NEW ENTERPRISE RESOURCE PLANNING IMPLEMENTATION IN THE SWEDISH LANDSCAPE : An explorative study of employees’ perspectives on Organizational Support and its barriers

Abstract: Date: 2024-01-04 Level: Bachelor thesis in Business Administration, 15 cr Institution: School of Business, Society and Engineering, Mälardalen University  Authors: Andoni Saval Sanchez Rafael Reis Siribeli  Title: New Enterprise Resource Planning Implementation in the Swedish Landscape.  Supervisor: Emre Yildiz  Keywords: Organization Support, Organizational Inertia, Enterprise Resource Planning, Information Systems  Research question: What are the primary organizational support actions that employees from different firms in Sweden claim to impact the most when adopting new technologies?  Purpose: The purpose is to explore how organizational support actions affect employees' adoption of Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems in Sweden, analyzing their adaptation, behavioral intentions and firm’s actions, and providing recommendations for firms in the edge of implementing such systems.  Method: Qualitive research by using semi-structured interviews and Thematic Analysis.  Conclusion: The study was conducted by collecting primary data in two organizations located in Sweden who had recently experienced an ERP system implementation, guided by literature on Organizational Inertia and Organizational Support theories with a strong focus in employee perceptions. A thematic analysis of the data resulted in the following findings, 7 primary organizational support actions and 8 barriers were identified within 7 employees in the 2 firms. These were, in terms of Organizational Support, Teamwork, Words of Appreciation, Open Communication, Recognition, Trust and Honesty, Hyper Care Workshops with Stakeholders, and Roles and Responsibility. In term of barriers, Language, Time Constraint, Gap of Knowledge of Own Operations, Lack of Knowledge Transfer, Lack of Clarity in Roles, Unpreparedness, Lack of Human Resources, and Underwhelming Contractors. The authors hope these results can function as an aid to organizations experiencing a technological transformation and shade some light to the struggles employees face in the process.