The uncontrolled spread of COVID-19 pandemic has surpassed all the expectations. Nations closed their boarders; the economy is going into recession and the whole world is suffering from the emerged pandemic. Although the effects of the pandemic economically and socially can be measured and estimated, thought the changes in the buying behaviour of customers is not easily predicted. As hygiene products demand went up and supply went down causing panic hoarding by some of the consumers. It became interesting for the researchers to explore the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the brand preferences in purchasing decisions for hygiene and food products. As a result, the main purpose of this master thesis is to broaden the scope of consumer behaviour as a field by adding a complementary empirical perspective to the current literature on how a pandemic affects brand preference in purchasing behaviour, since it is a topic lacking in empirical research. Furthermore, based on the branding theory and the consumer behaviour theory, the PMO model was built, which provided the bases for collecting empirical data needed for this dissertation. This dissertation was conducted using a qualitative approach with an abductive reasoning. Sixteen semi-structured interviews were conducted with Swedish customers. The findings indicated aspects of price, quality, risk and loyalty became tied to the pandemic in the context of the health aspect of the COVID-19 virus. While there were not much indicating large shifts in preferred brands, there were large changes in health consciousness and qualitative demands on brands due to the pandemic affecting brand preference.

Many organizations needed to have a remote workplace during the Covid-19 pandemic, which has led to many organizations now having a hybrid workplace after the pandemic. To understand this phenomenon, there is an importance of understanding the structures that appear within organizations that have a hybrid workplace. The aim of this study was to understand which social structures are created by communication processes in an organization, that for the first time is a hybrid workplace. The aim of the study is answered by these two questions:  How are communication processes adapted in a hybrid workplace?How are structures maintained in a hybrid workplace? The theoretical approach of the study is the Theory of Structuration by Anthony Giddens. This is a case study of one organization that has a hybrid workplace. The used method was semi structured interviews, which were analyzed through a thematic analysis.  The result showed that the Organization formed new structures due to new digital tools, the flexibility, the hybrid rule and the team's different actions. Since the employees of the Organization have begun to act on these aspects, new structures have been created. As they continue to follow these rules, the structures are maintained.  The study has contributed to an understanding of the hybrid workplace in Sweden, which nowadays is a relatively broad phenomenon. Because the phenomenon is relatively new, it is difficult to discern how a hybrid workplace should be structured at such an early stage of a change process.

As a result of the covid-19 pandemic, organizations have been forced to undergo rapid and significant changes. One of the more extensive changes has been the transfer of work from physical offices to virtual environments, which implies that employees have been forced to adapt to new conditions. Moreover, implementing major changes is a far more complex process for larger, traditional and older organizations, since they generally have an inveterate organizational culture. Thus, there is an interest in analyzing large organizations, such as Scania, since they have been forced to undergo major changes due to covid-19, and how these changes have affected the employees' perceptions and experiences of the organizational culture. This study is based on a qualitative approach, and examines how Scania’s employees have experienced the shift from a physical workplace to a virtual workplace, and how this has affected the perceived organizational culture. The empirical data was analyzed on the basis of the study's theoretical framework, The Cultural Web, and with the help of the theory of sensemaking, as well as Schein's three levels of organizational culture. The result indicates that the transition to a virtual workplace has generated both positive and negative implications on the perceived organizational culture of Scania. This is explained by the fact that the transition to a virtual workplace has increased the individual part of sensemaking, and reduced the collective part. The results also show that employees identify more with Scania after the change than before, as they experience that the workplace has become more flexible with allowing remote work. / Till följd av covid-19-pandemin har organisationer tvingats genomgå både hastiga och stora förändringar. En av de mer omfattande förändringarna har varit förflyttningen av arbetet från de fysiska kontoren, till en virtuell miljö vilket medfört att anställda tvingats anpassa sig efter nya förutsättningar. Samtidigt har det påvisats att större, traditionella och äldre organisationer har svårare att genomföra stora förändringar på grund av en inbiten organisationskultur. Således finns ett intresse av att undersöka stora organisationer, likt Scania, som tvingats genomgå en stor förändring i samband med covid-19, och hur det har påverkat de anställdas upplevelse av organisationskulturen. Denna studie har, utifrån ett kvalitativt tillvägagångssätt, undersökt hur de anställda på Scania upplever att organisationskulturen har påverkats av den digitala omställningen – att gå från en fysisk arbetsplats till en virtuell. Empirin analyserades utifrån studiens teoretiska ramverk The Cultural Web och med hjälp av teorin om meningsskapande, samt Scheins tre nivåer av organisationskultur. Studien visade att omställningen till en digital arbetsplats har genererat både positiva och negativa implikationer på Scanias organisationskultur. Detta då övergången till en virtuell arbetsplats har ökat den individuella delen av meningsskapande, och samtidigt minskat den kollektiva. Resultatet visar även att medarbetarna identifierar sig mer med Scania efter omställningen än tidigare, då de upplever att arbetsplatsen blivit mer flexibel genom möjligheten till distansarbete.

I samband med covid-19 pandemin har Folkhälsomyndigheten infört allmänna råd och rekommendationer om social distansering och distansarbete. Revisionsbranschen har därmed ställt om till en mer varierad arbetsplats där arbetstagarna har utfört sitt arbete helt eller delvis hemifrån och mycket tyder på att denna typ av hybrida arbetsmiljö kommer att fortsätta även efter covid-19 pandemin. Det är vanligt förekommande att revisorsassistenterna till stor del arbetar ute hos sina kunder och tidigare forskning har påvisat att en hög grad av arbetsrelaterad stress är vanligt förekommande inom revisionsbranschen. Med tanke på social distansering och distansarbete har revisionsbranschen därmed behövt hitta andra vägar för att utföra sina arbetsuppgifter, vilket i sin tur kan ha påverkat revisorsassistenternas upplevda arbetsrelaterade stress.  Syftet med studien är att beskriva hur revisorsassistenternas arbetssätt har förändrats till följd av en ökad grad av distansarbete samt hur detta har påverkat den upplevda arbetsrelaterade stressen. Studien ämnar dessutom till att skapa förståelse för varför revisorsassistenter upplever arbetsrelaterad stress till följd av ett förändrat arbetssätt. För att uppfylla studiens syfte har en kvalitativ metod använts där tio semistrukturerade intervjuer har genomförts. Respondenterna bestod av revisorsassistenter som är verksamma i Norrbotten och som jobbar på någon de fem största revisionsbyråerna i Sverige. Materialet som inhämtades vid intervjuerna har sedan analyserats med hjälp av krav-kontroll-stödmodellen för att undersöka stresspåverkan närmare. För att skapa ytterligare förståelse kring vilka stressfaktorer som är framträdande har respondenterna valts ut utifrån två olika grupper för att se om det finns några eventuella skillnader. Den ena gruppen består av revisorsassistenter som har varit verksamma både innan och under covid-19 pandemin medan den andra gruppen består av revisorsassistenter som har blivit anställda under covid-19 pandemin.  Studiens slutsats är att arbetssättet har förändrats till följd av covid-19 pandemin och att stresspåverkan av denna förändring är högst individuell, där hälften av respondenterna upplever att den arbetsrelaterade stressen har ökat och den andra hälften upplever att den arbetsrelaterade stressen har minskat. Den främsta anledningen, enligt revisorsassistenterna, var att de upplever ökade eller minskade krav. Det visade sig däremot att även kontrollen och stödet hade inverkan på den upplevda arbetsrelaterade stressen. Någon tydlig skillnad i arbetsrelaterad stress mellan de två olika respondentgrupperna framkom inte, vad som däremot framkom var skillnader i upplevd effektivitet. / Due to the covid-19 pandemic the Swedish public health agency has introduced general advice and recommendations regarding social distancing and teleworking. The auditing industry has thus switched to a more varied workplace where the employees have performed their work wholly or partly from home and there are a lot that indicates that this type of hybrid work environment will continue even after the covid-19 pandemic. It is common for auditor assistants to perform their work at their clients and previous research has shown that a high degree of work-related stress is common in the auditing industry. With regards to social distancing and teleworking, the auditing industry has thus had to find other ways to perform their tasks, which in turn may have affected the auditors’ perceived work-related stress. The purpose of the study is to describe how the auditing assistants' working methods have changed as a result of an increased degree of telework and how this has affected the perceived work-related stress. The study also aims to create an understanding of why auditing assistants experience work-related stress as a result of a changed way of working. To fulfill the purpose of the study a qualitative method has been used where ten semi-structured interviews have been conducted. The respondents consisted of auditing assistants who are active in Norrbotten and work at one of the five largest auditing firms in Sweden. The material obtained during the interviews was then analyzed using the demand-control-support model to examine the stress impact in more detail. To create a further understanding of which stress factors are prominent, the respondents have been selected based on two different groups to see if there are any differences. One group consists of auditor assistants who have been employed both before and during the covid-19 pandemic whilst the other group consists of auditor assistans who were employed during the covid-19 pandemic. The conclusion of the study is that the work method has changed as a result of the covid-19 pandemic and that the stress impact of this change is highly individual, where half of the respondents feel that the work-related stress has increased and the other half feel that the work-related stress has decreased. The main reason was, according to the auditor assistants, due to the fact that they experienced an increase or a decrease in demands. However, it also turned out that the control and support had an impact on the perceived work-related stress. There was no clear difference in work-related stress between the two different respondent groups, but what emerged were differences in perceived efficiency.

Covid-19 pandemin har kommit att göra en global påverkan och risken för mäns våld mot kvinnor i nära relationer har således ökat. Syftet med denna studie är att undersöka hur kvinnojourers arbete och insatser, samt deras samverkan med socialtjänsten, har kommit att påverkas och förändras av covid-19 pandemin och om nya insatser har implementeras. Studien utgår från kvalitativ ansats där åtta kvinnojourer, placerade i Skåne, blivit intervjuade. Tillsammans med den insamlade empirin och studiens teoretiska val, samt en tematisk analysmetod, ämnar jag att uppmärksamma kvinnojourernas berättelser om pandemins påverkan. Följaktligen ämnar jag att belysa deras tillvägagångssätt för upprätthålla och förändra sitt arbete för att nå sitt mål och fortsätta hjälpa våldsutsatta kvinnor och således förebygga mäns våld mot kvinnor i nära relationer. Resultaten påvisar att det blivit svårare för kvinnojourerna att utföra sitt arbete och sina insatser på grund av rädslan pandemin medfört, samtidigt som de observerar en ökning gällande antalet våldsutsatta kvinnor som kontaktar dem. Kvinnojourerna beslutar sig för att förändra och utöka sina tidigare insatser, men även implementera nya, som de tillsammans med sitt nya tankesätt sedan väljer att kvarhålla när samhället börjar öppna upp igen. Kvinnojourernas samverkan med socialtjänsten påverkas och förändras då de inte längre kan samtala och besöka varandra som de tidigare gjort. Utöver problematiken kring deras samtal med socialtjänsten så observeras även att färre kvinnor placeras av socialtjänsten i kvinnojourernas skyddade boenden. Denna uppsats belyser vikten i kvinnojourernas arbete kring förebyggandet av mäns våld mot kvinnor i nära relationer och hur väsentligt det är att besitta kunskap om krishantering när osäkra tider, som covid-19 pandemi, uppstår. / The Covid-19 pandemic has made a global impact and the risk of domestic violence against women has thus increased. The purpose of this study is to examine whether the work and actions of women’s shelters, as well as their cooperation with the social services, has been affected or changed by the covid-19 pandemic and if new actions have been implemented. The study is based on a qualitative approach where eight women’s shelters, located in Skåne, have been interviewed. Together with the collected empirical data and the study’s theoretical choices, as well as a thematic analysis method, I aim to illuminate the women shelter’s stories concerning the pandemic’s impact. Furthermore, I intend to illumine their course of action to maintaining and changning their work to achieve their goal and continue to help abused women and thus prevent men's violence against women in close relationships. The results demonstrate that it has become more difficult for women's shelters to carry out their work and actions due to the fear caused by the pandemic, while at the same time observing an increase regarding the number of women exposed to violence who contact them. The women's shelters decide to change and expand their previous actions, but also to implement new ones, which they, together with their new way of thinking, then choose to retain when society begins to reopen. The women's shelters' cooperation with the social services is affected and changed as they can no longer talk and visit each other as they previously did. In addition to the problems concerning their communication with the social services, it is also observed that fewer women are placed by the social services in the women's sheltered housing. This essay enlightens the importance of women shelter's work in regards to the prevention of men's violence against women in close relationships and how essential it is to possess knowledge about crisis management when uncertain times, such as the covid-19 pandemic, arise.

Uppsatsarbetet syftade till att undersöka hur konsumenters handelsbeteenden förändrats till följd av Covid-19 pandemin samt ta reda på vilka konsekvenser detta medför i svenska stadskärnor. Studien tar avstamp i e-handelns expansion före och under pandemin och har sin utgångspunkt i Värmlands län. Studiens frågeställningar lyder: Hur har konsumenters handelsbeteenden, med fokus på e-handeln, förändrats under Covid-19 pandemin? Vilka konsekvenser medför förändringarna på svenska stadskärnors innehåll och utbud? Studien har undersökt vad tidigare forskning redovisat när det gäller förändrade handelsbeteenden. Metoden som använts är en kvalitativ intervjustudie, för att få svar på studiens syfte och frågeställningar. Intervjuerna genomfördes med både privatpersoner och personer med yrkeskompetens inom stadsutveckling och näringslivsutveckling.  Resultatet från intervjuerna visade på att många konsumenter under pandemin kände oro över att handla i fysisk butik och därmed valde att i större utsträckning handla sina nödvändigheter på nätet. En annan orsak till att respondenterna valde e-handel var på grund av flexibiliteten och bekvämligheten med att få varorna hemlevererade. Samtliga respondenter förutspådde att många av de fysiska butikerna i stadskärnan förmodligen kommer att konkurreras ut på grund av e-handelns expansion. Därmed kommer restauranger, kaféer och barer ta större plats i stadskärnan i framtiden. Dessutom framkom även att det troligtvis kommer bli ett ökat fokus på social samvaro i stadskärnan. Slutsatsen som kan dras från studien var att fler konsumenter övergick till att handla mer via e-handeln före och under pandemin. Konsekvenserna för svenska stadskärnor kommer troligtvis av den anledningen bli att de fysiska butikerna tvingas stänga ned i framtiden. / The purpose of this study is to investigate how consumers´ shopping habits have changed as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic as well as to investigate the consequences this has had on Swedish city centers. The basis in this study is the expansion of e-commerce before and during the pandemic and are focusing on Värmlands county. The study's research questions are: How has consumers´ shopping habits, with focus on e-commerce, changed during the Covid-19 pandemic? What consequences have the changes resulted in as regards the business mix as well as the range of products and services in Swedish city centers? The study has investigated what previous research has said about changes in shopping habits. The method used to answer the purpose of the study and its research questions was a qualitative interview method. The interviews were conducted with both private individuals and persons with qualifications and experience in urban and business development.  The results from the interviews indicated that consumers were concerned about shopping in physical stores during the pandemic and therefore chose in a larger degree to shop their necessities online. The respondents also chose to shop online because of the flexibility and comfort with home delivery. All the respondents predicted that the physical stores in the city center would probably go out of business because of the expansion of e-commerce. Therefore restaurants, cafés and bars would take more place in the future city center. Furthermore, there would probably be an increased focus on social interaction in the city center. The conclusion of the study was that more consumers started to shop more by e-commerce before and during the pandemic. The consequences for the Swedish city centers would probably therefore be that the physical stores are forced to close in the future.

This study seeks to advance the understanding of the development of public trust in the EU during the Covid-19 pandemic (from its beginning to March 2022). The importance of this study lies in the relevance of public trust in institutions in impacting their legitimacy and success, e.g. of policies. It is found that the EU has lost trust during the pandemic among a majority of especially central- and Northern- European member states. Four factors relating to public trust, namely trust in national governments as well as the vaccine, perceived job insecurity, and the receiving of additional financial aid from EU institutions were explored as potentially correlating variables in a mixed-method multi-stage research design. Based on the Eurofound data set titled “Living, Working and Covid-19 Data”, a high substantive but negligible statistical significance was identified regarding all four variables. In narrowing in on the negative outlier cases Austria and Germany through newspaper analysis, a correlation between the sentiment of newspaper reportings and the development of public trust was identified and the statistical findings were strengthened for all variables but trust in the vaccine.

Fler länder har under Covid-19-pandemin rapporterat att deras restriktioner har inneburit en ökning av våld i nära relation. I Sverige har socialtjänsten det yttersta ansvaret att erbjuda stöd och hjälp till en våldsutsatt kvinna. Under pandemin förväntas socialtjänsten att ge ett likartat stöd som innan pandemin trots de uppmaningar och restriktioner som utfärdats. Syftet med denna studie är således att undersöka hur socialsekreterare upplever sitt arbete med kvinnor som utsätts för våld i nära relation under rådande pandemi. Studien är baserad på material från åtta semistrukturerade intervjuer med socialsekreterare från olika kommuner i Sverige. Michael Lipskys (2010) teori om gatubyråkrati används för att undersöka och förstå socialsekreterarnas handlingsutrymme i relation till den våldsutsatta kvinnan under rådande pandemi. Vidare används Randall Collins (2004) teori om interaktionsritualer för att förstå sammanhanget som studiens socialsekreterare och de våldsutsatta kvinnorna befinner sig. Studiens resultat visar att socialsekreterarnas arbete karaktäriseras av flera aspekter, bland annat av den betydelse som motivations- och informationsarbetet har för att etablera en första kontakt med den våldsutsatta kvinnan samt hur en hög grad av handlingsutrymme krävs för att både kunna ge rätt stöd och upprätthålla en interaktionsritual med klienten. Covid-19-pandemin har förändrat socialsekreterarnas arbete genom att de inte längre kan ha fysiska möten i samma utsträckning som tidigare, vilket visar sig vara en förlust i deras yrkesroll. / Several countries have reported an increase in intimate partner violence during the Covid-19 pandemic due to their restricted measures to control the spread of the virus. In Sweden, the social services have the responsibility to offer services in the form of support and help to a woman subjected to intimate partner violence. During the Covid-19 pandemic, the social services are expected to provide similar services as before the pandemic, despite the issued exhortation and restrictions. The purpose of this study is to examine how social workers experience their work with women who are subjected to intimate partner violence during the Covid-19 pandemic. The study is based on data from eight semi-structured interviews with social workers from different municipalities in Sweden. Michael Lipsky’s (2010) theory about street-level bureaucracy is used to examine and understand the social workers’ discretion in relation to the abused women during the current pandemic. Furthermore, Randal Collins’ (2004) theory about interaction rituals is used to understand the context in which the social workers in this study and the abused women find themselves.  The results of the study show that the work of social workers is characterized by several aspects, including the importance of motivational and information work to establish a first contact with the abused woman and how a high degree of room for maneuver is required to both provide the right support and maintain an interaction ritual with the client. The Covid-19 pandemic has changed the work of social workers in that they can no longer have physical encounters to the same extent as before, proving to be a loss in their professional role.

Purpose – The unexpected yet drastic influence of the COVID-19 pandemic resulted in a rapid transition of education to be conducted in digital environments. Replacing face-to-face classrooms with synchronous online learning requires a number of appropriate adjustments which were heavily restricted by the urgency of this global change taking place. With theobserved issues of student participation and involvement in online learning, the purpose ofthis research was to investigate the potential that digital collaborative tools have and if theycan improve the quality of online group discussions among students aged 12 to 16 years old. Method – This study employs a quantitative data collection approach and makes use of the Community of Inquiry framework. A close-ended questionnaire based on the Community of Inquiry survey tool was used to collect students’ impressions and attitudes after they hadparticipated in the experimental study. The experiment consisted of control and experimental groups that partook in online group discussions as part of a regularly scheduled lesson. Findings – Digital collaborative tools were found to change the way in which students experience online group discussions. The attained rates of the Community of Inquiry were overall higher among students in the experimental group. Our findings tested to be statistically significant together with the effect size falling between medium to large extent. This further supports the notion that digital collaborative tools bring in a positive difference into online group discussions and have a potential to increase the quality of online learning when implemented carefully and thoughtfully. Implications – This study emphasizes the importance of developing a clear strategy of how to implement suitable digital collaborative tools into online learning in the most optimal manner that would increase the quality of online learning. This paper can be considered as a startingpoint for future research that could construct further knowledge within the field and extend our findings by investigating other aspects that have an influence on and can have beneficial effects for younger students in online education.

Thus far the research on how schools have managed the sudden transition to distance education due to the COVID-19 pandemic has mainly focused on the experiences of teachers, and the voices of school librarians have gone unexplored. This study aims to explore the transition to distance education from the perspectives of secondary school librarians in Sweden. The study focuses on how this transition affected school librarians’ working practices and the factors that impacted their abilities to rebuild their usual activities and services in new formats. This study uses an infrastructural perspective to analyse the school library as a part of the wider school infrastructure, and considers the enforced transition to distance education as a kind of infrastructural ‘breakdown’. School libraries are treated as multifaceted infrastructures with material, structural and relational/cultural factors which all may contribute to their success. Through a thematic analysis of semi-structured interviews with 14 librarians at 12 secondary schools in Sweden, I identified four themes in the ways informants talked about the transition process:  1.     Most well-established practices, relationships and collaborations could be adapted.  2.     The library room had social functions that could not be fully rebuilt online. 3.     Systematic integration, strong relationships and a culture of library use contributed to successful transitions. 4.     Work to make libraries more accessible and visible became more important. This is a two years master's thesis in Library and Information Science. / Hittills har forskningen om hur skolor har hanterat den plötsliga övergången till distansundervisning på grund av COVID-19-pandemin fokuserat till största delen på lärares erfarenheter, och skolbibliotekariers röster har inte utforskats. Denna studie syftar till att utforska övergången till distansundervisning utifrån svenska skolbibliotekariers perspektiv. Studien fokuserar på hur denna process påverkade skolbibliotekariers arbetspraktiker, och de faktorer som påverkade deras förmåga att återskapa sina vanliga verksamheter i nya format.  Studien använder ett infrastrukturellt perspektiv för att analysera skolbiblioteket som en del av en bredare skolinfrastruktur, och betraktar den påtvingade övergången till distansundervisning som ett slags “infrastrukturellt sammanbrott”. Skolbibliotek behandlas som mångfasetterade infrastrukturer, med materiella, strukturella och relationella/kulturella faktorer som alla kan bidra till deras framgång. Genom tematisk analys av semi-strukturerade intervjuer med 14 bibliotekarier på 12 gymnasieskolor i Sverige identifierade jag fyra teman i hur informanterna pratade om övergångsprocessen:  1. De mest väletablerade praktikerna, relationerna och samarbetena kunde anpassas. 2. Biblioteksrummet hade sociala funktioner som inte helt kunde återskapas på nätet. 3. Systematisk integrering, starka relationer och en kultur av biblioteksanvändning bidrog till framgångsrika övergångar. 4. Arbetet för att göra biblioteken mer tillgängliga och synliga blev viktigare.