EFFECTS OF DIGITALIZATION ON

MANAGERIAL PRACTICES AS
EXPERIENCED BY MANAGERS

LIU, GUANTING
BIN ZAINAL FITRI, MUHAMMAD FAISAL
APINE, HELENA

School of Business, Society & Engineering

Course: Bachelor thesis in Business Administration Supervisor: Michela Cozza

Course code: FOA230 Date: 5th of June, 2020
15 cr
ABSTRACT
Date: 5th of June, 2020

Level: Bachelor thesis in Business Administration, 15 cr

Institution: School of Business, Society and Engineering, Mälardalen University

Authors: Guanting Liu Muhammad Faisal Bin Zainal Fitri Helena Apine

(96/07/10) (95/09/26) (92/03/11)

Title: Effects of Digitalization on Managerial Practices as Experienced by

Managers

Tutor: Michela Cozza

Keywords: Digitalization, managerial practices, managers role, digital work

environment

Research question: How is digitalization transforming the practices of managers?

Purpose: The purpose of this thesis is to explore how managers' practices are
transforming in the digital era. This is done by looking at how
digitalization is changing managerial practices as experienced by
managers.

Method: The data was collected by conducting five semi-structured online

interviews and three structured email interviews with managers working
at Ericsson's headquarter office in Stockholm. The collected data were
analyzed using a thematic analysis approach which resulted in five
themes: work and communication in the digital environment, training
and learning, information and data, other effects of digitalization, and
additional findings.

Conclusion: This study concludes that notable changes in managerial practices can be
observed in all four categories of practices; task-oriented, relations-
oriented, change-oriented, and external practices. This shows that
digitalization is a process that transforms managerial practices and it
does it both by aiding managers in their tasks and by making some tasks
more difficult. Thus, managers need to be more aware and able to adapt
to these changes that digitalization brings to their practices.
Table of Contents
Glossary
Introduction ..................................................................................................................... 1
Problem Background 1
Literature Analysis............................................................................................................ 3
Effects of Digitalization on Managers Occupation 3
Effects of Digitalization on the Role and Practices of Managers 4
Theoretical Framework..................................................................................................... 7
Digitalization 7
Managerial Practices 8
Research Design and Method ......................................................................................... 13
Choice of Research Design and Method 13
Procedure 14
Ethical Considerations 17
Limitations 18
Trustworthiness, Reliability, and Validity 18
Findings.......................................................................................................................... 20
Work and Communication in Digital Environment 20
Training and Learning 23
Information and Data 25
Other Effects of Digitalization 27
Additional Findings 30
Discussion ...................................................................................................................... 31
Conclusion...................................................................................................................... 34
Future Research ............................................................................................................. 36
References ..................................................................................................................... 37
Appendices .................................................................................................................... 43
Glossary
Term Definition
Business Analytics practices aimed at “exploiting large volumes of data, extract
value from them, and use this value to empower the processes
and business decisions at every level in the company” (Villegas-
García et al., 2015, p. 96)
Cognitive Technologies “techniques and concepts (a) to identify the decision-
making/problemsolving requirements in some domain; (b) to
improve decision-making/problem-solving performance; and (c)
to develop joint human-machine cognitive systems” (Woods,
1985, p. 86)
Digital Transformation “sustainable, company-level transformation via revised or newly
created business operations and business models achieved
through value-added digitization initiatives, ultimately resulting
in improved profitability” (Schallmo & Williams, 2018, p. 4)
Digitalization “the application of any digital technologies to any human
activities, such as personal life, social, economic, and political
activities” (Gbadegeshin, 2019, p. 55)
Managerial Practices “generic behaviours applicable to all types of managers and
organizations” (Kathuria et al., 2010, p. 1083)
Robotic Process “an umbrella term for tools that operate on the user interface of
Automation other computer systems in the way a human would do” (van der
Aalst, et al., 2018, p. 269)
Introduction
In this chapter we first describe the problem background that shows the reasoning and
motivation behind our study. The purpose and research question are then shown at the end of
this chapter.

Problem Background
Upon hearing the news of how automatization is destroying jobs and reading dire forecast
about consequences of digitalization on occupations such as one claimed by Cetron and
Davies (1997) that states that “most of us will spend our entire working lives bouncing from
one career to the next, scrambling to learn the skills of a new profession before some
computer snatches away our current livelihood,” (p. 22) arises the question of how the future
of the managerial profession will appear to be. Be that as it may, the impact of digitalization
on managerial occupations is not as destructive as painted above.

Managers are here to stay, i.e., this role will not be digitalized in near future because
managers role requires capabilities that machines are not able to have such as originality,
persuasion, social perceptiveness and assisting and caring for others (Frey & Osborne, 2017).
However, the process of digitalization still has an impact on their occupation in a way that
their capabilities are expected to be supplemented by digitalization (Fossen & Sorgner, 2019).

Fossen and Sorgner (2019) identify destructive and transformative effects that digitalization
has on occupations. They define destructive effects as those that replace occupations while
the transformative effects of digitalization supplement human labor. A lot of research focuses
on the destructive effects of digitalization (Frey & Osborne, 2017; Fuei, 2017; Sorells, 2018)
while there is not much research on transformative effects. Transformative effects are related
not only to changes in occupation and requirements of human skills, but they also imply an
increased machine-human interaction. According to Fossen and Sorgner, managers perform
non-routine tasks that are not easily replaceable by machines and their role requires
capabilities that machines do not possess, at least not yet. However, people in managerial
positions inevitably undergo ongoing digital transformation. This implies that new
qualifications are required for managers to stay competitive.

It is suggested that the human role in human-machine interaction cannot be neglected for
the efforts with the use of technological development to achieve desired results (e.g.
increased effectiveness) (Johansson et al., 2017; Simic & Nedelko, 2019). Therefore, when
advancements in technology change the machine part of this interaction, human
competencies (skills, knowledge, approaches) and effectiveness will need to change as well.

Motivated by self-serving interest as potential occupants of future managerial positions as

well as recognizing the impacts of digitalization across all businesses and professions, in our
thesis we aim to investigate and examine how digitalization affects managerial professions.
1
Additionally, in the literature, such a need to study the effects of digitalization on managers
is recognized, and it is suggested that such perspective would be beneficial for both practice
and research (Yukl, 2013; Osmundsen et al., 2018).

Purpose: The purpose of this thesis is to explore how managers' practices are transforming in
the digital era. This is done by looking at how digitalization is changing managerial practices
as experienced by managers.

Research question: How is digitalization transforming the practices of managers?

2
Literature Analysis
In this chapter, we first discuss the research so far relating to the effects of digitalization on
managerial occupations. Further, we describe what previous studies have found regarding the
effects of digitalization on the role and practices of managers.

Effects of Digitalization on Managerial Occupations

The influential work of Frey and Osborne (2017) on the effects of digitalization on professions,
focuses on the risk that professions will be fully automated in the foreseeable future. These
authors identify computation bottlenecks, that is, capabilities that occupations possess and
that cannot be replaced by machines in the near future. They find that the professional
category that managers belong to is at a low risk of computerization because these
occupations require capabilities such as creativity and social intelligence. Meanwhile, Felten
et al. (2018) look at which professional capabilities are mostly affected by advancements in
technology, particularly in artificial intelligence (AI). However, their methodology did not
allow further insight into whether technology is a substitute or complement to the
occupation. Fossen and Sorgner (2019) build on both studies (Frey & Osborne, 2017; Felten
et al., 2018) and assess the effects of digitalization on the occupations. Their assessment puts
most managerial occupations in a category that is highly impacted by advancements in
technology, that is featured as complementary to their capabilities, rather than a
replacement. Overall, they find that managers' occupation is going to be transformed and
most likely end up working together with new technologies.

Similar conclusions are reached by Dengler and Matthes (2018) who argue that looking at
automatization of occupations overestimates the forecast for job losses because some tasks
within occupations cannot be performed by machines. Thus, they study the possibility of the
tasks “as activities that individuals have to perform in a specific occupation” (p. 305) to be
automatized. They find that there are some tasks in the occupation segment, “occupations in
business management and organization” (p. 307), that can be fully substituted by machines
while others cannot. The fact that some tasks that are performed by managers are susceptible
to be digitalized while others are not, indicates the inevitable although partial transformation
of managers’ occupation.

There are some more studies that reach similar conclusions about the ongoing transformation
of occupations and tasks due to digitalization (Arntz et al., 2016; Brynjolfsson et al., 2018).
What these studies were not able to estimate is how the tasks change, what new tasks arise
and how the time freed-up due to task replacement could be used to perform other tasks
(Dengler & Matthes, 2018; Frey & Osborne, 2017). Other studies also conclude that human
labor is complemented by technology or, to put it differently, technology is complemented
by human labor (Spitz‐Oener, 2006; Arntz et al., 2016; Autor, 2015). In view of the fact that
employees are expected to work together with technology, the human part of the equation
3
should not go unnoticed, for it to be effective and efficient (Autor, 2015; Johansson et al.,
2017; Simic & Nedelko, 2019). Additionally, these transformations of occupations and tasks,
due to advancements in technology, also indicate a need to focus on the transformation of
business processes as noted by Brynjolfsson et al. (2018). Thus, it is important to look at digital
business transformation and how it impacts the role of managers.

Effects of Digitalization on the Role and Practices of Managers

As technology develops, new digital achievements lead to the transformation of business
organizations. The concept of digital transformation is tightly related to digitalization and
digital innovation (Fichman et al., 2014). These concepts are all built on digital technology and
the outcomes of the innovation and digitalization will lead to a change in major business
conducts. Osmundsen et al. (2018) define digital transformation as “when digitalization or
digital innovation over time is applied to enable major changes to how business is conducted,
leading to a significant transformation of an organization or an entire industry” (p. 2). To
achieve competitive advantages, companies need to establish new management practices to
govern these complex transformations (Matt et al., 2015).

Managers can use the tools at hand, such as the developing technologies of AI, to organize
and form these data to gain a better insight into real-time customer behavior and demand
trends (Chisambara, 2018). For example, it is necessary for a demand forecasting manager to
obtain high levels of accuracy of a forecast that in turn converts into higher profitability and
revenue (Chisambara, 2018). With the abundance of data that are gathered during the
complex process among supply chains, major companies utilize cognitive-based technologies
to support and assist managers to foresee customers’ demands. Osmundsen et al. (2018),
along with Haffke et al. (2017), pointed out that the digital transformation makes the role of
information systems in an organization to become more relevant. The concept of bimodal
information technology comes out as the digital transformation process. Bimodal information
technologies (IT) divides traditional information systems into two parallel parts; the first part
is the traditional IT governance approach while the second part focuses on adapting to the
changes while at the same time improving the company’s agility and reaction speed (Haffke
et al., 2017). Managers could improve the organization's digital capabilities by separating
these two parts into new divisions. By doing this, Haffke et al. (2017) claim that IT support in
business would become more effective.

Additionally, Ancarani and Di Mauro (2018) also indicate that with the fall of cost in robotics
process automation (RPA) and business analytics (BA), human-robot teams will increase. This
is regarding the division of company tasks and assignments whereby humans deal with the
interpretation of data, as well as the creative decision-making processes. Machines, on the
other hand, take the responsibilities of summarization and gathering of data. The
requirement of managers dealing with machines in the research of Ancarani and Di Mauro
(2018) shows the need for managers to see machines as collaborators, as well as to use
machines as employee empowerment and shift of culture.
4
Furthermore, technology brings about a means to an end for managers as human expertise
such as decision making is still seen as a necessity to successfully apply the capabilities of
technology to draw on the combined benefits of the business (Chisambara, 2018). Hence, the
need for the combined relationship between humans and machines remains the core issue.
The ever-changing environment of the market, as well as the rising development of
technology, urges organizations to react and adapt their business by ensuring the befitting
talents to overcome the risk of losing out to the competition. Besides, with the rise of
technology, managers' role does not face extinction but instead demands them to be more
skilled than ever before (Gratton, 2016). To illustrate, handling employees is seen as a
challenge as it demands managers to work with employees that have varieties of ways and
tools that can cause them to become obsolete; automation and constant improvement on
technologies causing unclear practices of management, self-assessment tools that allow
employees to learn and identify difficulties of their productivity level, as well as, social
networking creating a clearer picture of influence and power at the workplace enabling more
practices of peer-to-peer feedback form of learning rather than a manager-employee
relationship (Gratton, 2016).

Gratton’s (2016) study concluded that the use of technology has excelled more than before
as it is used not only in the workplace but also in personal and home life. Nevertheless,
participants in this study indicate the positive impacts of technology allowing for more
routines and productivity. For managers, however, the findings signify challenges and tasks
to cope with such practices of workplace digitalization. Some examples of these challenges
are managing virtual teams that consist of multigenerational groups in regards to their
capabilities and different preferences of the use of technology and how to manage the
abundance flow of crucial information and knowledge across business units (Gratton, 2016).
To be able to unravel and find the solutions to said challenges exhibit highly skilled roles of
both managerial capabilities and practices. With this in mind, traditional sets of managerial
skills and capabilities become ineffectual if managers do not possess sufficient technical
knowledge to supplement traditional managerial skill sets as new challenges arise due to the
development of technology and digitalization of a workplace (Chisambara, 2018; Gratton,
2016).

Similar to the findings of Chisambara (2018), partnering with digital colleagues, that is
technologies, allows managers to make use of them as they can process complex data and
solve intricate issues with the use of algorithms. As seen in Chisambara (2018) of forecasting
demand managers, managers, in general, come into the process by providing
recommendations and solutions, essentially the decision-making process, to their digital
partners. Despite the automation of the daily routines and processes carried out by digital
partners, the outcomes often fall short from satisfactory, making it imperative for managers
to step in and provide human input to their digital partners (Tarafdar, 2016; Chisambara,
2018).

5
Tarafdar (2016) also denotes consistent findings as Gratton (2016) in regards to technology
allowing for remote work where the traditional setting work hours become less and less
meaningful. Tarafdar specifically pinpoints the issues that arise from remote work as it can
lead to “techno-stress” where it becomes difficult for managers to make clear of the
boundaries between work and non-work related issues of their daily lives. Remote work
allows for a steady flow of information and knowledge that is continuous that carries through
even after work hours. Therefore, due to technology, the need for managers to become more
and more digitally mindful is important (Tarafdar, 2016). Moreover, it is not only managers
that deal with the flexibility of work. Individuals have different approaches and preferences
for their technological habits. On top of being more digitally mindful, managers have to
develop empathy for others’ technological preferences as neglecting it can cause inefficiency
in communication leading to misunderstandings, conflict, and stress (Tarafdar, 2016). What
this ultimately amounts to is managers’ ability and response to the effect of digital
technologies at the workplace.

Meanwhile, Kohnke (2017) states that change in management techniques will be the direct
result of digitalization, whereby managers in charge of the organizational change will require
a profound knowledge of digital technologies. In turn, for managers to successfully administer
change, in the long run, the practices and tasks will most likely be more focused and
specialized. Some examples of these more focused and specialized tasks are coaching,
supervision, and dealing with resilience (Kohnke, 2017). Wokurka, et al., (2017) examines
practice examples and what to avoid when dealing with digital transformation and how
business can gain digital success, looking more specifically at how strategy and culture are the
keys to handling digital transformation. Wokurka, et al. denote the four key learnings. Firstly,
day-to-day, as well as long term digital strategy must be clearly defined for managers and
their teams. Secondly, culture is an important factor to accomplish a successful digital
transformation where managers must balance both the upsides and the downsides of the
integration of culture. Thirdly, an individual’s emotion and feelings must be taken into
consideration when undergoing a digital transformation as old habits and belief is a challenge
for managers to change. Lastly, managers must be ready to put in the work when enforcing
the concrete behaviors; managers must learn how to teach employees to think and act
differently.

6
Theoretical Framework
In this chapter, we present and define concepts that are used for gathering the data, guiding
its analysis as well as discussing our findings regarding the effects of digitalization on the
practices of managers.

Digitalization
It has been identified in the literature that digitization is sometimes used as a synonym for
digitalization (Urbach & Ahlemann, 2019; Gbadegeshin, 2019; Ilcus, 2018; Kuusisto, 2017),
however, these two concepts do not refer to the same thing. Thus, the distinction between
the two must be made before defining digitalization as it is used in our study. As found in the
literature, digitization means transforming something from analog or physical format into
digital format (Schallmo & Williams, 2018; Gbadegeshin, 2019; Heilig et al., 2017). For
example, scanning a document so that it is available on the computer. While in general
context digitalization is defined as “application of any digital technologies to any human
activities, such as personal life, social, economic, and political activities” (Gbadegeshin, 2019,
p. 55). This indicates that digitization is only one component of digitalization.

There are many definitions of digitalization that reflect the different contexts that it is used.
For our study we need to look at digitalization in an organizational context that also allows us
to see its potential effects on people within the organization. For this reason, in our study the
understanding of digitalization in an organizational context is shaped by the following
definition:

Digitalization is the use of technological innovations in the business context with a

significant influence on products, services, business processes, sales channels, and supply
channels. The associated potential benefits include, among others, increased sales or
productivity, innovations in value creation, and new forms of customer interaction.
(Urbach & Ahlemann, 2019, p.7)

Additionally, it is needed to understand the aspect of digitalization in the context of the

workplace i.e. the digital environment that the work takes place. It is suggested that the
digitalized work environment is affecting the way people in organizations are collaborating
and engaging with each other and with other stakeholders (De Bruyne & Gerritse, 2018). The
digitalization in this context is best described by a digital business consultancy i-scoop (n.d.).
They say that digitalization in the workplace means that the workforce

works differently, using digital tools such as the mobile devices and technologies that make
them mobile and/or using social collaboration and unified communication platforms,
which are digital systems, enabling them to work in a more “digital way”. This, in turn,
creates new opportunities to engage differently. (What is digitalization section, para. 7)

7
In our study we need to take into consideration both aspects, digitalization in the
organizational context and digitalization in the context of the workplace. Thus, in our study,
we defined digitalization as:

The use of digital technologies that have implications for everything from
business operations (research and development, production, sales, and
distribution), to how the organization is communicating with their
stakeholders including customers and how people within the organization
are engaging in the activities that keep the business going.

Managerial Practices
In our study, practices are defined as “generic behaviours applicable to all types of managers
and organizations, and include: networking, team building, supporting, mentoring, inspiring,
recognizing, rewarding, consulting, delegating, planning, clarifying, problem solving,
monitoring, and informing” (Kathuria et al.,
Table 1: Categories of Managerial Practices
2010, p. 1083). Several other studies view
(adapted from Yukl, 2012, Table 1)
practices as behaviors (Kathuria et al.,
2010; Quijano-Nguyen, 2004; Tracey &
Hinkin, 1998; Hassan et al., 2016).

This definition by Kathuria (2010) is built on

Yukl’s leadership behavior taxonomy that
was first introduced in the late 1980s. This
taxonomy has been used and validated by
many other researchers (Tracey & Hinkin,
1998; Kent, 2005; Kathuria, 2010;
Borgmann et al., 2016; Park et al., 2018;
Özşahin, 2019) and adjusted several times
(Yukl et al., 2002; Yukl, 2012) ever since it
was first made. The version used in our
study (see Table 1) categorizes the
practices into four meta-categories that
each has a different primary objective and
includes several midrange categories (Yukl,
2012). These meta-categories of practices
are task-oriented (planning, clarifying,
monitoring, problem-solving), relations-
oriented (supporting, developing,
recognizing, empowering), change-oriented (advocating change, envisioning change,
encouraging innovation, facilitating collective learning) and external (networking, external
monitoring, representing) (Yukl, 2012).

8
The leadership behavior taxonomy consists of unique and separate categories named meta-
categories (Yukl, 2012). As noted before this classification has been validated and adjusted
over the years. Although it has been widely used for quantitative studies including Managerial
Practices Survey, its use is also applicable for qualitative studies (Yukl, 2013). It is used in our
study to design an interview guide and aid the analysis of data aimed at answering our main
research question. Specificities of such use will be discussed in the “Research Design and
Method” chapter.

There have been several scholars that have tried to address the issue of conceptualization of
leadership and management (Kent, 2005; Nienaber, 2010). They have pointed out that there
is no clear consensus in the scientific community of what leadership and management mean,
how they differ, and thus how to define these concepts. Findings of the literature study by
Nienaber (2010) show that all the tasks associated with leaders are part of the tasks
associated with managers and there are only several tasks that are associated with managers
but not with leaders. However, our study is taking the perspective of Kent (2005) who in his
study tries to conceptualize the process of managing and leading and behaviors associated
with each of them. According to him, Yukl’s leadership behavior taxonomy does not represent
leadership, it represents management. This perspective is taken because the main focus of
our study is management not leadership. Thus, for the purpose of our study and to avoid
further confusion for the readers, we will refer to leadership behaviors, as named by Yukl, as
managerial practices. Our study is not the first to refer and use Yukl's leadership behaviors as
managerial practices (Tracey & Hinkin, 1998).

As previously indicated by Kathuria et al. (2010), this analytical framework can be used for
studying managers working in different organizational units (Yukl et al. 2002) or, as they are
called in the study by Yukl (2012), work units. ‘Organizational units’ can refer to the
organization as a whole; business units like research and development (R&D) department or
division responsible for a specific product; and teams, for example, consisting of people
working on a specific project. Practices used by managers have slight variations due to the
differences that characterize the previously described contexts - organizational unit i.e. work
unit. For example, this means that a manager such as an executive who is in charge of the
organization as a whole uses practices in the midrange category “representing” for
representing the organization as whole to the outsiders. While the same category of practices
for a manager in charge of a team within the organization means that the manager is
representing the team to the other organizational units as well as the outsiders.

Further a short description is given for each meta-category and each midrange category.

Task-Oriented Practices

Task-oriented practices are those practices primarily related to efficient use of organizational
resources, both labor and capital, to accomplish a task and maintain stable operations of the
business (Yukl, 2012). This meta-category includes four midrange categories: planning and

9
organizing work, clarifying roles and objectives, monitoring operations and performance, and
work-related problem-solving.

Planning is concerned with making decisions about what needs to be done, who will do
it, how it will be done, and when it needs to be done (Yukl et al., 2002). It includes “making
decisions about objectives and priorities, organizing work, assigning responsibilities,
scheduling activities, and allocating resources among different activities” (Yukl, 2012, p.
70). Planning usually requires information from other organizational units and outsiders
such as suppliers.

Clarifying is “the communication of plans, policies, and role expectations” (Yukl et al.,
2002, p. 19). It also involves the guidance and the coordination of activities to make sure
that people know what they need to do, how to do it, and what are the expected results.

Monitoring involves acquiring and assessing the information about a manager’s work unit
and using it to recognize problems and opportunities and the need for changes in plans
and procedures (Yukl et al., 2002; Yukl, 2012). “There are many different ways to monitor
operations, including directly observing activities, examining recorded activities or
communications, using information systems, examining required reports, and holding
performance review sessions” (Yukl, 2012, p. 70).

Problem-solving deals “with disruptions of normal operations and member behavior that
is illegal, destructive, or unsafe” (Yukl, 2012, p. 70). These disruptions may require
leadership interventions and could call for disciplinary actions. Also, assessment of the
complexity of the problems needs to be made to evaluate if the problem can be resolved
quickly or it requires a more complex solution like the involvement of other managers
and/or use of change-oriented practices.

Relations-Oriented Practices

According to Yukl (2012), the primary objective of relations-oriented practices “is to increase
the quality of human resources and relations” (p. 68). By definition, relationship behavior
includes supporting, developing, recognizing, and empowering people within the managers’
organizational unit.

Supporting is the relation practice which involves offering support, help, consideration,
and acceptance to other people (Yukl et al., 2002). The purpose of this practice is to help
managers build and keep good internal relationships inside their work unit and to aid
people in dealing with stressful or difficult tasks.

Developing consists of practices such as training and teaching people how to do a job
better; guiding people through and away from mistakes and offering opportunities to
improve their skills (Yukl et al., 2002).

10
 Recognizing could simply refer to awarding, praising, appreciating, for others’
achievements, significant contributions, or good behavior. It normally comes up with
intangible rewards (Yukl et al., 2002).

Empowering involves sharing information, resources, and opportunities with other

people in the manager’s organizational unit (Yukl et al., 2002). In some cases, it involves
delegating decision-making authority to others within the unit. The purpose of these
activities is to enhance the productivity and satisfaction of the people.

Change-Oriented Practices

Change-oriented practices are aimed at increasing “innovation, collective learning, and

adaptation to the external environment.” (Yukl, 2012, p. 68). They include managers'
practices related to the “initiation and encouragement of change” (p. 72) and facilitation of
the change process at hand. This combination of practices includes advocating change,
envisioning change, encouraging change, and facilitating collective learning.

Advocating change is related to “influencing people to accept the need for change” (Yukl,
2012, p. 72). This is needed not only when a change is urgently needed but also when an
organization experiences a slow-changing internal or external period, and there are no
crises happening during that period.

Envisioning change means articulating a clear and appealing vision of the gains that can
be reached by implementing change (Yukl, 2012). This is done to build confidence and
commitment in the work unit to the implemented changes.

Encouraging innovation means to “encourage, nurture, and facilitate creative ideas and
innovation in a team or organization” (Yukl, 2012, p. 73). Additionally, it involves the
facilitation of creative problem-solving and entrepreneurial activities within the work
unit.

Facilitating collective learning “of new knowledge relevant for improving the
performance of a group or organization” (Yukl, 2012, p. 73). These practices might involve
supporting the exploitation of existing and exploration of new work methods and
strategies, and facilitation of learning from failures. It also involves guiding the learning,
spreading, and use of new knowledge and technology.

External Practices

The previous categories were related to what is going on within the managers’ work unit while
the purpose of external practices is to “provide relevant information about outside events,
get necessary resources and assistance, and promote the reputation and interests of the work
unit” (Yukl, 2012, p. 74). Three midrange categories included in this meta-category are
networking, external monitoring, and representing.

11
Networking involves building and maintaining relationships, communicating, and
interacting with people outside of the managers’ organizational unit to acquire
“information, resources, and political support” (Yukl, 2012, p. 74).

External monitoring includes scanning and analyzing the external environment to identify
relevant changes (Yukl, 2012). That information is then used to identify potential threats
and opportunities for the whole organization or the unit that the manager is responsible
for. The relevance of these activities depends on the degree of the impact that events in
the external environment or other organizational units have on the managers’ unit.

Representing. According to Yukl (2012) managers need to represent their organizational

unit or the organization in general when dealing with outsiders such as colleagues from
other units, superiors, and organizational stakeholders (e.g. customers, suppliers,
partners, investors, etc.).

12
Research Design and Method
We start this chapter by describing and motivating the choices we made about research design
and method. Then we provide a detailed account of how we conducted the study and end this
chapter by showing how we addressed ethical consideration, limitations, trustworthiness,
validity, and reliability.

Choice of Research Design and Method

Several reasons motivated us to choose qualitative methods as research methods. Compared
to quantitative methods, the qualitative methods are adept at exploring the human
experience (Nowell et al., 2017). The changes in managers’ practices led by digitalization
belong to the area of human experience. Hence, to that extent, we believe a qualitative
method is suitable for our study. According to Nowell et al. (2017), qualitative methods also
provide meaningful and useful academic views and knowledge. Additionally, when we
searched for literature on databases, the majority of available literature about digitalization
and management or managers was published in the last 5 years. This indicates that
digitalization is a comparably new concept in academic management study. Thus, we need to
explore an area with relatively limited pre-existing knowledge. To do that qualitative methods
are more suitable because we can base our study on managers' experiences as that is a way
of gaining valuable new information without being dependent on juggling different concepts
and measurements. To conquer this task, the choice was made to use primary data that we
gather for the specific purpose of our study. It was collected by using qualitative data
collection techniques - semi-structured interview and a structured interview.

An interview is considered one of the popular ways of doing qualitative research (Holt, 2010)
since the interview specialized in exploring people’s experiences. Furthermore, a semi-
structured form was chosen by us to collect the data in a structured manner while having the
flexibility to respond to and explore in more depth what was said by the interviewees. Also, a
semi-structured interview would help us to interact with participants to build relations and
trust between us and the interviewees (Silverman, 2000). The semi-structured form can also
lead to inconsistencies between interviewers. To minimize it a decision was made to develop
an interview protocol that each interviewer could use when conducting interviews.

The interactive interviews were conducted through the online environment by using different
communication software, more precisely, by using Zoom, Skype, and WhatsApp. The reason
behind the use of these platforms is that they provide the same functions like phone calls or
video calls and that they are widely available. However, there are downsides to using such
platforms when they are compared to face to face interviews. We might miss some
information such as facial expression, eye contact, or body language (Holt, 2010). Thus, it
might be hard for interviewers and participants to build a first impression and to understand
and react to each other’s nonverbal cues. On the other hand, unlike face-to-face interviews,

13
the use of such platforms provides flexibility regarding adaptation to the interviewee’s
schedule and location. It is also suggested that the participants feel more relaxed and easier
to talk to when interviews similar to phone interviews are used (Holt, 2010). Another major
factor that we had to consider was the COVID-19 pandemic in the world during the time that
our study was conducted. Thus, it was important that we fulfilled our social responsibilities
and followed the guidelines by the World Health Organization and the Swedish government
to keep distance with people and avoid face-to-face meetings.

Also, a decision was made to use structured email interviews in addition to semi-structured
online interviews. This was done because of the time constraints of the interviewees. Email
interviews allowed us to have more participants because they could answer questions on
their own time without the need of having a scheduled meeting. However, structured email
interviews lack flexibility and provide no chance for responding and clarifying. To minimize
this, the definitions of key terms, that explained what we are interested in from each
question, was sent with the interview questions, and participants were encouraged to ask
questions at any time during the process. Additionally, interviewees were informed that we
might contact them again in case there is a need for clarifying their answers.

To analyze data, we applied thematic analysis as it is very flexible and can be applied to a
variety of research purposes. Our study tries to explore managers’ experiences concerning
their practices thus it tries to reflect their reality. This means that we assume the managers
can convey their experiences by using language (Braun & Clarke, 2006). Thus, thematic
analysis is an appropriate method to use because it can work on multiple levels, more
specifically, the surface (what this study is interested in) and what is going on beneath it.
Additionally, thematic analysis fits with our experience levels as novice researchers.

Case Study
As introduced in the previous chapters this study focuses on the topic of digitalization and
how it affects managerial practices. We chose to study the experiences of managers working
at Ericsson’s office in Stockholm. Not only because Ericsson is one of the largest local
companies that employ almost 13 000 people in Sweden, but also because Ericsson is one of
the leading companies in the telecommunication industry. According to the study by Butner
and Ho (2019), the telecommunication industry on average is using emerging technologies
more than any other industry. Hence, studying an organization from this industry is
considered suitable for our study. Additionally, our choice of case company was influenced
by accessibility which in our case meant that we had a contact person in the organization who
could provide access to the managers working in it.

Approach to Literature
Searching and reading the literature helped us to narrow down the topic and focus on the
research problem. We first looked at the broad topic of digitalization then, as search for
relevant literature continued, we put our focus on the effects of digitalization on managers’
14
profession and roles. Another reason for approaching the literature is that it helped us to
understand the concepts more precisely and in an academic way and provided us with
validated and tested theoretical frameworks for managerial practices. The literature search
was performed by using databases such as ABI/INFORM Global, Primo, Emerald Insight, and
Google Scholar. Access to these databases was provided by the Mälardalen University. Mostly
peer-reviewed scientific journal articles were used. However, to gain a broader view of the
topic and a deeper understanding of the theoretical framework, we included some relevant
books, conference papers, and dissertations.

Development of Research Instrument

For answering our research question and to formulate the interview questions, we are using
meta-categories of managerial practices, as described in the previous chapter. Using these
categories allows one to focus the questions and let the interviewees describe the changes
that they have experienced in their practices due to digitalization. In this way, all the broad
categories of practices (task-oriented, relations-oriented, change-oriented, and external) are
represented. The operationalization of the interview questions can be seen in Appendix A.
These interview questions are adjusted after a pilot interview that we did with a former team
manager from our network of acquaintances. The pilot interview was done to test the
understandability of the interview questions and whether any questions need to be improved
to make them more clear and easier to answer. The pilot interview was not included in the
analysis and further parts of this study. Additionally, after the pilot interview an interview
protocol was developed (see Appendix B), to have consistency between interviewers when
conducting the interviews. The interview protocol also includes clarifying guidelines for asking
follow-up questions or being used during the interviews to clarify what we mean by each
question.

Procedure for Data Collection

The invitation email to the managers was sent on the 24th of April (2020) to the contact person
in Ericsson’s office in Stockholm. The contact person made several adjustments to it so that it
is more understandable and appealing to the managers. Then this adjusted version of the
invitation email (see Appendix C) was forwarded to the managers through Ericsson’s internal
emailing system. Managers then could volunteer to participate by choosing their preferred
method of participation (interactive interview or email interview), preferred time and date
for the interview, and by leaving their contact details in a Google form. Once the managers
volunteered to be interviewed the follow-up email was sent to them. At this point no
managers chose to do an email interview. Those three managers that volunteered to do
interactive interviews received a follow-up email similar to the draft in Appendix D containing
the interview questions and the definitions of key terms. This was included in the email so
that participants are prepared for the interview and to get them thinking in the terms that we
are using. Additionally, a reminder email was forwarded on the 4th of May (2020) by the
contact person. Two more managers volunteered to have interactive interviews via Skype and
15
three managers volunteered to participate by email interviews. Short information about
interviews with managers can be found in Table 2, while more elaborate information about
the interviews, the interviewees, and how they were reached is available in Appendix E.

Table 2: Number of Managers

For four of the interviews two of us were present and one interview was conducted only by
one of us present. Only one person interviewed each manager while the other person was
providing support to the interviewer. The interviews largely followed the protocol as seen in
Appendix B. Some follow-up questions were asked depending on interviewees' answers to
clarify or dig deeper into what was said. The interviews were between 30 to 50 minutes long.

All of the interviews were held using the English language. They were recorded with the
permission of the interviewees and within 48 hours transcribed into a textual format (see
Appendix F). This was done for the ease of the analysis and so that the persons involved in
the assessment of trustworthiness, reliability, and validity of our study could have the
necessary information to do that.

Managers that chose to participate by doing email interviews received a follow-up email
similar to the draft presented in Appendix G. They were encouraged to contact us if anything
is unclear at any time, however, none of the interviewees did. On the 8th of May an additional
email was sent to remind that this was the last day for sending in the answers to the interview
question. Once all the email interviews were received, they underwent the same analysis as
the transcripts of interactive interviews. The answers from email interviews (see Appendix H)
were significantly shorter than transcripts of interactive interviews. However, they were more
focused and concise and thus provided a satisfactory account of managers' experiences.

Procedure for Data Analysis

For thematic analysis of the data collected we followed the guide by Braun and Clarke (2006).
The analysis process began with getting familiar with the data by reading and re-reading it
while starting to sketch the initial idea of what we find interesting in the data. In the next
step, we began the coding process that was guided by our research question. Each interview
was coded by one of us and after coding was finished, the codes were reviewed by the others,

16
and adjustments were made where differences arose. The third step, searching for themes,
began when all the interviews were coded. All the codes were put in one document and each
of us searched for themes separately and then we discussed each other’s themes and came
up with six initial themes. Then,
Table 3: Themes and Sub-Themes
during the fourth step of the
analysis, these six initial themes
were reviewed by looking if they
work with the coded extracts. This
step reduced our six initial themes
to five (see Table 3) that include
the theme ’Miscellaneous’ and
contains codes that do not seem to
fit anywhere else. During the fifth
step, we defined themes further
and came up with appropriate
names for them. The themes, sub-
themes, and codes that they are
comprised of and the original items
that they are coming from can be
seen in Appendix I. In the final step,
we presented our themes and
discussed them in relation to the
literature and theory. This is going
to be our ‘Results’ and ‘Discussion’
chapter.

A note regarding the consideration of gender in this research; We do not include the gender
of the managers in our study because, as noted by Silverman (2017) in the qualitative analysis,
only identities that matter are those invoked by the participants themselves. Thus, we do not
want to present any identities based on our assumptions, and managers themselves did not
bring up their gender during the interviews. Additionally, we do not want to lead readers to
believe that we considered the effect of gender in a particular way during our analysis
because based on writing by Silverman (2017) we do not have data that enables us to make
claims of correlation and causation between our findings and such identities.

Ethical Considerations
Several steps were taken to ensure that ethical considerations were addressed in our
study. When managers were asked to fill in a Google form to volunteer to participate in our
study, they were informed that their names and contact information will not be available to
anyone besides us. The follow-up email before each interview included a section that
described how their interviews are going to be used and interview questions were included

17
in the attachment so that they could give informed consent to the participation. The email
also ensured that their names and emails will not be included in our study and that they have
a right to withdraw their participation at any time during the process. Before each interactive
interview began, the interviewee’s consent for recording it was acquired.

Limitations
The COVID-19 pandemic in the world had an impact on the availability of managers and their
answers to our interview questions that have been shaped by this major disruptive event.
During this time, managers were working only remotely, hence they talked much about how
remote work disturbs their normal working process. This might lead us to overestimate the
influence of remote work. However, working in a digital environment was also part of the
change that digitalization brings before the COVID-19 pandemic. Additionally, our interview
questions were designed in a way that led the interviewees to talk about a variety of aspects
of their practices concerning digitalization.

The article contains 8 interviews which mostly account for the perspective of managers, that
is, a specific point of view. Furthermore, most of the managers that we interviewed are from
research and development related departments. We lack other perspectives on the topic, for
example the marketing department or customer support department. On top of that, this
research was mainly focused on managers that are situated in Stockholm, Sweden where the
main office is located. With this in mind, the practices performed by managers in Stockholm
may not be similar to other offices situated in other geographical locations.

An additional limitation of this research is the use of the English language. This is in regard to
all of the approaches taken to conduct this research. This is because English is not our first
language. The same point might apply to the interviewees. As a result, the interviewees’
interpretation of the questions, as well as our interpretation of the answer, can be
misconceived.

Trustworthiness
For our research to be considered trustworthy, it needs to include enough information so that
the readers can judge our results based on the way we arrived at them (Nowell et al., 2017).
We tried to achieve that by describing in detail exactly what we did, especially how we
conducted data analysis.

Reliability
To ensure internal reliability, i.e., inter-observer consistency during data collection, all of us
did at least one interview so that in the data set all of our accounts are represented. We also
used the same protocol with clarifying guidelines for conducting interviews to have
consistency among ourselves and to avoid pursuing our preconceptions and interests. To
ensure internal-observer consistency when performing data analysis, each of us checked each

18
other’s codes during the coding process and each of us created themes before, and then they
were discussed and adjusted collectively.

It is suggested that external reliability is hard to achieve in qualitative research (Bell et al.,
2019), and in our case the study was done during the COVID-19 pandemic, which is a social
setting that is unique for our study. However, we tried to ensure external validity by
describing in detail our procedures for data collection and analysis so that our study can be
replicated.

Validity
To try to ensure that our results are in agreement with the data that we produced, i.e., the
internal validity (Bell et al., 2019), we described our procedure for data analysis in the
‘Research Design and Method’ chapter. Additionally, our study was subjected to several peer
reviews by opposing students and by our supervisor and co-assessor who had access to all the
data that we collected and a detailed description of the method of its analysis.

Due to the use of a case study and our small sample, external validity is problematic in our
study (Bell et al., 2019). However, we tried to increase it by approaching and interviewing
managers occupying different positions and having different levels (e.g. general managers
and front-line managers) within the organization.

19
Findings
In this chapter we describe the results of the data analysis i.e. the five themes and subthemes
within them (Table 3). The descriptions of each theme are organized on the theme by theme
basis.

Work and Communication in Digital Environment

Shrinking the Impact of Physical Distance

The use of digital tools to work and communicate is a growing need nowadays. It is due to the
organization having internal and external stakeholders all over the world and due to the
COVID-19 situation. Additionally, some specific work, like software development, would not
be possible without digitalization. The use of different devices and sometimes using them at
the same time for work is the new norm. Thus, as long as employees or managers have access
to a device, the location from which they work does not matter. So, in general digitalization
reduces the physical distance by allowing communication, collaboration, and work regardless
of people’s physical location. It allows managers to communicate and work with teams and
manage people located in different parts of the world.

It is also suggested that digitalization helps to focus on interactions with people and allows
them to stay in touch with them, by making these aspects easier. Another benefit of working
and communicating in a digital environment, as pointed out by Manager 5, is that reduced
need for travel helps to reduce stress levels in people associated with the traveling:

Nowadays, all the companies that we are working with are also very, quite advanced when
it comes to digitalization. So that has been helping a lot. For example, you want to meet a
customer, ten years ago, in most cases, you will have to travel. But now, it is becoming a
norm, let’s say, you meet them by digital means and to handle tasks. That helps a lot, that
really helps people in terms of stress-level, that really helps people instead of taking an
extra step of traveling.

This also indicates that for the communication and work between organizations to be
effective, it is needed that both parties involved are adapted to and using digital tools.

Furthermore, digitalization allows scale operations without having additional facilities in

different geographical locations which makes it more cost-effective because there is no need
for investment in capital and human resources to run them.

When it comes to working together, as suggested by the majority of managers, digitalization

enables and makes it easier to run projects, accomplish tasks, and collaborate with people
from different geographical locations. The work is not tied to the physical location and it
allows them to work from anywhere at any time. However, it was indicated by some managers
that this leads to a need to find and manage a balance between work and private life. This is
20
best illustrated by Manager 8 who wrote that “when you can work from practically
anywhere/anytime it’s harder to separate work and private life. New skills are needed to
manage work-life balance”.

Digitalization is changing the way people are communicating and interacting by offering more
ways and more tools to do that. The number of communication tools used has increased and
the tools themselves are changing as well. They are becoming more user friendly and more
efficient and new tools are adapted when they seem more efficient than previous ones. This
also enables much more communication to be done digitally which is needed for a large
organization like Ericsson as described by Manager 4:

In Ericsson, it’s a huge company. I think we are about 100,000 people in the world. A little
over 10,000 in Sweden. It is difficult to have a communication with everybody locally to go
and sit with conference, so… Quite a lot of it is done digitally.

It was also pointed out by several managers that the digital tools make it easier and more
efficient for booking meetings and communication between people in the same building as
well as those in different geographical locations. Digitalization has improved communication
not only with internal stakeholders, but also with external stakeholders making it easier, much
faster, and more efficient.

As noted before, the use of digital tools enables communications with people from different
parts of the world. However, organizing communication between time zones can be
challenging. It can also be challenging to manage meetings, communicate, and discuss with
people from different cultures. This requires managers to have knowledge about different
cultures and differences between them.

Challenges

Digitalization has enabled communication immensely and work to be done in a digital

environment for some time and face-to-face communication was decreasing. However,
Covid-19 forced people to work and communicate only in a digital environment. Thus, this
current extreme situation contributed to uncovering challenges associated with working and
communicating in a digital environment. Managers need to address these challenges for their
practices to be as effective as or even more effective than when working in only a physical
environment or the combination of both. So, currently, they are in the adoption phase to this
environment and are exploring new ways to leverage the challenges that it brings as described
by Manager 3

So, I think we’re not… we’re kind of exploring on how we can work best in this kind of
reality. So, I think it is still a process at the moment, and at the same time, we are… we
have been using these kinds of tools for a long time but we are not ready yet, I think, to
fully use 100%.

21
The majority of managers expressed some challenges with reading and managing people
when communicating in a digital environment. This challenge is associated with the lack of
face-to-face or physical interactions that takes away the non-verbal cues, which leads to a
decreased understanding of people and their mood and emotions. This suggests that face-to-
face communication is needed, and even some people want to have it. Thus, there is a need
to adapt to how meetings are set up and how to talk to people that need face-to-face
interactions and people that are not used to digital tools. On the other side, those people that
normally are not comfortable with having physical face-to-face communication, are able to
express themselves better by communicating in the digital environment.

Digitalization also provides an alternative to physical face-to-face communication in the form

of using video during online calls and meetings. This use of video during meetings has
increased, especially during the COVID-19 outbreak, to help to balance some of the negative
effects of only digital meetings discussed above. However, they are still considered to be not
as effective as physical face-to-face meetings.

Another challenge is the perceived impersonal nature of interactions in a digital environment.

This stems from lack of human contact while working that some people need and lack of
possibility to have spontaneous, unofficial meetings, small chats, or quick discussion of ideas.
It is also hard to build trust, get to know people on a personal level, build relationships, and
create team spirit in a digital environment, and by only using digital tools. This makes it harder
to support, engage, recognize, inspire, and motivate employees. Thus, it is needed to find new
ways to build trust and relationships with teams and people when working in a digital
environment.

A major challenge brought by digitalization is regarding change management and

implementation. It is suggested that digital tools are not that useful for managing people
through change implementation. This is because, to implement a major change, it is
considered necessary to have face-to-face discussions or informal meetings where people are
bonding and spreading the idea of and need for change. It is also harder to establish
relationships with key people for change implementation and having trust that is needed
between managers and the employees to persuade the change implementation.

When we asked Manager 2 if he found a good way to manage people through change when
human contact is lacking, he replied:

Not a silver bullet. But awareness is the key. We need to be aware of the limitations and
the constraints that the digitalization implies and we need to be very conscious about and
aware of these effects in order to mitigate them by being more personal… Seeking the
dialogue with people more actively. So, it’s in a way harder work… or we need to be more
thorough.

Accordingly, being aware of the issue and searching for ways to get more personal with
people might help to minimize the negative effects on how they are managed through

22
change. On the other hand, it is also suggested the change can be managed faster and more
efficiently due to digitalization. Thus, this gain can be reinvested in managing people through
change and helping them to perform better that got more difficult due to digitalization.

The decision-making process has also changed due to digitalization and changing ways of
communication. There used to be regular physical meetings with people involved in the
decision-making. Now the decision-making process has been disrupted because the informal
stage before making a decision and the planning and setting goals is more difficult to do in a
digital environment. Additionally, it is harder to have a structure around difficult decisions or
solving a difficult problem and making this structure visible to other people involved when
people are not in the same physical environment.

Managers are trying to find different ways to leverage the disadvantage of working only in a
digital environment by having more formal and informal interactions and having frequent
online meetings to monitor progress and assist people in their work tasks. Some creative
digital alternatives to informal physical meetings such as online “Fika” (a coffee and cake
break in Swedish culture) are used and found to be helpful for having better relationships in
the teams when working only in a digital environment.

In general, to navigate and overcome these challenges brought by working in a digital

environment, managers need to actively search for more creative ways to interact and work
with people in a digital environment. Also, it is noted the digital tools are not what makes
these challenges but the way they are used so far. These points are described by Manager 3

I think it is not the digital tool itself that is the blocker, but it is more our ways of thinking,
right? It is how we approach things. I think, being more creative in the way that we need
to communicate, I think that is the key. That is the answer to this. I, myself, I’ve already
explained, I am exploring and finding creative ways of approaching people that I need to
establish trustful relationship with and to be able to make, later, difficult decisions and
enable change management.

Consequently, once the managers have adapted to working and communicating in the digital
environment and have found better ways to use the functions that digital tools provide, it
should improve the ways they establish relationships, make difficult decisions together and
enable change management.

Training and Learning

Normally, the need for training for employees is decided in their annual performance
meetings with their managers. For some positions continuous training is crucial to continue
the work. In general, the organization and the managers support, encourage, and sometimes
push employees to take courses and learn new knowledge because it is beneficial for the
organization and the employees themselves. Sometimes training and workshops are needed
to implement some changes in the work units.

23
Additionally, digitalization has created a need to learn new terminology and digital tools and
technology as they come available. Another need for learning and training arises from the
speed of changes in the organization and the environment as best described by Manager 6:

Nowadays the world is changing very quickly, this has never been so rapid, and the biggest
reason of it I think is digitalization. Adaptability is the key. Because of the quick changes, it
can easily happen that our knowledge suddenly becomes worthless, then we need to
adopt and learn new things and solve new problems. It can be very hard especially for older
colleagues, but not only for them. I usually give them positive feedback and tell them they
can do it.

It also shows that it may be hard for some employees to learn and adapt to the new changes
brought by digitalization and that it is important to support them and encourage them in this
process.

The need for managers to learn due to digitalization has been expressed by Manager 2:

New things are popping up every day. So, the ability to learn is something that... I think…
Is different from before digitalization was such a boost. And we need to think more holistic.
We are expected to know things outside the borders of our direct work. So, we need to
learn broader to also understand the neighboring part, at least, the neighboring part, if not
the complete flow an end to end. So, that’s learning, learning, learning.

The need to have the “big picture” of what is happening around, instead of just the direct
area of work requires more knowledge about other parts of the organization. Managers also
need to deal with and work with people from different departments that are outside of their
field of expertise. Thus, to interact effectively with them, it is important to learn about them,
how they work and think.

However, under some circumstances less training might be needed. One manager has noticed
that educational institutes are now adopting more towards digitalization processes. Hence,
managers’ practices are made easier when dealing with new employees that have gotten used
to using digital practices before starting to work.

Online Training

The amount of training is increasing, and it is recognized by several managers that

digitalization enables many ways of learning and training. Thus, more remote education is
being used than before. At the same time, online training has also advanced through the years
and allows for interactive teaching, as noted by Manager 4:

I mean, whoever thought about remote education, remote courses before like 10 years
ago. There was one, but they were not on this level. But now, some of the courses are
completely remote, some of the courses, you watch like a similar YouTube page, but it is
on a completely different level. Some of the courses, you have like a video where you can
talk to the teacher, like a conference.
24
The advantages of online training are that they are easier and faster to organize than physical
training and it is also easier to participate in them. Having training programs in a digital
environment also reduces the cost of travel. These advantages in comparison to physical
training are illustrated by Manager 6:

Usually, it takes very long time to organize all of them and to organize the lot of travels for
them. (some people don’t want to travel, some of them can’t for some reasons, ….)
Nowadays we do almost everything via Skype or Teams software, so no travel is needed,
it makes our lives easier. (and cheaper because we don’t have travel cost)

It is also noted by the same manager that training in a digital environment sometimes is not
as effective because people tend to do other things at the same time.

All in all, there is a growing need for training and learning due to digitalization, and managers
need to ensure that employees get the needed knowledge and training. Also, for similar
reasons, not only employees need to learn and go through training but managers themselves
as well. Managers also need to be aware that for some learning and adapting to new tools
and technology might be harder. Thus, additional attention should be paid to these people,
and managers might need to provide extra support to them. To meet the need for training
and learning, managers can use online training that has advanced over the years. This enables
them to organize the training more efficiently while saving costs. However, managers also
need to be aware that online training might not be as effective, and they might need to search
for ways to increase their effectiveness.

Information and Data

In general, information and data in this day and age have gone through a drastic change. More
specifically, the availability and amount of data and information have increased, more and
more from the external environment of the organization. Furthermore, concerning the
external environment, there is an expectation for managers and employees of being overall
informed.

Information and data are available in different sizes despite the high degree of availability.
Smaller chunks of information and data are seen to be easier to consume. Also, information
and data available to managers can be overwhelming. It is, however, possible to acquire only
relevant information with the tools that are available as the method used to retrieve and
handle them has changed and developed.

Just as importantly, the use of information and data is beneficial for managers when it comes
to their decision-making. The analysis of information and data is further enhanced for
managers in terms of overall quality. This is made possible with the help of new digital tools
that are available in their grasp.

25
The Availability

In the case in which the availability of data is readily accessible through the Internet, the
means of communication and analysis of said data change. Data is first collected and are then
analyzed from managers to employees or vice versa in spoken words. However, with the
development of digital tools, this method is becoming less and less of use as the tools would
speak of the data itself. This means those office activities that managers would normally
perform, such as having meetings, is diminishing. Hence, the management of employees
becomes more challenging and difficult, as seen by some managers, due to the lack of physical
interaction when sharing the information. Furthermore, with the rapid flow of information
and data, managers face a risk of oversharing information with just anyone within the
organization. This creates an unbalance of structure that brings about change that is simply
put on employees without being addressed. As noted by Manager 2:

Much more efficient and we can do it over distances, we discussed this in this discussion.
So we can.. we think we can do things much faster. I think, the impact on how we deal with
change, it is a little bit of a negative one. We are less thorough when it comes to managing
the people through the change. Because everything is so fast and on the fly. We have a risk
or a temptation to just share. We just throw out the information, as I said earlier, right?
We need to take the people through the change curve and that is more difficult if it’s kind
of contactless.

With this, it is noted that it is important for managers to make sure that resources are
accessible to anyone that needs it. Nevertheless, the historic dictions and quality of
communication with people made possible by the availability of information are also as
important.

It is also shown that digitalization allows for teams and work units to share information that
are consistent and similar without having to have access to a physical location as it is available
for anyone even in various locations. The digital tools available allows for the connectivity of
people within the organization with the resources needed, or even as a facilitator to share
information with both internal and external stakeholders. As a result, managers and
employees can be asked and addressed swiftly and effectively. Moreover, as information can
be accessed by anyone, digital tools ease the process of data gathering and data sharing
where it is organized and structured to the targeted audience.

When it comes to the decision-making process, the availability of information and data
brought by digital development leaves a mark on the current managerial hierarchy within the
organization. Due to the rapid flow of data and information, decision-making is less
synchronized and ordered causing a lack of sequence of hierarchy; information/data for
decision-making is made available to everyone in the use of one channel, even those not in
the managerial position, to be able to gain access to it due to the expectation of being overall
informed. The use of one channel is an example of an information-sharing system made

26
available with the advancements of digital tools where information for decision-making and
planning budgets is available to everyone that is involved in the process.

The Amount

The amount of information and data made available with the advancement of technology can
be both beneficial and detrimental. On the one hand, the amount of data available for
managers is increasing to a point where it becomes endless. This means that even though
there is an insurmountable amount of data that is available for managers, it can also mean
that these collected data create further tasks that managers will have to deal with. This means
more tasks such as prioritizing, categorizing, analyzing, and even monitoring of data and
information increase. On the other hand, as noted by several interviewees, more information
helps to have a more meaningful and better report that can bring benefits to the overall
process, thus, to the organization as a whole.

With the availability of information and data brought by digitalization comes with problems
that managers face in their day to day operations. Firstly, with information and data that is
already readily available within the company, managers face a challenge where information
from the external environment can become unmanageable. The challenge here lies where
managers have to be able to cope with both internal and external information as it is a
potential for an overload of information.

Secondly, managers have to be able to not only, somehow, manage themselves to not get
overwhelmed with the amount of information but also to be able to capitalize on it by
converting and organizing the information/data to be meaningful and beneficial to their
process. There is a need for managers to structure and understand which information is more
important from the collective amount.

Finally, yet importantly, due to the high amount of information and data that is available for
managers, managers have to be aware that the analysis of data can be time-consuming.
Managers have to understand that digitalization will be efficient once the work is put into the
sorting and organizing of data and this process can take a long time. As noted by Manager 4:

We have a system that have all information about every single hardware, every single
blade, and its position. And yesterday when I was trying to give him [customer] the
information that he required, I have so much information! I have to sort it. … It took me a
very long time to analyze and to present it in a presentable way.

Other Effects of Digitalization

Changing Role of Managers

The management role is changing and the leadership position within the organization is not
as stable as it was before. Digitalization is a factor that shifts the emphasis whereby managers
are no longer bound to play out their traditional role of a manager. As a result, rather than
managing employees, managers are instead leading them. This is highlighted by Manager 2
27
who said that “yes, I’m leading people. Not managing them but leading. It’s more informal
coming also with the digitalization. It’s getting much less formal”. Digitalization also facilitates
the empowerment of the employees thus allowing them to make decisions and to take
initiative in their day to day tasks. As an effect, the leadership/management role is now seen
to be as less formal as it used to be.

Managing Performance

When it comes to the management of performance, digitalization has allowed managers to

have their hands on a variety of availability of data. This suggests that managers have more
options when it comes to their practice of progress analysis. With the availability of data, it is
up to managers to ensure that the overall quality of work is satisfactory. Digital tools can be
seen as a challenge to some managers and employees to adapt to. However, it is estimated
by managers that once the adaptation of digital tools is completed and up and running, the
overall performance will increase. As noted by Manager 3: “in the sense of performance, I
think, digitalization is the way to go. I think it’s just another tool to be able to use the digital
channels.” In general, digitalization is the way to go concerning performance.

Digitalization allows for enhancement of practices such as performance monitoring. However,

the use of digital tools for monitoring performance depends on the job that is done. As there
are many positions in the organization that managers oversee, different approaches have to
be considered.

The use of digital tools also allows for employees to evaluate their managers. Two-way
performance tracking from managers to employees and employees to managers are meant
to serve as a way for improvement and development on the day to day process. This is made
possible with the availability of information and data making it much easier to create reports
for the people in the organization. With the availability of information and data at hand for
managers, they can analyze it with their employees. Some examples are goal setting and
monitoring progress, making sure that resources are available for people’s work, having
regular progress assessment.

Furthermore, managers can expect digital tools to lessen the burden of administrative work
for frontline people or programmers. In turn, rather than managers and employees putting
effort into administrative work, actual work can instead be focused on and completed. Ergo,
managers and employees save time making performance within the organization more
efficient. Also, these practices can be done remotely by using digital tools. The efficiency and
performance effects on employees are best described by Manager 1:

So, here is where the wanted position is where digitalization coming in more as a tool, to
us people, to be efficient, to allow them to have more time for themselves to do their work
and make sure that people are not being burdened by administration work. So, that is
where digitalization is playing a very important role when it comes to increasing
productivity, efficiency, and the quality of work.

28
For the organization as a whole, digitalization plays an important, yet efficient role. Some
improvements made possible with digital tools are controlling costs and overseeing global
operations. As the organization is spanned globally, digitalization is a default choice for
communication. Databases are then built for managers and employees whereby all the data
and information can be remotely accessible. As a result, digitalization provides better, faster,
easier tools and channels when organizing information, problem-solving solutions, and
delivering products to customers. All in all, digitalization provides numerous benefits for the
organization allowing for better efficiency, higher productivity, and better quality of work.
Managers, however, suggested that it must be approached carefully.

Rapidity and Speed

“The speed of change will never be as slow as today”. This quote was given by Manager 2,
who quoted a former CEO of Ericsson, to highlight how digitalization speeds up work. As the
flow of information and data moves swiftly and hastily, time can be gained from using digital
tools. This allows managers and employees to accomplish other work. However, managers
have to understand that despite that work can be accomplished faster, the workload can
increase as well.

There is an assumption that exists among managers with digitalization; managers can
accomplish their work much faster. There is also an assumption in which communication,
spreading, and sharing of information is getting faster and can be done remotely over any
distance. However, these assumptions are challenged by showing that there are negative
effects on how digitalization brought about change and how it is being dealt with. With the
amount of information that is flowing rapidly, managers are becoming less thorough in
managing people through the change. Furthermore, organizations such as Ericsson have the
continuous need to keep up with the new technologies that are available in the market and
external environment. Because of this, there is a danger for people to not cope with the speed
that digitalization introduces. This is where managers have to step in and bring balance to the
equation.

Coping Mechanisms

Digitalization, as noted in previous sections, can be overwhelming. Through the information

and data available, managers can get lost in their work. In turn, the loss of order remains in
the process. The challenge for managers here is to be able to keep themselves structured and
organized. The need to manage and organize their schedule and make a structure of their
work has become of great importance in modern-day organizations due to digitalization.
Managers need to have a structure for themselves in terms of their time and task
management. Additionally, managers need to be able to prioritize considerably. As an
example, managers need to distinguish what is important and what is not such as the influx
of emails and communication channels. Another example for engineers in organizations,
there is an increasing challenge to find a balance between their main role and the new tasks

29
that digitalization introduces. As Manager 2 summarized a need for self-management that
digitalization brings:

Because the framework is loosening, right? It is not so … You don’t have that frame, those
rigid processes and meeting schedules, and all of that, that you can use to hold on to. So,
you need to manage… you need to give yourself a structure - that is self- management.
Much higher demand on skills on that area.

Moreover, most managers noted that they must be able to adapt. They also must have an
open mind as it can lead to several approaches when improving performance. The open-
mindedness and ability to adapt of managers allows for creative ways when dealing with
challenges that digitalization brings. As summarized by Manager 3:

I think I am open. And that is the next message as well, to stay open. Success doesn’t come
in the same place all the time. People need to adapt and by staying open, there will be
more chances of finding other ways, other creative ways of achieving success.

Additional Findings
Here are some effects that were highlighted by managers that are deemed important when
looking at digitalization and how it affects managers and their practices.

Managers also see that people are the most important part when it comes to digitalization.
The danger here lies in the future where digitalization can lead to the possibility of losing the
need to interact and work with people. Without the need to interact and work with people,
it is hard to achieve new things. This concern was expressed by Manager 2:

While, a bot will take that task in the... well, in the future. So then the fun part of interacting
with people and using all these digital communication, collaboration, information
sharing... using that together with other people to learn new things and to achieve things.
That turns into, “Okay, the machine will take over completely,” then, that is a disaster,
right?

Digitalization has a strong influence on how changes are made. It affects how an organization
as a whole is being changed. As stated by Manager 7, “I believe it [digitalization] is a strong
influence in the changes we are making as well as a strong tool for driving the changes
needed”. Sometimes, changes are coming from the availability of new and/or more
productive and efficient technology.

30
Discussion
Following is the discussion of our results presented in the previous chapter concerning the
literature and theories introduced in the ‘Literature Analysis’ and ‘Theoretical Framework’
chapters. In this chapter, we will discuss the main effects brought by digitalization to four
categories of managerial practice.

Firstly, referring to the category of task-oriented practices, it includes planning, clarifying,

monitoring, and problem-solving (Yukl, 2012). In general, the working process has been
changed due to digitalization. On the positive side, digitalization improves efficiency in using
resources. Managers could save resources from remote work as digitalization is decreasing
the necessity for people to be physically present at the office. Even some technical support
teams can solve problems in another location without physically being there. Moreover, the
information system shares information through different positions and departments in the
organization to help managers in clarifying their plans and policies. Also, the information
system helps managers in monitoring global operations. Furthermore, digital solutions have
been used in monitoring and evaluating employees’ and managers’ performance. This is done
by collecting and analyzing data and information about their activities. On the negative side,
digitalization brings difficulties to managers when they mainly work in a digital environment.
The digitalization makes the work process all too formal, since managers do not meet their
team physically, and each decision should be made through a formal online meeting. As a
result, it makes the whole work process more complex. Some managers even claim that
digitalization slows down their efficiency in this way. On top of that, the amount of available
data increased the amount of work. As a result, managers can do their job more efficiently,
but at the same time, they are required to do more work. Additionally, digitalization makes it
possible to work from everywhere at any time thus the boundaries between where work ends
and private life starts are becoming blurred. This links to arguments by Tarafdar (2016) that
note the decreasing importance of the traditional working hours and the need for managers
to be mindful of these issues and consequences that they can create for both employees and
themselves.

Secondly, relations-oriented practices include practices aimed at supporting, developing,

recognizing, and empowering people (Yukl, 2012). Managers now support their team through
an information-sharing system. Most of the information needed for accomplishing tasks and
making decisions has been shared throughout the whole organization. Digitalization also
influences the way managers build internal relationships within work units. There are
challenges regarding relationship and trust-building with people in the work unit that stem
from working and communicating in a highly digital environment. More specifically, from a
lack of opportunities to have informal interactions to build connections on a more personal
level and lack of face-to-face interactions that hurdles the understanding of people when
communicating. These challenges make it harder for managers to support, engage, recognize,
31
inspire, and motivate employees. Thus, managers are forced to search for new, creative ways
to adapt to this environment and overcome the challenges. An example of the new
approaches is, holding informal online coffee breaks with team members. Such initiatives help
to balance the perceived formal nature of working only in a digital environment and
strengthens the relationships within the teams. Additionally, managers need to be mindful
about how meetings are managed online and in-person because some people feel more
comfortable with having physical face-to-face meetings while others feel more comfortable
expressing themselves in an online environment. This links with the previous research that
highlighted the need for managers to take into consideration people’s preferences regarding
the use of technology (Tarafdar, 2016). Additionally, digitalization provides opportunities for
managers to empower employees mainly due to increased accessibility of information which
is supported by Ancarani and Di Mauro (2018) who noted that technology can be used as a
tool for employee empowerment. However, the amount of efforts that managers need to
spend on mitigating the overall challenges relating to their relations-oriented practices in a
digitalized environment seems to be influenced by their position in the organization, their
length in this position, and the people in their work unit.

Thirdly, change-oriented practices include advocating change, envisioning change,

encouraging innovation, and facilitating collective learning (Yukl, 2012). From managers’
perspectives, digitalization has a dual influence on changes. From one side the availability of
new and more efficient technology initiates the change and from the other side it impacts
how the changes are being made. In general, it is perceived that the change can be managed
much faster and more efficiently due to digitalization, but some negative effects have been
identified of how digitalization impacts managing people through change that was previously
noted by Wokurka, et al., (2017). This is related to the challenges of building relationships and
trust discussed in the previous paragraph and the speed and amount of information regarding
change being shared. The effective solutions for these challenges are still being explored, but
currently, what might help to minimize these challenges is being aware of them and searching
for ways to be more personal with people when managing them through change. When it
comes to collective learning the managers are encouraging and driving the learning efforts
and it is believed by several managers that digitalization has raised the requirements for
knowledge. On the other hand, nowadays digitalization aides the process of learning by
offering different ways and more advanced tools for training and learning. There are also
challenges for people to adapt to the use of new technologies and for this reason managers
need to put more effort into encouraging and supporting employees in this process.

Fourthly, external practices relate to networking, external monitoring, and representing

(Yukl, 2012). Remoted work technology is significantly helpful in building networks over the
world. It also enhances and aides the contact between departments and all stakeholders
related to the company. The use of advanced information-sharing systems aides the delivery
of information to different stakeholders and such systems allow to overcome a challenge
previously identified by Gratton, (2016) of managing the flow of important information across

32
business units. Overall, digitalization makes communication between managers and external
environments more efficient and easier than before. However, much more attention needs
to be spent on monitoring the external environment. This is due to the increasing amount of
information available from and changes happening in the external environment brought by
digitalization and the availability of new technologies.

Above we discussed both the positive effects and negative effects on managerial practices
brought by digitalization. Through the discussion, it is obvious that digitalization does not only
make organizations more efficient but also brings many challenges to managers.

33
Conclusion
The answer to our research question “How is digitalization transforming the practices of
managers?” is presented in this chapter.

In this study, notable transformations in the practices of managers due to digitalization can
be identified. More specifically, the notable transformation of practices can be observed in
all four categories of practices: task-oriented, relations-oriented, change-oriented, and
external practices.

Within the task-oriented practices, digitalization transformed the working process within the
organization by allowing for more efficiency in the work. This is because work can be easily
accessed remotely and the information-sharing system has progressed whereby managers
and employees have access to the readily available information that they might need.
Furthermore, the information gathered can also be used to monitor global performances as
well as the performance of both managers and employees. However, several factors can lead
to a slower efficiency of work being done due to digitalization, namely, negative changes of
working in an only digital environment, increased amount of information and data, and the
personal-work life boundaries.

Regarding relations-oriented practices, digitalization has transformed the practice of

managers in supporting and empowering their employees. This is due to the information-
sharing system where decisions can be discussed and made among managers and employees
due to the availability of data and information. The challenge of the transformation here lies
in the building of relationships between managers and employees, whereby informal
interactions lessens due to digitalization. Moreover, digitalization adds more to what
managers have to consider regarding relation-oriented practices. More specifically,
considering people’s preferences for their use of technology, building trust internally, and
different approaches to building a meaningful relationship in a highly digitalized
environment.

Regarding change-oriented practices, digitalization allows for faster and more efficient
management of changes. However, digitalization is a driving force for change in an
organization, therefore, transforming how managers move towards change as several
approaches can be considered; being aware of changes, supporting and managing employees
through the change, and putting more effort into encouraging changes. Regarding training
and learning, digitalization raises the requirements of knowledge within the organization as
well as enhances the process as more different and advanced tools are available for
managers.

Within the external practices, digitalization enhances the communication between managers
and external environments making it quicker, easier, and more efficient than before.

34
However, due to the increased amount of data and information, the focus on attention is
needed in how to monitor the external environment.

In conclusion, our study illustrates the changes that digitalization introduced to managers’
practices. It also raises the question of whether digitalization helps or hinders the practices of
managers. Nevertheless, managers will have to be aware of and adapt to the changes that
digitalization introduced to their practices.

35
Future Research
In this chapter the ideas for potential future studies are described and motivated.

Our thesis was interested in the effects of digitalization on a broad variety of managerial
practices. For this reason, we could not study in-depth some specific practices like change-
oriented practices that were noted to be impacted but were not much elaborated on.
Similarly, we only looked at the overall effects of digitalization on managerial practices. This
did not allow us to dig deeper into, for example, the effects of only remote work on
managerial practices that seemed to cause many challenges for managers. Thus, future
research could focus on how such specific dimensions of digitalization or even specific
technology (e.g. artificial intelligence or augmented and virtual reality) are transforming
managerial practices.

Yukl's leadership behavior taxonomy, which we used as a basis for our theoretical framework,
is also a base for Managerial Practices Survey to assess managers' performance as perceived
by employees. Thus, it would be interesting to use this survey to study how and whether the
effectiveness of managers has changed due to the impact of digitalization.

36
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42

Question
How long have you been with the company and what is
your current position? How long have you been in this
position?
Q1: How does digitalization affect the ways you
accomplish your work?
Q2: How does digitalization affect the ways you manage
people within your work unit?
Q3: How is digitalization affecting the ways you deal
with change within your work unit?
Q4: How is digitalization affecting the ways you interact
with the external environment of your work unit? (For
example, with other work units in the organization or
with others outside of the organization?)
Q5: Do you think that new or different skills are needed
to adapt to the challenges brought up by digitalization?
Can you provide any examples of situations in which
they would help you in your capacity as a manager?
Q6: Would you like to add something else in regard to
digitalization and how it affects your practices and
skills?
Appendix A
Operationalization
Concept Purpose
Gain background information about the interviewee
Explore how digitalization affects managers' task-related practices,
Task-oriented
decision-making, and the practices they take to ensure the effective
Practices
utilization of organizational resources.
Relations-Oriented Explore how digitalization is affecting managers' practices aimed at
Practices improving other members' practices in their organizational unit.
Find out how digitalization is affecting managers' practices of
Change-Oriented encouraging innovation, facilitating collective learning, and adapting
Practices to the external environment and change within their organizational
unit.
Explore how digitalization is affecting their practices aimed at
External Practices interactions with the external environment (both outside of their
work unit and outside of the organization) and changes in it.
Have more examples of how interviewee’s practices have changed
due to digitalization.
First, give an opportunity for the interviewee to talk about the effects
of digitalization on their practices that they did not find fitting to be
mentioned in their answers to previous questions. Second, to give
them a chance to reflect on what they previously said and add
something that they forgot to mention before.
 Appendix B
Interview Protocol
[Introduction]

[Greetings and introducing ourselves] Thank you for finding time in your busy schedule to do
this interview.

Do you prefer to have a video camera on or off?

As it was mentioned in the initial email, this interview can be almost an hour long. Do you
have any time constraints that would impact this?/Do you need to finish early?

As we mentioned in our email, your name and email address will not be included in the thesis
and will not be available to anyone except me and my two colleagues. Also, you can
discontinue your participation at any time during the process by simply notifying us.

I also promised to ask you about your preference for being recorded. Thus, do you agree that
this interview is being recorded?

[Yes] – Then I start the recording now.

[No] – That is understandable. Then we continue without recording and I will be taking
notes.

Do you have any questions before we begin the interview? Are you ready to begin?

Then let us start with the first question:

[Interview]

Background Questions: How long have you been with the company and what is your current
position? How long have you been in this position?

Q1: How does digitalization affect the ways you accomplish your work?

Clarifying guidelines: effects on clarifying roles and objectives, planning and organizing
work, monitoring operations, and performance, work-related problem solving, and
making decisions about these activities.

Q2: How does digitalization affect the ways you manage people within your work unit?

Clarifying guidelines: effects on supporting people in their tasks, developing them,

recognizing their activities, and empowering them.

Q3: How is digitalization affecting the ways you deal with change within your work unit?

Clarifying guidelines: effects on advocating and envisioning changes and on

encouragement of innovation and facilitation of collective learning.
Q4: How is digitalization affecting the ways you interact with the external environment of
your work unit? (For example, with other work units in the organization or with others outside
of the organization?)

Clarifying guidelines: effects on the gathering of relevant information about outside

events, getting necessary resources and assistance, and promoting the reputation and
interests of your work unit. Also, not just outside of the organization but also outside
of your work unit (e.g. how you interact with other work units in the organization).

Q5: Do you think that new or different skills are needed to adapt to the challenges brought
up by digitalization? Can you provide any examples of situations in which they would help you
in your capacity as a manager?

Clarifying guidelines: ask in relation to the answers that were provided to the previous
questions (e.g., use of data for planning activities was mentioned – can be asked about
what skills are necessary to use the date for planning activities).

Q6: Would you like to add something else in regard to digitalization and how it affects your
practices and skills?

[Concluding remarks]

This was our last question. Thank you very much for your time and valuable answers. Would
you like to receive the final version of our thesis? (approximately in the middle of June)
 Appendix C
The Introductory Email
Dear Managers;
How has digitalization affected you and your management routines and practices in your daily business
operations?
About us and our thesis
We are Bachelor-students studying International Business Management at Mälardalens Högskola in
Västerås, Sweden. Currently, we are doing our thesis looking specifically at the Effects of Digitalization
on Management.
By definition, Digitalization is the use of digital technologies that have implications to everything from
business operations (research and development, production, sales, and distribution), to how the
organization is communicating with their stakeholders including customers and how people within the
organization are engaging in the activities that keep the business going.
By looking into the Effects of Digitalization on Management, our intention is to understand how you
as managers, experience the impact of digitalization on your daily business/operations activities and
practices (or how digitalization is changing your business activities/practices).
Invitation to participate in the study
We would like to invite managers at any level of the organization to participate in our study in order
to share with us your opinions on this subject and with that, allowing us to gain a deeper understanding
as well as knowledge in this area of the subject.
How to participate in the study - the options
1. Online meeting (preferred method): by using video communication such as Zoom, for a
duration of 30-60 minutes.
2. Questionnaire via email: if time is limited, participants may answer interview questions
through email.
If you would like to participate, please provide your contact details and meeting preferences in the link
down below:
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdCkqi1qa31tml83PeQnLs_DYTd7xYY6O1XNRtbTgmwq
7ZD5A/viewform?usp=sf_link
Note: The end date for the meetings and email interviews is the 6th of May, 2020!
By participating, your answers will allow us to better understand how digitalization affects
management. It will also provide some relevant findings that we hope to find as, at the moment, there
are little to no studies that concern managers and digitalization.
We thank you for taking the time to read this email as well as to thank you for taking part in our study.
We will send a follow-up email after getting your responses!
To contact us:
mdhbachelorthesis@gmail.com

We hope to hear from you soon!

Sincerely,
Muhammad Faisal Bin Zainal Fitri, Guanting Liu, and Helena Apine.
 Appendix D
Draft of the Follow-up Email for Interactive Interviews
Hello [name of the managers],

Thank you very much for agreeing to participate in our thesis.

As you have read in the previous email our thesis is about how digitalization impacts managerial
practices. Your participation in the interview is at the core of our study because you, as a manager,
give us your insight into how digitalization impacts your practices.

The questions that are going to be asked during the interview you can find in the attached document,
together with some definitions of key tasks. We suggest that you read this document so that you
know what to expect from the interview.

How your interview is going to be used

If you agree that the interview is recorded (we will ask at the beginning of the interview), the recording
of your interview will be transcribed. Then this transcript, together with the transcripts of interviews
with your colleagues, will be used for analysis and viewed in the context of previous studies to draw
overall conclusions about the topic. The recording will be available to us, and our supervisor.
Transcripts will be included in the appendix of our thesis. If you do not want to be recorded, we will
take notes during the interview and those notes will be used in the same way as the transcripts.

Your name and email address will not be included in the thesis and will not be accessible by anyone
except us. Also, you can withdraw from participation at any time during the process by simply notifying
us.

Let us know if you have any questions or if you find something to be unclear.

We are looking forward to having an interview with you on [date and time]

Link to the Zoom interview:

[or]

Link to the Skype interview:

Sincerely,
[name of the interviewer]

Attachment to the email (as a pdf file)

Definitions of Key Terms

The purpose of these definitions is to give you an understanding of what we mean by these
terms and they are directly related to the interview questions.
Digitalization is the use of digital technologies that have implications to everything from
business operations (research and development, production, sales, and distribution), to how
the organization is communicating with their stakeholders including customers and how
people within the organization are engaging in the activities that keep the business going.
Work-unit is the business level within which you belong to and/or are responsible for. For
example, the organization as a whole if you are part of top management; a business unit like
R&D or sales or department/division responsible for a specific product; or a team, for
example, consisting of people working on a specific project or product, if you are a project or
product manager.
Task-Oriented Practices (Q1) are those practices aimed at efficient use of organizational
resources, both labor and capital, to accomplish a task and maintain stable operations of the
business. It also involves decision making for planning such activities.
Relations-Oriented Practices (Q2) are meant for increasing the quality of human resources
and relations within the work unit. These practices are aimed at the people within your work
unit, specifically at supporting them in their tasks, developing them, recognizing their
activities, and empowering them.
Change-Oriented Practices (Q3) are aimed to improve the organization's innovation,
collective learning, and adaptation to the external environment and change. They include your
practices related to the initiation and encouragement of change and facilitation of the change
process at hand.
External Practices (Q4) are aimed at interaction with the external environment and other
work units within your organization by gathering information about outside events, getting
necessary resources and assistance, and promoting the reputation and interests of your work
unit.

Interview Questions

Background Questions: How long have you been with the company and what is your current
position? How long have you been in this position?

Q1: How does digitalization affect the ways you accomplish your work?

Q2: How does digitalization affect the ways you manage people within your work unit?

Q3: How is digitalization affecting the ways you deal with change within your work unit?

Q4: How is digitalization affecting the ways you interact with the external environment of your
work unit? (For example, with other work units in the organization or with others outside of
the organization?)

Q5: Do you think that new or different skills are needed to adapt to the challenges brought up
by digitalization? Can you provide any examples of situations in which they would help you in
your capacity as a manager?

Q6: Would you like to add something else in regard to digitalization and how it affects your
practices and skills?
 Appendix E
Information About the Interviews
Interview Nr. Interviewee Role in the Organization Platform Date of the Interview Reached by
1 Manager 1 Capability and Operations Manager WhatsApp call 29th of April, 2020 Initial email
2 Manager 2 Capability and Supplier Manager Zoom call 29th of April, 2020 Initial email
3 Manager 3 Capability and Finance Manager Skype call 30th of April, 2020 Initial email
4 Manager 4 Technical Project Manager Skype call 5th of May, 2020 Reminder email
5 Manager 5 Project Manager Skype call 6th of May, 2020 Reminder email
6 Manager 6 Product Owner Email 7th of May, 2020 Reminder email
7 Manager 7 Acting Head of Environment Evolution Email 8th of May, 2020 Reminder email
8 Manager 8 Project Manager Email 8th of May, 2020 Reminder email
 Appendix F
Interview Transcripts
Interview with Manager 1 – 15:00, 29042020
Interviewee: E3 Capability and Operations Manager of Ericsson (M1)
Interviewer: Guanting Liu (GL)
Meeting Place: WhatsApp call
Attendees: Guanting Liu, Muhammad Faisal and Manager 1
GL: Is it okay if we record this conversation?
M1: Sure, no problem.
GL: Thank you, thank you very much. So, the interview will just begin. Good afternoon,
welcome to the interview of the Bachelor thesis of our study. May I ask you to introduce
yourself, about what position you are in your company, and how long time you have worked
in that position?
M1: Okay. I am quite new in this role; I think you saw my position in the e-mail. It is called
the capability and the operations manager. This is in regard to the R&D and development
environment. So basically, as you know, Ericsson is a technology company. We do a lot of
development, programming, source coding, building software, and stuff like that. And we
have the research development environment that we have. Basically, my position is more
about to make sure that we do have the right capability and capacity in those environment
to ensure that any development work is being done with a good performance and a good
speed but at the same time at the optimum cost. Because we don’t want to buy expensive
hardware but then the return from the product produce of that hardware provides. So as
the capability manager, I am trying to balance between making sure that we do have the
capability of producing good products from the investments of the hardware and software,
but at the same time I need to make sure that the price that we pay for the product
hardware and software is not too high and it has to be linked to the return of investment.
GL: Yes, so the daily work is to balance the budget-making and the technical support.
M1: Exactly, exactly.
GL: Okay. We will just go directly into the questions. How does digitalization affect the way
that you accomplish the work efficiently and in a reliable way?
M1: I think being a technological company we cannot run away. You are supposed to be the
feature or the advocates of digitalization, right? So, I don’t think there is any meaning for a
company like Ericsson not doing that. In fact, we are pushing our customers to do the same.
So basically, digitalization is something that are look upon as a compulsory thing within our
daily life. I mean, the department I am working for is called digital services, right? Therefore,
we are selling products based on digital-based and of course we have to walk the talk in
terms of what we are selling. Therefore, we are high consumers of digital solution within the
company. So, I think you can look upon that from a different perspective. When it comes to
performing your daily life, daily operations, there is a lot of communication that you have to
make. When it comes to the different part of the organization, the statuses of projects,
reporting of issues, resolution of issues, and the development work of the different solution-
produced issues, a lot of party being involved. Especially when it comes to, for example,
programming, right?
GL: Yup.
M1: You really want to make sure that you have some kind of a strong digitalization solution
when it comes to managing the different versions of source code that you have and the fact
that your team is not just in Stockholm, Sweden. In fact, it is globally. Then, you really want
to make sure that everyone comes to a common place, a common environment where they
can share their ideas and their work. And here is where digitalization is compulsory. There is
no way that you can do your work without it.
GL: Okay, so you use digitalization to accomplish these intense works.
M1: Distance working, network working, remote working, communication, sharing of data,
documentation. In fact, when it comes to performing meetings as well, as of now, we are
going through this COVID-19 situation, obviously, we do a lot of conferences over the web
and stuff like that. So, it is very integral of our daily activities of course.
GL: And what about the capital aspect, like you say, you are balancing, you also need to work
with budget; how does digitalization help you in making budgets?
M1: Again, I think the budget discussion; it’s not just limited to budget, right? But any
discussion that you have to make. When it comes to budgeting, making sure that you have
the right allocation of funds to run and to finance creations for next year for example. You
need to have a place where you put in your figures, and everyone have to come to the same
place to look at the figures. Then when it comes to the calculation of the figure; how do you
reach the numbers for the budget for example. And then, if the budget is not in line with the
expectation from the company, from cost-saving, from ROI perspective, obviously those
budget requests will have to be challenged. The on that have requested for the budget will
have to defend his request. So, a lot of communication, pull and push situation will happen,
and all of these is being helped tremendously by having systems behind those discussions.
GL: Yeah. Very interesting to hear. How does digitalization affect way that increase the
quality of human resource and human relations in your work unit? Within your work unit, I
mean, within your department.
M1: I think one of the objectives or one of the wanted position when it comes to using
digitalization is that you do not want… As a person in a position where you have a role to
play, let’s say, for example, the programmer; you really want to make sure that you spend
most of the time doing programming, right? Because the company hires you for that
position. Therefore, you need to perform in that position in the best possible manner, right?
Then, of course, it is a fact of life that when you do programming, is not just the coding that
you are doing. It is about writing the program of the source code, you have to manage the
source code, you have to do the implementation, you have to do version control for example
for the different source codes. You make sure that you do have a back up of these source
codes in case something happens to your hard disk. So, all the sudden, apart from just doing
your work programming, the tendency of you being involved in a lot of the administrative
work will be there. While you cannot run away from doing some administration of work,
what we try to move away is that we are trying to move away from being brought down,
being drowned by even more work and taking the precious time away from you from doing
the actual work that you have to do, which is programming. So, here is where the wanted
position is where digitalization coming in more as a tool, to us people, to be efficient, to
allow them to have more time for themselves to do their work and make sure that people
are not being burdened by administration work. So, that is where digitalization is playing a
very important role when it comes to increasing productivity, efficiency, and the quality of
work.
GL: Okay, I see. Do you see that ‘change’ is good for your company, the way that
digitalization changes the way that you are working?
M1: Definitely, definitely.
GL: How do you approach the change with your work unit? For example, how do you
persuade other people to accept the changes that you think is necessary?
M1: I think here is where management is very important. Like they say, the only that is
consistent is change, right? Because it will happen consistently all the time and this happens
naturally for human beings, for people to be negative toward changes. Because it kind of
challenges the way that you work today, they have to put a bit more effort to change people
with how they are doing things normally. So, normally, the resistance towards change is
always there. Here, is where, I think it is important as leaders and managers. You want to sell
the change to the extent that the change is bringing more benefit than effort, right?
GL: Yeah.
M1: No doubt, you cannot change without any effort. You have to spend the effort but you
have to make sure that the kind of changes that you are going through and the way you
handle the changes, the stages that you want to go through with the changes is done in a
way that the benefits of the change will be looked upon and will be sold, a lot stronger than
the kind of effort that people have to go through with this change. So, here, I think is where
the managers and the leaders will have to play a very important role. We have situations
where changes are being pushed down from the top, you know?
GL: Right.
M1: Just because the big bosses on the top are saying that we have to change and all the
middle management along the way will just push it down to the people on the ground to
make changes. So, instead of doing that, it is important for the middle management to own
those changes, to be comfortable to those changes, and also to be willing to push back to
the top if the changes seem to be creating more effort than the benefits. So, yeah.
GL: But is there any situation that you yourself are taking the responsibility to make
decisions to have change?
M1: Of course, of course! So, looking back at my position when we are developing tools,
right?
GL: Right.
M1: When the development work is being done, they are doing source-coding. For example,
with the one aspect of source-coding, you need to have a place to store your source code.
You have to have the tool to manage the versions of your source code, to be able to take in
changes every now and then, to be able to allow collaboration of work. Because, you know,
it is not only one programmer working with the source code. You can have programmers
coming from all over the world. So, you have to have the tool which allows collaboration
because it is not a one-man show. So, definitely, as a capability manager that we have the
tool to simplify the work of the programmers. But all of a sudden, there could be a situation
where this tool that we have purchased 10 years ago or 5 years ago is slowly showing some
kind of degradation in terms of performance. Or maybe, there are some other new tools in
the market that will do a lot more wonders when it comes to our current tool. So, you come
to a point where you need to move on, move out from the current tool to the new tool, and
here is where change is happening. So, you have a situation where the programmers are so
use to the current tool that, they will be complaining, “No, no, I am not going to spend time
to move to the new tool!” So, yes, I have gone through that situation before. It’s not
normally very easy to handle, but I think the key thing is to make sure that you own up the
changes themselves and that you put yourself in the shoes of the programmers and you only
tell them that the change… Because you were instructed by the upper management, but you
really want them to achieve the benefit.
GL: So, it is about the development of technology and its effects. You just mentioned
something I think is kind of external affects that push you to change. So, how is digitalization
affect the way you interact with external environments of your work? You were just mention
because the development of technology, you will have to change to adapt to the new
technology for the work environment. We are also looking for how you interact with clients
or how you interact with other departments inside your company. How you interact with
your competition?
M1: I think there is no clear, there is no distinct differences from the principle, right?
GL: Yup, yup.
M1: I mean, at the end of the day, you want to have a very efficient communication. You
want to make sure that you have a high quality of communication. You’d want to make sure
that you are able to refer back to the previous decisions and the people you are talking to.
So I think, talking to people next to you, or the people in other departments within Ericsson,
or whether you are talking to a customer, I think the stage of the organization when it comes
to communication is coming back to the same principle. Obviously, the only difference is the
level of access of information, right?
GL: Yeah.
M1: And the level of security when it comes to who you talk to. So here is where you need
to… I mean from the access level perspective; you will have to have define the different level
of access. You can have the system, but then maybe you have an area in that system where
only people in Ericsson can see. But then, when you are talking to the customer, they will
have another part within the system where only the customer can see. So, it is more about
managing the privacy of information and channels that you open, based on the different
audience that you are dealing with.
GL: Okay. Do you think that new or different skills are needed to adapt to the challenges
brought up by digitalization?
M1: Yes, I think it is mainly to adapt. To innovate new ways of working. I think also, you
know when things become too efficient, you will get a lot of information coming in, right?
GL: Yeah.
M1: For example, if you… Let’s take a very simple example just to understand the
comparison. If you communicate by snail mail approach. You write a letter, and you write to
someone, you don’t have to come back to him maybe after a week because it takes one
week or a few days for the letter to come in and to be replied. But then, as compared to
when you are talking like WhatsApp for example, where the turn-around time when it comes
to the communication loop or cycle is very fast. So then, all the sudden, you need to make
sure that you are able to manage the influx of e-mails or chats in a good way so that you are
able to prioritize what is important and what is not important. Because, as a human being,
you have the limited capacity when it comes to attending to the different inquires, different
e-mails, and stuff like that. So, if you were to have 1,000 e-mails in your box or you have
1,000 orders that you have to go through in the system, you have to have a means of
understanding of which ones to be done first. So, from the skill perspective, you will have to
be able to recognize which one is more important and there you will have to come up with
some kind of basis; what makes one e-mail or one order is more important than the others.
These are the kinds of things that you have to develop in order to manage this change from
a slow to a fast pace.
GL: I see.
M1: And of course, I think also, when it comes to communication, handling a meeting of
online, if you are the manager and you have different people sitting in different location in
the world; for example, some are from China, some are from India, and some are from Italy.
You will have the same meeting that you host online; there you will have to be able to have
a good skill in order to manage the different expectations of the audiences, right?
GL: Right.
M1: Maybe the Germans can be a bit more blunt when it comes to their statements, maybe
the Italians can be a bit lengthy when it comes to asking question, or maybe in India it is a bit
noisy in the background because of certain situations. So, because of this digitalization, the
fact that you don’t have the person in front of you, you have to acquire the additional skills
to manage the situation.
GL: Yes, I see. Is there any knowledge that you are required to study, for instance,
knowledge of programming or new technology for developments?
M1: I am not so much down to that level because I am more managing the resources.
Obviously, the programmers know what they want to do and the kind of technology they
want to adopt. While I, have to understand the high level… I should have a high level of
understanding of what the technology is about, but I don’t have to have the need for it.
GL: I see, that is very interesting. Are you familiar with the training process, is there any
training process in your work unit?
M1: Yes, of course. Every employee will have, what do you call it… Some kind of a
performance tracking, you have sessions with your managers when it comes to
understanding what the goals are you want to achieve during the year, to achieve those
goals, what kinds of skills do you have to have? If you have a gap of skill, then, as the
manager, you have to come up with some kind of a plan; how do we bridge the gap, and
here is where training can come to play. Yes, so, training can be a classroom training, online
training or it can be an on-the-job training with another colleague. So yes, every employee
will have some kind of training process in order to develop the skills and knowledge of the
employees.
GL: Okay. You just mentioned about tracking employee performance. Are you using some
digitalization methods in tracking employees work performance or measuring work
performance?
M1: Yes, it is a bit subjective when it comes to tracking. It depends on the nature of the job.
For example, if you are a person solving IT issues, and then maybe we can track you by how
many tickets you have sorted and how fast you close the tickets. So then that can be quite
automated because all you have to do is just to go to the ticketing system and run some
report, where Mr. X; how many tickets he has opened, how long it took and so on and so
forth, right?
GL: Right.
M1: But then, when it comes to programming for example, it is a bit harder to measure.
Then maybe it can be measure base on how many error messages the system you have
created… If you do a lousy work in programming, you will have a lot of bugs in the system.
Maybe that is one way to measure, or maybe if you promised a customer that you want to
prepare this new software by, let’s say, June 30th, 2020; then you will measure whether or
not you can live up to that promise or maybe because there is so much other things that you
have not done in a good way and maybe you have to delay the release and this is costing
some problem with the customer. So maybe that is a way of tracking their performance. But
then when it comes to if you move up to the managerial level, then here is where it is
trickier to manage performance. Maybe, one thing you can do is that you can look at the
employee’s inspection survey, or how good the subordinates are. Then you can also look at
their performance to reflect on your performance. If I have subordinates performing
software programming, I make sure that they don’t miss their deadline for releases or that
they don’t have bugs for the releases. So then, as a manager, you will then have to be
accountable to your team’s performance. So maybe, that is where you can track the
performance of managers. Of course, behind of all the tracking, there are different systems
that handles that and it makes the manager’s work a lot easier when it comes to tracking. So
then, if you can imagine, maybe you have a development talk with your manager once in six
months, or maybe you have a year-end review of how you are performing. You can imagine
that digitalization has helped a lot when it comes to taking the data, the whole data, and
coming up with some kind of report. Then, when you come into the meeting where you sit
with your subordinate to discuss performance, you will then just spend the time talking to
the person based on the report that has been created. So, instead of you having to spend
time to come up with the report, here, is also where digitalization is helping a lot to make
things more efficient.
GL: So, you mean that you are using data analysis to help the management of tracking
performance?
M1: Yes, right.
GL: There is one more interesting question; do you have people to mainly focus on data
analysis in your department?
M1: Not in my department, but in a department not that far away from me. They do what
they call, data analytic.
GL: Do you have anything else that you want to add that digitalization affects your practice
and skills?
M1: I think, while digitalization is bringing a lot of benefits to the organization when it comes
to better efficiency, higher productivity and better quality of work, I think an organization
will have to approach digitalization in a careful manner as well. What I mean by that is that
there must be some kind of ‘Masterplan’ from the IT department for example. They have to
decide the direction of digitalization that you want the company to go through. To be more
specific, what I mean by that, is that you don’t want to come to a situation where you have
so many systems that you have to deal with. For example, you have to report your time,
your daily hours that you are working in one system and then you have to do financial
forecasting system, you have to do performance tracking in another system. And then, the
systems themselves are integrated, then you can imagine that the top management will
have a difficult time to kind of make these systems to talk to each other in order to come up
with the big picture of how the whole organization is performing. So here is where it is very
important; whatever digitalization effort that companies want to do, there must be a big
effort in terms of synchronizing and understanding the kind of goal that they want to
achieve so that, in the end, digitalization is not something that you want to do for the sake
of doing it but more because you really want to make the organization to benefit from it.
GL: I see. Do you have any critical thing with digitalization, like if digitalization also present
disadvantages to you and make your practice to be more difficult?
M1: Yes, in a way. Maybe it will take a bit more time for you to prepare the data for
example. Maybe you will have a bit more time you have to take, to take a few more steps to
structure information. For example, if you are doing programming, I always go back to
programming because I work in the R&D department; if you go back to the programming
task that you have to do. Not only that you have to just create a line of codes for a program,
you also have to put in other information about the source code. Maybe the connection to
the other function, the different functionality that the source code is trying to achieve. So
instead of just doing that particular work, maybe you will have to adapt other more
information and it can be time-consuming, right?
GL: Right.
M1: So, I’ll take another example. If you were to be the one receiving phone calls from
customers about doing support, let’s say, computer. So when you receive the phone call
from the customer about some problem of the computer, you will of course have to
understand the problem that the customer is having, and then, you have to understand who
is calling, what phone number, what address. So, there are so many other information that
you have to collect in order to make the whole work complete. So this additional work that
you have to do can be time-consuming in that particular time because you have to take time
to do it. But once the information is in the system, it will make the analysis work a lot more
meaningful because the additional information of who is calling, from which geographical
location, what kind of agenda, and stuff like that. So, what I am trying to say is that it may
take a lot more effort for people to adopt digitalization requirement, but then these
additional effort can be seen upon as an investment of time because you will, in the end, get
a lot of good reports out of it when you run the reporting system.
GL: Okay! I think that is all the questions that we have for the interview today. We very
much appreciate your participation and we wish you a very good day!
M1: Yup, all the best. Thanks for inviting me as well and thanks for having me. I wish you all
the very best for you next step in the assignment!
GL: Thank you, thank you so much! Goodbye!
M1: Bye!
[End of interview]

Interview with Manager 2 – 15:00, 29042020

Interviewee: Capability and Supplier Manager in R&D, Ericsson (M2)
Interviewer: Helena Apine (HA)
Meeting Place: Zoom call
Attendees: Helena Apine; Manager 2
HA: Okay, so, I’ll start the recording now.
M2: Okay, yes. I can see that.
HA: That’s good. Do you have any questions before we begin, or are you ready to start?
M2: I think, let’s just jump into it and see how it goes then.
HA: Okay, exactly. So, then let’s begin with the first question; how long have you been with
the company, and what is your current position?
M2: I have been in the company for a total of 27 years, same company, different places. And
my current role is that… it’s called capability and supplier manager for the R&D unit within
the company. So, that is a position that has no direct people responsibility, but it is
considered to be a leader… because you were aiming at leaders or managers, right?
HA: Only one part of the people; it is management. So, I think you fit perfectly. So, let’s begin
right to the core questions. How does digitalization affect the way you accomplish your
work?
M2: Yeah, that’s a very wide question, actually. It has to go a bit back. Working with a
technology company, Ericsson is a technology company. So, digitalization as such, we have
been working with that for quite a while. If I know the organization in regard to digitalization
these days, our digital workplace and connecting with the different IT systems into a flow
and making everything digital paperless and all of it. I think, the first phase for me, it
decouples the work from where I am and it has been doing that for a while and it’s
increasingly eating it, I should say. So, I have been working now for six weeks from home. I
have been working one week from my daughter’s grandparent’s place in Germany. Totally,
seamless. So, that is the big change here. Then, the other part is that we nowadays are
trying to do what we call fact-based decisions.
HA: Ah.
M2: And in my work, I’m very much into preparing decisions, giving recommendations to the
decision makers. And more and more data… From working with Excel files for long, long
years, now we need to add a layer on top. We need to analyse the data using tools so that
the human analysis of… I take my Excel files and I turn the numbers back and forth, left and
right, and I try to see patterns and analyse it. I’m getting now more support from tools which
also means that I need to learn the tools.
HA: Of course.
M2: So, we are facing more and more information and all these facts to bring them together.
It’s a wider spectrum of data. So, digitalization changes the amount of data I need to handle
because I’m getting a wider reach within the company to other… also into other functional
areas such as, for example, finance, or sourcing, purchasing of services in my case. So, I’m
getting a wider spectrum to consider because the information is much more easily available
but also it demands me to step out of my corner and grasp all the information I can get
there, so I have a wider access to data and wider network of people that I am working with.
That changes the way I’m retrieving information and handling it. My little laptop here is the
main means of work. I can take it wherever. The latest impact from digitalization is that I am
independent of the device I am using. So, I can do my work on my company computer, I can
do it on my personal tablet at home or on my phone even. That changes the whole thing,
different devices. Sometimes, parallel even.
HA: Yeah. Like now.
M2: So that’s the big impact. Yeah! Like now. I’m sitting here with one computer and
another computer. [Laughter] I put the phone aside for a change. So yeah. … One more
change that I have noted here in my little script; before, it’s like… Before digitalization, if I
think to myself, say 15 years back… 15 to 20 years back. Information gathering and decision
making, this is what I worked with. It was very much synchronized, focused on regular
meetings, very hierarchical. You go there, you have to bring your…Yeah data more in terms
of words and your analysis of the situation and you need to decide things. And it is very
hierarchical, and it needs to be synchronized to those meetings that people to come
together. And then firstly, physically and next step on phone meetings and then the next
step on online meetings by the digitalization increasing. Now, we are more and more
communicating differently. That means you also take decisions differently. More
asynchrony…Now you are not a technological person, more asynchronous meaning not
really synchronized with each other.
HA: Mhmm.
M2: So, you are showing information and that is information preparing decisions, the facts,
the analysis, and everything, you partly throw that into a channel. What is the new word for
that, I mean, I’m 54 years old so the terminologies is slipping a bit with the new
technologies, so. You just throw it into a channel, and it is there to be picked up by the
decision-makers or the stakeholders that I am working with. So, I don’t need to wait for a
meeting. But we are not synchronized. So I throw something up in the air or into a channel
but I also need to retrieve back the kind of the output after someone else has processed it
further and that puts different challenges than being synchronized and there is a rhythm…
The rhythm is not there anymore. We need to find our own rhythm. So, that’s basically what
it does to how I accomplish my results. But of course, much more user-friendly tools, starting
with the mail system or the… Actually, I should say, the communication tools we are using
that's not only email that is nowadays social media, it is… we are using Microsoft teams a lot,
Skype, Chatrooms and all that kind of stuff. While, when I started, we had a ‘mainframe’, I
don’t know if you even know what that is… A ‘mainframe’ based mail system which is far far
away from what you call… from what you could see let’s say in Microsoft Outlook today.
HA: Mhmm.
M2: Very not user-friendly. [Laughter] But certain features are gone because you don’t need
them anymore. So, yeah. I think that’s the main differences really.
HA: That is very interesting, to see the glimpse of… it seems like everything is getting a little
bit more chaotic in the sense that from what you described.
M2: Yeah, I think you got the point. Exactly!
HA: [Laughter]
M2: That is the challenge, these days. To keep structure for myself as a person in a chaos or
the organized chaos. That’s very right. You’re very right.
HA: You were… Our next question would be related to the ways you manage people within
your work unit. But, as I understood, that’s not much of a big part of your daily tasks or
work.
M2: I think it is, in a way. I would need to kind of translate then my work unit a little bit
because I am working in a little operations and programs that’s a small unit like 10 to 15
people. So, not much and I’m a team member if you want. But I am anyway in a position lead
people but without a formal mandate as being their manager. Neither their line manager nor
their project manager, which I have been working as before. But, anyway, I’m supposed to
influence people. You could call an influencer in a lot of meaning.
HA: Yeah, yeah.
M2: But it puts different demands. So, yes, I’m leading people. Not managing them but
leading. It’s more informal coming also with the digitalization. It’s getting much less formal.
HA: Aha!
M2: So, and also, it expands… It’s much more easier to manage people that are distributed.
I’m starting my day mostly to… These days, first thing I do is, sometimes even, when I sit on
the breakfast table, I have a chat with my colleague in Bangalore; she is 4 and a half hours
ahead of me. The extreme case would be… I have a company working for me, their
managing director is sitting in Melbourne, that’s 10 hours, I think. And I’m ending my day,
very often, with a small chat with a colleague in Montreal, Canada. And here the extreme-
est, the colleague that is sitting at the furthest away in that direction is sitting in California.
So that’s 9 hours in the other direction so I have to take care of myself a little bit and I don’t
stretch myself between those time zones. But, going back to the digitalization, that’s where
you are interested in, it’s much easier, of course, to communicate with all the people at
different time zones on the distances, so it shrinks the distance. Digitalization helps us
shrinking the distance.
HA: Making the world smaller.
M2: Yes, in a way it makes it smaller. But on the backside… everything has two sides; every
coin has two sides here. We are leaning more and more towards this ‘not face to face’
communication, now we are adding video as we are doing this interview. But until recently,
that was actually very uncommon for us. We use a lot of phone and online conferences and
meetings but no videos because of the limitations in our digitalized environment so far. So
now, recently, due to the situation (COVID-19) that everyone is not sitting… we don’t see
each other anymore. It introduces more and more that we use video. But it makes it makes
it more difficult in the way that you are… How should I say, you are lacking one aspect of
communication between people and that is seeing each other. It is still personal interaction
but now with video, it’s a little better… it is not the same as if I was in the same room. And it
has an effect that is more “smyga in” in Swedish. It’s ‘creeping in’, the effect of not being
able to read the people, you lose the contact. They are slipping away. And when you manage
people or lead people, it is very important to see the person and to kind of read the person
as you want. So, that gets more difficult. That’s a disadvantage of digitalization that we are
trying to compensate with like we do now, with video. But it is definitely a disadvantage, not
being able to… yeah, well if you want, in the end, touch the persons [inaudable]. It’s very
different, it’s hard to explain.
HA: I agree, I have noticed, we are working in a group on this and I have noticed this. I
cannot explain but it is there when doing this kind of conversation instead of working person
to person. Talking about video, I feel like the sound is a little bit breaking. Maybe we can try
without video.
M2: I think that yes… normally that helps. Let me see. Where do we turn off the…? Ah here,
okay. Yeah, we save the bandwidth for the audio channel then.
HA: Yes! Seems already to be much better now. Moving to the next question, how is
digitalization affecting the ways you deal with change within your work unit?
M2: Is it the effect of digitalization? I think that we think that with the digitalized
communication environment. And then digitalization is a lot about communication and
information sharing, information spreading. We are much faster in that right? Much more
efficient and we can do it over distances, we discussed this in this discussion.
HA: Yes.
M2: So we can.. we think we can do things much faster. I think, the impact on how we deal
with change, it is a little bit of a negative one. We are less thorough when it comes to
managing the people through the change. Because everything is so fast and on the fly. We
have a risk or a temptation to just share. We just throw out the information, as I said earlier,
right? We need to take the people through the change curve and that is more difficult if it’s
kind of contactless.
HA: Have you found a good way of how to do that or something that works for you in this
regard?
M2: Ummm, not a silver bullet. [Laughter]
HA: [Laughter]
M2: But awareness is the key. We need to be aware of the limitations and the constraints
that the digitalization implies and we need to be very conscious about and aware of these
effects in order to mitigate them by being more personal… Seeking the dialogue with people
more actively. So, it’s in a way harder work… or we need to be more thorough.
HA: That seems very interesting and that seems like a very big challenge that is brought by
digitalization but also affecting other changes, I guess.
M2: Yeah! And that how digitalization affects the way we change the organization. We do a
lot of changes here. [Laughter] So it is a lot of change and we think we can manage all that
change faster and more efficient because digitalization is helping us so much with
everything, right? But actually, here, we need to utilize the increased efficiency that we get
from digitalization on the one hand. We need to reinvest that very consciously into spending
more effort with the persons and the individuals, to take them through change and to help
them to perform.
HA: Mhmm.
M2: So, it’s the question of, what do I do with the gain that I get from digitalizing my work
environment, my processes, and all of that. I need to reinvest that very carefully and see
where do I need to balance it so that I cannot just grasp the return of investment from
digitalization and put it into doing more things with the same amount of people or… But I
rather need to reinvest a part of that gain, into managing our people more thoroughly.
HA: So, it seems that it makes you also change the way how you allocate resources around…
in your work unit, in the ways… I mean, it seems like you really need to think about how to
allocate resources because they are limited and there are so many things where they are
needed.
M2: Yes, exactly. And now, here comes the question. Is that coming with digitalization or is
that more a development of how we manage people and organizations? How much are they
connected and how much are they separate thing, right? It's a lot of things happening in
parallel, digitalization is only one of it. The way we lead organizations nowadays is much
different, and it’s increasingly changing to a way that makes people more… the people in the
frontline more, we call it, empowerment. The people themselves take decisions. It’s not the
managers that take the decision and tell the people what to do. It’s the people themselves
on the frontline. In our case, the software developers instead of the project managers, right?
Deciding to go left or right and to think themselves and to do their own planning. So, we
need to empower them. That’s something where digitalization helps us because we can
communicate much more efficiently.
HA: And share the information.
M2: So, everyone, everyone, or broader base of people in the organization has the full
context of prioritizing work for example.
HA: These are very interesting changes. Could you maybe talk more about how digitalization
affects the way you interact with external environment? You briefly mentioned that you
need to communicate with different departments and with networks of other people. How
does digitalization affect the way how you do that?
M2: It makes it much easier! [Laughter]
HA: [Laughter] That’s the important thing!
M2: It’s easier, much less formal. If I… and again here, is it the digitalization because the
ease of communicating, right? On the tools side with the digital tools and all the messaging
services and chats and all of that, is that because we have the toolbox from the digitalization
that makes it less formal, or is the leadership/management culture that is changing?... That
makes it easier to reach out to both colleagues in different departments as well as our
suppliers that I am very much interacting with. It’s very easy to call them. You can reach
them on the mobile phone, you can send them an SMS. You can take a chat with them on
Skype or Teams or whatever tools we are using. We are relying on that very much that we
are able to reach to others seamlessly. It makes it less formal, much faster, and much more
efficient.
HA: Do you see any changes, like… In the ways how you… There’s so much information going
around outside of the organization, outside of Ericsson. A lot of things are changing, do you…
Does this (digitalization) have an impact on the way how you monitor these kinds of
changes? Or how do you stay up to date with what is out there?
M2: Yeah, absolutely. I mean, the drastic, very very drastic, disruptive change like having
everything at the fingertip on my tablet at home from the different sources of LinkedIn,
Facebook, newspapers, magazines. Everything that you would have to need to subscribe to
and order physically to be delivered to your house, you can consume it very much more
easier and in smaller bits. Like, I don’t have to buy a full edition of a technology magazine in
order to just read one article, right? I can download… you don’t even download things any
longer, right? [Laughter] I can search for it on the Internet and I can partly buy a single
article. So, smaller bits of information and I can focus on the more relevant ones, on the one
hand. I don’t need to buy the whole thing, just that article. But it is also a lot more stuff that
I have to scan and it’s an expectation that I’m much broadly inform about things and that
makes it a challenge for the individual, I think, to not get lost in the channel of information.
HA: How are you dealing yourself with this challenge?
M2: Very badly. [Laughter]
HA: [Laughter]
M2: No, seriously, I see this one as my very personal challenge not to wear out myself in all
of that and I’m switching off. I need to find the time for switching off devices. That’s
something that, let's say now, the younger generations, my daughter is 15, she doesn’t
understand me when I am saying that. That I’m not instantly answering a message because
I’m consciously deciding to put my phone aside. Switch off all computers and read a book. So
I'm trying to get away from it. That is my coping strategy. Find time slots when I am explicitly
getting away from all of it. And again, not very successfully. [Laughter]
HA: [Laughter] I think that’s a challenge for everyone. Maybe, like you said, not the younger
generations that grew up with this. Do you think that there are new different skills needed
to adapt to these, all these challenges brought by digitalization?
M2: Yeah, absolutely! We touched upon it a little bit already in the conversation here.
HA: Yes, we did.
M2: This self-management, more self-management. Because the framework is loosening,
right? It's not so … You don’t have that frame, those rigid processes and meeting schedules,
and all of that, that you can use to hold on to. So, you need to manage… you need to give
yourself a structure - that is self-management. Much higher demand on skills on that area.
And we need to continuously learn because the change is going so fast. New things are
popping up every day. So, the ability to learn is something that... I think… Is different from
before digitalization was such a boost. And we need to think more holistic. We are expected
to know things outside the borders of our direct work. So, we need to learn broader to also
understand the neighboring part, at least, the neighboring part, if not the complete flow an
end to end. So, that’s learning, learning, learning. And learning and, also, self-structure.
That’s the main skill we need.
HA: You also mentioned briefly about working with different departments and this also links
together with what you were saying just now about needing to go outside of your main field
of knowledge or expertise. How do you address this for yourself, how do you try to deal with
this?
M2: I’m using my curiosity for people, mostly .. trying to understand how is, for example, I’m
an engineer, software development, that’s my background right? Telecommunication,
software development, and I am nowadays talking to businesspeople, starting with our
financial controllers. They think totally differently. So, I need to understand, I need to put
myself into their shoes, try to understand the other person; what is driving him? How is he
thinking? Where is he coming from? What does he want to say? And that takes... party that
takes more than a year or two. To understand really: “Ah! Now I can work with that person
really effectively,” And we come together on how the other person... how the controllers
look the numbers and how I look with the numbers; the same numbers, the same data, the
same facts but we look differently. So I try to, I’m curious about how people... where people
are coming from, how are they thinking. That helped a lot.
HA: This is very great insight, thank you for this! Would you like to add something else in
regard to digitalization and how it affects your practices? Maybe you can look at your notes
and see what… maybe you didn’t have a chance to discuss during this time.
M2: I’m looking… Everything… How does it affect us? [Laughter] I think… it’s this learning
thing. As long as we are curious and learning but at the same time, having the ability to
limit… To limit myself in order to not be overwhelmed. At times, it’s fun. All these fancy
stuff, it’s fancy, I like it. But at times, it's just too much. So that kind of load balancing to be
an engineer again, load balancing of finding the right balance between doing all these fancy
stuff and using it for work and not using it, staying away from in, order to balance myself
mentally, physically. That’s an increasing, very increasing challenge. I don’t know. Maybe it’s
a bit more the age than the digitalization. But I feel that the digitalization, there is a big risk
in digitalization that the human being is not coping with the speed that it introduces. And
that we will need to balance, we as individuals and we as a society, I think. … But, otherwise,
it’s making a lot of things easier. It’s fun because we can also focus on people, on the
interaction with people, right now at least. If you look into some… on what some people say
and write about the continuation of the digitalization with data, big data analytics, and
eventually, artificial intelligence, then you could think that “Wow! We will be super focused.
We don’t deal with people anymore, to kind of to try to convince people with a good set of
facts that you have analyzed, that tell us what we should do next, in which direction we
should turn." While, a bot will take that task in the... well, in the future. So then the fun part
of interacting with people and using all these digital communication, collaboration,
information sharing... using that together with other people to learn new things and to
achieve things. That turns into, “Okay, the machine will take over completely,” then, that is a
disaster, right?
HA: Exactly! That’s one of the reasons why we are doing this study. That controversy
between digitalization will destroy jobs or is it just going to make our daily life look different,
which is most likely the case, the second one.
M2: Yeah, different, definitely. That’s a fact. It will make things different but that is up to the
… yet it is up to the human beings to take the decision whether, which direction to go, right?
Into the good direction of supporting us and making so many things better or in the other
direction… Every coin has two sides again, right? Where it will destroy people’s lives on a
broad scale. It’s in our hands still. But there is a point… there will come a point where it
either goes one or the other way… And I hope that that point is kind of far into the future.
HA: Yeah.
M2: But sometimes, I am more optimistic than other times about that part. [Laughter] Will I
make it to kind of conclude my professional life before that point comes or will I have to deal
with it myself in a company as an employee, as a leader in a company? … I don’t know. For
you, I think it’s for sure, that you will have to deal with it.
HA: Do you see already change… Like, I mean all of this conversation is already showing
those changes that digitalization is bringing... But do you have some more things that you
think are changing around your work tasks and the way how you do things, the way how you
manage due to these changes?
M2: Yeah, I would say, yeah… It does constantly. There is no… that’s one of the things. There
is no that stable steady state that I could see when I was maybe a student about your age
looking at the fathers of my friends working in similar positions, like leadership position.
Then, there was a stable steady state. Once you have achieved something, you’re at a
certain level, you could maintain that much easily and that is something we today, already
don’t have anymore. Again, it is changing, and the speed is increasing. We had our former
CEO at Ericsson, he is gone for a couple of years back. He said it once, “The speed of change
will never be as slow as today.”
HA: Hmm, this is a very great quote.
M2: It’s a couple years old already. [Laughter]
HA: [Laughter]
M2: So, I need to relog in here to my notes. Anyway… So… I think, again, it is in our hands,
very much in your generation’s hand to make this go the right way or the other way. There is
a lot of potential for positive things in digitalization. Let’s use those. That’s our part where
we, as a technological company, also have it in our corporate… framework or mission. It’s
called “technology for good”. Do good things with all these intelligent, digital things.
HA: That is a lot to... No pressure on us. [Laughter]
M2: [Laughter] Yes, but you’re not alone!
HA: Exactly. So, for me, that would be… I am out of questions now. So, thank you for your
time and valuable answers. Do you had a chance to log in to your notes, maybe there is
something else?
M2: Yes, I think there is nothing else, I think we have touched upon everything.
HA: That is great!
M2: I hope I could be of some help and I have not blown this up for too much, too wide, too
diffused.
HA: I think that could be both of us. An inexperienced interviewer, me, I think it would be my
job to guide you, I guess. [Laughter] Would you like to receive the final version of the thesis
when we are done with it?
M2: That would be very interesting, yes. I would appreciate that!
HA: Thank you very much, thank you! Thank you for the answers and having this interview.
Hope you have a nice day!
M2: Thank you very much, it was very interesting. So, good luck with this!
HA: Thank you, thank you. Have a good day!
M2: Thanks, bye-bye!
HA: Bye-bye!
[End of interview]

Interview with Manager 3 – 11:00, 30042020

Interviewee: Capability and Finance Manager of Ericsson (M3)
Interviewer: Muhammad Faisal (MF)
Meeting Place: Skype call
Attendees: Helena Apine, Muhammad Faisal and Manager 3
M3: Hello!
MF: Hi, …! Thank you for taking your time to participate in our interview, we appreciate it. I
would just like to start with introducing myself. I’m Faisal, and Helena is also in the call. We
are doing a… as you read in our e-mail, we are doing a research about digitalization and how
it affects managers. So, if we could start, maybe, you could introduce yourself and your
position and how long you have been there.
M3: Okay! So, as you know, my name is… I have been working as a capability and finance
manager now for around one month in this new position. It is actually because I changed my
role to a new department from the last position I had as a capability manager and
operations manager where I was working around 4 years before. So, if I just add the note
there, I have been working for the same company (Ericsson) for around 20 years now.
MF: Okay, I see.
M3: So, I have been moving around within the company. Basically, in different roles and
positions, seeking for new challenges. So, now this new position I have is more complex as a
role that has a lot of teams and stakeholders connected to the role, so. I think it is very
challenging and fun as well.
MF: Interesting. What are your responsibilities in your role?
M3: I have the responsibility of controlling the budget of the overall program, governance of
the R&D department that I am working on. So, it’s basically a part of the finance governance
of the batch of capability when it comes to develop… product development. In that area.
MF: Okay, so if I understood it correctly, you are in charge of balancing budget, or something
like that?
M3: Yes, but I’m not in charge of the finance of the budget but more of the control of the
budget that has been set. Normally, there are other higher stakeholders that take decisions
on how much budget. But, there are people working with the control of the budget and
making sure that we follow up directives in the company and enforce that.
MF: Okay! So, we can jump right into the interview questions. I assume that you have seen
the pre-requisite that we sent you and that you have a glimpse of it and maybe have some
reflections on your role when it comes to these questions.
M3: Sure, I gave it a little bit of thought into it. Honestly, I have been working a lot lately, so,
I just… I saw it very quickly. So, if you mind, I mean, bear with me.
MF: (Laughter) Of course!
M3: If it’s okay, you can probably describe what you are looking for in the question so that it
can be much easier for me to answer as well.
MF: Definitely, definitely. It’s understandable given the current situation and how it is so you
probably have a lot of things to do at the moment. Being in a distant working, I bet it is a bit
harder and more complicated. So, we’ll just jump into the first question.
M3: Sure!
MF: How does digitalization affect the way you accomplish your work? To clarify this
question, looking more at your role and objectives, planning, organizing, monitoring
operations, performance, creative problem-solving, and decision making, and so forth.
M3: Yes, well, there is a tricky situation here just in my case just because I just started as I
mentioned. I started on the 1st of April, so, it makes things a little bit more complicated
because I didn’t have the chance to meet up with all the people that I am working with. So, I
just met my own team and that is a couple of times before it started… I mean before we
started with the home-office. So, that makes things a bit difficult when it comes to meeting
up with people and having discussions around because I consider myself as a person that… a
manager that takes decisions and bring stuff and people together to facilitate the
discussions which enables the decisions that need to be taken. So, for that, I need to have
informal conversations before preparing for the decisions that we need to take. We all meet
up together in a meeting, people are kind of prepared and are basically kind of aware what
we are looking for; what are the situation and what are the pinpoints. And for that, we need
to kind of think before the meeting. Now… and those things could be done on a coffee break
or on a lunch break so that I could have these kinds of small discussions on the corridor or
come over to the workplace.
MF: Right.
M3: So now, with the situation, what I basically need to do is to book meetings for
everything and it makes things a bit more distant, of course, and impersonal. And at the
same time, it seems that the people that I just started to work with don’t know me; they
haven’t met me before, they have no idea, no clue of what to expect from me.
MF: Right, right!
M3: So, that makes the situation… it is difficult to set the scene before in a proper way. That
makes things more challenging from me.
MF: So what I got from that is that personal level, that personal touch as a manager that you
would want to have your time is a bit lacking.
M3: Yes, exactly.
MF: Because of your new position, of course, right?
M3: Yes, yes. It’s difficult yes. Because if I compare to my previous positions, I already have
my network which basically, they knew… I mean they know what to expect from me. When
you work with people, trust is the first thing that you think about. People commit to things,
right?
MF: Right.
M3: Having this kind of trust on a new organization, it is difficult to begin with when… they
haven’t really seen you before. They haven’t even talked to you, right? That’s different. So,
in my previous position, I don’t think the situation would be so difficult since people have
already met me and made… setting up meetings, having small discussions, it was much more
straight forward compared to the situation today.
MF: I see. So in that case, we can look at your previous position and we can talk about
maybe how digitalization has an affect on you regarding… as a manager, how is it with
digitalization, how is it when it comes to monitoring your team for instance. Or, their
performance or their problem-solving skills or you decision making; how has digitalization
enhanced you or even make it worse for you?
M3: In the sense of performance, I think, digitalization is the way to go. I think it’s just
another tool to be able to use, the digital channels. However, on certain kind of decisions
that involves more of a this kind of information I just gave you, the trust. The ability of
having a way forward when it comes to having different kind of alternative solutions for a
problem. For example, probably going into a room and describing this in front of the
whiteboard, you can just draw for example, this way or that way, pointing out to which
decision is… probably having more challenges, pros and cons, and different things like that.
So, in a sense, that part, I miss. This kind of tools that we’re not really a part of the digital
tool that we use at the moment for example. Now, we have this kind of tools that actually
provides the same kind of opportunity to have these kinds of discussions.
MF: Right, right.
M3: So teams would have digital whiteboards as well. But since I am not used to that and
the people I am working with are not used to that, I think that we are still in the process of
adapting and changing to what fits best in this situation. So, I think we’re not… we’re kind of
exploring on how we can work best in this kind of reality. So, I think it is still a process at the
moment, and at the same time, we are… we have been using these kinds of tools for a long
time but we are not ready yet, I think, to fully use 100%. In my opinion, I think I still need
that part; that I can show my thought straight forward on the whiteboard in front of people.
If I just summarize that; my perception is that the performance is not better, since we are in
the exploring phase that we need to adapt to get a better performance like I used to have
before. But on the other side, I think that… if… I find in this process, the tool, a good way of
using the tools to share my thoughts and all these kinds of discussions that are not really in
the proper meeting discussion where it is just by phone or by video. So, I think that when I
find this kind of opportunity there, I probably will feel more comfortable in using those and
in that way, I think… when that phase has reached [the end], that this exploring time, the
proper way of using the tools, proper way of communicating with other people through
these tools then I think that then probably performance will probably then… instead of being
flat, will go up again somehow.
MF: I understand. So basically, like you said, you are still in the exploring phase. That is why
you prefer to be, as you said, be more in that physical sense to perform your tasks.
M3: Yes.
MF: I understand. You mentioned a bit how even your teams or your subordinates would
have digital whiteboards, you said something like that. In a way, it goes to the second
question; how does digitalization affect the ways you manage the people within your work
unit? This is in terms of how you as a manager support them in their tasks, develop them, or
empowering them with digitalization.
M3: Again, this is a difficult, kind of a tricky question at the moment with this role. So, if I
interpret this question into my previous role, it will better for you and for the sake of this
interview.
MF: Yeah, definitely.
M3: So, if I was in my previous role, I was working with my teams… I understood how my
team works in the sense that they are, or they are pretty much working in the same way as
me in the sense of... I saw that they needed these human contacts in the meetings as well.
Because it goes back to the trust level. Most of the team members were working with very
complex systems that requires a lot of investment on time and knowledge. For them to
provide the level of support and engagement on those projects and operations, they needed
to know that their time, their engagement is going on the right way so that they are going to
be somehow rewarded or seen [recognized] within the team, so that they have a purpose on
the things that they are doing. So, I find, in overall, this kind of soft sides of task that the
project members have and the team members, it is very important for them to provide
maximum performance on their task. I don’t believe that people are just doing their work
and just live in the office after doing their work. They are committing to something. For that
commitment to be done on a higher scale, a higher degree, I think they need to believe on
the purpose and the spirit of the team by inspiring them. I think, it’s the best way for the
team to have a high performance.
MF: Right, right.
M3: So, I have to work hard on it when I started on the previous role as well on the first
phase, when I started as the capability and operations manager. The team… I was working
with several team, but the closest team which were supporting all our customers on a daily
basis; I knew for sure that this team was very sharp. They had a lot of knowledge. But at the
same time, they were not easy to work with. I mean, they had a lot of experiences and they
have this kind of status on the company because of their position and knowledge. It bought
them a little bit, kind of… having this kind of attitudes towards others. But at the same time,
they were delivering. They were a high performing team. But they need to trust the leader.
They needed to trust their enablers, the facilitators that bring them together, and work on
the purpose. So, for that, I don’t think that would have been possible if it weren’t for digital
tools. Especially in the first phase where I am establishing with the team members. That
phase is very important, because, when we went through that phase, I had the trust from
my team members that I was showing my commitment as well. I was doing… I was
communicating on a very transparent way to the team members and the customers. When
things didn’t work, we were discussing why it didn’t work, how we were supposed to fix
things, and so on. So, there was this kind of team spirit that was built up on the first phase.
For that, it is very important to have the physical contact. For that, I don’t see that part of
the phase of the establishing the relationships being replaced by tools so much. I think that
is very important, and that is a tricky part in my new role now. [Laughter].
MF: [Laughter] I see. I understand.
M3: Even a more complex role has many teams; they have a lot of people talking… I’m still
using the digital tools. But the good thing is that if I find a way now on the exploring time on
how to build these relationships on this phase… Maybe I think, I could really consider myself
successful because in that sense that would give another way, another dimension of the
communications with the team.
MF: Right, yes. I think you have touched upon the next question I guess since you are going
through this exploring phase. With that, it obviously comes with a whole deal of change,
right? Within your work unit. So, how do you deal with it as a manager, when change comes
into the picture? You’ve talked a little bit about it, maybe you can go into it more in terms
of… say, there’s a change that needs to be implemented from the top for instance to the
middle management. How do you approach change and how do you set this change among
your employees?
M3: Yes, good question. [Laughter]
MF: [Laughter].
M3: I feel that the change management, it is a challenge in itself. There are many books,
many courses on change management. People are following different kinds of methods and
approaches on change management. Actually, I think that this is the tricky part because
what… A change management method may work on an organization, it may not work in
another. By just following the book and the guidelines that are written somewhere, it won’t
work completely. So, what I am saying is… I think adaptation is very important. To know and
to think strategically, I would say, is the best guideline that I would use to that. When there
is time for planning on a change, I think, first of all, I will go and understand the organization.
I mean, who are the stakeholders in our organization, the ones… the informal leaders for
example. There are many people who are leading the organization but without having the
overall manager position for example. That’s the one thing that I noticed in my whole career.
So, knowing these peoples in the key positions… or not position, the key people that are
informal leaders in this place because people trust them somehow. People trust their
knowledge, their work, and their performance. They know that they are working for a
purpose. They are inspiring other people as well with their know-how. So, what I am saying
here is that these kinds of key person in the organization are the very most important
people that a change management needs to begin with. If I would like to introduce change, I
need to basically to now on my new role and this new organization that I am starting… I am
actually doing this research on which are the people, or who are the people who have this
key… not position, but this key… how do you call this… ‘Places’ in the organization that
people are following.
MF: Right.
M3: So, when change needs to be done, people won’t listen to me if I need to make a
change. My strategy is to go to these people, share my thoughts, show these kinds of plans,
risks that I want to introduce with change for example, and try to reach that with these
people. So these are the kinds of persons that… if they buy what the change is aiming for
and what kind of profit, or return of investment, or whatever, or the positive impact it is
giving to the organization; they will go for it because they are very committed to what they
are doing. Having these kinds of changes through them will make everyone go, “Ah, okay,
this is the way to go.” Instead of me going directly to the team member or the stakeholder…
those kinds of things are the first thing I would in the organization when it comes to change
management.
MF: I see.
M3: Then, applying the rest of the knowledge and the methods, there are structures, there
are a lot of ways of doing this. But I think that kind of things are very important. And to be
able to contact these key persons… I think, in my case, what I have been doing is, for
example, going out for lunch or having a coffee break with them, what are their hobbies,
what exactly do they like… you know?
MF: Right, so getting to know them better.
M3: Exactly! Exactly! So, going that way and having this kind of relationship on a personal
level somehow. Then, they will understand me better, who I am, what I am looking for, what
is my purpose in all of this. Because people are always looking for the main question; why
are people doing this, why are people doing that? So, when I give them this kind of response
of why I am doing this, they will understand me better and for that, I think it will be much
easier to have these kinds of changes in the organization.
MF: Right, I see where you are going with it; approaching the key people. As you mention,
say you have an idea, you want to make sure that the team changes through this key people.
How does digitalization affect that process, in a sense that, how it helps you presenting
information or ideas, looking at the risks and return of investments for instance. Has it
helped your process to be more efficient or is it more hard work and effort?
M3: I think the first process of establishing the relationship with the key person… It is very
difficult to use digital tools only. It should be used in a combination with something or in a
combined way. I am thinking about, maybe… what we need to look for is to find more
creative ways of establishing this relationship other than just meeting up because I
understand the situation. It is a different reality. What we need to do, in order to be more
successful, is to adapt. There is no other way. I was actually reading other people’s stories
and I like to read successful stories on how people find other creative ways of doing things.
MF: Right.
M3: I was thinking, I read about virtual “fika”, virtual coffee. People have been doing this. At
first, I felt a bit strange because I have done this a couple of times and I failed. It was working
somehow. We were not talking anymore about jobs and tasks in this virtual meeting, but we
were talking about other things; I like music and I like video games, you know. I think…
Somehow, I was feeling this kind of… enhancing relationships through these tools.
MF: Right! Right!
M3: Yeah, and I think it is not the digital tool itself that is the blocker, but it is more our ways
of thinking, right? It is how we approach things. I think, being more creative in the way that
we need to communicate, I think that is the key. That is the answer to this. I, myself, I’ve
already explained, I am exploring and finding creative ways of approaching people that I
need to establish trustful relationship with and to be able to make, later, difficult decisions
and enable change management.
MF: Interesting. For wanting to have physical connection and for you to have that… to see
that with digitalization, that with communicating or digital tools, you were surprised by how
you get more personal with digital “fika”, as you said. [Laughter].
M3: [Laughter] Yeah, yeah.
MF: That is interesting. We can move on to the next question. How does digitalization affect
the way you interact with the external environment of your work unit? What I mean by that
is, within your department for instance, as you said you are working as capability and finance
manager, you are in that department; how does digitalization affect you when you are
interacting with other departments, for instance? How do you communicate using
digitalization?
M3: Yes. Let’s put first the scene, or the context here because we are talking first…
digitalization before this difficult situation of COVID-19 times after.
MF: Yes.
M3: Digitalization, as the start, way before, we have started with a lot of tools. I was kind of
the one… one of the people who are using more the digital tools before the difficult times
because I had teams where we all work in different countries. So, I am talking about China or
Canada. So, that was a natural choice, right?
MF: Right.
M3: But at the same time, when I needed to work with the people who were in Sweden, I
mean not even Sweden but the floor below me in the same building; I sometimes… because
of the situation that I had to run between meetings and my time was limited, I chose to use
digital tool instead of going downstairs and having this meeting with them. Because I was
kind of having just… trying to adapt or fix my time management, right? Because of the
situation of that day maybe. I noticed that I was more keen to use these digital tools and
starting to use them than other people. I noticed that all the other team, other work unit,
other teams that we were collaborating with, they were people that were much older, for
example. I am talking about; I don’t know 10 – 15 years older than me. I noticed that for
them, it is more difficult to use these tools. So, I think that it is natural as well. But at the
same time, I could feel… I could sense that it was difficult to use the digital tools as a natural
choice when people were in the same building or in the same place. I understand that they
wanted to have this interaction. For them, it was probably easier to explain face to face with
teams then using Skype. So, in that sense, when I think of the situation now, COVID-19
times, I see that if I am exploring, I mean in the phase of exploring new ways of working or
creative ways; probably for these group of people who are basically pretty much attached to
work face to face and they were not really keen to use digital tools.
MF: Right.
M3: So, I think the performance, they could have been probably worse in that sense. I mean,
there is a bigger to adapt to the situation and the situation today. So, as a manager, I need
to think about that as well. I think that in my case if I am exploring, I am not alone in this. I
need to understand other team, other people as well who are not really 100% adapted to
the new tools but there are probably on a much more, or the level of maturity of adaptation
to the tools are at a different level, right?
MF: Right, right.
M3: So, in that sense, I need to adapt myself as well on how I set up meetings and how I talk
to people as well. I think that make things even more difficult when it comes to work of
inter-teams and collaborations.
MF: Right, understandable. As you said, you are not alone in this team. You have different
people with different preferences to technology. You also said there are generational gaps
as well, where people might not want to use them. That is interesting. You touched upon…
[Laughter] Every time you answer the questions, you touched upon the next question. I
don’t know how much more you can add on this next question. In a sense, you said, this is
something you have to manage; the next question is do you think that new or different skills
are needed to adapt the challenges that are brought up by digitalization? As you mentioned
just now.
M3: Yes, yes. I think I did mention in already. [Laughter]]
MF: [Laughter] I think you did. That’s why I don’t know if you have anything more to add to
that question. I think you have already answered, planning activities and all that.
M3: You know, I could actually be here talking for a couple more hours on the same thing
you know! [Laughter]
MF: [Laughter] There will be a lot of data for us, we don’t mind!
M3: I don’t want to bore you either. I want to get straight to the point somehow.
MF: Right, right.
M3: I sometimes, I need to first set the context and see and describe what is the issue, so I
approach for the solution.
MF: Right. But by that context we just talked about; is there any other skills or… in a sense,
as a manager, is there anything else in terms of closing the gaps that you or the employees
might have?
M3: I think, first of all, something I am still learning, the learning curve… what do you call it,
strategic thinking, I am trying to be steps ahead of what the situation at the moment. I mean
what kinds of issues, what kinds of risks, different decisions to bring up, and so on. But that
is kind of a catch 22 thing, because, if you are new to the issues, then you will probably just
be guessing the solutions so there is no way you can actually predict a good forecast or a
good solution for a problem. It’s more experience that gives you kind of this input data for
you to make decisions later in life, right? So, I am thinking, I am starting to think more in a
strategic way, but at the same time, I am kind of in the middle. I have some experience but
not enough experience to make those decisions as those who have more years in the field
and so on. So, in that sense, experience is a good factor or a very key parameter,
outstanding key parameter when decisions need to be taken. So, I would say that that
thinking is the proper thinking when it come to my role doing these plans ahead where we
are already looking at 2021, right?
MF: Right.
M3: So for that, me and my team will need to bring up, ‘what are the main points we need
to bring up, what are the pinpoints, what are the successes, what do we need to continue to
do in the same way, what do we need to adapt, what do we need to correct,’ those kinds of
things are bringing us into a successful team. I’m learning in the sense that I need to bring
my experience into the team, and I want to as well share that to the team, and I want that
back as well. I want other team members to share that experience within the team as well. I
think that together, we can be successful when sharing these experiences. But that is the
tricky part, how do we share those kinds of things, these experiences through digital tools? I
mean, it is something, that in my experience as well, you talk about it over a coffee break or
an after-work activity, those kinds of things. There is no kind of course that says, this is a life
course. When do you know? When do you learn from life? It is something that you have as
an experience in your career. So, when I bring that into the equation, I think, I am looking for
the same way that the other team members bring these kinds of experience parameters into
the equation. When we have this setup, this kind of strategic plan for what we want to
achieve, in that sense, we could get as close as possible to what we want to achieve.
Normally, in my role, we set our target goals. For example, what do we want to achieve as
profit? Or what do want to achieve in a specific timeframe in the sense of budget? There are
tangible target levels in that sense. But how do we that? By taking a certain decision that we
know by experience; to have taken more risks than taking other kind of decisions that are
less risky. So, this kind of discussions are very difficult to bring up in meetings through Skype
or another digital tool. That is the part that I want to emphasize. I think, I haven’t reached
that part of my exploration where I say, “Yes! This will help us, this digital tool, this way of
talking or communicating will help us bring our team to the wanted position!”
MF: Right! So, in a way, as the exploration phase as you said, this is a new skill that you have
to acquire to get to that success level for your team.
M3: I don’t think that it will be any more difficult… [Laughter]
MF: [Laughter]
M3: In the context of later in life, if the team and I achieve at this time with the current
situation (COVID-19), at this level of complexity and level of challenges, I think that the rest
will be pretty much easier.
MF: Yeah, you just have to get past the first hill and the rest will be easy.
M3: Exactly!
MF: That was our last question. Would you like to add something else in regard to
digitalization and how it affects your practices and skills? We can talk about anything in
general when it comes to digitalization, any critical thinking that you might have in regard to
that subject.
M3: I think that it is difficult to explain things in the sense that there is so much ambiguity at
this moment. And that is actually what managers learn through the years; how to bring the
best of the knowledge and the data needed from the organization during the highest level of
ambiguity. That is something that, I would say, is a skill that is needed; to be able to be
successful in any kind of manager position basically. Setting some kind of structure around
this ambiguity is I think is the key of being successful and I mean that, for example, if there is
a decision that needs to be taken but the information for making the decision is ambiguous,
it is difficult to take the decision. The key is to put the structure around that question. I
mean, what is needed first, and then, if there is so much ambiguity around certain
parameters, we can have assumptions and put the parameters on a paper. And then say this
is the first iteration I am taking as a decision, and bringing this structure and making it visible
as well for your team, communicating all the time, I think that is the key for achieving what is
set as a target.
MF: Right.
M3: And for that, just putting the structure, it was a bit easier when we were all working
together in the same area. I mean, we can just stand up and say, “Hey, I have an idea!” to
the colleague sitting two seats next to me. And just give quick ideas like, “Hey, what do you
think about this?” or, “What is the input do you have to this?” He or she then could say, “No!
That is not possible because of this… or that…” It is just a very quick interaction, right? For
these kinds of things that I am talking about makes it difficult now. If I have a small idea, I
need to set up or book a meeting with that person for half an hour or 50 minutes for what
could have been done…
MF: In 5 minutes or 10 minutes.
M3: Right, like 5 minutes. Yes, and that is I think, in that sense if I talk about performance,
that is not the best of the performance. But that is the next step, maybe there is a creative
way to this, and I want to… I think I am open. And that is the next message as well, to stay
open. Success doesn’t come in the same place all the time. People need to adapt and by
staying open, there will be more chances of finding other ways, other creative ways of
achieving success.
MF: Right, but based on what you said, in regards to having the physical, interpersonal
connection, to be in the same room, I’d say, with the help of digitalization and the gathering
of data and information is needed, right? There needs to be a combination. Do you agree to
that statement?
M3: Yes, there needs to be a combination. Especially in this kind of roles that need this kind
of interaction. I think for managers, most of them will agree that this combination of both
physical and digital interaction is needed.
MF: Well, that was our last question.
M3: Wow.
MF: Thank you for your valuable answers. Before we end the call, I need to stop the
recording in order for it to be processed, because if I end the call, all the recording will
disappear.
M3: Okay.
MF: So, hang in there, hang in there for a bit until it’s done.
M3: Sure!
[End of interview]

Interview with Manager 4 – 13:00, 05052020

Interviewee: Technical Project Manager in Multimedia Subsystem, Ericsson (M4)
Interviewer: Guanting Liu (GL)
Meeting Place: Skype call
Attendees: Guanting Liu, Muhammad Faisal and Manager 4
GL: Could you briefly introduce yourself and about how long time you work in Ericsson and
what kind of position you are in?
M4: Okay, sure. My name is …. I have been working at Ericsson since 2007. I started as a
consultant, young engineer. I came directly from KTH Royal Institute as an engineer. During
this year, we have been working with mostly IMS products, it’s a product that is behind the
4G, 5G, 3G. It’s the one mostly you are using when you are calling. I have been supporting all
the projects, working inside this IMS solution. Since 2 years ago, I was acting manager and
since the 1st of September, I am officially a project manager for [inaudible]. It is part of the
organization.
GL: Yup and how is your daily work-life like? What are you exactly doing every day?
M4: Okay, as daily, it is to support organizations that we are supporting. We are actually
supporting the lab environment, the physical hardware test environment where Ericsson is
testing and supporting the customer, and developing new products. Me and my team are
making sure that the environment is up and running, it is stable, no downtime. And when
there was a need to upgrade, add something else, more capacity, more servers, more
switching, we are actually doing this. We are designing the lab environment where…
preparing table plan, IP plan, positions, configuring routers, servers, firewalls. I mean,
basically everything that you should expect from a lab [inaudible]. The only thing is our
customer, the user is actually using the application. They are actually using the application.
They don’t have to do anything in the hardware level. And in the daily job is to make sure,
monitor everything, respond to support tickets whenever there is any issue; if there is a
blade that is broken, a hardware that is broken, or need to troubleshoot. We are into being
consistent and the team will deal with it as soon as possible. Basically, that is the engineer’s
tasks that we are doing.
GL: So, you mainly, like, technical support, right?
M4: No, technical support is… We have technical support guys in the lab. The physical guys.
They actually are connecting tables, mounting the servers, and connecting power cables.
We’re usually calling them layer 1 or layer 2 support. Layer 2 physically can lifting the servers
and that it’s efficient. We ourselves are like layer 3, layer 4 support. I don’t know if you are
familiar with network levels, there are 7 of them. So, we are the one that start up the
servers, we are the ones that install applications like Ubuntu or if there is one in Windows
also. We are the ones who actually building the network diagram, configuring router’s
firewall, switching. Planning for the networks to be stable, no loops, or monitoring to be
applied. We are doing more than just technical stuff.
GL: Yes, I know what you mean. And then, like, I want to ask, how does digitalization affect
the way that you accomplish your work?
M4: Uhh, can you repeat?
GL: How does digitalization affect the way you accomplish your work? How is digitalization
affecting your working process like? For example…
M4: Could you describe your meaning of digitalization?
GL: Digitalization is the use of digital technologies that have implications to basically
everything in a business operation. For example, basically, just new technologies, technology
development; how that influences your decision process, let’s say as an example.
M4: Okay, let me give you an example. When I started working in the test environment as an
engineer in the beginning, for the most part, we had punch tunnels that is connected to
every single server, every single site, and the punch tunnel function was to connect one
cable from one server over a long distance to another room and interconnect every servers
together. There were some switches also in the background, layer of switches like a hub or
something similar. Today, we are no longer using that kind of layer 2, or layer 1 connectivity.
In the technical perspective, we’re using more like routings, switches, aggregation, Q, and Q
tunneling. We are using ensemble to monitor and update configuration and software. We
are using PopEds to update software on the servers or the switches that we require.
Digitalization made us to use more automation. It’s when building physical work, physical
connecting, or doing any specific thing, now we are using tools to do that, automation for
the most part.
GL: Does this kind of automation technology change the way you are using human capital?
M4: Yes, I mean, the capital is now more in an advanced level than general tuning of the
cables. But at the same time, we need time because before, when there is an error,
something is not working, we have to go to the lab physically, we have to check the cable,
and because there were so many cables, you actually had the wall of with lots of tunnels
with lots of cables. Now, you have only like one single, or two switches and you can do
everything remotely. For example, me and my team, we are physically sitting in Kista,
Ericsson. For the most part, Ericsson is in Kista. But the lab environment that we are running
are located in Rosersberg, close to an airport. And we never go there.
GL: Okay.
M4: We are doing everything remotely. I can start the servers from scratch, or the switch
and do all the configuration and troubleshooting and everything done remotely completely.
GL: Okay, very practical.
M4: Yeah!
GL: Do this change bring some changes also to your relation between your work unit?
M4: I do not understand what you are saying.
GL: I mean, does digitalization or technology affect the relation… how you work with your
colleagues within your department?
M4: Hmmm, it’s difficult to answer in example.
GL: Yeah.
M4: I mean the difference between before and now because digitalization, it made it more
complicated. Before, we have people who are a little more ‘hands-on’, very high level of
knowledge, not Bachelor degree or anything like this, or gymnasium (Upper Secondary
school) or something like this. After digitalization, I mean, the requirements of knowledge
have increased. I mean, the [inaudible] of doing things is much more competent. That
changes a little bit of the people. So quite a lot of people were moved, and new people were
audited place but the people who is coming are more on the higher level of knowledge.
GL: But does that also mean that you need to… let me say, do you have any training
programs for the new employees or for any employees?
M4: Yes, at Ericsson, we have educational, we have web-based, where we have a lot of
process. Some of them are mandatory, you have to take them. Other parts are your own
way of educating yourself. Usually, you have a meeting with your line manager to sit down
and to see a year, to see where you decide with him together. For example, if you are a
network engineer and you want to go to some special juniper course, as a manager, they will
always support you as it is beneficial for Ericsson and yourself. If you want to take some
certification inside your knowledge range, I mean, like network engineer or Linux engineer, it
is all supported, it’s all approved. I mean… And… Actually, the managers are pushing you a
little extra. They want you to take courses and something specific with your line of work. So,
the training is… I mean… if you want to go forward in this type of work, you must have
constant training. You cannot stop at it.
GL: Okay, does the development of technology also change the way that you educate your
people?
M4: I mean, yes. I mean, whoever thought about remote education, remote courses before
like 10 years ago. There was one, but they were not on this level. But now, some of the
courses are completely remote, some of the courses, you watch like a similar YouTube page,
but it is on a completely different level. Some of the courses, you have like a video where
you can talk to the teacher, like a conference. Not at all physical.
GL: So, it’s like distance education.
M4: Yes, but a little bit more direct. Usually, like twelve people in a course and everybody
can ask questions and its live. It’s not like recorded, some courses are recorded so it can be
done both ways.
GL: Okay, okay. Very interesting. And when you think that changes are necessary when you
think that you need to change the way you work, you need to make some change inside your
position, how could you persuade other people to accept the change?
M4: Sometimes you have to convince everybody and sometimes it is forced on you like
today (COVID-19). I am sitting at home right now, everybody in my team are also working
from home and you have to adapt. But some other changes… It’s a dialogue, it’s a
democracy. So, if the changes are required, it’s beneficial for the company, beneficial for
your unit, your team, then, it is implemented.
GL: Is the way that you communicate with other people inside your company is changed by
digitalization?
M4: I think you need to separate company from a company. In Ericsson, it’s a huge company.
I think we are about 100,000 people in the world. A little over 10,000 in Sweden. It is difficult
to have a communication with everybody locally to go and sit with conference, so… Quite a
lot of it is done digitally. Today, we are using Skype for the most part until recently, but now
Teams. Especially up to the COVID-19, Teams became more prioritized than Skype. It’s better
quality with video conference. And now, I think it is more easier, more people are using it
and it’s easier to communicate, easier to book with everybody and anybody. You don’t have
to book a meeting in a single conference room. It is so comfortable to just book a meeting
whenever you want and when everybody is available. And just connect and start your
camera if you want to show yourself.
GL: Yup, and also, you’re talking a little bit about dealing with customers. I would like to
know about how digitalization or technology development affecting the way you interact
with someone outside your organization or outside your department?
M4: My customers are internal. My customers are Ericsson. I am not dealing with external
customers. But they are still customers, they are the ones who request stuff, request
support and understanding. But digitalization, I mean, it… Before you have to write an e-mail
or you have to call on the phone. And, right now, with Skype and Teams are so popular, so
easily available, so easily used. It’s much simpler to call the person than to write e-mail with
phones, read it, have another question, write the question to him, wait for the response,
and especially if it’s different time zones. It is complicated. It is much more efficient to just
call the person when your time zone isn’t synched in one or two hours. You have a very fast,
very productive conversation with… I mean Teams meeting or Skype. So, this part is I assume
what you want to know.
GL: Do you also use any customer support software, like Teams support or something?
M4: We have, what’s it called… GIA. It’s a ticket system. It’s a ticket tool for our organization
or my team anyway, there are more tickets out there, but we are using GIA. There, we
receive every ticket from every user, if there is some kind of problem. We are working on it
based on… It’s like service [inaudible]. Some tickets are supposed to be done in 4 hours,
some in 8 days, some, 8 hours.
GL: Are you… how do you… I mean, do you have any, like for now, everybody is working at
home. How do you monitor your employees and their working process?
M4: I have a daily meeting with them. We have combo meetings. We are discussing every
single details. So, combo is one way to go. We are going through every detail at least twice a
week and we are checking the team members that need more support from another team
members because it might be a difficult task. So, the whole team is helping him to solve that
problem.
GL: Okay, do you think there is any specific skills that you need to develop to adapt to the
digitalization, to the technology development?
M4: Actually, I would say, it is getting more easier with development. There are people who
are shy, and they are not open face to face. So, for them it is difficult to talk, communicate
when you are actually speaking with photos when you are having a meeting. So,
digitalization helps those people to be more open because when you turn off your camera
and the only thing everybody hear is your voice, you are a little anonymous, so you are a
little less shy, if you understand what I mean.
GL: Yeah, I know what you mean. But I was thinking like for yourself, do you feel like you
need to develop some skills to adapt to change coming today? For example…
M4: Yes, with example.
GL: For example, one manager was talking about… He thinks he has to develop his
communication skills and some other were talking about… H needs to develop the skill of
data analysis. Do you think there is any specific skill that you need to develop in your
position to adapt to the changes?
M4: I don’t know if depends on the changes. I mean, I get to improve myself in
communication and some other parts. But they have nothing to do with digitalization or
changes. We simply adapt to the changes. I mean, when there is a change, you adapt to it.
That’s the only way.
GL: I understand what you mean. You mean, when the change come, you basically just learn
what you need to learn.
M4: Yes, because of that change, it’s difficult to predict what to come and to start learning in
advance of what you need. It’s not always… I mean, you cannot always get right of what you
want or what you need.
GL: Mhmm. Do you have any other thoughts about how digitalization affects your work
besides those questions that I asked?
M4: Hmmm… No, I don’t… Nothing comes up.
GL: Okay, never mind.
M4: I was very busy the whole day, I have other things, other meetings. I couldn’t seem to
find any idea.
GL: I think there is another question. Do you have any critical thinking about digitalization? Is
digitalization all positive or does it also bring some difficulties to your work?
M4: Difficulties… I mean, digitalization is beneficial but when it gets too much, you have to
really analyze it, when you get too much information, I think. And you just start focusing
instead of… I mean, you need more analysts, to analyze the data that you are collecting
because of digitalization. I mean, digitalization creates a possibility for you to create a lot of
data, data about hardware, data about people, data about statistic, everything. So,
digitalization creates a possibility, you just ask the question and you get the answer. But the
thing is, the answer that you are getting can be huge.
GL: But how do you do that? Can you give a short example?
M4: Sure! I have one example, but it is [inaudible]. I had recently, actually yesterday, a
customer requested a list of all the hardware that we have in the test lab and he wanted
them based on every… How should I say it… minimap. They have a customer, now meaning,
he has a big lab. In his meaning, he has like… one site is one unit. But for his unit to work,
and the unit has lots of blades inside. So, for him, it is one item with lots of blades. And for
me, the detail of maps he has in here is about 1,000 units and it has a lot of blades. For me,
this is one big lab but at the same time, I know that he is divided into several units. The
customer wanted information about the problem blade of each unit. We have a system that
have all information about every single hardware, every single blade, and its position. And
yesterday when I was trying to give him the information that he required, I have so much
information! I have to sort it. I can give him information about everything, but he will just
get lots of blades without knowing which blade is going to which unit. I had so much
information because of digitalization. I think it would have been easier for me to go the test
environment lab with a notepad and to just write down which unit and what kind of blades it
has. And when I just write the command in the system, it just gives me 5,000 items and I
need to sort out of these 5,000 items and he has about 1,000 units, so analysation… It took
me a very long time to analyse and to present it in a presentable way. So, it’s one analytics
example that you wanted.
GL: Okay.
M4: But I am a technical project manager, so I’m a project manager of the lab, of the team,
of the project and in my side, my team, we are more technical. I’m coming from a technical
background, I have a Bachelor in technical engineering. So, I have grown inside Ericsson to
become a project manager. I’m still sitting in the technical perspective.
GL: [Laughter] Yeah, I understand.
M4: But sometimes, doing the meetings with other project managers, I can appreciate these
kinds of thinking because some people are… who are project managers, or managers from
the other side, they are coming from… They have no idea about technology. They don’t
really know how to run the project without knowing the technology behind it. So, I have a
fresher view on things.
GL: Yeah, that’s true. I think that is all about today’s interview. I really appreciate that you
come to here to have the interview today.
M4: No problem.
GL: Thank you for your participation.
M4: You’re welcome! Good luck to you guys. Hope you get your bachelor’s degrees.
[Laughter]
GL: Hopefully! [Laughter] Thank you, thank you so much!
M4: Thank you! Bye-bye!
GL: Bye-bye!
[End of interview]

Interview with Manager 5 – 10:00, 06052020

Interviewee: Project Manager in R&D, Ericsson (M5)
Interviewer: Muhammad Faisal (MF)
Meeting Place: Skype call
Attendees: Guanting Liu, Muhammad Faisal and Manager 5
MF: So, you should see up there, it should say that the recording is started.
M5: Yeah.
MF: Did you get a chance to read what I sent you?
M5: Yes, yeah!
MF: Okay! First of all, we really appreciate that you take part in this interview. For managers
to share their opinions, we really appreciate it. We would like to just start with by asking you
if you could start by introducing yourself and your position, your current position, and how
long you have been working in this position?
M5: So, I work in Ericsson research and I have been a researcher for a long time. Lately, I am
working as a project manager.
MF: Okay! How long have you been working there and what are some of your
responsibilities?
M5: So, I joined Ericsson in 2008. Now, I am driving projects for 5G and 6G.
MF: Okay, wow. Okay. You’re a manager at your position, you said right?
M5: A project manager, yes.
MF: Then we can start off with the first question. How does digitalization affect the ways you
accomplish your work? We can start with talking about maybe since you have been in the
company for so long, you might see the changes how digitalization affects your work and
how you accomplish your work. Do you mind and explain and elaborate on that?
M5: It’s a very broad question, I guess. So… I mean, digitalization is everything now, right?
It’s like everything. So, first of all, it provides a very good source for transparency. Everything
is available to everyone, number one. Number two is that it provides very good flexibility
and mobility, right?
MF: Right.
M5: You can be in any location, anywhere and still you can be connected and configure it.
So, and then, finally also is that, with the current situation (COVID-19), the current situation,
then digitalization is like, is the only thing that we need now, right? You need to be
connected, you need to make sure that everybody has access to all the resources, right?
Digitalization makes it possible, yeah. So, things have definitely, it has improved the
efficiency in a larger scale compared to let’s say 10 years before. So, I mean, you’re… when
you work from home or when your work from the office. There is no difference. It is more or
less the something now, right? Ummm…
MF: Right, right. No, sorry. Go ahead.
M5: No, that’s the summary of it.
MF: Okay. What about when it comes to… I’m assuming it’s the same when it comes to
planning and organizing your work, how you monitor operations and performance, and
problem-solving and decision making.
M5: For example, one of the very important things is the training and skills development for
people. So, you have a lot of people, a lot of new people, more experienced people and you
have experts and other experts. So, you need a good way, let’s say, to bring in new people
and train them and… you know. To put them into the business. So, digitalization is a very
good tool even for that also. And for a company like us, we need to stay in the forefront of
technology, right? We are at the forefront of whatever is happening in the market. So,
digitalization is very important for this, the skills and training.
MF: Okay, we can jump to the second question. How does digitalization affect the ways you
manage people within your work unit? As you are a project manager, I’m assuming you are
dealing with a lot of employees. How does that affect your role as supporting your
employees with their task, developing them, empowering them in any way?
M5: As I said, the connectivity is so important, right? So, staying in touch with people. Let’s
say, goal setting, and make sure that the work is progressing well. We ensure that people
have all the resources are available for them. We make sure that there are regular
checkpoints, okay? [Inaudible] and checkpoints. And all of these are actually, we basically do
remotely, right? And now for a company like ours, let’s say, in any typical project in a
company like Ericsson there are people form, let’s say, 10 different locations and I’m in
Stockholm. But, many people are outside, in many different locations, right? So then, we are
bounded by this that you have to use all the digitalization facilities so that we can actually
stay in touch and work together and have the discussions and the availability for each other.
So, yeah. So what digitalization has done, it basically has reduced the physical distances.
Yeah.
MF: Speaking of physical distances, we had an interesting response from another manager in
regard to this question. Some actually prefer to be in a physical space as they have the
ability to enhance the relationship between managers and employees, as employees pick up
on managers and what is expected of them. How do you think… what do you think of that
statement?
M5: There is a [inaudible]. I mean, the physical touch is very important, right? At least, let’s
say, people need to be in touch in one way or another. It is very important, I don’t deny that.
But then, you are sometimes limited by some constraints, right? Constraints such as
somebody is located in the USA and you are located here and you have to run the project
together at the same time and you have to make sure that we deliver something to the
customer in the other side of the world. One other thing is that, if you need all the physical
facilities in every location, then your customer will be very unavailable. You need number of
people in every location, and so on. So, digitalization also provides this thing, I call it
“scalivity”. You have a scaling, let’s say in the US office and you are sitting here and then you
don’t necessarily need to have the same scale in your Stockholm office also because you use
the same resource there as if it is your own resource. So, that is the thing. I don’t deny that
there is a need for physical touch, yeah, for sure. True.
MF: Okay. Yeah. We can jump to the next question. How is digitalization affecting the way
you deal with change within your work unit? I’m assuming that Ericsson has been going
through a lot of changes. How do you as a manager apply these changes to your employees
and how has digitalization helped you with these changes?
M5: Yeah… I mean, it is a challenge for sure. People are usually very set in their work and
usually, people are more concern of the content of the work, you know? Let’s say if they are
working on a topic, then they are very concern about what they are exactly doing and what
tools they are using and so on, right? So then when we need, to let’s say, upgrade and we
need to change to a different mod, then there is resistance in this case. So, for me, it’s like… I
don’t believe in just dropping the e-mail and making sure that the people do it. So, what is
important is like there are different levels of importance in some issues that you need to talk
to people, like when the change is needed. So, you need to set up a meeting or something
like that, where we talk and I mean we bond and the ideas spread to people, where they go,
“Okay, the change is in need and they are needed for everyone even if it’s all of us.” So, in
that way, convincing people is the way to go. It’s the instances, there are changing of
platforms, changing to different solutions, it takes a little bit of time for people to learn it,
right? So, it is a challenge and it’s an ongoing process. I guess, what is very important is the
trust between the manager and the team. So, when there is a very good trust, then you can
convince people to move to an insulation, yeah, for change.
MF: Right, right. Has there been any situation where employees are so used to using some
like, same tool that they are so used to… I mean, for them, it is very efficient for them to use
these tools but there have been new tools in the market, and it needs to be implemented.
Has there been any employees in your specific case that says “No! I want to use the old one,
I can get more work done.” And you as a manager that has to implement this change, has it
ever happened to you?
M5: Yeah, there are one or two persons that are a little bit stubborn sometimes. [Laughter]
MF: [Laughter] Right, right!
M5: Yeah. But then, when let’s say if we are 50 people in a project, and they are using
different tools and different methods, right? So, then people need to change. They
themselves will find out that they can’t be the outlier. So, there are one or two cases that I
have seen, where they themselves understood that they need to move into the change.
Yeah.
MF: So the change are… They just have to adapt because the change is moving rapidly and
they don’t want to fall behind, I guess.
M5: Exactly, exactly!
MF: Okay! Question number four. How is digitalization affecting the way you interact with
your external environment that you are working with? As you know, digitalization tends to
let you do a lot of gathering of information, getting answers, resources, and assistance. How
does digitalization in that sense affect the way you interact with other departments for
instance or outside environment?
M5: I guess, the… Nowadays, all the company that we are working with are also very, quite
advanced when it comes to digitalization. So that has been helping a lot. For example, you
want to meet a customer, ten years ago, in most cases, you will have to travel. But now, it is
becoming a norm, let’s say, you meet them by digital means and to handle tasks. That helps
a lot, that really helps people in terms of stress-level, that really helps people instead of
taking an extra step of travelling.
MF: So, travelling was a normal practice for managers then, is it?
M5: Yeah, let’s say like 15 years ago, it was the norm. But now, for example, it has reduced
quite a lot which is good, I think.
MF: Let’s see. I have an instance where… I’m assuming you are a bit more of a technical
manager in a sense. How do you… Let’s say the business people of the company, how is the
communication between the two of you in a sense that… Is there a role that you have to
take in which you have to translate technical terms to these people or they also familiar with
the digitalization that occurs in your department? Do you get what I mean?
M5: Within our company, we have quite similar situations within different parts of the
company. So, we don’t have much issues, I guess. But, technical terms, definitely, there are
some technical salespeople and so on, they need to really understand the technical issues.
That takes time, for sure. That takes time. But in general, let’s say that digitalization
practices are quite informed. At least, in our company, between technical departments and
non-technical departments.
MF: That’s interesting because I hear there some managers who have to take this role of
being able to translate, let’s say, what they have to relay to the business people and that is
interesting to see.
M5: Yeah, yeah.
MF: The next question; you touched upon it a little bit. Do you think that there are new or
different skills that are needed to adapt to the challenges that are brought by digitalization?
If there is, could you provide any examples or any situation in which you would have to have
in order for it to help you as a manager?
M5: You mean as any new skill or?
MF: Yeah, any new skill or a different skill since you have been there for a long time, I’m
pretty sure you have developed different skills as digitalization changes things; you have to
adapt and add new skills to cope with the changes. What are some of the examples that you
can give?
M5: Many of them came like… So, you know, like, what do they call it, ‘organic’ [Laughter]
MF: [Laughter] Right!
M5: I can’t really identify what they are, what the skills are. I mean, one of the things is the,
let’s say, learning to use different platforms, right? These hard skills that you learn, right?
There is one thing that came over time, right? New solutions come, new technologies come
and then you get used to it and you start learning it right? For example, like, 10 years ago
probably, our mobile phone is not so connected to our work and documents, right? Now,
your phone has access to everything, and you get to, yeah. It is a good thing and a bad thing
at the same time. What happens is that before, you are only working when you open up the
computer. But now, the behavior with your phone, you are always connected. Sometimes,
you are really tempted to check your mail or whatever. So, these kind of things like, you
know, number one, it’s like you try to be always present because… So that people can find
you always, right? And this ability, that, you need to learn. And at the same time, you also
need to learn how to not to really crazy about it because otherwise you will be working for
24 hours, right?
MF: Right, that is also a skill in itself to be able to see the limits, so you don’t include to much
of your work into your personal life.
M5: Yes, exactly! And how you keep your professional and personal life balanced.
MF: Is that normal… that balance is it a bit hard to configure?
M5: It can be a little bit hard sometimes, yes, yeah. I mean that is one effect of digitalization,
I guess. [Laughter] You know, I mean when you are working from remote, and sometimes,
let’s say when you wake up and you start working, that distinction needs to apply, right?
That can impact someone, right?
MF: Right. Do you feel that there is any, I’m pretty sure that you already mentioned you
work with people all over the world, Is there any cross-cultural competency that you might
need to have when you are talking with people in different countries? Let’s say, if you talk to
someone in Germany, they are straightforward and blunt and they don’t really… you know…
What I am trying to say, that skill in itself, where you have to adapt to different culture and
to be aware of their norms, their culture, have you developed that in that sense now with
digitalization?
M5: Yeah! Definitely! Let’s say, for example, Americans and Europeans are more like, they
make a distinction between professional life and the personal life and whereas the Asians
tempt to mix it. You learn it, because, if you have some people working in Asia, you need to
talk to them, or discuss things with them in a different way as to when you talk to an
European, right? So these things, you definitely to learn. You try to develop empathy for
people, you try to understand people, yeah. For sure, yeah. Sometimes, in some cultures,
you know… Like what you said, in some cultures, when you are reviewing your work and you
just tell them “Look! It’s not good and you need to redo it!”, right? Otherwise they will not
understand, and in some culture, you say, “there is room from improvement, you can
improve here, here and here,” and they understand that the work will demand
improvements. You need to learn, like, the language of different cultures. So, yeah. For
example, in some cultures, when things don’t go in the right way, you tell them directly,
“look, this is not what I expected, you’re not going anywhere!” And you know in some
culture, it might sound like it’s bullying. So, you have to adapt. But in Ericsson with have our
company value, “Respect, perseverance, and professionalism.” We say, respect everyone,
work hard and we keep professionalism. We are here to keep working regardless of the
cultural differences or the geographical distances or whatever.
MF: Right, I think you mention a little bit about the transparency in the relationship that you
have with employees because of digitalization, could you elaborate on that?
M5: With digitalization, people can find information at any time. People can actually learn a
lot of things now digitally. Also, regardless of whether people are not locating in an office,
there’s still the possibility to join meetings, to talk to someone. So, all of this provide a
renewed sense of informed. The people are informed. I have all the information, right? So,
these provide a better transparency, this provide a higher transparency, and this is what I
meant.
MF: Has that in any way… As employees can get really readily accessible information, they
can be very informed, very knowledgeable. Has that played a role in any way where
employees feel like they are above you, where they feel, “I know more than you. Therefore, I
will do things my way” As a manager, have you experienced that?
M5: Not definitely, there are people who has much more knowledge than us. Definitely,
there are people who are much more well-versed and so on, I have no doubt in it. But, I
mean, I haven’t, so far, seen that. I haven’t seen it so much. Maybe, I was lucky. [Laughter]
But I know that this issue exists here, yeah.
MF: Because one of the managers has an issue with that. His team was very high performing,
very knowledgeable but the trust that they have for their leaders, in that sense, for him as
manager wasn’t there. Therefore, it was hard for him as manager to run that team. He had
to develop, you know, outside of that technical and knowledgeable things that he can learn,
he instead develop interpersonal skills where he tries to, you know, learn the people, get to
know them better in order to be able to manage them better.
M5: Yeah! In Ericsson, we have a quite stable work culture. It has been in place for many
years. And that really maybe impacts people’s [inaudible], this gives a very balanced, yeah.
This gives a very balanced, what do you call it… work output. So, yeah. So, that’s why
maybe… the anomalies are there, definitely, but maybe not so… Or maybe at least the
people that I worked with is not so, you know… how do you say it? They are not so…
MF: Stubborn, or so, yeah, I get what you mean. They don’t feel like they are above other
people
M5: Yes, true, true.
MF: I think that was all of our questions. Is there anything you would like to add in regard to
digitalization and how it affects your practices and skills? Here, this question is more of a
critical thinking with digitalization, and how you as a manager perceive it, how it impacts
your practices and skills? Is there anything that we haven’t touched upon?
M5: The thing is, very important, is that if we want the teams to adopt something new and
so on, as leader, you as a manager has to adopt it. Whether you like it or not, you adopt it
first. And when they see that you are adopting and that you have adopted and that you are
okay with it, only then, you can push this change to other people. So, to me that is very
important.
MF: So, for you to embrace that change and you take the shoes on change and you really put
those shoes on and you really walk the change and other people will see and follow your
example, I guess.
M5: Yes, yes!
MF: Anything else you would like to add? Anything that we might not know of in terms of
digitalization?
M5: I think, at this moment, [laughter] that’s it. I mean, the one thing that I see now is that
many universities have also adopted this a lot of… Or universities, many education institutes,
we see that the… many undergraduate students are used to it, the digitalized practices,
right? And that really helps because when you get new employees at work, they are used to
it, to a lot of these practices, right? So, it is very good I think.
MF: So that’s different than before then I guess. I don’t think from when you study, you
don’t deal with a lot of things that you are doing now as a manager. You’re saying now that
anyone in the educational institute they sort of already doing things that are what managers
are doing with digitalization, sort of?
M5: Yes, yes. That is true.
MF: And in that sense, it is a lot easier for you, when new people are coming in, they are
already at a knowledgeable level?
M5: Yes! Exactly, exactly!
MF: So, that obviously, I would say helps you a lot, like you said when it comes to training
and other stuff. There is not really a lot of issues, there right?
M5: Yes, exactly.
MF: That is very interesting! So, there is nothing more you would like to add?
M5: No, I think we have covered it.
MF: Okay! Then I will stop the recording now.
M5: Yes, great.
[End of interview]
 Appendix G
Draft of the Follow-up Email for Email Interviews
Dear, [name of the managers]

Thank you very much for agreeing to participate in our thesis by doing the email interview.

As you have read in the previous email our thesis is about how digitalization impacts managerial
practices. Your participation in the interview is at the core of our study because you, as a manager,
give us your insight into how digitalization impacts your practices.

How your answers are going to be used

Your answers together with the answers of your colleagues will be used for analysis and viewed in the
context of previous studies to draw overall conclusions about the topic. The answers will be included
in the appendix of our thesis. Your name and email address will not be included in the thesis and will
not be accessible by anyone except us. Also, you can withdraw from participation at any time during
the process by simply notifying us.

Instructions for the participation:

● Open the attachment that contains the definitions of key terms (page 1) and interview
questions (page 2).
● Read the key definitions first, since they should give you a better understanding of what we
mean. You also can look at these definitions later, if you are uncertain about what a specific
question is referring to.
● Write your answers under each interview question directly in the document.
● Once you are done writing your answers, save them in the document. Then send us the
saved document as an attachment by replying to this email till the 8th of May.
Contact us at any time if you have questions or if you find something to be unclear.

We might contact you again to clarify some of your answers.

We are looking forward to reading your answers.

Sincerely,
Muhammad Faisal, Guanting Liu, and Helena Apine

Attachment to the email (as a word document)

[page 1] Definitions of Key Terms

The purpose of these definitions is to give you an understanding of what we mean by these
terms and they are directly related to the interview questions.
Digitalization is the use of digital technologies that have implications to everything from
business operations (research and development, production, sales, and distribution), to how
the organization is communicating with their stakeholders including customers and how
people within the organization are engaging in the activities that keep the business going.
Work-unit is the business level within which you belong to and/or are responsible for. For
example, the organization as a whole if you are part of top management; a business unit like
R&D or sales or department/division responsible for a specific product; or a team, for
example, consisting of people working on a specific project or product, if you are a project or
product manager.
Task-Oriented Practices (Q1) are those practices aimed at efficient use of organizational
resources, both labor and capital, to accomplish a task and maintain stable operations of the
business. It also involves decision making for planning such activities.
Relations-Oriented Practices (Q2) are meant for increasing the quality of human resources
and relations within the work unit. These practices are aimed at the people within your work
unit, specifically at supporting them in their tasks, developing them, recognizing their
activities, and empowering them.
Change-Oriented Practices (Q3) are aimed to improve the organization's innovation,
collective learning, and adaptation to the external environment and change. They include your
practices related to the initiation and encouragement of change and facilitation of the change
process at hand.
External Practices (Q4) are aimed at interaction with the external environment and other
work units within your organization by gathering information about outside events, getting
necessary resources and assistance, and promoting the reputation and interests of your work
unit.

[page 2] Please, write your answers under each interview question. Q6 is the last
question.
Interview Questions
Background Questions: How long have you been with the company and what is your current
position? How long have you been in this position?
Q1: How does digitalization affect the ways you accomplish your work?
Q2: How does digitalization affect the ways you manage people within your work unit?
Q3: How is digitalization affecting the ways you deal with change within your work unit?
Q4: How is digitalization affecting the ways you interact with the external environment of your
work unit? (For example, with other work units in the organization or with others outside of
the organization?)
Q5: Do you think that new or different skills are needed to adapt to the challenges brought up
by digitalization? Can you provide any examples of situations in which they would help you in
your capacity as a manager?
Q6: Would you like to add something else in regard to digitalization and how it affects your
practices and skills?

This was our last question. Thank you very much for your time and answers.

Please, save changes to this document and send it to us as an attachment to this

email address: mdhbachelorthesis@gmail.com till the 8th of May.
 Appendix H
Answers to the Email Interviews
Email Interview with Manager 6
Interviewee: Product Owner at Ericsson

Background Questions: How long have you been with the company and what is your current
position? How long have you been in this position?

I’ve started to work in Ericsson around 4 years ago (in May 2016). I started in Product Owner
role then it changed to Program Manager role, and now I’m called Product Owner again. The
most part of the work was the same, it was just changing the names of the roles.

This is my second time in Ericsson. I was a solution integrator from 2006 to 2008.

Q1: How does digitalization affect the ways you accomplish your work?

Not too much changed in the last some years and in the last some months since we are
affected by the corona virus. We are developing software which is not possible without
digitalization. I’m working together with many people all around the world (almost none of
them sitting in the same country as me), so it’s not possible to do the job without
digitalization. We always use Teams, Skype, mobile phone or e-mail for the communication
with each other. For the tasks we do, we have tools and software which are available from
any part of the world any time with our company computers.

It was the same around 2006, nothing changed.

Q2: How does digitalization affect the ways you manage people within your work unit?

It’s different and harder to communicate with people if you can’t do it at all personally and
face to face. I can’t see their faces, their gesture and their body language. It’s a little bit
better if we can use a camera for a Teams call for example, but it’s not the same as real face
to face discussions. This is one of the reasons why I do some travels every year to see as
many colleagues as possible at least several times in a year. Those short face to face
conversations could be very-very useful and effective to see their real feelings and reactions
to my thinking or expectations. If we can go to have some beers, that’s even better.

Because of the virus we can’t travel at all, this makes people management harder I feel. This
is the same with my boss, it would be better to talk to him face to face sometimes.

Q3: How is digitalization affecting the ways you deal with change within your work unit?
In our product development unit, there are a lot of changes ongoing. (e.g. some work goes
to other countries, some areas are growing others are dwinling) To make these kinds of
changes work, we usually need to organize lots of training and workshops. Usually it takes
very long time to organize all of them and to organize the lot of travels for them. (some
people don’t want to travel, some of them can’t for some reasons, ….) Nowadays we do
almost everything via Skype or Teams software, so no travel is needed, it makes our lives
easier. (and cheaper because we don’t have travel cost)

However these online trainings and workshops are not so effective sometimes, because
people are multitasking, so don’t focus totally on the traing or the worshop but do someting
(like writing e-mails) in paralel.

Q4: How is digitalization affecting the ways you interact with the external environment of your
work unit? (For example, with other work units in the organization or with others outside of
the organization?)

I’m working together with many people all around the world (almost none of them sitting in
the same country as me), so it’s not possible to do the job without digitalization. We always
use Teams, Skype, mobile phone or e-mail for the communication with each other.

Q5: Do you think that new or different skills are needed to adapt to the challenges brought up
by digitalization? Can you provide any examples of situations in which they would help you in
your capacity as a manager?

I think this is just normal adaptability, not more. Nowadays the word is changing very quickly,
this has never been so rapid, and the biggest reason of it I think is digitalization. Adaptability
is the key. Because of the quick changes it can easily happen that our knowledge suddenly
becomes worthless, then we need to adopt and learn new things and solve new problems. It
can be very hard especially for older colleagues, but not only for them. I usually give them
positive feedback and tell them they can do it. Age is just a number, it doesn’t mean that they
can’t do all the things younger colleagues can do.

Q6: Would you like to add something else in regard to digitalization and how it affects your
practices and skills?

Digitalization is not new for me at all and it is essential part of my daily work, I feel the
disadvantages of it every day, especially now when everyone is working from home because
of the corona virus. It’s not the same as be with people in the office. It’s much harder to feel
their mood and emotions via Skype or Teams, but this is this the most valuable part, I mean
people. All I have is the result of their work. I’m trying to have as many discussions as
possible (unofficial one also) with all of my colleagues, it helps a bit.
This was our last question. Thank you very much for your time and answers.

Email Interview with Manager 7

Interviewee: Acting Head of Environment Evolution at Ericsson

Background Questions: How long have you been with the company and what is your current
position? How long have you been in this position?

22 years. I am the Acting Head of Environment Evolution. This department is part of a

Product Development Unit. And yes, the focus of our department is on evolving the
environment we work in

Q1: How does digitalization affect the ways you accomplish your work?

It provides many more avenues for communication and interaction. It speeds things up
everything we do and offers more options for analysis of our progress and our quality.

The tools for financial models, tracking equipment have really improved our ability to control
our costs and track our global operation’s HW and tools. It allows teams on many different
sites access to the same information, so we are all on the same page.

It has also allowed us to have better, faster and easier/simpler tools and channels to deliver
our products to our customer.

Q2: How does digitalization affect the ways you manage people within your work unit?

In the current covid-19 situation, it really allows for effective meetings and one to one sync
meetings that cannot happen in person. I even have one team that has a virtual fika every
afternoon for 15 minutes, just to keep up their team spirit and connection – this is a daily
coffee break with video and social chat - NO work discussion for those 15 minutes. This is
making a good difference with that team.

Another value of digitalization is in the many different types of opportunities for learning
new skills, from virtual workshops, web-based training, online interactive classrooms,
interactive training sessions, etc. It is really offering a plethora of ways to learn new things.
And in this fast changing world, we need to continue to keep up with new technology to stay
in the lead.

Q3: How is digitalization affecting the ways you deal with change within your work unit?

I believe it is a strong influence in the changes we are making as well as a strong tool for
driving the changes needed.
Q4: How is digitalization affecting the ways you interact with the external environment of your
work unit? (For example, with other work units in the organization or with others outside of
the organization?)

It makes working with units in other timezones much simpler and allows for virtual “face to
face” meetings.

Q5: Do you think that new or different skills are needed to adapt to the challenges brought up
by digitalization? Can you provide any examples of situations in which they would help you in
your capacity as a manager?

I think that an open mind is needed to adapt, not necessarily new skills. A way of looking at
the many possibilities that digitalization can offer and thinking about how you could use it to
find a better way to solve your problem.

Q6: Would you like to add something else in regard to digitalization and how it affects your
practices and skills?

This was our last question. Thank you very much for your time and answers.

Email Interview with Manager 8

Interviewee: Project manager at Ericsson

Background Questions: How long have you been with the company and what is your current
position? How long have you been in this position?

26 years, project manager, 2 months in current position

Q1: How does digitalization affect the ways you accomplish your work?

Many things/tasks can be made much faster, however the workload is higher as well

Q2: How does digitalization affect the ways you manage people within your work unit?

People can be reached on many new channels (email, skype, MS teams, etc)

Q3: How is digitalization affecting the ways you deal with change within your work unit?

The new electronic communication channels are less important for change management as I
prefer direct personal, face-2-face discussions regarding major changes.
Q4: How is digitalization affecting the ways you interact with the external environment of your
work unit? (For example, with other work units in the organization or with others outside of
the organization?)

The new electronic communication channels help to keep in touch with them, share
information in more efficient way.

Q5: Do you think that new or different skills are needed to adapt to the challenges brought up
by digitalization? Can you provide any examples of situations in which they would help you in
your capacity as a manager?

When you can work from practically anywhere/anytime it’s harder to separate work and
private life. New skills are needed to manage work-life balance.

Q6: Would you like to add something else in regard to digitalization and how it affects your
practices and skills?

Since the available information is endless, special skills are needed or are to be developed to
structure the info and be able to focus on the relevant and important.

This was our last question. Thank you very much for your time and answers.
 Appendix I
Themes, Sub-Themes, Codes and Their Original Items
Original
Themes Sub-Themes Codes No.
Items
Work and Shrinking *Digitalization helps in facing covid-19 situation/*Covid-19 situation 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8 1
Communication the Impact *Use of digital tools is an integral part of work nowadays (COVID-19,
in Digital of Physical stakeholders all over the world) 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8 2
Environment Distance *The specific work (e.g. software development) is not possible without
digitalization 6 3
*Sometimes using different devices at the same time/*Working from
different devices is the new norm/*Working from different
devices/*Physical location does not matter if there is access to some
device (mobile phone, laptop, tablet) 2,5 4
*Digitalization is shrinking the physical distance/*Digitalization allows
flexibility in regards to physical location/*Does not matter where the
managers are located (physical location do not matter anymore) 2,4,5 5
*Digitalization reduces the physical distance by allowing people to
work together and interact from different physical
locations/*Digitalization makes it possible to communicate with and
manage people within different time zones (different
locations)/*Digitalization lets managers communicate and work with
teams no matter of the physical location they are located (No way that
the company that has many stakeholders all over the world can work
without digitalization)/*It is not possible to accomplish the job and
communicate with people from different geographical locations
without digitalization (The manager work with people all around the
world through digitalization) 1,2,4,5,6 6
*Digitalization helps with Distance working, network working, remote
working, communication, sharing of data, documentation 1 7
*The fact that partner companies are using digital tool helps to
communicate and accomplish tasks in a digital environment 5 8
*For now, digitalization helps to focus on interactions with people and
making such interactions much easier. 2 9
*Digitalization allows staying in touch with people 5 10
*Reduction in need for travel helps to reduce stress levels in people 5 11
*Digitalization reduces costs for having facilities and personal to run
those facilities in different locations (digitalization allows to scale
operations without a large investment in capital and human resources) 5 12
*Digitalization enables to run a project with people from different
locations/*Makes working with people from different geographical
locations much easier/*Digitalization and digital tools enable working
with people in different countries/*Digital tools available to work on
tasks with people from different geographical locations/*Using tools
that allow collaboration between different people involved located in
different parts of the world 1,3,5,6,7 13
*Work in not tied to physical location/*The team does not need to be
physically there where the lab that they are running is. (Can work
remotely) (Technical team do not necessary to go to the lab physically) 4,5 14
*Digitalization allows working from anywhere at any
time/*Digitalization allows to work from anywhere at any time 6,8 15
*Balance between work and private life needs to be found (because
digitalization allows working from anywhere and at any
time)/*Workday starts at the breakfast table (maybe work-life
balance)/*Finding the balance between pressure to be always
connected and to not work all the time (work-life balance)/*Because
you can work from different devices the boundaries where the work
starts and where it ends starts to disappear 2,5,8 16
*The way they communicate has changed and is still changing due to
the digitalization/*Phone calls, online conferences, and meetings used
to be without video due to the limitations of the technology/*Shift
from mainly email-based communication tools to others like social
media, Microsoft teams, skype, chatrooms, etc. 2 17
*New digital communication technologies are adapted when they
seem to be more efficient than the previous ones 4 18
*Some features of the communication tools are gone because they are
not needed anymore 2 19
*The communication tools are much more user friendly than they used
to be (mentioned 2 times) 2 20
*Digitalization provides more ways for communication and
interaction/*Use of many digital tools to communicate with people 7,8 21
*Use of digital tools for communication with people from different
locations/*Much communication is done in the digital environment
(Especially in a large organization like Ericsson) 4,6 22
*New digital communication tools help to communicate more easily
and efficiently (fast and productive conversations) within the
organization (even with people in different geographical location) 4 23
*Use of digital tools for communication with people from different
locations/*Much communication is done in a digital environment
(Especially in a large organization like Ericsson) 4,6 24
*Digitalization and digital tools make it more efficient to communicate
with people (even saves time communicating with people within the
same building) 3 25
*New digital communication tools help to communicate more easily
and efficiently (fast and productive conversations) within the
organization (even with people in different geographical location) 4 26
 *Use of digital communication tools makes it easier to book meetings
with everyone at any time (no more being bound to availability of a
conference room) 4 27
*Digitalization provides tools that make communication with
stakeholders easier, much faster and much more efficient/*Digital
tools help to communicate with internal and external
stakeholders/*Reliance on the ability to reach stakeholders seamlessly 2,8 28
*Digitalization could be one factor that makes communication with
stakeholder much less formal (other is changing
leadership/management culture) 2 29
*Communication cycle is short i.e. communication happens fast
(maybe expected to respond fast) 1 30
*Challenge organizing communication between time zones 2,4 31
Challenges *Still in the exploration phase of adapting to digital work environment
/*Performance in the digital work environment is not better at the
moment because they are at the beginning phase of adapting to this
environment 3 32
*The full potential for the use of the new digital tools as alternatives
for physical tools (e.g. whiteboard) has not been reached 3 33
*Takes a time to get used to the new ways of interaction in the digital
environment for them to have a similar effect as interactions in the
physical environment 3 34
*Need to be open to a creative way to interact in the digital
environment as it is done in the physical environment 3 35
*The combination of both physical and digital interactions is needed. 3 36
*Having no alternative to digital meetings is harder than if there would
be physical meetings as well 3 37
*The digital tools are not what makes the interaction with people
more difficult, it is how they are used so far 3 38
*Face-to-face communication is decreasing 2 39
*Physical face-to-face communication is needed 6 40
*Some people want to have face-to-face interaction 3 41
*Digitalization allows people that are not comfortable with face-to-
face communication to express themselves in the digital environment 4 42
*Some people need to have human contact when working 3 43
*Managing virtual meeting is harder than face-to-face meetings (or at
least different) 1 44
*Disadvantages of working only in the digital environment (lack of
understanding their mood and emotions)/*It is harder to
communicate in the digital environment because of lack of non-verbal
cues/*The communication within the digital environment is lacking
some aspects that communication in the physical environment has
(reading people) 2,6 45
*Working in the digital environment makes things more impersonal
(no possibility for unofficial meetings and small chats in the
corridors)/*Working only in the digital environment makes work more
impersonal (all that is available is the results of people's work) 3,6 46
*Working only in digital environment lacks possibility for informal
communication 6 47
*Having quick interactions to discuss an idea is harder in the digital
environment (decreases performance) 3 48
*Communication in the digital environment is creating a distance
between people (loss of contact) that makes it more difficult to read
and manage people 2 49
*Hard to get to know people and build trust on a personal level when
working only in a digital environment 3 50
*It seems not to be possible to build trust only with digital tools 3 51
*Digital tools cannot replace a part of relationship building (such as
building trust, dealing with mistakes, getting to know each other on a
personal level) 3 52
*Building team spirit requires physical contact 3 53
*Employees to invest their time and knowledge they need to be
supported, engaged, recognized, inspired and have a sense of purpose
which is made harder by just working in a digital environment 3 54
*Need to adapt how meetings are set up and how to talk to people
that need face-to-face interactions and people that are not used to
digital tools 3 55
*Trying to leverage disadvantage of working only in digital
environments by having more formal and informal interactions 6 56
*Using video in online meetings helps to balance lack of physical
meetings but video meetings are still lacking some aspects of physical
ones/*Use of video calls are increasing due to the COVID-19 that limits
physical meetings/*Video calls used to minimize the lack aspects of
face-to-face discussions but still not the same 2,6,7 57
*To monitor progress and assist people in their work tasks when
working only in a digital environment, frequent online meetings are
held 4 58
*Digitalization provides possibilities for informal meetings (e.g. virtual
Fika) that helps with the relationships in the team 7 59
*Cannot implement change by just dropping an email 5 60
*Digital tools are not that useful for change management because
face-to-face discussions are preferred for implementing major change 8 61
*Meetings where people are bonding and talking and spreading the
idea that the change is needed 5 62
*By using only digital tools is hard to establish relationships with key
people when implementing change (because it is done mainly through
informal meetings) 3 63
*Trust between the manager and the team is important to persuade
people to implement change 5 64
*There used to be regular physical meetings with people involved in
the decision-making 2 65
*Decisions are made differently as a result of changing ways of
communication 2 66
*The decision-making process is more asynchronous 2 67
*Digitalization disrupts decision-making process (the informal stage
before the decision is made is difficult to do in a digital environment) 3 68
*Discussions for making decisions about planning and setting goals are
difficult to facilitate in digital meetings 3 69
*Having a structure around making difficult decisions and making it
visible to other people involved is easier when people are in the same
physical environment. 3 70
*In digital environment lack of physical tools (like a whiteboard) makes
it harder to communicate 3 71
*Need to use the resources gained from the digitalization to balance
the negative effects of digitalization (The change can be managed
faster and more efficiently due to digitalization and this gain needs to
be reinvested in managing people through change and helping them to
perform better that got more difficult due to digitalization) 2 72
*Important to be aware and conscious of the limitations and
constraints that the digitalization has on change management 2 73
*Getting more personal and actively seeking a dialog with people
might help to minimize the negative effects on how people are
managed through change 74
*Distance work makes the working environment more global and
global brings more culture different 1 75
*Managers require more knowledge to deal with the global working
environment brought by digitalization 1 76
*Need to learn to adapt to a different culture when working with
people from different regions 5 77
 *Once they are adapted to using digital tools, it will help to establish
relationships, make difficult decisions together and enable change
management 3 78
Learning and Need for it *Need to learn the new tools 2 79
Training *New terminology is used and needs to be learned 2 80
*People learn to use new technology as it comes available 5 81
*It is important to keep learning and keep up to date with all the rapid
changes happening in the organization and outside of it 2 82
*There is a need to be able to adapt to and learn new things due to
rapidly changing environment (Digitalization is seen as the biggest
factor for rapid changes in the world (environment)) 6 83
*Because of the rapid speed of changes the current knowledge can
become absolute (Digitalization is seen as the biggest factor for rapid
changes in the world (environment)) 6 84
*In order to continue the work, training is always needed 4 85
*The need for training is decided in annual performance meetings with
managers and employees 4 86
*The company encourages the employee to take a course to learn new
knowledge. 4 87
*Need to work with wider network/different departments of people
within the organization 2 88
*The need to have the “big picture” of what is happening around you
instead of just the direct area of work 2 89
*To deal with working with people from outside of your field of
expertise, it is important to learn about them, how they work and
think (also to work with them effectively) 8 90
*Giving positive feedback and encouragement to colleagues that
struggle with adaptation and learning new things (things brought up by
digitalization) 6 91
 *It is much easier if the new employees have gotten used to using 5 164
digital practices before starting to work (e.g. while in university)
Online *Remote education has been widely using compare than before 4 92
Training *The remote training has advanced (courses are not only video
records, but also online interactive teaching) 4 93
*Skills development and training for people are enabled by
digitalization/*Digitalization allows many ways to organize training and
learning in digital environment/*Online training is also an
option/*Both web-based training and physical training exist/*Training
is common and can happen online/*More online training is available 1,4,6,7 94
*Organizing and having training in a digital environment is easier for all
parties involved 6 95
*Having training in digital environment reduces travel costs 6 96
*Training in the digital environment sometimes are not as effective
because people are doing other things at the same time 6 97
Information General *A drastic change in availability of the information from the
and Data environment outside of the organization (amount and sources are
increasing, it's available in smaller chunks, much easier to consume) 2 98
*It is possible to have only the relevant information 2 99
*There is an expectation of being overall informed about the outside
environment 2 100
*The way information/data is retrieved and handled has changed 2 101
*Decisions are based on data and outcomes of its analysis 2 102
*Digital tools help to analyze information/*Data analysis is supported
by new tools 1,2 103
Availability *Data and situation analysis used to be communicated by spoken
words 2 104
*No need for meetings to share the information 2 105
*It gets more difficult to manage people through change because of
lack of interaction when sharing the information 2 106
*Risk of just sharing information without helping people to get
through the change 2 107
*Need to make sure that resources are accessible to anyone 5 108
*Availability of information about historic dictions and quality of
communication with people is important 1 109
*Digitalization let teams share same information (The same
information is accessible for everyone in the organization no matter of
their physical location) 1,2,3,5,7,8 110
*Allows connectivity of people and resources 5 111
*Digitalization allows the resources to be shared between various
physical locations 5 112
*Digital tools help to share information with internal and external
stakeholders 8 113
*Allows organizing who has access to what information (just Ericsson
employees or just customers) while having a system that allows the
information available to everyone that needs it 1 114
*The necessary information (as a resource) is available to people that
need it/*Information is available to everyone/*Information/data is
much easier to access (availability of the information/data within the
organization has increased) 2,5 115
*Availability of data allows to ask questions and have answers 4 116
*There used to be order and hierarchy to the decision-making process 2 117
*The information gathering, and decision-making used to be
synchronized and ordered for the meetings 2 118
 *The information (facts, analysis, etc.) for decision-making is made
available to everyone/*Use of one channel in the organization to make
information for decision-making available to everyone who needs
it/*Information for decision-making and planning budgets is available
to everyone that’s involved in it (an information-sharing system helps
in making decisions about planning and setting budgets)/*Data and
information for decision making is made available by digital tools 1,2 119
Amount *More information helps to have more meaningful and better reports 1 120
*A lot of information that needs to be collected 1 121
*More information/data sources (from within the organization) are
available 2 122
*Amount of data is increasing/*Need to deal with a lot more
information&data/*The amount of information that needs to be
monitored increases./*Huge amount of data is available, collected and
needs to be analysed/*Amount of information is endless 2,4,8 123
*Challenge of coping with the amount of information from the outside
environment 2 124
*Potential for an overload of the information 2 125
*Managing yourself to not get overwhelmed by the amount of
information 2 126
*Need to understand the information/data outside of their field of
expertise 2 127
*The amount of information available has increased but for it to be
useful it needs to be organized/*There is a need to structure and
understand which information is important due to the huge amount of
it 4,8 128
*It takes a lot of time to analyze the information due to the amount of
it available/*Could take longer to prepare data and structure
information 1,4 129
Other Effects of Changing *The leadership position within the organization is not stable
Digitalization Role of anymore. 2 130
Managers *The how people are managed within the organization is changing in
parallel to digitalization (specifically empowerment of frontline
people) 2 131
*Digitalization is a factor that shifts the emphasis on leading people
not managing them and leadership/management role is much less
formal 2 132
*Digitalization helps to facilitate the empowerment of frontline people 2 133
Managing *more options for analysis of progress and quality 7 134
Performance *Digitalization is the way to go for performance 3 135
*Estimated increase in performance once the adaptation to the digital
tools is done 3 136
*Use of digital tools for monitoring performance depends on the job
that is done/*Use of digital tools to monitor people
performance/*Using data analysis to track managers and employees’
performance 1 137
*Much easier to gather data and create reports on people's
performance for performance reviews 1 138
Goal setting and monitoring progress, making sure that resources are
available for peoples work, having regular progress assessment, are
done remotely by using digital tools 5 139
*Using digital tools to minimize the burden of administrative work for
front line people (programmers) (increases productivity, efficiency,
and quality of work) (The digital system reduces the amount of work in
administration. It saves managers and employees time and makes
work more efficient) 1 140
*Digital tools improve controlling of costs 6,7 141
*Digital tools improve monitoring of global operations 7 142
*A database is built to guide the budget-making 1 143
 *Provides better, faster, easier tools and channels for delivering
products to customers 7 144
*Use of digital tools to organize problem-solving for clients 4 145
*Digitalization has a lot of benefits for the organization (e.g. better
efficiency, higher productivity, a better quality of work), however, it
must be approached carefully 1 146
Rapidity and *Quote: “The speed of change will never be as slow as today.” 2 147
Speed *Digitalization speeds up work 7 148
*Tame gained from using digital tools for performing some tasks
allows to use that time for other tasks/*An assumption exists that we
can do things much faster./*Work can be accomplished
faster/*Workload got bigger 1,2,8 149
*An assumption exists that the communication and information
sharing and spreading is getting faster and more efficient and can be
done over distance. 2 150
*The thinking that we can do things much faster is challenged by
showing that it has a negative effect on how they deal with the
change. 2 151
*Becoming less thorough in managing people through change due to
the speed 2 152
*Continuous need to keep up with the new technologies to stay in lead
in a fast-changing world 7 153
*Danger for people to not cope with the speed that the digitalization
introduces and a need to balance that 2 154
How *Ability to adapt is crucial (Managers need to improve their adaptation
Managers skills.) 1 155
are Coping? *Takes more effort to adapt to requirement brought by digitalization 1 156
*Open mind and adaptability is needed to see how digitalization can
help to solve problems in a better way 7 157
*Loss of the order in the process 2 158
 *Challenge to keep yourself organized 2 159
*The need to manage and organize your own schedule and make a
structure for your own work is much more important/*Need to have a
structure for yourself (time and task management)/*Need to build
your own order an structure (find a new order/structure) 1,2 160
*Need to prioritize a lot to distinguish what is important and what is
not (e.g. because of the influx of emails and chats) 1 161
*Managing the potential of being overwhelmed with all the new things
that digitalization enables us to do 2 162
*Increasing challenge to find a balance between the main role
(engineer) and the new tasks/roles that digitalization brings 2 163
Miscellaneous *Not too many changes 6 165
*People are the most important part 6 166
*Danger in the future to lose the need to interact and work with
people to learn and achieve new things 2 167
* The First step to adapting something new in the teams is that leaders
need to adapt it first. 5 168
*Digitalization is a strong influence on changes being
made/*Digitalization affects the way how the organization is being
changed/*Digitalization is a strong tool for driving needed
changes/*Sometimes changes are coming from the availability of new
and/or more productive/efficient technology. 1,2,7 169