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Abstract   A coach is a good listener, who asks many effective and open questions. In addition, the coach's work procedure should promote innovative thinking and start a person's learning and analytical mindset.  It's pretty much about helping others learn for themselves.    But what does it look like in reality and how do active leaders in professional organizations view coaching and the coaching approach?   The purpose of the study is to investigate leaders' views and perceptions of coaching and the coaching approach within professional organizations. The method used for the survey was semi-structured interviews, after which the analysis work was supported in thematic content analysis. The theoretical framework that the study is based on is the theory of transformative leadership.     The main result showed that the active leaders within the organizations perceive the coaching approach as a way to manage and meet different situations in their leadership role. A leader with good communicative knowledge, who creates conditions and understands the employee's needs is how the leaders choose to describe the coaching leader. The method of success in their coaching leadership is, according to the respondents, responsiveness and to spend time building a relationship with the employee.  They believe that a coaching leader promotes motivation and a culture that is pleasant to be in. The result of a coaching approach seems to be positive and all parties believe that the entire organization benefits from it. The parties themselves believe that the research area is difficult to define and that their own perception regarding coaching is somewhat diffuse and not always easy to describe.  Some people believe that the coaching approach permeates the entire structure of the organization, while others highlight that the organization could advantageously review the structure so that the organization could apply coaching as a method. For those who perceive that the entire organization is coaching, it feels like a requirement to apply a coaching leadership. The others who do not have the coaching method as clearly integrated in the structure of the organization believe that it is a voluntary choice. Something the leaders apply because it is supposedly a way to achieve good results.     Keywords: coaching approach, coaching, leadership, organization, transformative leadership

Förnybar energi sägs vara en stor bidragande faktor till att lösa klimatproblem med global uppvärmning och den svenska regeringen har som mål att Sverige ska vara 100% fossilfritt år 2045. Ett förslag från Energimyndigheten är att cirka 5-10% av den svenska elkonsumtionen ska komma från solceller. Utvecklingen med solceller går framåt och allt fler privatpersoner och företag väljer att investera i det. Denna rapport ämnar att undersöka hur solceller kan dimensioneras för större kommersiella företag, samt även att kartlägga hur nyckelpersoner i koppling till företaget Dahl Sverige AB resonerar om hållbarhet och solceller. Dahl har valt att utvärdera möjligheten med solceller och används därför som ett studieobjekt i denna rapport. Efter insamling av av data kunde programmet System Advisor Model användas för att dimensionera solcellssystemet. Utifrån resultaten av simuleringarna togs tre olika storleksalternativ på solcellssystemet fram för att kunna fungera som beslutsunderlag vid beslutsfattande från Dahl; ett alternativ för att undvika energiskatten och främja det ekonomiska, ett för att undvika överproduktion och slutligen ett för maximal miljönytta. Dock kan en avvägning göras utifrån vad företaget själva accepterar för tröskelränta, eftersom att solcellssystemet blev mer miljövänligt men krävde en större investering allt eftersom storleken ökade. För att undersöka resonemang beträffande solceller och hållbarhet har intervjuer genomförts med fem nyckelpersoner i logistikprojektet där Dahl bygger ett nytt centrallager. Intervjuerna kategoriserades i sex olika teman. Dessa jämfördes sedan utifrån ett teoretiskt ramverk om olika paradigm: ett transformativt ekocentriskt paradigm samt ett dominant kulturellt paradigm. Resultatet synliggjorde att informanterna resonerade på olika sätt. Det fanns inslag av båda paradigmen men informanterna resonerade främst utifrån det dominanta kulturella paradigmet som motsvarar dagens marknadsdrivna konkurrensbaserade samhälle. Ett alternativ för att utveckla företaget i en mer hållbar riktning blir således att införa mer internutbildning för att främja en transformativ ekocentrisk världssyn. Denna slutsats uppskattas vara applicerbar även inom andra företag utanför Dahl. / Renewable energy is said to be a contributing factor in solving the environmental problems with global warming, which is why the Swedish Government has decided that Sweden will be 100% fossil free by 2045. A proposition from the Swedish Energy Agency is that around 5-10% of the Swedish consumption should come from solar energy. The development of solar PVs are going forward, and the number of private households and organisations that are choosing to invest are growing. This report aims to investigate how a solar PV system can be dimensioned for bigger commercial companies. It also seeks to map how stakeholders at Dahl Sverige AB, a large trading company in the plumbing industry, reason about solar cells and sustainability. Dahl is evaluating the possibilities with solar PVs, and will be used as a case in this report. After collecting data, the System Advisor Model program could be used to dimension the solar cell system. Based on the results of the simulations, three different size alternatives on the solar cell system were developed in order to be able to function as a basis for a decision for the study object; one option to avoid the energy tax and promote the economy, one to avoid overproduction and one for maximum environmental benefit. However, a trade-off could be made depending on what hurdle rate the company deems acceptable, as the solarsystem becomes more environmentally friendly but requires a larger investment as the size increases.To investigate reasoning regarding solar cells and sustainability, five interviews were conducted with five stakeholders with a connection to the logistics project to build a new central warehouse. The interviews went through a thematic analysis and the answers were characterized as six different themes. These were analysed on the basis of a theoretical framework that distinguishes between a dominant cultural paradigm and a transformative ecocentric paradigm. The result showed that the informants reasoned differently. There were elements from both paradigms, but the informants largely expressed opinions that could be characterized as the dominant cultural paradigm. An alternative for Dahl to become more sustainable was thus to introduce more internal training to promote a transformative ecocentric worldview. This conclusion is assessed to be applicable for other companies outside the Dahl case as well.

Many successful professionals, recognized for their experience, knowledge, competence and commitment to their field, experience a contradiction when they realize that their contributions are no longer valued by decision-makers in their organizations. Professionals, regardless of gender, position, education, race or profession, who experience workplace devaluation agree that this experience devalues their contributions and demeans their sense of self. This study illuminates the professionals' perspective of workplace devaluation through their experience. Within the framework of grounded theory methodology, this research examined three research questions: (a) What is the experience of professionals' workplace devaluation? (b) How did professionals learn from the experience? (c) What did professionals learn from the experience? The unit of analysis is the professional within an organization. Four participants were selected who (a) had several years experience with their organization; (b) were previously valued by the organization; (c) were current in their field; (d) had experienced workplace devaluation; and (e) were able to articulate insights, thoughts, and emotions on their experience. Multiple interviews with each participant provided the data. A comparative, iterative analysis of the data yielded: (a) a seven-phase process of the experience; (b) six constructs embedded in the process, and (c) four categories of learning. The dialogic interview method facilitated the participants' apperception, reflection, and progress through the process. Three emotions--fear, powerlessness, anger--and their interaction with the other constructs (autonomy, communication, personalization, authority, and recognition) influenced coping strategies and actions taken by each participant. The four narratives explicate the interrelationships of the findings. Three major conclusions are: (a) A rich description of the workplace devaluation experience offers a glimpse into the complexity of this topic and into the professionals' "lived world." (b) The learning process, grounded in the data, depicts how these four professionals used the power of their emotions to create balance within themselves as they attempted to explicate their situation of workplace devaluation. (c) The results indicate that greater learning occurred in organizational knowledge and intrapersonal knowledge for these professionals. Questions for further research are noted along with practical suggestions and recommendations for the praxis of adult educators, decision-makers, and professionals. / Ph. D.

This thesis research explores the patterns of player-character relationships and player-character attachment in Animal Crossing: New Horizons (2020) and Genshin Impact (2020). The purpose of the paper is to fill in the existing gap in the literature concerning the psychological and social mechanisms of attachment that players form with non-customizable game characters. The research explores the nature of player-character attachment in its relation to game mechanics and broader social context, as well as its transformative potential.   The research relies on interdisciplinary mixed-methods methodology, drawing from the fields of psychology and anthropology. The first part of the research employs auto-ethnographic data on the authors' personal relationships with game characters. The second part involves a series of qualitative in-depth interviews with players of Animal Crossing and Genshin Impact. Thematic analysis with the elements of case-study methodology is applied to the interview data. The results of the interview analysis are compared between the two player groups, as well as to the findings of the auto-ethnographic inquiry. The main results of the comparative analysis suggest that players’ perceptions of characters in the studied games can be categorized as character-as-object and character-as-other. Further on, a distinction can be made between two types of attachment that players form with characters-as-others. The first one is player-for-character, focused primarily on a player’s relatedness and empathy towards a character. The second one is character-for-player, where a game character is perceived as a supporting and caring figure that transcends the boundaries of the game. The relationship types are not mutually exclusive, and both of them have been found to have transformative potential.

With the new and rising popularity of Baldur’s Gate 3, an exploratory qualitative research comparing it to its tabletop predecessor: Dungeons and Dragons 5E, is necessary to gather new data about player experience within these different formats.  This research explores the difference in immersion into character between Dungeons and Dragons 5E and Baldur’s Gate 3. This is done through a mixed methods approach, combining interviews and digital ethnography. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 6 interviewees from varying backgrounds who had played both games for a significant amount of time. For the digital ethnography, relevant selected posts from Reddit users in r/DnD and r/BaldursGate3 were filtered and selected using the software Communalytic.  The themes correlated to immersion into character were transformative play, social play, and creative agenda. Through these themes, it was concluded that the main difference between these two games were related to transformative potential, as well as the social aspect 2 of both games, where in-person D&D and co-op BG3 seemed to help players get immersed into their characters more easily than in online D&D and solo mode BG3.

Leadership style can have major consequences for the employees’ work environment and well-being. There are several theories that focus on the positive aspects of leadership styles, such as transformative, coaching, and situational leadership, which constitute the theoretical frameworks for the present study. It has also been recognized that destructive leadership behaviors can have a negative impact on the employees and the organization. The purpose of the present study was to investigate what, according to managers, characterizes constructive leadership and destructive leadership, and whether these characteristics originate in individual or organizational factors. Four managers working in private companies in Stockholm with varying backgrounds and industries were found through snowball selection and were interviewed. Data were analyzed using thematic analysis. The result showed that managers characterize constructive leadership as motivation, communication, self-efficacy, coaching approach, situational adjustment, development opportunities, recruitment, and participation. Destructive leadership was characterized as inefficiency, lack of experience, authority-related issues, micro-management lack of time, and organizational culture. These characteristics were further categorized as follows. The individual factors that were identified for constructive leadership were motivation, communication, self-efficacy, coaching approach, situational adjustment and for destructive leadership are inefficiency, lack of experience, authority-related issues and micro-leadership. The organizational factors that were identified for constructive leadership were development opportunities, recruitment, participation, and for destructive leadership the factors were lack of time and organizational culture. The analysis illustrates leadership as a complex process where knowledge about leadership styles gives great possibility to practicing constructive leadership. At the same time, it must be noted that organizational factors have a major impact on the leaders' ability to apply constructive leadership and, in the worst-case scenario, can result in behaviors leading to destructive leadership. The study is very limited in terms of representativeness since the population was very small and the purpose was explorative. / Ledarskapets utformning kan innebära stora konsekvenser för de anställdas arbetsmiljö och välmående. Det finns flera teorier om ledarskapsstilar som fokuserar på de positiva aspekterna av ledarskap, såsom transformativt, coachande och situationsanpassat ledarskapsstil, vilka utgör teoretisk ram för denna uppsats. Det har även uppmärksammats att destruktiva ledarbeteenden kan ha en negativ inverkan på de anställda och organisationen. Syftet med denna studie var att undersöka vad chefer anser orsakar ett konstruktivt respektive destruktivt ledarskap samt vilka av dessa orsaker anser chefer härstammar i individuella respektive organisatoriska faktorer. Första frågeställningen var; vad anser chefer kännetecknar ett konstruktivt respektive destruktivt ledarskap? Den andra frågeställningen var; vilka av dessa kännetecken anser chefer härstammar i individuella respektive organisatoriska faktorer? Fyra stycken chefer inom privata företag i Stockholm med varierande bakgrund och bransch hittades genom snöbollsurval och intervjuades. Data analyserades med tematisk analys. Resultatet visade att chefer anser att konstruktivt ledarskap kännetecknas av motivation, kommunikation, självbestämmelse, coachande förhållningssätt, situationsanpassning, utvecklingsmöjligheter, rekrytering, delaktighet och destruktivt ledarskap kännetecknas av ineffektivitet, erfarenhetsbrist, auktoritetsproblematik, mikroledarskap tidsbrist och bristande organisationskultur. Dessa faktorer delas upp i individuella och organisatoriska faktorer enligt följande. Individuella faktorer som identifierades för konstruktivt ledarskap var motivation, kommunikation, självbestämmelse, coachande förhållningssätt och situationsanpassning. För destruktivt ledarskap identifierades ineffektivitet, erfarenhetsbrist, auktoritetsproblematik och mikroledarskap som individuella faktorer. De organisatoriska faktorer som identifierades för konstruktivt ledarskap var utvecklingsmöjligheter, rekrytering, delaktighet och för destruktivt ledarskap identifierades faktorerna tidsbrist och organisationskultur. Analysen åskådliggör ledarskapet som en komplex process där kunskap kring ledarskapsstilar ger stor fördel för tillämpning av ett konstruktivt ledarskap. Samtidigt måste det uppmärksammas att organisatoriska faktorer har storpåverkan på ledarnas möjlighet till tillämpning av ett konstruktivt ledarskap och kan i värsta fall resultera i beteenden som leder till destruktivt ledarskap. Studien är kraftigt begränsat i termer av representativitet då urvalet var mycket litet och syftet var explorativt.

In today's modern work environment, the demand for innovation and creativity is crucial for the survival and success of organizations. The role of leadership is central in creating an environment that promotes creativity and idea generation among employees. This study aims to investigate the role of transformational leadership in creating an environment that promotes creativity and idea generation among employees in technology companies. The method section carefully describes the research methodology and the selection of respondents, as well as the conduct of the interviews and the J&D test. In the study, three different respondent groups were interviewed: two employees, two managers and an informant, in order to answer the research question. The results of these interviews provided insights into how transformative leadership promotes creativity and idea generation in the workplace. Furthermore, issues related to research ethics and how these have been handled and taken into account during the research process are also discussed. In the theory section, the concept of leadership is defined and three different leadership styles are discussed: transformative, transactional and servant leadership. Furthermore, the concept of creativity is explored, including individual, group and organizational creativity, as well as innovation and idea generation. In the empirical section, the results of the interviews and the J&D test are presented. The interviews have been analyzed using the thematic analysis method and organized under different themes, each of which is linked to a specific overarching theme. The analysis from the interviews shows that transformative leaders create an environment that inspires and engages employees, while challenging traditional thought patterns and encouraging divergent thinking. The results of the J&D test provide further insight into the creative abilities of the participants and show that these technology companies with a transformative leadership have a favorable work environment for individual creativity and idea generation. The conclusion is that transformative leadership is crucial for fostering creativity and idea generation within technology companies, and such a leadership style is a key factor for successful innovation processes. / I dagens moderna arbetsmiljö är kravet på innovation och kreativitet avgörande för organisationers överlevnad och framgång. Ledarskapets roll är central i skapandet av en miljö som främjar kreativitet och idégenerering bland anställda. Denna studie syftar till att undersöka vilken roll transformativt ledarskap spelar i att skapa en miljö som främjar kreativitet och idégenerering bland anställda inom teknikföretag. Metodavsnittet beskriver noggrant forskningsmetodiken och urvalet av respondenter, samt genomförandet av intervjuerna och J&D-testet. I studien har tre olika respondentgrupper intervjuats: två anställda, två ledare och en informant, för att kunna svara på forskningsfrågan. Resultaten från dessa intervjuer gav insikter om hur ett transformativt ledarskap främjar kreativitet och idégenerering på arbetsplatsen. Vidare diskuteras även frågor som rör forskningsetik och hur dessa har hanterats och beaktats under forskningsprocessen. I teoriavsnittet definieras begreppet ledarskap och tre olika ledarstilar diskuteras: transformativt, transaktionellt och tjänande ledarskap. Vidare utforskas begreppet kreativitet, inklusive individuell, grupp och organisatorisk kreativitet, samt innovation och idegenerering. I empiriavsnittet presenteras resultaten av intervjuerna och J&D-testet. Intervjuerna har analyserats med hjälp av tematisk analysmetod och organiserats under olika teman, som var och ett är kopplat till ett specifikt övergripande tema. Analysen från intervjuerna visar att transformativa ledare skapar en miljö som inspirerar och engagerar medarbetarna, samtidigt som de utmanar traditionella tankemönster och uppmuntrar divergent tänkande. Resultaten från J&D-testet ger ytterligare insikter i deltagarnas kreativa förmågor och visar att dessa teknikföretag med ett transformativt ledarskap har en gynnsam arbetsmiljö för individuell kreativitet och idégenerering. Slutsatsen är att ett transformativt ledarskap är avgörande för att främja kreativitet och idegenerering inom teknikföretag, och att en sådan ledarstil är en nyckelfaktor för framgångsrika innovationsprocesser.

Introduction: The first aim of this study is to gain more knowledge about why public libraries choose to organize reading groups for adults. The second aim is to shed light on the possible transformative potential of public libraries’reading groups for adults. Method: Semi-structured interviews with six librarians at Bibliotek Uppsala were conducted. Three of the librarians had an overall responsibility for the reading group activities within the organization. The other three librarians led reading groups themselves. The interviews were recorded and transcribed. Analysis: A thematic content analysis was conducted to interpret the transcripts of the interviews.  Results: The librarians’ thoughts regarding what participants can gain from reading groups were categorized within the following themes: They can inspire more or more extensive reading, they can promote democracy and participation, they can encourage people to meet and fulfill an important social function, they can promote health, personal growth, and can give the participants new perspectives. This is largely consistent with previous studies reagarding what participants themselves state reading groups contribute to their lives. The result further shows that there are many favorable conditions for transformative learning within the library’s reading groups. Conclusion: The librarians see that the reading groups can fulfill more functions than promoting reading. Among other things, they point out that the reading groups, for several different reasons, are in line with the library’s democratic mission. Based on the theory of transformative learning, it is possible to see the potential of reading grups to promote critical reflection. According to the theory of transformative learning, it is believed that it is of the utmost importance that citizens of democratic societies develop their critical thinking. Thus, reading groups that develop the participants' ability to reflect could therefore also be justified on the basis of the library's democracy mission.   This is a two years master’s thesis in Library and Information Science.