed that organizational culture has been affected by remote work to some extent. The authors suggest future research on the subject with a similar study, but at a later point in time to be able to conclude the more long term and permanent effects of remote work on organizational culture.

No description available.

I mars 2020 drabbades världen av Covid-19 pandemin vilket för många människor innebar en förändring av hur och vart arbetet utfördes. För att minska smittspridningen i samhället har många organisationer anpassat arbetssättet och ett distansarbete har införts, vilket har varit mer eller mindre tvingande på många arbetsplatser. Att arbeta på distans under en längre period kan vara utmanande och det nya arbetssättet kan innebära omställningar för hela organisationen, vilket även skulle kunna innebära en påverkan av hur ledarskapet tillämpas på distans. Denna studie har fokuserat på det transformativa ledarskapet och syftet med studien har varit att utveckla kunskapen om hur transformativt ledarskap kan tillämpas för att leda under ett tvingande distansarbete. Studien har använt sig av en abduktiv ansats och en kvalitativ forskningsstrategi valdes för att fånga hur ledare upplever det tvingande distansarbetet som Covid-19 pandemin medfört. Vid analys av empiri har en tematisk analys använts för att finna viktiga teman i respondenternas utsagor samt likheter och skillnader mellan respondenternas upplevelser kopplat till studiens syfte. Studiens teoretiska avsnitt bygger på vetenskapliga artiklar med fokus på studiens nyckelbegrepp; pandemi, distansarbete och transformativt ledarskap. Det empiriska materialet består av semistrukturerade intervjuer som genomförts med sju första linjens chefer inom olika branscher. Denna studie visar på att respondenterna, med hjälp av vissa anpassningar, även under tvingande distansarbete har möjlighet att tillämpa transformativt ledarskap. De anpassningar som respondenterna gjort har utifrån teorin identifierats som transformativa ledarskapskomponenter, vilket bland annat har varit att utveckla kommunikationen för att ha löpande uppföljningar och kunna se hur medarbetarna mår och har det. Detta visar på tydliga indikationer att en ledare med en transformativ ledarskapsstil, vid distansarbete, kan bidra med att förbättra möjligheterna för medarbetarna att skapa en god balans mellan arbete och privatliv. / In March 2020 was the world hit by the Covid-19 pandemic, which for many people meant that they needed to change the way they work and where the work was carried out. In order to reduce the spread of infection in the society many organizations adapted the work mode and remote working was introduced as a new way of working. Working remotely has therefore been more or less mandatory in many workplaces. Working remotely for a longer period of time can be challenging and the new way of working can imply adjustments for the entire organization, which could also have an impact on how leadership is exercised. This study has focused on transformational leadership and the purpose of the study was to develop the knowledge about how transformational leadership can be exercised in order to lead during forced remote work. The study has used an abductive approach and a qualitative research strategy was chosen to capture the leaders’ experiences of the forced remote work that was a consequence of the pandemic. A thematic analysis was used to analyse the empirical data in order to find important the mesin the respondents’ statements, as well as finding similarities and differences between the respondents’ experiences linked to the purpose of this study. The theory section in this study is based on scientific articles that are focusing on the study’s keywords; pandemic, remote work and transformational leadership. The empirical material consists of semistructured interviews conducted with seven first-line managers in various industries. This study shows that the respondents, with some adaptations, still have the possibility to exercise transformational leadership during forced remote work. Based on the theory in this study, the adjustments that the respondents have made have been identified as transformational leadership behaviors. Which among other things have meant that the respondents have developed the communication in order to have on going follow-ups tosee how employees are doing. This clearly indicates that a leader with a transformational leadership style, when working remotely, can contribute with opportunities for employees to find a good balance between work and private life.

Motivation är en central del för organisationer vad gäller att skapa och bibehålla en engagerad personal att sträva mot de mål som sätts upp. Belöningar kan användas för att öka motivationen hos medarbetare. Till följd av Covid-19 pandemin har många organisationer behövt anpassa sina arbetssätt där distansarbete bedrivs i större omfattning vilket kan ha en påverkan på de anställdas motivation. Det finns även tankar kring att belöningar inte används i samma utsträckning i offentligt finansierade organisationer och därmed är det intressant att undersöka då det verkar kunna ha en effekt på motivationen. Syftet med den här studien var att undersöka hur motivationen i en offentlig organisation har påverkats under rådande pandemi till följd av fenomenen digitalisering och distansarbete. Vi ville även se på sambandet mellan motivation och belöning i en offentlig organisation. För att kunna genomföra studien valde vi att tillämpa en kvalitativ fallstudie. Vi genomförde semistrukturerade intervjuer för att samla in relevant material till vårt forskningsområde. Valet av respondenter baserades på att individerna hade påverkats av pandemin med distansarbete som följd. Utifrån studiens resultat framkommer det att de viktigaste motivationsfaktorerna är samhörighet, utvecklingsmöjligheter och erkännande från omgivningen. Vi kan se att distansarbetet har påverkat organisationen både positivt och negativt. Vissa av medarbetarna upplever att deras motivation har minskat och andra upplever inga skillnad eller en ökning. De negativa effekterna som upplevs till följd av distansarbetet består främst av sämre kommunikation, samhörighet och struktur. Det framkommer att belöningar är viktigt men det finns ingen förväntan i organisationen att få ta del av ekonomisk ersättning, det är dock inget som verkar ha en negativ effekt. De slutsatser som framkommit från vår studie är att motivationen påverkas på ett eller annat sätt till följd av digitalisering och distansarbete där individernas tidigare erfarenheter och preferenser gällande arbetssätt spelar in. Vidare kan vi även dra en slutsats kring att belöning har en påverkan på offentligt anställdas motivation, främst i form av feedback och erkännande. / Motivation is a central part of organizations in terms of creating and maintaining a committed staff to strive for the goals that are set. Rewards can be used to increase employee motivation. As a result of the Covid-19 pandemic, many organizations have had to adapt their working methods where remote work is conducted to a greater extent, which could have an impact on employee motivation. There are also thoughts that rewards are not used to the same extent in publicly funded organizations and thus it is interesting to investigateas it seems to influence motivation. The purpose of this study was to investigate how the motivation in a public organization has been affected during the prevailing pandemic as a result of the phenomenon of digitalization and remote work. We also wanted to look atthe connection between motivation and reward in a public organization. In order to be able to carry out the study, we chose to apply a qualitative case study. We conducted semi-structured interviews to gather relevant material for our research area. The choice of respondents was based on the fact that the individuals had been affected by the pandemic with remote work as a result. Based on the results of the study, it appears that the most important motivation factors are belonging, opportunities for development and recognition from the surroundings. We can see that the distance work has affected theorganization both positively and negatively. Some of the employees feel that their motivation has decreased, and others experience no difference or an increase. The negative effects experienced as a result of remote work mainly consist of poorer communication, belonging and structure. It turns out that rewards are important, but there is no expectation in the organization to receive financial compensation other than salary, but it doesn’t seem to have a negative effect. The conclusions that emerged from our study are that motivationis affected in one way or another as a result of digitalization and remote work where the individuals' previous experiences and preferences regarding working methods come into play. Furthermore, we can also draw a conclusion that reward has an impact on public employees' motivation, primarily in the form of feedback and recognition.

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.