COVID-19 AND ITS IMPACT ON A RAPID DIGITAL IMPLEMENTATION : An employee’s insight of a company without the prior infrastructure

Sammanfattning: The COVID-19 pandemic impacted many around the world, some more than others, having socioeconomic impacts around the globe. Due to its rapid spread many countries implemented restrictions, such as quarantines to uphold social distancing between its citizens. In addition, the coronavirus has not only affected people’s way of life but also many companies’ financial health worldwide. This pandemic’s side effects has resulted in increased digital transformation, causing many companies without the required infrastructure to rapidly implement mechanism and strategies to handle this type of work style. This studies aim is to give an insight in employee’s experiences and reactions to a rapid digital implementation, in a company without the infrastructure in place. With the help of an inductive approach and a multi level framework, four themes emerged from the interviews conducted ImplementationConsequences, Organizational Support, Expectations of Digital Implementation and Work-related Differences. The results showed that there is a discrepancy between the necessary factors for a successful implementation, highlighted in the model used and the respondent’s answers. Linked to this was the gender differences, a new factor arising from the data collected, emphasising the difficulties linked to teleworking but affecting a proactive use of digital tools, and hence lowering the work productivity. Even though there were differences, there were also parables showing that acceptance, attitude, and involvement in the implementation, among other factors are crucial for an openness towards digitalization. Finally, these factors and their relationship with digital implementation as well as the pandemic were explored trough a multi level framework.