Den möjliga IT-användningen har med tiden utökat sina domäner och det är i dag möjligt att använda tekniken som stöd för de flesta funktioner i en verksamhet. Frågan om ekonomisk avkastning och praktisk realisering av potentialen i tekniken är emellertid ifrågasatt och debatterad. I avhandlingen studeras IT-användning ur individperspektiv. Syftet har varit att analysera och förstå vilka faktorer som bidrar respektive motverkar upplevd IT-nytta. Analysen tar sin utgångspunkt i individerna som använder IT-systemen och i det arbete som utförs i verksamheten. I det empiriska underlaget ingår tre kvalitativt genomförda fallstudier, där faktorer som bidrar till IT-nytta undersökts med hjälp en analysmodell som utvecklats inom ramen för avhandlingsarbetet. I det empiriska underlaget ingår även en studie som belyser implementation och användning ur införarperspektiv. Förklaringar till upplevd nytta eller icke-nytta, den teoretiska referensramen, har varit områdena IT-strategier/IT-management, systemutveckling och systemförvaltning. Positivt verkande faktorer för IT-nytta är, enligt genomförda undersökningar, sådant som bidrar positivt till den egna effektiviteten och till utförandet av de egna arbetsuppgifterna. Negativt verkande faktorer är, när det uppfattas som obekvämt eller ologiskt att arbeta med systemen. Saknad funktionalitet upplevs också som en brist liksom bristande integration mellan olika system. Analysmodellen som användes i undersökningarna var ändamålsenlig, men undersökningen av implementation ur införarperspektiv indikerade, att det fanns ytterligare faktorer som var relevanta för IT-användning och nytta. Avhandlingsarbetet har av det skälet givit ett resultat även i detta avseende - en utvecklad analysmodell. / <p>Godkänd; 2003; 20061106 (haneit)</p>

In this Licentiate Thesis project groups’ use of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) to coordinate their work is investigated. Coordination is present in all organized human activities and, due to new forms of organizing, e.g. project groups, the development seems to be moving towards an increased intensity of this management aspect. These changes in organizing of activities together with the development in ICT imply that studies of the relationship between ICT and coordination are of importance. The purpose of my research is to increase our understanding of how coordination is being influenced and changed by usage of ICT. In order to gain this understanding I explore how and in what way project groups coordinate their activities using different ICT artefacts, including what is being coordinated. The research builds on two empirical studies where project groups have been using different ICT artefacts in their work; the emphasis lies on the use of existing ICT artefacts such as Class Fronter, Tablet PCs, e-mail, ICQ, and SMS. The theoretical framework mainly consists of traditional coordination theories, in particular Mintzberg’s classification of coordinating mechanisms is of central importance for this thesis. Theories on ICT and coordination are also included in the theoretical framework. The main findings of my research show that changes and influences on coordinating activities are dependent upon the specific functionality of the used ICT artefacts. The coordinating mechanism mutual adjustment gets an increased span and scope which is enabled by access to ICT. This, in turn, enables mutual adjustment in a distributed context. ICT artefacts are also able to fortify mutual adjustment when the group is collocated. The mechanism thus becomes more flexible and extendable than it is in its original form and therefore applicable in additional situations. The use of ICT can support direct supervision through enabling availability of common objects and making visible the activities of the individuals. This facilitates a lateral form of direct supervision and implies that direct supervision moves from control and surveillance to comprehensive view and participation. The coordinating mechanism thus moves from being a manager’s task towards becoming a group activity. The research also shows that norms have a great influence on how the group relates to and uses the different ICT artefacts. This means that the coordinating mechanism standardization of norms influences and changes the use of ICT rather than the other way around. Apart from the conclusions that are related to the coordinating mechanisms, the research also shows that the ICT artefact’s communication capacity and the ability to store documents are important factors when choosing what artefact to use. Another aspect that the groups consider as central is the flexibility of work, to which the artefacts contribute. The flexibility is being manifested in freedom, availability and accessibility; concepts that can be related to the earlier mentioned increased span and scope of mutual adjustment. Finally, the research points at the importance of studying the individual artefact’s function, capacity, and use, rather than discussing ICT artefacts’ general qualities and characteristics. / <p>Godkänd; 2006; 20060928 (evan)</p>

The media provides frequent reports about organisations - both public and business - in crisis. These must re-organise themselves, often requiring the dismissal of employees in order to adapt to the emerging internal or external conditions. If they do not adapt, they do not survive. In order to help the adaptation process, science has developed several theories such as Contingency Theory and the Viable System Model. These are well established. On the other hand, the Decision-Information-Operation System model (DIOS- model) developed by Professor J.L. Le Moigne, is an alternative approach for a system's adaptation that is not as widely known. The present study aims to contribute with an application and evaluation. DIOS-model was applied to a medium-size business organisation experiencing a crisis and needing to adapt. The application has allowed us to evaluate - empirically and theoretically - Le Moigne's model and its foundations. The models that were developed based on the theory increased our understanding of the organisation under study. The conclusion is that the various components of DIOS-model should find their counterparts in social organisations and that their absence or inadequacy may lead to a poor organisational performance. Therefore, the model is a tool for helping organisations adapt to changing conditions. However, the study shows some important limitations of the theory. It requires further development and should not be used uncritically. / <p>Godkänd; 1999; 20070403 (ysko)</p>

Knowledge management is a key avenue for consulting firms to ensure survival and maintain competitive advantage. Prior research has focused on many different aspects of knowledge sharing in IT firms and projects. However, even when the importance of KS is acknowledged in IT consulting firms, little is known about how the mechanisms look like inside these firms. The purpose of this study is to explore the knowledge sharing mechanisms in small IT consulting firms or offices. Qualitative methods were used to approach the KS phenomenon, which involves six interviews that included senior consultants and managers from various firms. The results show that the small firms have a better advantage when it comes to sharing. Furthermore, that most knowledge sharing in these firms occur in an informal way since consultants prefer social interaction than using systems. Finally, the results show that a concept labelled as “Knowledge market” strongly exist in consultancy firms in small cities like Umeå.

Existing research on organizational agility has primarily focused on large com- panies. This research tends to reference startups as the truly agile organizations, and it is assumed that large established corporations have much to learn from startups, especially for digital innovation. However, little research has studied startups with an organizational agility lens to identify how startups develop organizational agility and what enables and hinders such agility. There is a need to better understand how startups use organizational agility to gain leverage in digital innovation. This licentiate thesis is based on three papers, where each paper focuses on one aspect of organizational agility, and aims to answer the research question: How do startups use organizational agility to gain leverage in digital innovation? A qualitative approach was applied, and two interview studies were conducted in the automotive products and services domain. This domain was chosen be- cause it has recently been challenged by newcomers with very different strategies for innovation and the automotive incumbents are now struggling to transform into agile enterprises. Subsequently, it became possible to identify differences in how organizational agility is applied in digital innovation in large companies and startups. The first study included three incumbents and two in- ternational startups, and the second study included nine startups. The startups included in the two studies were located in Sweden and one startup in the USA (active in Sweden). 23 semi-structured interviews were conducted, which en- abled us to gain a richer and more in-depth understanding about how startups develop and applied organizational agility in their digital innovation initiatives. An initial literary study helped identify core dimensions of organizational agil- ity that were empirically investigated. Organizational agility as an analytic lens was operationalized using different frameworks to support our analysis work. The concluding analysis showed differences between startups' ability to use organizational agility in digital innovation. The startups had different ap- proaches to digital innovation and the analysis shows different types of organ- izational agility. The startups that applied an agile culture, visionary and trans- formative approach (effectuation logic) and open innovation, were the most successful when it came to keeping a high digital innovation pace compared with the other startups in this study. Based on the analysis of how organization-Page 2 of 167al agility affected the studied companies' digital innovation capability, we iden- tified four ideal types of startup organizational agility: digital industrial, digital complementary, digital exploiter, and digital disrupter. In Digital industrial, the value of organizational agility is less exploited because it applies a planning approach and a unilateral technical focus with a vague business model, leading to a low digital innovation capability. In Digital complementary, the value of organizational agility is utilized while applying a planning approach, focusing on in-depth technical research where the value, once integrated into a customer product, can lead to a high digital innovation capability. In Digital exploiter, the value of organizational agility is fully utilized while applying a visionary and adaptive approach, focusing on the rapid exploitation of market-driven digital services applied but can lead to low digital innovation capability. In Digital disrupter, the value of organizational agility is optimally utilized by using a visionary and transformative strategy, focusing on in-depth and rapid explora- tion in innovation ecosystems or networks, which leads to high digital innova- tion capability. The research contributes to practice and the theory of organizational agility by showing how the various aspects of organizational agility impact the organiza- tions' digital innovation capability.

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The development of digital technology and social media has changed how people live and today we are dependent on digital technology. The function of social media in society is therefore very important to study. Research must be adapted to society's new conditions and it is this study's ambition to do so. One of the biggest platforms for social media today is Instagram and this platform is behind a large part of the stress that exists around health today. This stress is based on the pursuit of unreachable ideals. There is also research linking young people's deteriorating mental health to Instagram and there is related research that indicates that young women are the worst affected. This study focuses on five of the most popular health-related hashtags where content related to health is published every day. The purpose of this study is to identify and investigate selected popular material from Instagram, discourses on health and whether these discourses reproduce or depart from hegemonic standards of health in relation to appearance, body image and mental health. The study uses multimodal critical discourse analysis as method to analyse the forty-five posts that were published within the five hashtags. This method makes it possible to analyse text and images in relation to each other and to examine if there are hidden norms and structures that can show discourses in the posts. The results revealed several discourses on health. A clear pattern in the material was the reproduction of beauty ideals. The material from the study provides various tools for the audience that they can then use to try to reach these ideals. The study shows that Instagram's function in society in relation to health is primarily about reproducing the beauty ideal hidden behind the concept of health, which contributes to an increased stress around being healthy in society. As our society evolves towards relying more on digital technology, this form of informatics research is very important.

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