The purpose of this thesis is to examine which factors are the most important to successfully implementing an improvement process, and to examine if subcontracting companies differ from the rest of the companies in the study. Increasing the quality of products and at the same time lowering the costs is often necessary with the pressure from the external environment that many companies are facing today. Many companies are active on a global scale with competitors all over the planet. It is easy to understand that companies need to have an innovative approach, and improve their products, but it is hard to know how and what to change. Upon completion of the initial research phase, a form with questions was created. The composed question sheet was used in an internet based survey. The same question sheet was later used in interviews with 3 different companies. The interview phase provided a chance to ask follow up questions to increase the understanding and help with the analysis. The results from the study were compared with leading literature and similarities were highlighted. The results from the study demonstrate that soft values are the most important factors when implementing an improvement process. Engaged leadership, clear goals and participation from leaders and personnel are the most prominent factors. The differences between subcontracting companies and the other companies in the study are not significant.

The COVID-19 pandemic impacted many around the world, some more than others, having socioeconomic impacts around the globe. Due to its rapid spread many countries implemented restrictions, such as quarantines to uphold social distancing between its citizens. In addition, the coronavirus has not only affected people’s way of life but also many companies’ financial health worldwide. This pandemic’s side effects has resulted in increased digital transformation, causing many companies without the required infrastructure to rapidly implement mechanism and strategies to handle this type of work style. This studies aim is to give an insight in employee’s experiences and reactions to a rapid digital implementation, in a company without the infrastructure in place. With the help of an inductive approach and a multi level framework, four themes emerged from the interviews conducted ImplementationConsequences, Organizational Support, Expectations of Digital Implementation and Work-related Differences. The results showed that there is a discrepancy between the necessary factors for a successful implementation, highlighted in the model used and the respondent’s answers. Linked to this was the gender differences, a new factor arising from the data collected, emphasising the difficulties linked to teleworking but affecting a proactive use of digital tools, and hence lowering the work productivity. Even though there were differences, there were also parables showing that acceptance, attitude, and involvement in the implementation, among other factors are crucial for an openness towards digitalization. Finally, these factors and their relationship with digital implementation as well as the pandemic were explored trough a multi level framework.

As a result of the advances in information and communication technology, E-Learning has been integrated as an essential element in educational settings. Despite its successful implementation, a significant number of E-Learning projects fail to achieve their goals. This has motivated researchers and practitioners to study the reasons for failure and success and the factors that impact E-Learning. This research attempts to investigate the factors that influence the implementation and development of E-Learning and the most appropriate framework for secondary schools in Bahrain. The research adopted a quantitative approach to examine both teachers’ and students’ perceptions of critical factors in secondary schools in the Kingdom of Bahrain. A total of 540 respondents completed the survey-based questionnaire. The results revealed that there are four sets of factors which influence the success of E-Learning in the school education sector. These are: students’ characteristics (computers skills; motivation and attitudes); teachers’ characteristics (attitudes; control of technology and pedagogy and teaching style); technology (quality of technology and effectiveness of infrastructure) and design and content (perceived ease of use and quality of content). In addition, the findings show that there are some differences in perceptions amongst teachers according to gender, specialization, teaching experience and E-Learning experience. Similarly, the findings show that there are some differences in perceptions amongst students according to gender, specialization and level of study (years in school). The main contribution of this research is that it addresses the success of E-Learning in the schools sector in Bahrain and in the Arab region as this area of research lacks theoretical and empirical studies. In addition, the research proposes a conceptual framework that integrates the critical factors and demographic variables. The proposed conceptual framework contributes to the knowledge of E-Learning success by creating a guide for educational institutions and governments for better development and implementation, serving as a planning tool for new E-Learning projects and as an assessment mode for the efficacy of existing projects.

Införandet av ett IT-system är en socioteknisk förändring som ställer många krav på en orga-nisation om det ska betraktas som framgångsrikt. Det finns utmaningar av både teknisk, social och organisatorisk karaktär. I beskrivningar av lyckade systeminföranden framträder ofta fak-torer som påverkade införandets framgång. Syftet med uppsatsen är att få kunskap om dessa faktorer och hur de kan påverka systeminföranden i kommunala organisationer. I detta arbete identifieras dessa faktorer som kallas framgångsfaktorer i teori och genom studier av verkliga omständigheter i organisationer. Faktorerna undersöks och kunskap om dem samlas och pre-senteras. Arbetet genomförs som en kvalitativ intervjuundersökning av två organisationer i två mindre kommuner med stora erfarenheter av systemimplementationer. De personer som intervjuades hade varierande roller inom organisationen och olika erfarenheter av införande-processen. Som resultat presenteras respondenternas upplevelser, erfarenheter och synpunkter på implementationer rörande områden som till exempel systemets användbarhet, ledarskap, utbildning och engagemang. I arbetet framkommer faktorer som uppfattas ha bidragit till framgång, till exempel ledning-ens stöd och engagemang, teknisk stabilitet och användardeltagande. De viktigaste slutsat-serna av arbetet är att flera framgångsfaktorer som beskrivs i studier från andra typer av orga-nisationer även återfinns i kommunala organisationer. Faktorer som påverkar systeminföran-dens framgång återfinns i områden som organisation, kompetens, systemets användbarhet och systemanvändarna. Det förekommer olika metoder för utvärdering, och olika definitioner av framgång, därför är framgångsfaktorer inte generella genvägar till framgång utan snarare un-derlag för arbete före, under och även efter systeminföranden. De specifika omständigheterna vid varje systeminförande och organisationens övergripande strategi för system- och verksam-hetsutvecklingsarbete kan variera, och påverka faktorernas effekter. / An implementation of an IT system is a socio-technical change that places many demands on the organization if the implementation is to be considered successful. There are challenges of both the technical, social and organizational nature. Descriptions of the implementations that were perceived as successful often refers to common factors that contributed to the successful implementation, so-called success factors. The purpose of this work is to obtain knowledge about those factors and how they can affect system implementations in municipal organiza-tions. In this work those so-called success factors are identified based on theory and studies of practical circumstances in organizations. The factors are examined and knowledge about them is gathered and presented. This work is conducted using a qualitative interview study of two organizations in two small municipalities with large experience on system implementations. The interviewed persons have varying roles in the organizations and different experiences of implementations. The results are the respondents' perceived views, experiences and comments on implementations regarding such as system usability, leadership, training and commitment. This work presents factors perceived to have contributed to the success, for example the lead-ers support and commitment, technical stability and user participation. The main conclusions of this work include that a number of success factors that are described in studies from other types of organizations can even be found in municipal organizations. Factors that affect the implementations success are found in fields that regards organization, qualifications, systems applicability and the systems users. There are different methods for evaluation, and different definitions of success, therefore they are not general shortcuts to success, but rather a base for the work before, during and even after the systems implementation. The specific circum-stances of each system implementation and organization overall strategy for system and busi-ness development may vary and influence the factors' effects.