The purpose of this thesis is to examine how young employees 20-30 years of age become motivated, when the contact in professional relations is challenged. COVID-19 has created a new reality, where most organizations have had to send home their employees. This has caused some difficulties, which include a lack of motivation while working from home. Initially this thesis takes its point in the study of young employees and motivation. Through a literature review, we have identified a knowledge gap as there is a lack of research based on the young employees’ own perspective. Therefore, this thesis examines this perspective in collaboration with four young employees from the multinational company Danfoss. Based on this knowledge we strive to add new perspectives to the research field. The primary empirical foundation is based on four individual interviews with young employees aged 20-30 from Danfoss. The individual interviews are analyzed through a qualitative content analysis, where we identify a number of themes based on the interviewee’s utterances. We support these utterances with our secondary empirical foundation, which is a more generalizing questionnaire survey with 215 replies. We use both the qualitative and quantitative method with the aim of gaining a comprehensive understanding of our academic problem. The abovementioned academic problem and data are based on a social constructivist and hermeneutic approach containing several theories all aiming to contribute to the solution of our identified academic problem. The overall structure for this thesis follows the steps of Ronald Scollon and Suzanne Scollon’s (2004) Nexus Analysis and its three main activities, which are Engaging, Navigating and Changing. These are used as a theoretical and methodological frame-
work for the thesis. In the main activity of Engaging, we identify the social actions and social actors, which are pertinent for the academic problem. With the main activity of Navigating, we map and organize the data from the four individual interviews and the questionnaire survey. Based on these two activities, we lastly move on to the main activity of Changing, where we identify the influence of our analysis has or can have on the analyzed field. Throughout the thesis we incorporate theory about individualization, which takes its point in Anthony Giddens and Zygmunt Bauman. In addition, we include theories about distance management and finally theories about motivation on the basis of Edward L. Deci and Richard M. Ryan, Axel Honneth and George Simmel. On the basis of our investigation, we conclude that there are different perspectives on how young employees get motivated. However, we also identify a number of common denominators that can help strengthen the motivation of young employees. Firstly, sociability and social communities strengthen motivation, as individuals can achieve recognition, social appreciation and personal development. Furthermore, motivation depends on autonomy, the experience of competencies and relations in social communities. Secondly, we conclude that it is an advantageous motivating factor to digitize sociability, as this will reduce the employees’ feeling of being isolated. In continuation of this, we conclude that organizations should onboard their employees to home offices. In addition to this, mentorships can help motivate young employees as the mentors can act as role models that clarify what is expected while working from home.

We hope that this thesis will contribute to this field of research and help organizations take care of and focus on motivation in relation to young employees while working from home.