Att leda och kommunicera under en digital transformation : En studie om förändringsledning och förändringskommunikation inom en M&A-organisation som genomgår digital transformation i ett tidigt skede

Sammanfattning: Merger and Acquisition (M&A) is a widely adopted strategy in today's corporate landscape for acquiring a competitive edge. Despite its prevalence, M&As frequently encounter setbacks when the integration of existing IT systems is neglected. Therefore, undertaking a digital transformation becomes crucial to ensure the success of M&As. As a result of the merge, digital transformation brings about a significant shift in the way employees work, necessitating their acceptance and adaptation to the change for the transformation to be successful. This research investigates this phenomenon by conducting a case study on a recently merged organization consisting of five countries that employs digital transformation to create a cohesive work environment. From a leadership and communication perspective, this study explores soft factors that, in an early stage, can aggravate a digital transformation in a merged organization according to employees individual understanding and point of view. Specifically, the study identifies soft factors in the early stages that could aggravate the execution of the digital transformation and investigates how management and communication can address the soft factors. The study involved conducting 17 interviews with employees within the chosen organization. The data was analyzed using an analytical framework that was created by the authors called "Three Aspects During a Change Process at an Early Stage". The study identified 12 factors in the shape of soft values that could make the execution of the digital transformation more difficult and demonstrated that these factors can be addressed using the "Three Aspects During a Change Process at an Early Stage" analytical framework from a management and communication perspective.