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Syftet med denna studie är att undersöka om samt hur chefer inom en medelstor kommun upplever att deras ledarskap har förändrats och anpassats, i och med en plötslig och icke- planerad omställning till distans. För att undersöka detta utfördes nio semistrukturerade intervjuer med enhetschefer samt avdelningschefer inom en medelstor kommun. Studien genomsyras av en egen sammanfattningsmodell som grundar sig i tidigare forskning gällande effektivt ledarskap på distans. Vår sammanfattningsmodell innefattar kategorierna; situations- och individanpassat ledarskap, fokus på grupp och individ, skapa och bibehålla relationer, kunskaper om virtuell kommunikation samt tydlighet via riktlinjer. Den egna modellen används vid insamling av material samt analys för att undersöka om någon förändring skett inom ledarskapet, och i så fall hur, vid en plötslig och icke-planerad omställning till distans. Analys, resultat och slutsats påvisade att det skett en förändring och att ledarskapet anpassats vid den plötsliga förändringen till distans. Resultatet påvisade även att vid den plötsliga omställningen till distans utmanades många aspekter inom ledarskapet, vilket bland annat berörde kommunikation samt individanpassning. Däremot visade det sig vara en läroprocess till att hitta nya arbetssätt för att handskas med dessa utmaningar.

Syftet med uppsatsen är att skapa en ökad förståelse för ledarskap på distans ur ett chefsperspektiv. Syftet undersöktes genom två frågeställningar som behandlar hur chefer bedriver sitt ledarskap på distans samt hur dessa chefer upplever sitt ledarskap. Genom en i huvudsak induktiv ansats med deduktiva inslag och kvalitativa semi-strukturerade intervjuer undersöktes uppsatsens ämne. Den insamlade empirin analyserades genom meningskoncentrering och skapade sex huvudsakliga teman som är; Kommunikationsverktyg, Krav i det dagliga arbetet, Relation till medarbetarna, Det egna ledarskapet, Digitalisering samt Tankar om kompetensbrist. De fynd som framkommit visar hur cheferna bedriver sitt arbete genom virtuella kommunikationsmedel där de föredrar de medel som i större grad kan spegla det fysiska mötet. Majoriteten av cheferna upplever fler möjligheter än begränsningar med sina arbeten och menar att ledarskap på distans har potentialen att lösa en rad problem, såsom problematiken med kompetensbrist.

Globalization is a phenomena that is, because of the advances in technology, becoming more and more common. New tools for communication enables project teams to collaborate across the globe. Hence, Virtual Teams are emerging to become the new routine way of working. However, even though virtual teams are a new way of working, many project managers are expected to lead in the same way as in traditional project teams. In this qualitative bachelor thesis in informatic we have studied how trust emerges in virtual teams, and what challenges this presents. Moreover, we used these results in order to investigate and present how project managers can foster trust in virtual teams. We conducted three interviews at one of Sweden’s largest organizations with project managers well experienced with working in virtual teams. The conclusion indicates that project managers through several activities indeed can foster trust in virtual teams. In virtual teams the project manager’s interaction with the other team members is limited by the technical tools used for communication. This results in a strong dependency between trust and virtual communication. The project manager can, by establishing a continuous communication within the team, reach a higher level of coordination. This enables every team member to move forward in the same direction, towards the same end result, despite the distance between them, fostering trust. Globalisering är ett fenomen som tack vare teknikens framsteg, blir allt vanligare. Då tekniska kommunikationsverktyg gör det möjligt för individer att kommunicera med varandra oavsett plats, har virtuella team blivit en allt mer alldaglig arbetsform. Trots att detta är ett nytt sätt att arbeta på, förväntas dock projektledare att koordinera sitt virtuella team enligt samma projektledningsmetodik som för traditionella team. Vi har i denna kvalitativa uppsats utrett hur tillit uppkommer i virtuella team, och vilka utmaningar som kan finnas för att skapa tillit i virtuella team. Med utgångspunkt i detta drar vi slutsatser om hur projektledare kan arbeta för att främja tillit i virtuella team. För att svara på uppsatsens forskningsfrågor genomfördes tre intervjuer på en av Sveriges största organisationer. Respondenterna har en lång erfarenhet av projektledning och av att arbeta i virtuella team. Slutsatsen visar att projektledare kan främja tillit i virtuella team genom olika virtuella kommunikationsaktiviteter. I virtuella team har projektledaren en begränsad kommunikationskanal till övriga projektmedlemmar, en kanal som består av tekniska kommunikationsverktyg och som skapar förutsättningar för virtuell kommunikation. Detta skapar ett starkt beroende mellan kommunikation och tillit i virtuella team. Genom att etablera en kontinuerlig kommunikation kan projektledare bättre koordinera varje projektmedlem att röra sig i rätt riktning mot ett och samma mål, vilket främjar tillit.

I och med den pågående globaliseringen ökar trycket på företag och organisationer attminska sina kostnader och nyttja sina kompetenser mer effektivt. Ett sätt att göra detta äratt använda sig av ett globalt virtuellt team. En av de mest fundamentala förutsättningarnaför ett framgångsrikt arbete i ett sådant team är tillit mellan medlemmarna och i skapandetav tillit är kommunikation en viktig del. Syftet med denna uppsats är att undersöka vilkenbetydelse olika sorters kommunikation har för skapandet av tillit samt den tillit som redanexisterar mellan medlemmar i ett globalt virtuellt team. För att undersöka detta har materialsamlats in genom semi-strukturerade intervjuer som sedan har analyserats med hjälp avrelevant teori. Resultaten visar att alla de undersökta kommunikationssätten på något sätt,om än i olika utsträckning, påverkar tilliten mellan medlemmarna. Särskilt stor roll visadesig fysiska möten spela då de flesta respondenter uppgav att detta var något sompåverkade, alternativt skulle kunna påverka, tilliten. Även social kommunikation visade sigha stor påverkan på tilliten.

Introduction In this study, we have explained the complexities of social media, as it is still a relatively unexplored area. With the rapidly growing use of social media in recent years, companies have chosen to establish themselves in social networks to advertise themselves and communicate with their customers. In this study we analyze IKEA Sweden and their use of social media on the national market, where focus lies upon IKEA Sweden Facebook-page. The study intends to find out how the company uses social media as a marketing and communication tool and also analyzes the relations and conversations that occur on the Facebook-page. Purpose and research questions The purpose of the study was to gain a deeper understanding of how a large Swedish company as IKEA has chosen to use social media and how it's perceived by them. We also intended to find out how IKEA Sweden uses social media in their daily work and how the company communicates through this media channel. The research questions for this study were: how does IKEA Sweden use social media and in what purpose? How does IKEA Sweden want their communication on Facebook to look like and how do they really communicate? What are the employees at different levels view of the company's use of social media? How do they see the development of social media, in general and for the company? Methodology We are using semi-structural interviews and text-analyzing as qualitative methods. We chose to do a text-analysis of IKEA Sweden's Facebook page where relationships, interactions, intertextuality and coherence where viewed upon. Semi-structured interviews have been used with five respondents who therefore represented IKEA Sweden in this study. Theoretical perspective We present a number of different theories to give the reader a greater insight into the relationship between scientific media theories and its application in how companies communicate through social media. To further enhance the reader's understanding of the material presented in this study we describe how we attach these theories to this study and why we found them relevant. Conclusions IKEA Sweden has a vision to strengthen relations with their consumers and to market themselves on Facebook. They want to create an image of themselves as transparent, available and honest in the dialogue and managing feedback from their consumers. IKEA Sweden use social media as a supplement to tradition marketing and consumer service. We have been able to discern certain awareness in our respondents of the fact that companies are increasingly encroaching on their consumers' private spaces, which may affect the company's presence in social media in the future.

Syftet med den här rapporten är att undersöka hur mötena på distans inom Trafikverket Region Mitt fungerar ur ett användarperspektiv och vilka förbättringar som kan göras för att få en effektivare verksamhet och ge användare en bättre arbetsmiljö. Det visar sig att de anställda generellt är positivt inställda till resfria möten som mötesform men att det finns vissa problem. De vanligaste problemen är att ljudet inte fungerar korrekt och att användarna blir understimulerade av att ha tittat länge på en skärm. Tre förslag på lösningar presenteras. Det första är att satsa mer på utbildning för användarna samt att ställa krav på dem att lära sig visa funktioner i och med att Live Meeting används i deras dagliga arbete. Det andra är att använda kameran vid alla möten. Det finns stöd för kameraanvändning men det är något som idag inte används i särskilt stor utsträckning men som jag anser ger mer gemenskap och fler uppmärksamma deltagare. Det sista förslaget är att Trafikverket ska se över vilka mål de har med resfria möten och vilka möten som bör vara fysiska möten även i framtiden. Detta efter att ha noterat en tendens till att allt fler möten genomförs via Live Meeting. The purpose of this master thesis was to identify some of the problem areas concerning the use of computer based web conference systems at Trafikverket Region Mitt in Sweden. The aim was to propose some solutions to the problems found. The material was gathered by meeting observations and a survey among the users of Live Meeting at the department Samhälle at Trafikverket Region Mitt. The results show that most problems are related to sound and attention issues during the meetings. Most users are pleased with the benefits given by this way of meeting at a distance, but they are bothered by details that do not work properly such as confusion in how to use certain functions. The results were analysed seen in a usability perspective. There are three solutions presented. The first is to give the users more education for them to be able to use the system properly and with greater skill. The second solution is to use the camera at all meetings.The third proposal for better meetings is for Trafikverket to discuss the goal with having distance meetings and what types of meetings that always should be physical to guarantee high quality in the company.

This master thesis examines online reading groups with swedish participants. The aim is, by way of introduction, to investigate what kind of online reading groups that exist and how they work. The overall question of the thesis is: how do a conversation about books on the Internet look like? The theory used is Grounded Theory and this is a methodology which has influenced the hole structure of the study. Grounded Theory apply that issues and hypothesis must be created from the collected material, and the author collected for this reason material in the form of survey answers, email-conversations, blogmaterial and articles to draw up exact issues based on this material. The material was sorted into four different categories; social reading, reading fellowship, virtual freedom and anonymity and the issues were formulated according to this categories. The results of the study shows that conversations about books exists in many places on the Internet, such as on blogs and on book forums. Online reading group as a term made it difficult to include such other conversations in the study even though they worked almost as reading groups. Online reading groups is according to the author just one part of a big reading movement on the web. Another result of the study was that it seemed as members of online reading groups has changed their way of how to discuss books, meaning they discuss the reading experience not only after they have read the book but also while they are reading. This tendency is in this thesis explained as a result of the everyday use of social media, where people are now used to update as often as several times per day. The term virtual freedom includes the freedom to take part in a conversation independent of time and geography, but also a freedom to have the possibility to stay anonymous. Virtual freedom and anonymity is discussed by means of the term fellowship, and fellowship is discussed by means of the term social reading which is the core variable of this thesis.

In today's society, the internet is an important part of everyday life. Over recent years the number of electronic services has increased markedly. Communities such as Facebook, consume more of people's time than 5-10 years ago. How can public authorities benefit from these communities or are the municipalities not ready for this? The municipalities determine how their resources should be allocated based on the municipality's needs. The municipalities may be in charge of such matters of public interest which is linked to one municipality or its citizens. The purpose of this study is to explain what a virtual meeting platform means and how the public authority can take advantage of the virtual world to create benefits for its citizens by modifying existing tools. We have chosen a deductive approach with elements of induction, and the study is positivistic because of the approach on trying to find absolute knowledge from this study. We have developed five hypotheses by material from a pilot study. The material from the pilot study has served as the basis for a quantitative survey among users of Facebook. By introducing the Balanced Scorecard a municipality can, based upon local needs and capabilities, develop goals and measures based on the municipality strategy. We have constructed a model that is partly based on David Lundberg's 5-model (Lundberg, 2009). The model, Heimberg Flower, focuses on the "benefit"-factor which is directed towards the virtual options from which the municipality may choose which options to examine or test. Our hypothesis could prove two significant relationships, there is adesire for internet-based services, and that Facebook is preferred over other virtual meeting places for representation by the municipality. Using the modified Balanced Scorecard according to Heimberg Flower, the model can serve as a basis for municipalities in efforts to implement IT solutions that create value for the citizen.

This master thesis examines online reading groups with swedish participants. The aim is, by way of introduction, to investigate what kind of online reading groups that exist and how they work. The overall question of the thesis is: how do a conversation about books on the Internet look like? The theory used is Grounded Theory and this is a methodology which has influenced the hole structure of the study. Grounded Theory apply that issues and hypothesis must be created from the collected material, and the author collected for this reason material in the form of survey answers, email-conversations, blogmaterial and articles to draw up exact issues based on this material. The material was sorted into four different categories; social reading, reading fellowship, virtual freedom and anonymity and the issues were formulated according to this categories. The results of the study shows that conversations about books exists in many places on the Internet, such as on blogs and on book forums. Online reading group as a term made it difficult to include such other conversations in the study even though they worked almost as reading groups. Online reading groups is according to the author just one part of a big reading movement on the web. Another result of the study was that it seemed as members of online reading groups has changed their way of how to discuss books, meaning they discuss the reading experience not only after they have read the book but also while they are reading. This tendency is in this thesis explained as a result of the everyday use of social media, where people are now used to update as often as several times per day. The term virtual freedom includes the freedom to take part in a conversation independent of time and geography, but also a freedom to have the possibility to stay anonymous. Virtual freedom and anonymity is discussed by means of the term fellowship, and fellowship is discussed by means of the term social reading which is the core variable of this thesis.