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Mellanchefen – skavsårsplåster på förändringsrundan

Jarl, Anna LU and Sjöström, Tilde (2019) SKDK11 20191
Department of Strategic Communication
Abstract (Swedish)
Denna fallstudie syftar till att utvinna fördjupad kunskap om mellanchefens komplexa och mångtydiga roll som meningsskapare och meningsgivare under en digitaliseringsförändring. Tidigare forskning har nämligen betonat mellanchefens roll som avgörande under en förändringsprocess. Detta eftersom mellancheferna innehar en roll som meningsskapare när de omvandlar övergripande organisationsinformation till sina egna verksamheter för att medarbetarna ska kunna skapa förståelse kring förändringen. Samtidigt måste mellancheferna själva skapa mening kring förändringen, de är alltså både sändare och mottagare av förändringsledningens budskap. Genom textanalyser och kvalitativa intervjuer med personer som arbetar med att implementera... (More)
Denna fallstudie syftar till att utvinna fördjupad kunskap om mellanchefens komplexa och mångtydiga roll som meningsskapare och meningsgivare under en digitaliseringsförändring. Tidigare forskning har nämligen betonat mellanchefens roll som avgörande under en förändringsprocess. Detta eftersom mellancheferna innehar en roll som meningsskapare när de omvandlar övergripande organisationsinformation till sina egna verksamheter för att medarbetarna ska kunna skapa förståelse kring förändringen. Samtidigt måste mellancheferna själva skapa mening kring förändringen, de är alltså både sändare och mottagare av förändringsledningens budskap. Genom textanalyser och kvalitativa intervjuer med personer som arbetar med att implementera digitaliseringsförändringen och personer som besitter en mellanchefsposition kunde vi urskilja tre teman som påverkade mellanchefens roll i en förändring: digitaliseringen, tillräcklig information och rollens komplexitet. Utifrån dessa teman kunde vi konstatera att mellancheferna under en förändring fungerar som ett skavsårsplåster, de ompaketerar och anpassar sin kommunikation för att minska medarbetarnas oro och influera deras meningsskapande. Dock kunde vi identifiera skillnader i hur mellancheferna hanterade och upplevde sin roll, vilket bottnade i tre faktorer: otydlig förändringskommunikation, att mellancheferna blir klämda mellan olika ansvarsområden och förväntningar samt att mellancheferna har olika förutsättningar och behov. Dessa faktorer hade alla en inverkan på mellanchefens roll för att de själva skulle kunna skapa mening och vara meningsgivare under digitaliseringsförändringen. (Less)
Abstract
The purpose of this case study is to gain a deepened knowledge about the middle manager's complex and ambiguous role as sensemakers and sensegivers during a digital change. Former research has emphasized the middle manager’s role as crucial during a process of change. This because the middle managers hold a role as sensemakers when they convert the organizational information to their own units in order to help the coworkers to create an understanding about the change. At the same time, the middle managers also must make sense and get an understanding about the change, therefore they are both senders and receivers of the message from the change management. By both text analysis and qualitative interviews, with people that work with... (More)
The purpose of this case study is to gain a deepened knowledge about the middle manager's complex and ambiguous role as sensemakers and sensegivers during a digital change. Former research has emphasized the middle manager’s role as crucial during a process of change. This because the middle managers hold a role as sensemakers when they convert the organizational information to their own units in order to help the coworkers to create an understanding about the change. At the same time, the middle managers also must make sense and get an understanding about the change, therefore they are both senders and receivers of the message from the change management. By both text analysis and qualitative interviews, with people that work with implementing the digital change and people that hold a position as a middle manager, we could discern three themes that affects the role of the middle manager during a change: digitalization, enough information and the complexity of the role. Along with these themes we could establish that the middle managers operate as a band aid, they translate and adjust their communication in order to reduce the coworkers worry and to have an impact on their sense making processes. However, it was possible to identify how the middle managers handled and experienced their own role, which is based upon three factors: vague change communication, the fact that the middle managers get sandwiched between different responsibilities and have different expectations tied to their role and the fact that the middle managers have different requisites and needs. All these factors had an influence on the middle manager’s role and their possibilities to make sense and to be a sensegiver during a digital change. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
author
Jarl, Anna LU and Sjöström, Tilde
supervisor
organization
alternative title
En kvalitativ fallstudie av mellanchefer som meningsskapare och meningsgivare under en digitaliseringsförändring
course
SKDK11 20191
year
type
M2 - Bachelor Degree
subject
keywords
strategisk kommunikation, förändringskommunikation, mellanchefer, meningsskapande, meningsgivande, förändring, digitaliseringsförändring, offentlig organisation, strategic communication, change communication, middle managers, sensemaking, sensegiving, change, digitalization, public sector organization
language
Swedish
id
8978663
date added to LUP
2019-06-05 11:08:15
date last changed
2019-06-05 11:08:15
@misc{8978663,
  abstract     = {{The purpose of this case study is to gain a deepened knowledge about the middle manager's complex and ambiguous role as sensemakers and sensegivers during a digital change. Former research has emphasized the middle manager’s role as crucial during a process of change. This because the middle managers hold a role as sensemakers when they convert the organizational information to their own units in order to help the coworkers to create an understanding about the change. At the same time, the middle managers also must make sense and get an understanding about the change, therefore they are both senders and receivers of the message from the change management. By both text analysis and qualitative interviews, with people that work with implementing the digital change and people that hold a position as a middle manager, we could discern three themes that affects the role of the middle manager during a change: digitalization, enough information and the complexity of the role. Along with these themes we could establish that the middle managers operate as a band aid, they translate and adjust their communication in order to reduce the coworkers worry and to have an impact on their sense making processes. However, it was possible to identify how the middle managers handled and experienced their own role, which is based upon three factors: vague change communication, the fact that the middle managers get sandwiched between different responsibilities and have different expectations tied to their role and the fact that the middle managers have different requisites and needs. All these factors had an influence on the middle manager’s role and their possibilities to make sense and to be a sensegiver during a digital change.}},
  author       = {{Jarl, Anna and Sjöström, Tilde}},
  language     = {{swe}},
  note         = {{Student Paper}},
  title        = {{Mellanchefen – skavsårsplåster på förändringsrundan}},
  year         = {{2019}},
}