“All That Is Solid Melts Into Virtual Work”: A study of the implications of the Covid-19 pandemic on contemporary Employer Branding through the lens of Social Acceleration
(2021) SKDK11 20211Department of Strategic Communication
- Abstract
- Impelled by the Covid-19 pandemic, the labour market is undergoing remarkable structural change towards increasingly digitized and remote forms of work. The purpose of this paper has been to study the social change in work norms instigated by the Covid-19 pandemic, with the aim of contributing to a more nuanced understanding of contemporary employer branding as a form of strategic communication in virtual and hybrid labour landscapes. By applying the theoretical framework of social acceleration, using a critical discourse analysis (CDA) approach, we conducted a discursive text analysis of the contemporary discourse related to work. To that end, we studied articles by thought-leaders in the established international business press together... (More)
- Impelled by the Covid-19 pandemic, the labour market is undergoing remarkable structural change towards increasingly digitized and remote forms of work. The purpose of this paper has been to study the social change in work norms instigated by the Covid-19 pandemic, with the aim of contributing to a more nuanced understanding of contemporary employer branding as a form of strategic communication in virtual and hybrid labour landscapes. By applying the theoretical framework of social acceleration, using a critical discourse analysis (CDA) approach, we conducted a discursive text analysis of the contemporary discourse related to work. To that end, we studied articles by thought-leaders in the established international business press together with articles from the HR blog of acclaimed employer brand Spotify, portraying the brand’s current employer branding activities. In our analysis, discussing these two representations of the discourse of work, we found four main themes that we suggest define the contemporary labour landscape, with possible implications for contemporary employer branding: spatial dissolution of work, detemporalization of work in virtual landscapes, dynamization of work culture and identity, and employee empowerment and decentralization of organizational control. Summarily, we suggest that traditional employer branding appears overly static and employer-oriented in its view of the dynamics and cornerstones of employer-employee relationships, resulting in a risk of overlooking important societal undercurrents that shape the contemporary labour landscape. We posit that adopting a conceptualization of employer branding as an analytical framework for diagnosing contemporary work norms and for tuning into contemporary society has the potential to greatly add value to the field, allowing for organizations to shape employee-employer relationships that resonate with the times. (Less)
- Abstract (Swedish)
- De strukturella förändringar som karaktäriserar vår tids arbetsmarknad har tydliggjorts ytterligare i och med Covid-19-pandemins inträde, där nya virtuella arbetsformer har kommit att bli det nya normala. Syftet med denna kandidatuppsats var att i ljuset av Covid-19-pandemin studera den pågående sociala förändringen i arbetsnormer, i syfte att bidra till en mer nyanserad bild av employer branding som en form av strategisk kommunikation i digitala och hybrida arbetslandskap. Mot teoretisk bakgrund av den sociologiska teorin om social acceleration samt genom kritisk diskursanalytisk metod (CDA) genomförde vi en analys av samtidens arbetsdiskurs. Vi studerade artiklar skrivna av ledande visionärer och avantgardister i erkända internationella... (More)
- De strukturella förändringar som karaktäriserar vår tids arbetsmarknad har tydliggjorts ytterligare i och med Covid-19-pandemins inträde, där nya virtuella arbetsformer har kommit att bli det nya normala. Syftet med denna kandidatuppsats var att i ljuset av Covid-19-pandemin studera den pågående sociala förändringen i arbetsnormer, i syfte att bidra till en mer nyanserad bild av employer branding som en form av strategisk kommunikation i digitala och hybrida arbetslandskap. Mot teoretisk bakgrund av den sociologiska teorin om social acceleration samt genom kritisk diskursanalytisk metod (CDA) genomförde vi en analys av samtidens arbetsdiskurs. Vi studerade artiklar skrivna av ledande visionärer och avantgardister i erkända internationella affärsmagasin, tillsammans med artiklar från det vedertaget framgångsrika arbetsgivarvarumärket Spotify. Genom analys av dessa två separata skildringar av arbetsdiskursen identifierade vi fyra teman som, i vår tolkning, framstod som talande för vår tids arbetslandskap: rumslig upplösning, asynkronisering av arbete, dynamisering av arbetskultur och arbetsidentitet samt medarbetarbemyndigande och decentralisering av organisationskontroll. Sammantaget menar vi att den traditionella förståelsen för employer branding har anammat en tämligen statisk och arbetsgivarorienterad syn på relationen mellan arbetsgivare och arbetstagare, vilket riskerar att förbise underliggande samhälleliga faktorer som formar samtidens arbetslandskap. Vår slutsats är att de framväxande tendenser som omstrukturerar vår tids syn på arbete ställer nya krav på arbetsgivare att betrakta och praktisera employer branding inte primärt som ett sätt att driva organisatoriska mål, utan som en strategisk analysram för att förstå och synkronisera organisationen till att verka i samklang med rådande sociala strömningar. Genom en mer holistisk syn på employer branding menar vi att employer branding tillges nytt strategiskt värde och når större potential att bygga arbetsrelationer som resonerar med tidens anda. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
http://lup.lub.lu.se/student-papers/record/9048348
- author
- Ernstsson, Henrik LU and Hållén, Fredrika LU
- supervisor
- organization
- course
- SKDK11 20211
- year
- 2021
- type
- M2 - Bachelor Degree
- subject
- keywords
- employer branding, employer brand, social acceleration, strategic communication, Spotify employer brand, work norms, social change, virtual work, remote work, digital labour landscape, resonance, Covid-19, arbetsgivarvarumärke, arbetsgivarvarumärkning, arbetsnormer, distansarbete, virtuellt arbete, digitala arbetslandskap, social förändring
- language
- English
- id
- 9048348
- date added to LUP
- 2021-06-07 15:11:41
- date last changed
- 2021-06-07 15:11:41
@misc{9048348,
abstract = {{Impelled by the Covid-19 pandemic, the labour market is undergoing remarkable structural change towards increasingly digitized and remote forms of work. The purpose of this paper has been to study the social change in work norms instigated by the Covid-19 pandemic, with the aim of contributing to a more nuanced understanding of contemporary employer branding as a form of strategic communication in virtual and hybrid labour landscapes. By applying the theoretical framework of social acceleration, using a critical discourse analysis (CDA) approach, we conducted a discursive text analysis of the contemporary discourse related to work. To that end, we studied articles by thought-leaders in the established international business press together with articles from the HR blog of acclaimed employer brand Spotify, portraying the brand’s current employer branding activities. In our analysis, discussing these two representations of the discourse of work, we found four main themes that we suggest define the contemporary labour landscape, with possible implications for contemporary employer branding: spatial dissolution of work, detemporalization of work in virtual landscapes, dynamization of work culture and identity, and employee empowerment and decentralization of organizational control. Summarily, we suggest that traditional employer branding appears overly static and employer-oriented in its view of the dynamics and cornerstones of employer-employee relationships, resulting in a risk of overlooking important societal undercurrents that shape the contemporary labour landscape. We posit that adopting a conceptualization of employer branding as an analytical framework for diagnosing contemporary work norms and for tuning into contemporary society has the potential to greatly add value to the field, allowing for organizations to shape employee-employer relationships that resonate with the times.}},
author = {{Ernstsson, Henrik and Hållén, Fredrika}},
language = {{eng}},
note = {{Student Paper}},
title = {{“All That Is Solid Melts Into Virtual Work”: A study of the implications of the Covid-19 pandemic on contemporary Employer Branding through the lens of Social Acceleration}},
year = {{2021}},
}