abstract: The alternative project delivery methods (APDMs) today are being increasingly used by owner organizations in the architecture, engineering, and construction (AEC) industry. Yet the adoption of these methods can be extremely difficult to accomplish and requires significant change management efforts. To facilitate the APDM adoption, this research aimed to better understand how AEC owner organizations have changed from only using the design-bid-build method to also successfully implementing APDMs from an organizational change perspective. This research utilized a literature review, survey and interviews to fulfill the research objectives. The dissertation follows a three paper format. The first paper focuses on identifying organizational change management (OCM) practices that, when effectively executed, lead to increased success rates of adopting APDMs in owner AEC organizations. The results of the first paper indicated that the five OCM practices with the strongest correlations to successful APDM adoption were realistic timeframe, effective change agents, workload adjustments, senior-leadership commitment, and sufficient change-related training. The second paper focuses on investigating AEC employees’ reactions to the adoption of APDMs. The findings of the second paper revealed that employees in AEC organizations react favorably to adopting a change in their project delivery systems. The findings further revealed that increasing the use of OCM practices is related to decreased employee resistance to change. The third paper aimed to provide guidelines detailing on how to lead APDM adoption. The findings of the third paper indicated that there was a general sequence of four implementation phases, which were preparing and planning, pilot project testing, expanding to the intended scale, and sustaining and evaluating. The phases include specific OCM practices that increase the probability of successful APDM adoption. The dissertation results can help in guiding the senior managers of construction organizations and OCM consultants to effectively implement APDMs for the first time in the construction sector. / Dissertation/Thesis / Doctoral Dissertation Construction Management 2020

Individuals with substance abuse or mental illness/neuropsychiatric disorderssuffer a higher risk of developing comorbidity. Due to the complexity of comorbidity individuals may often need multiple support from both social services and health care. Previous studies have shown that the relationship is a crucial aspect of the recovery process between the social worker and the client. It needs to be based on mutual trust, user participation and clarity. Social workers had to balance between individuals right over their own life situations and the responsibility to decide on compulsory care when the person opposes help and exposes their life to serious injury. The study aimed to investigate how socialworkers described the experience of responding to and support individuals living with comorbidity. The method chosen was semi-structured interviews with six social workers from four municipalities in Skåne. The findings showed attempts to contemplate different challenges of individuals. There were noted difficulties when investigating a person due to their mental health. Furthermore, their experiences were described as motivating and humane work. Their experience described the role of a social worker as a representative between a zero tolerance society and to start working with the client where they were. In addition, it was noted as important to familiarize oneself with aspects that the substance abuse contributed to. The insights into why individuals resorted to substance use opened up discussions about alternative solutions that did not include addiction. The reflections that emerged were adaptations of how meetings were designed and how the individuals were made involved, through the help of different strategies to examine the individual’s wishes.

Behavioral momentum theory (BMT) has become a prominent method of studying the effects of reinforcement on operant behavior. BMT represents a departure from the Skinnerian tradition in that it identifies the strength of responding with its resistance to change. Like in many other operant research paradigms, however, responses are considered to be momentary phenomena and so little attention has been paid to non-rate dimensions of responding. The current study takes up the question of whether or not the degree of effort defining a discriminated operant class has any meaningful effect on its resistance to change. Using a force transducer, rats responded on a two-component multiple VI 60-s VI 60-s schedule where each component was correlated with a different force requirement. Resistance to change was tested through prefeeding and extinction. Proportional declines in response rate were equal across components during all disruption tests. Differentiated response classes remained intact throughout. The negative result suggests several future research directions.

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The demand for healthcare services is currently growing worldwide with an ever increasing pace.Healthcare institutions need to adapt to the changing demographics in order to satisfy the demand. Meanwhile, many hospitals and care units have limited economic means to find appropriate solutions. A concept from the manufacturing industry that is considered to fulfill these criteria’s is called Theory of Constraints (ToC). This concept is focusing on streamlining processes by coordinating the activities and ensuring an efficient stream the production flow. This study has investigated the ability of the concept to support medical and administration staff in the department’s overall objective to decrease overall lead time.The investigation has been realized by conducting a case study at one of the largest emergency hospitals in Stockholm, Sweden. The hospital is one of the leading hospitals within Swedish medicine and receives and treats over 300000 patients annually. The case design consisted of three methods all linked to qualitative data collection, the three methods consisted of interviews, observations and shadowing.The results suggest that the application of ToC revealed little resistance to change among the participants. The concept was able to identify and resolve minor constraints in the case setting; the department of obstetrics and gynecology and also display promising characteristics in terms of solving more complex and intricate constraints. ToC as a concept were able to identify constraints in a healthcare department with a simple yet apparent cause and effect linkage. Finally, the findings indicate that ToC complements the concept of working with Continuous Improvements (CI) within the healthcare.The conclusions from this study have implications both in a theoretical perspective and a practical perspective. The findings provide additional empirical data to a field that is currently dominated by theories. In a practical aspect, the results of this study provides hospitals insights of ToC, a potentially valuable tool to improve efficiency and decrease lead times while working long-term towards an approach with CI. / Det nuvarande behovet för sjukvård ökar med en allt snabbare takt världen över. Sjukhus och andravårdinstitutioner behöver anpassa sig och göra förändringar för att hantera de demografiska förändringar som sker. Samtidigt så har många sjukhus och vårdcentraler mycket begränsade resurser för att hitta lämpliga lösningar. Ett koncept från tillverkningsindustrin som betraktas som en lämplig lösning för denna situation är ett koncept som heter Theory of Constraints (ToC). Detta koncept fokuserar på att effektivisera processer genom att koordinera de aktiviteter som ingår i en process för att i sin tur säkerställa ett effektivt produktionsflöde. Denna studie har undersökt detta koncepts möjligheter att stödja medicinsk och administrativ personal i arbetet med att försöka minska ledtider i en vårdmiljö.Utredningen har genomförts praktiskt genom en fältstudie på ett av Stockholms största sjukhus. Sjukhuset är ett av de ledande inom svensk medicin och tar emot och behandlar uppemot 300 000 patienter årligen. Fältstudiens utformning bygger på tre metoder, intervjuer, skuggningar och observationer vilket alla är sammankopplade med kvalitativ datainsamling.Resultaten indikerar att tillämpandet av konceptet ToC har påvisat litet förändringsmotstånd av de som har deltagit i förändringsarbetet samt att konceptet har haft förmågan att identifiera och lösa mindre restriktioner inom sjukhusavdelningen för Obstetrik och Gynekologi. Detta har i huvudsak gjorts genom att kartlägga olika aktiviteter med en tydlig orsak och verkan samband. Utöver detta så har konceptet initialt påvisat intressanta framsteg för att eventuellt lösa mer komplexa restriktioner som begränsar produktionsflödet i en sjukhusmiljö. Vidare så framgår det att konceptet ToC i viss utsträckning kompletterar filosofin att arbeta med kontinuerliga förbättringar (Continuous Improvements/CI).Slutsatserna för denna studie har implikationer för både ett teoretiskt och praktiskt perspektiv. Utifrån ett teoretiskt perspektiv, så förser resultaten från studien med ytterligare empiriska data i ett område som för närvarande är uppbyggt av teori och litteratur. Utifrån en praktisk synvinkel ger resultaten för denna studie sjukhus och vårdinstitutioner värdefulla insikter om konceptet ToC, ett potentiellt värdefullt verktyg för att förbättra effektiviteten och minska ledtider samtidigt som det stödjer ett långsiktigt arbete med kontinuerliga förbättringar.

The rapid advancement of computer software in the digital revolution has created a diverse range of powerful tools for various industries. Even though there is such a broad selection, there is no software that fits every individual or organization because of the different criterias. This is no exception for designing tools. To stay competitive and foster further growth, Valmet Tissue Mills recognizes the need to embrace the latest technology. They are in their quest for an updated design software that incorporates a database, they have chosen CADMATIC Electrical, a Finnish CAD tool specifically designed for electrical and automation engineering. However, through complications with implementing the tool under the COVID-19 lockdown, it has resulted in lasting challenges. The management has experienced resistance to change, because of lack of knowledge and a complicated system. In order to decrease the uncertainty, this study has researched the opportunities and challenges with CADMATIC Electrical. The availability of functions and how they work in the software.  The thesis found that CADMATIC Electrical can increase collaboration, decrease human error, surmountable revision control, etc. However, it is important to consider the complexity and security of using a database CAD tool. CADMATIC Electrical was also found to have the majority of the functions that the engineers desired. / Den snabba utvecklingen av datorprogramvara i den digitala revolutionen har skapat en mängd kraftfulla verktyg för olika branscher. Trots det breda utbudet finns det ingen programvara som passar varje individ eller organisation på grund av olika kriterier. Detta gäller även för designverktyg. För att vara konkurrenskraftig och främja ytterligare tillväxt, erkänner Valmet Tissue Mills behovet av att omfamna den senaste tekniken. I sin strävan efter en uppdaterad design programvara som inkluderar en databas har de valt CADMATIC Electrical, ett finskt CAD-verktyg speciellt utformat för el- och automationsingenjörer. Dock har komplikationer med att implementera verktyget under COVID-19-lockdownen resulterat i långvariga utmaningar. Ledningen har stött på motstånd mot förändring på grund av brist på kunskap och en komplicerad systemmiljö. För att minska osäkerheten har denna studie undersökt möjligheterna och utmaningarna med CADMATIC Electrical, samt tillgängligheten av funktioner och hur de fungerar i programvaran. Avhandlingen visade att CADMATIC Electrical kan öka samarbete, minska mänskliga fel, hantera revision med mera. Det är emellertid viktigt att beakta komplexiteten och säkerheten vid användning av ett CAD-verktyg med databas. Det konstaterades också att CADMATIC Electrical hade majoriteten av de funktioner som ingenjörerna önskade.

Background: Automation deployment is an innovative solution for organisations andbusinesses to improve efficiency and increase value. This study examines the impact ofleadership, learning culture and willingness to automation deployment and, therefore,organisational performance. Two types of leadership styles, participative and autocratic, havebeen selected to analyse their impact on the promotion and deployment of innovative solutionslike automation. The method to measure the success of the organisational performance wasbased on internal improvements of the team's efficiency and productivity using automated tools.An explanatory study was conducted using a questionnaire shared with 242 professionals in theICT industry in Europe to verify our hypotheses. Objectives: The objective of this study was to investigate whether leadership, learning cultureand employees’ willingness to change affect the automation deployment and how the latterimpacts the organisational performance. Methodology: A quantitative case study based on an online questionnaire using Google formshas been formed to collect data for analysis. Two multivariate regression models have beendeveloped to evaluate the 77 responses collected from the participants with familiarity andexposure to the automation technology. Results & Conclusions: The results align with the existing literature in the fields of innovation,organisational culture, and performance. More specifically, we discovered that the autocraticstyle negatively affects the automation deployment (B=-2.89, p=0.008), while learning culture(B=0.38, p=0.001,) and willingness to change (B=0.8, p=0,) could be considered as enablerssince both found with positive coefficients. Moreover, the automation deployment has beenidentified as a significant variable that affects organisational performance (B=1, p=0).Additionally, the findings from both models are underpinned by the existing literature provingtheir validity. Recommendations for future research: Future work could be focused on including otherleadership styles, such as transformational or entrepreneurial, to examine the impact onautomation deployment and organisational performance. Additionally, the performance couldbe evaluated based on the final service or product of the company, considering customers'feedback or financial terms. Last but not least, expanding the research to other organisationsthat are considering or have already deployed automation would shed more light on the effectto the organisational performance.

ABSTRACT Date: 2023-05-30 Level: Bachelor thesis in Business Administration, 15 cr Institution: School of Business, Society and Engineering, Mälardalen University Authors:  William Hamzehnejad (01/09/07) Isabella Mousa (98/11/24) Måns Svensson (94/05/24)                                                               Title: How will Artificial Intelligence change Human Resource Management? Supervisor: Grinbergs, Johan Keywords:  Artificial intelligence, AI, Human Resource Management, Evolutionary Theory, Episodic Change, Resistance to Change Research question: How do HR practitioners see AI as a change for their work? What are the perceptions of HR practitioners regarding the implementation of AI in their workplace? Purpose: The purpose of this study is to contribute with knowledge regarding how practitioners in HRM see the use of AI as a change for their work. This is examined from both a practical and an emotional perspective.   Method: A qualitative study in which semi-structured interviews with HR practitioners in Södermanland county were carried out based on a target-driven theoretical selection method. Conclusion: HR practitioners believe that AI will affect certain work-related tasks in the future. They consider this as a positive change. HR practitioners feel varying degrees of apprehension about implementing AI depending on their job position, where managers and specialized HR practitioners experiencing less apprehension. Implementation of AI should be done at a slow continuous pace for HR practitioners to get used to these changes. / SAMMANFATTNING Datum: 2023-05-30 Nivå: Kandidatuppsats i Företagsekonomi, 15 hp Institution: Akademin för Ekonomi, Samhälle och Teknik, Mälardalens Universitet Författare: William Hamzehnejad (01/09/07) Isabella Mousa (98/11/24) Måns Svensson (94/05/24)                                                                      Titel: Hur kommer Artificiell Intelligens att förändra Human Resource Management? Handledare: Grinbergs, Johan Nyckelord: Artificiell intelligens, AI, Human Resource Management, HRM, Evolutionary Theory, Episodic Change, Resistance to Change Forskningsfrågor: Hur ser praktiker inom HRM på AI som en förändring för deras arbete? Vilka föreställningar har praktiker inom HRM angående implementering av AI på deras arbetsplats?  Syfte: Syftet med denna undersökning är att bidra med kunskap om hur praktiker inom HRM ser på användningen av AI som en förändring för deras arbete. Detta undersöks utifrån både ett praktiskt och ett emotionellt perspektiv. Metod: En kvalitativ undersökning där semistrukturerade intervjuer med praktiker inom HRM i Södermanlands län utfördes utifrån en målstyrd teoretisk urvalsmetod. Slutsats: Praktiker inom HRM anser att AI kommer att påverka vissa arbetsuppgifter i framtiden. Detta anser dem som en positiv förändring. Praktiker inom HRM känner olika grader av oro inför implementering av AI beroende på deras arbetsposition, där chefer och specialiserade praktiker upplever mindre oro. Implementering av AI bör utföras i en långsam kontinuerlig hastighet för att praktiker inom HRM ska vänja sig med dessa förändringar.

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Culture, resource, and regulatory concerns are elevating the importance of business expansion inthe contemporary world. Everyone, including service providers, must overcome the obstacles.Change readiness assists individuals and organizations in accepting and embracing obstacles. This study seeks to evaluate the different types of services offered to the elderly as well as the obstacles that arise when attempting to expand them, taking into account the diverse cultural backgrounds of the country's population, the dearth of available resources, and regulatory hurdles. In this research, a qualitative method was undertaken, followed by an exploratory analysis. This thesis investigates the service offerings and problems of eleven Bangladeshi service providers using primary data gathered from semi-structured interview. This also utilizes previous scholarly articles and published data from other academic sources.The study's findings highlight service provider challenges and offer a research paradigm for theservice business, notably elderly care. The results indicate that the majority of aged care services provided by different institutions are identical. Healthcare, along with other services like social and recreational programs, and educational and training courses, are all part of this category. Italso demonstrates that cultural, resource, and regulatory constraints are major roadblocks to this industry's development. Furthermore, research finding shows, currently providers are not ready tomeet the incremental demand and subsequent changes will take place in the near future.This thesis contributes to the literature on business development by examining organizational readiness to change (ORC) and the challenges faced by business. Despite focusing on a singlenation, this research provides a comprehensive evaluation of the importance of organizational change preparedness for service growth. This study suggested a conceptual model that relates institutional care obstacles from the provider's perspective.