Hur omställningen till en virtuell arbetsplats påverkar den upplevda organisationskulturen : En fallstudie om hur Scanias anställda upplevt förändringen av organisationskulturen till följd av covid-19-pandemin

Sammanfattning

As a result of the covid-19 pandemic, organizations have been forced to undergo rapid and significant changes. One of the more extensive changes has been the transfer of work from physical offices to virtual environments, which implies that employees have been forced to adapt to new conditions. Moreover, implementing major changes is a far more complex process for larger, traditional and older organizations, since they generally have an inveterate organizational culture. Thus, there is an interest in analyzing large organizations, such as Scania, since they have been forced to undergo major changes due to covid-19, and how these changes have affected the employees' perceptions and experiences of the organizational culture. This study is based on a qualitative approach, and examines how Scania’s employees have experienced the shift from a physical workplace to a virtual workplace, and how this has affected the perceived organizational culture. The empirical data was analyzed on the basis of the study's theoretical framework, The Cultural Web, and with the help of the theory of sensemaking, as well as Schein's three levels of organizational culture. The result indicates that the transition to a virtual workplace has generated both positive and negative implications on the perceived organizational culture of Scania. This is explained by the fact that the transition to a virtual workplace has increased the individual part of sensemaking, and reduced the collective part. The results also show that employees identify more with Scania after the change than before, as they experience that the workplace has become more flexible with allowing remote work.