Denna studie har behandlat ämnet gällande vilka framgångsfaktor som varit relevanta inom restaurangbranschen under den extrema period som pågick under Covid-19 pandemin. En bransch som har drabbats hårt pandemin är restaurangbranschen. Riksdagens smittskyddsinsatser innebar exempelvis begränsat antal gäster i lokalen, näringsförbud efter vissa tider. Ansvar för att besökare efterföljde restriktionerna låg på näringsidkaren, i de fall åtgärderna var otillräckliga fanns risk böter och näringsförbud   Studien har en kvalitativ ansats med stöd av semistrukturella intervjuer, gett en bild av hantering av- och framgångsfaktorer under extrema omständigheter likt Covid-19 pandemin. Intervjuerna har behandlat begreppet framgång och framgångsfaktorer har diskuterats. I ett försök att finna specifika faktorer som restaurangerna applicerat för att undvika konkurs.  Slutsatsen visar att restriktionerna påverkat restaurangerna negativt i hög grad det har även krävts förändringar i verksamheterna för att undvika en konkurs. Restaurangerna har behövt anpassa sig efter marknaden och kundernas förändrade behov och önskemål, genom exempelvis tillhandahålla en plats att tvätta och sprita händer. Studien fann att god ekonomisk ställning samt möjlighet att planera verksamheten är viktiga framgångsfaktorer i krissituationer. Vidare dras slutsatsen att atmosfär och läget på restaurangen har en stor betydelse för dess överlevnad, vilket även visats i studier från tidigare krissituationer som lågkonjunktur. En bra ledning och en engagerad restaurangchef bidrar till framgång, detta har varit viktigt under en lågkonjunktur och även under pandemin.

A Kaizen event (KE) may be defined as a structured improvement project that uses a cross-functional team and specific improvement goals to improve a targeted work area or process in an accelerated time frame. KEs, also known as Rapid Improvement Events (RIEs), have been utilized within hospitals to achieve beneficial operations, stakeholder (i.e., social), financial, and clinical outcomes. Due to their potential to achieve positive results in a rapid timeframe, understanding the determinants of KE success within a hospital environment is a valuable research undertaking. To date there has been limited rigorous empirical quantitative research focused on identifying success factors (SFs) influencing socio-technical outcomes of hospital-based KEs. Hence, this empirical research study seeks to determine the critical success factors (CSFs) for KEs in hospitals. For the first phase of this research work, a comprehensive systematic literature review (SLR) was conducted to identify the success factors (SFs) for KEs in hospitals as reported in the literature. This SLR resulted in the identification of 54 unique success factors mapping to four broad success factor categories, KE Task Design, KE Team Design, Organization, and KE Process. Thereafter, the second phase, which involved the variable reduction process, was performed to determine the strength of effect, or importance, of the SFs in order to determine a feasible number of SFs to include in further empirical work. Two robust methods were applied; a Meta-synthesis Evaluation and an Expert Survey, to query the SFs and to determine high priority factors for the empirical study. As a result, a total of 30 factors were finalized for empirical study. Next, the last phase, the empirical study to investigate and determine the CSFs for KEs in hospitals, was executed using a retrospective field study survey research design. Specifically, a survey questionnaire was designed to elicit feedback on perceptual measures from targeted hospital KE facilitators/leaders on the criticality of SFs on socio-technical outcomes for KEs in hospitals. Sixty usable responses were obtained, which were subjected to Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA) and Partial Least Squares-Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM), which were used to identify latent factor constructs and to determine the significance of the SFs, respectively. The results of this study identified seven significant direct relationships. Kaizen Event Design Characteristics (KEDC) and Target Area Buy-in (TABI) were found to have significant direct effects with both dependent variables, Performance Impact (PI) and Growth in Kaizen Capabilities (KCG). In addition, KEDC also had a significant direct relationship with Performance Culture (PC) and Team Dynamics (TD), respectively. Also, PC has a significant direct relationship with TD. Furthermore, Logistic Regression was utilized to test the SFs impact on the one objective technical outcome measure in the study, Goal Attainment (GOALATT). This analysis revealed one significant negative relationship occurring between TD and GOALATT. Overall, the study's findings provide evidence-based results for informing hospital managers, leaders, and continuous improvement practitioners on the key factors or value-added practices that can be adopted in their hospital KE initiatives to achieve beneficial socio-technical outcomes, as well as overall hospital KE success. Furthermore, this research can enable academia/researchers to strategize more confirmatory analysis approaches for theory validation and generalizability. / Doctor of Philosophy / The focus of this research study is to identify the most significant factors for Kaizen events (KEs) in hospitals, referred herein as critical success factors (CSFs). A KE may be defined as a structured improvement project that uses a cross-functional team and specific improvement goals to improve a targeted work area or process in an accelerated time frame. The aim of the study is to ultimately improve KE practice in hospitals through increased understanding of CSFs that can be planned or designed into KE processes to increase the likelihood of successful event outcomes. Various research formulation, development, and testing techniques are applied to frame the research study according to the aims and objectives and to achieve targeted research outcomes. The overall research design encompasses a retrospective study approach, performing a large-scale field study using a survey questionnaire to empirically identify the CSFs for KEs in hospitals. To help frame the research, a systematic literature review (SLR) along with bibliometric analyses were conducted. To help refine and select the success factors for empirical study, a meta-synthesis evaluation and an expert survey study were conducted. Exploratory factor analysis (EFA) and partial least squares-structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) along with mediation analyses (MA) were performed to identify key factors, determine the significance of those factors, and to understand the influential relationships of those factors to hospital KE success. Results from this study aim to inform healthcare managers, healthcare improvement practitioners, researchers, and other relevant stakeholders about the critical components needed to achieve hospital KE success. The dissertation is documented according to a "manuscript style," using a journal/conference paper format to organize and report on the key findings and results obtained from the investigation. The Introduction chapter is provided to introduce the research study topic, study significance, indicate the overall research aims and objectives, present the overall research approach and design methodology, and to enumerate the main publication outputs and outcomes from this dissertation work. The Conclusions chapter summarizes the overall research outcomes, key study findings, study limitations, and provides areas for future research.

Syftet med denna uppsats var att utveckla kunskap kring vilka faktorer som påverkar implementeringen och upprätthållandet av Lean i tandvård. För att belysa detta syfte användes en kvalitativ ansats där det genomfördes fem intervjuer med nyckelpersoner i två fall, som sedan kompletterades med tre intervjuer av respondenter som inte var kopplade till något av fallen. I tillägg till dessa intervjuer gjordes en dokumentstudie relaterad till fallen där sju dokument analyserades. Intervjuerna transkriberades och en innehållsanalys gjordes genom kodning. Resultatet av studien genererade ett antal framgångsfaktorer och korresponderande hinder för implementeringen och upprätthållandet av Lean. De kritiska framgångsfaktorerna som identifierades var ledarskap som har intresse för Lean, ledarskap som driver Lean-konceptet kontinuerligt, informationsdelning och utbildning och anpassning av Lean till den egna organisationen. Det största hindret var motstånd från personalen, ett hinder som användandet av informationsdelning hjälpte att reducera. / The purpose of this thesis was to develop knowledge about which factors affect the implementation and maintenance of Lean in dental care. To study this, a qualitative method was used where five interviews were conducted with key persons in two cases, which were then supplemented with three interviews with persons that were not connected to the two cases. In addition to this, a document study was made related to the cases where seven documents were analyzed. The interviews were transcribed, and a content analysis was done through coding. The results generated several critical success factors and corresponding barriers to the implementation and maintenance of Lean. The critical success factors that were identified were leadership that has an interest in Lean, leadership that drives the Lean concept continuously, information sharing and education of employees and adaptation of Lean to the individual organization. The biggest barrier was resistance from staff, however, the use of information sharing helped to reduce it.

Idag rapporterar media om att den problematiska skolfrånvaron ökar. Enligt skollagen har alla elever rätt till en utbildning och den svenska närvaroplikten innebär att varje skola behöver kunna främja skolnärvaro. En fullständigt genomförd grundskola med godkända betyg är en skyddsfaktor mot utanförskap i samhället och psykisk ohälsa. Syftet med studien är att bidra med kunskap om skolans insatser för att stödja elever med problematisk skolfrånvaro i att kunna återgå till skolan. Forskningsfrågorna sökte svar på framgångsrika insatser som eleverna och deras vårdnadshavare beskriver för återgång till skolan, sett ur ett flernivåperspektiv. Studiens teoretiska ramverk var Bronfenbrenners utvecklingsekologiska systemteori. Undersökningen hade en kvalitativ forskningsansats, inspirerad av fallstudiedesign. För att samla in data användes semistrukturerade intervjuer. En pilotstudie genomfördes för att förbättra våra intervjufrågor. Urvalet till studien baserades på ett målstyrt urval. Våra respondenter var fyra elever och deras vårdnadshavare. Eleverna hade tidigare haft problematisk skolfrånvaro men återvänt till skolan. Tidigare forskning har visat att framgångsfaktorer som ökar skolnärvaro innefattar undervisning, delaktighet, inflytande, trygghet och studiero, tillitsfulla relationer och kommunikation mellan hem och skola. Studiens resultat överensstämmer med tidigare forskning. I vårt resultat framkom även betydelsen av att minska kraven på eleverna i skolsituationen för en positiv återgång till skolan. Ytterligare framkom ur ett systemteoretiskt perspektiv att faktorer på samtliga nivåer inom teorin har en inverkan på skolnärvaron. En liten förändring på någon nivå kan påverka elevens förutsättningar att närvara i skolan. Vi tänker oss att vår studie kan bidra med kunskap och vara ett stöd i skolors närvarofrämjande arbete. / Today, Media reports that the problematic school absence is increasing. According to Skollagen, all students have the right to an education, and the Swedish compulsory attendance means that each school needs to encourage school attendance. A completed schooling with passed grades is a protection factor in society and against mental illness. The purpose of this study is to contribute with knowledge about the schools’ measures to aid students with problematic school attendance in returning to school. The research questions sought to find successful measures that students and their guardians describe were important in the students’ returning to school, seen from a multilevel perspective. The theoretical framework of the study was Bronfenbrenner’s educational system theory. The study had a qualitative research method, inspired by case study design. To collect data, semi structured interviews were used. A pilot study was carried out to perfect our questions. The selection of participants was based on goal-oriented factors. Our respondents were four students and their guardians. The students had previously had problematic school absence but then returned to school. Previous research has shown that success factors that increase the students’ attendance in school are teaching, participation, influence, security, a peaceful study situation, trusting relations and communication between home and school. The results from the study coincide with previous research. In our result, the importance of lowering the demands on the students in order to reach a successful return to school, emerged. Furthermore, from a theoretical system perspective, all theoretical factors influenced school attendance. A small alteration at some level can affect the students’ prerequisite for school attendance. Our study can contribute with knowledge about, and be supportive in, schools’ work with encouraging school attendance.

Background and problems: The research field of performance management and measurement has primarily focused on financial aspects for a long time, with measurement being the focus. Performance management systems integrate both the aspects of control and measurement, resulting in a broad research area. The lack of research combined regarding the role of the staff manager within the system creates a gap that needs to be explored. Purpose: The purpose of the study is to make a theoretical contribution to the field of performance management systems. The contribution is to examine the role of the staff manager in an implemented performance management system and the achievement of organizational goals. Method: To fulfill the purpose, a qualitative research method with an abductive research approach was used. The study is a case study conducted at Handelsbanken, where the empirical data collection is based on six semi-structured interviews and an internal document.    Conclusion: The role of the staff manager is crucial and more central than previously believed in effectively using a performance management system and achieving organizational goals. By communicating the mission and vision and linking them to the employees' daily work, the system can be efficiently utilized. Daily work is monitored through evaluations, which serve as a fundamental control mechanism in the system.  By strengthening the alignment between employees and the organization, it can result in more desirable organizational outcomes. This can be achieved through a clearer reward system and linking the employees' daily work to the achievement of office goals.

Projektstyrning är viktig och IT-projektledaren har en avgörande roll för ifall IT- projekt lyckas eller inte. Dock är det en stor utmaning att leda IT-projekt och att få den effekt som önskas genom exempelvis tidplan, budget och resurser. Samtidigt tar digitaliseringen hela tiden samhället framåt och kunskapen som samlas in efter avslutade IT-projekt gör att lärdomarna ständigt växer. Likväl är det fortsatt få IT- projekt som lyckas. Enligt tidigare forskning är två av huvudfaktorerna som avgör huruvida ett projekt anses lyckas eller inte, tid och budget. Vidare utgör IT-projektledaren dess mest betydande roll i början av projektet, men att löpande och god kommunikation, samt med ett flexibelt ledarskap, är viktiga hörnstenar för att lyckas med projektet. Denna studies syfte har varit att undersöka och få en bättre förståelse för varför IT- projekt lyckas eller inte lyckas utifrån projektledares perspektiv. För att besvara detta syfte har följande forskningsfrågor ställts: Hur beskriver projektledare de kritiska framgångsfaktorerna i ledningen av ett IT-projekt? och Hur beskriver projektledare utmaningarna i ledningen av ett IT-projekt?. En kvalitativ undersökningsmetod har tillämpats där semistrukturerade intervjuer har genomförts med sex IT-projektledare vid ett stort IT-företag i Sverige. Intervjufrågorna har behandlat områden som projektledning och vilka framgångsfaktorer samt utmaningar projektledare upplever vid IT-projekt. Resultatet av studien visar att för att lyckas med ett IT-projekt utifrån projektledarens perspektiv, är nyckeln för framgång god kommunikation, att kunna prioritera rätt, samt god kravhantering. Vidare bör projektledaren ha en god förståelse för systemet, besitta tekniska färdigheter, samt ha en god förståelse för IT-komponenter såsom beroenden och kopplingar. Slutligen utgör även resurser, budget och avsatt tid avgörande faktorer. Projektledarna menar samtidigt att på grund av den komplexitet IT-projekt ofta utgörs av, är det utmanande att göra relevanta ändringar i projektet som passar samtliga intressenter, den egna projektgruppen inkluderat. Det är dessutom ofta en utmaning för projektledaren att kunna förstå och förklara den kundnytta ett IT-projekt kan medföra, återigen på grund av komplexiteten vid IT- projekt. Att som projektledare även kunna prioritera rätt, samt att ha de rätta resurserna redo, har visat sig vara en utmaning för många. Sedan är det utmanande när intressenter har ett tydligare fokus på business än den tekniska delen. / Project management is important and the IT project manager has a crucial role in whether IT projects succeed or not. However, it is a great challenge to lead IT projects and to get the desired effect through, for example, schedule, budget and resources. At the same time, digitalization is constantly moving society forward and the knowledge that is gathered after completed IT projects means that the lessons are constantly growing. Nevertheless, there are still few IT projects that succeed. According to previous research, two of the main factors that determine whether a project is considered successful or not are time and budget. Furthermore, the IT project manager has its most important role at the beginning of the project, but that continuous and good communication, and with a flexible leadership, are important cornerstones for success with the project. This study’s purpose has been to investigate and gain a better understanding of why IT projects succeed or fail from the project manager's perspective. To answer this purpose, the following research questions have been asked: How does the project manager describe the critical success factors in the management of an IT project? and How do project managers describe the challenges in managing an IT project?. A qualitative survey method has been applied where semi-structured interviews have been conducted with six IT project managers at a large IT company in Sweden. The interview questions have dealt with areas such as project management and what success factors and challenges project managers experience in IT projects. The results of the study show that to succeed with an IT project from the project manager's perspective, the key to success is good communication, being able to prioritize correctly, and good requirements management. Furthermore, the project manager should have a good understanding of the system, possess technical skills, and have a good understanding of IT components such as dependencies and connections. Finally, resources, budget and time allotted are also important factors. At the same time, the project managers believe that due to the complexity that IT projects often consist of, it is challenging to make relevant changes to the project that suit all stakeholders, including their own project group. In addition, it is often a challenge for the project manager to be able to understand and explain the customer benefit an IT project can bring, again due to the complexity of IT projects. As a project manager, being able to prioritize correctly, as well as having the right resources at hand, has proved to be a challenge for many. Furthermore, it is challenging when stakeholders have a clear focus on business rather than the technical part.

In recent years, companies have been focused on improving organizational performance and the loyalty of customers to improve sustainability in increasingly complex markets. The Baldrige Performance Excellence framework, generally referred to as the Baldrige criteria, was created to guide professionals in achieving these goals including defining a set of excellence criteria and offering an award program to recognize high-performing organizations. The principles of excellence focus on understanding and working for the stakeholders, improving performance and quality management, and strategically driving continuous improvement. The framework can be used for organizational self-assessments; however, many organizations find it challenging to interpret and apply the criteria without prior knowledge of the framework and guiding principles. This is particularly true for small businesses, which are less formal, have less exposure to key terminology and concepts, and have limited resources. Although there is some research that focuses on successful application of the Baldrige criteria, this research is still exploratory and there is a need for empirical studies in this area. This research investigates the factors that affected the successful implementation of the Baldrige criteria by conducting an action research study to guide a small business in conducting the Baldrige Self-Assessment. This research consisted of a series of three surveys and online working sessions to both complete the Baldrige Self-Assessment, interpret the results, and evaluate the experiences of participants regarding the relative success of the self-assessment process as well as the factors that affected this process. The results of this study provide insights into strategies for ensuring successful application of this self-assessment process in small businesses. The findings show that unfamiliarity with key terminology and complexity of the questions were significant barriers to success. Further, the participants indicated that working as a team to complete the assessment facilitated the process due to real-time discussion of points of confusion. These results support the assertion that a version of the Baldrige Criteria specifically designed for small businesses is needed. Improving the accessibility of this framework will improve the chances of successful implementation bringing the potential benefits to more organizations.

In the last decade, the rapid economic development in the Middle East has encouraged organisations to implement modem quality management and strategic initiatives such as Six Sigma to ensure continuous improvement and achieved excellence. Six Sigma is a comprehensive business strategic quality programme and a systematic process improvement methodology for achieving, sustaining and maximising business success. The proper implementation of Six Sigma leads to breakthrough in profitability through ensuring quantum gains in product/service quality, customer satisfaction and productivity. This research presents an empirical exploratory and comparative study that aims and attempts to bridge the gap in the existing literature of Six Sigma by investigating the current implementation status of Six Sigma in organisations of three Middle East countries (namely, Saudi Arabia, Egypt and United Arab Emirates (UAE)). The reasons/benefits that encourage Middle East organisations to implement Six Sigma projects, the challenges commonly faced during implementation, the critical success factors (CSFs) for effective implementation and the organisations’ satisfaction with the implementation are investigated. The key issues of Six Sigma implementation and their criticality relating to the experience of the implementing process of Six Sigma projects are explored through an extensive review of the relevant literature. The data were collected from a combination of quantitative (232 questionnaires) and qualitative (74 semi-structured interviews) methodologies. The research covered 44 organisations from manufacturing and services sectors and large, small, and medium enterprises (SME) sizes, which have implemented or were implementing Six Sigma projects in the selected countries at the time of study. The study findings identified 15 significant reasons/benefits which encourages Middle East organisations to implement Six Sigma projects, 13 major challenges commonly faced during implementation, 19 CSFs for effective implementation and level of the organisations’ satisfaction with the implementation. Based on the research findings, a generic model for successful and effective implementation of Six Sigma in Middle East organisations is developed and proposed. The research concludes that Six Sigma implementation in Middle East organisations still in early stage, most organisations have outstanding opportunities to implement the Six Sigma project successfully and effectively with tangible and intangible benefits. In addition, all the responding organisations, which are actively implementing Six Sigma programme, regardless of their countries, sectors and sizes are highly satisfied with the implementation results. However, the research output highlights that an improvement culture must be developed and promoted throughout the organisation to ensure long-term benefit and sustainable success. Furthermore, the research makes recommendations on development of an implementation strategy in Middle East organisations. Finally, a number of suggestions are made for future research.

Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA) provides a standards-based conceptual framework for flexible and adaptive systems and has become widely used in the recent years because of it. The number of legacy systems has already been migrated to this platform. As there are still many systems under consideration of such migration, we found it relevant to share the existing experience of SOA migration and highlight challenges that companies meet while adopting SOA. As not all of these migrations were successful, we also look into factors that have influence on the success of SOA projects. The research is based on two methods: a literature review and a survey. The results of the thesis include identification and quantitative analysis of the challenges and success factors of SOA projects. We also compare the survey results for different samples (based on the company industry, work area, size, and respondents experience with SOA and respondents job positions). In total, 13 SOA challenges and 18 SOA success factors were identified, analyzed and discussed in this thesis. Based on the survey results, there are three SOA challenges received the highest importance scores: “Communicating SOA Vision”, “Focus on business perspective, and not only IT perspective” and “SOA Governance”. The highest scored SOA success factor is “Business Process of Company”. While comparing different samples of the survey results, the most obvious differences are identified between the results received from people with development related job positions and people with business related job positions, and the results from companies of different sizes.

The definition of a project is that an individual or group of individuals carries out a work that results in a unique product or service. What is usually discussed in both the media and in the construction industry is the type of project that you can talk about. In this study, this is called conventional construction projects. There are also projects that you are not allowed to talk about and that must be kept secret for various reasons. These can, for example, be based on protecting national interests. In these projects, integrity is one of the most important parameters to keep track of from a management perspective. This study examines the work methodology in this area of the Swedish construction industry. The study is based on traditional project management theory and begins with a review of concepts such as critical success factors (CSF), the distinction between confidentiality and conventionality, key performance indicators (KPI) and the classic iron triangle. The study's question is whether these concepts appear and are applied differently in confidential construction projects compared to conventional ones. Are there any activities that are of utmost importance that they are carried out for a confidential project to be considered successful? The study was conducted as a qualitative, abductive study where information was obtained through semi-structured interviews. In total, eleven interviews were conducted with individuals who participated in some form of confidential construction project. All respondents have represented construction contractors during their time in confidential construction projects. The conclusion after the completed analysis of the interviews shows that confidential projects do not differ significantly in terms of project structure. On the other hand, this type of project is characterized by a much higher degree of accuracy regarding planning and implementation than a comparable conventional construction project. / Definitionen av ett projekt är att en enskild eller grupp av individer genomför ett arbete som resulterar i en, på något sätt, unik produkt eller tjänst. Vad som vanligtvis diskuteras i både media och i byggbranschen är den typ av projekt som du faktiskt får prata om. I denna studie kallas detta för konventionella byggprojekt. Det finns även projekt som du inte får prata om och som måste hållas hemliga av olika anledningar. Dessa kan exempelvis vara grundade i nationella skyddsintressen. I dessa projekt är integritet en av de viktigaste parametrarna att hålla koll på ur ett ledningsperspektiv. Denna studie undersöker arbetsmetodiken inom detta område i byggbranschen. Studien tar avstamp från traditionell projektledningsteori, och inleds med en genomgång av koncept såsom kritiska framgångsfaktorer (CSF), distinktionen mellan konfidentialitet och konventionalitet, nyckeltal (KPI) samt den klassiska järntriangeln. Studiens frågeställning är om dessa begrepp ter sig och tillämpas annorlunda i konfidentiella byggprojekt jämfört med konventionella. Är det några aktiviteter som är av yttersta vikt att de genomförs för att ett konfidentiellt projekt ska anses vara framgångsrikt? Studien har genomförts som en kvalitativ, abduktiv studie där informationsinhämtningen har skett genom semistrukturerade intervjuer. Totalt har ett antal om elva intervjuer genomförts med individer som deltagit inom någon form av konfidentiellt byggprojekt. Samtliga respondenter har representerat byggentreprenörer under deras tid i konfidentiella byggprojekt. Slutsatsen efter den genomförda analysen av intervjuerna visar att konfidentiella projekt inte skiljer sig avsevärt mycket sett till struktur på projektet. Däremot karakteriseras denna typ av projekt av en mycket högre grad av noggrannhet avseende planering och genomförande än ett jämförbart konventionellt byggprojekt.