Att verka utan att ses: En studie av vilka möjligheter och utmaningar distans- och hybridarbete innebär för ledarrollen
2021 (Swedish)Independent thesis Advanced level (degree of Master (One Year)), 10 credits / 15 HE credits
Student thesisAlternative title
To act without interaction? (English)
Abstract [en]
The traditional workplace – working nine to five in an office, has been challenged due to the technological advancements which allows people to work remotely or with flexible working hours. These challenges have become the concept of the “New Ways of Working” (NWW) and are used to denominate the possibilities that has raised thanks to the digital revolution. The Covid-19 pandemic forced many companies to move their employees to work entirely remote and today many companies are asking, what will happen when people start to return to the office? There is a future, not far from now, where employees will return to their workplaces, but having experienced the NWW, there may be a request or even a demand for companies to provide employees with the option to combine the options of telework or flexible working hours with the possibility to work from the physical workplace, which in this study is called Hybrid Work. This study aims to contribute with an understanding of how a situation of hybrid work will affect the leadership role and its advantages and/or challenges. The study is conducted at a major bank in Sweden and the data is collected with the participation of 19 leaders. The study uses a qualitative method with semi structured interviews and the analysis is made by a thematic analysis. The data has been analysed and thematically divided into the leaders’ perspective on how a hybrid work situation will affect the bank, the leadership’s behaviours in relation to change, relations and task-orientation based on Yukl’s (2012) study of effectiveness of the leadership. The results are presented in relation to hybrid work and the context where leaders expressed their view of the benefits and obstacles for the bank if the bank decide to implement a hybrid work culture. These results are presented based on the connection between the leader’s view of current situation with distance work, a future scenario of hybrid work and how it may affect them in relation to the change-, relation and task-orientation. Our main finding is that some leaders sees both improved group cohesiveness and find themselves with better structure and a more involving approach in a telework context. Leaders alsosee possibilities for improved recruitment, due to blurred geographical boundaries. The involvement of the employees in a change process to hybrid work is especially important to achieve a successful result. They value honest and transparent communications as a tool in this process. Overall leaders express that their employees show lower levels of stress thanks to the teleworking but emphasize the importance to have physical meetings on an average every 14th day in a hybrid work scenario. In addition, leaders find that leading and distribution of work-tasks are being more dependent of clarity and structure, but overall,the “Performance Development process” is their main steering tool. However, at a daily basis the leaders experience an increased need to participate in meetings and use other forms of communication which some explain as a lack of understanding where the leaders and the employee’s mandate limits. The analysis is that a situation of hybrid work may benefit the bank, but the leader role will be affected and therefore it is important for the organization to provide the leaders with the necessary support to both lead digital and physical.
Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
2021. , p. 77
Keywords [en]
Hybrid work, new ways of working, leadership behaviours, task-oriented, relationsoriented, change-oriented.
National Category
Business Administration
Identifiers
URN: urn:nbn:se:hv:diva-16750Local ID: EXF610OAI: oai:DiVA.org:hv-16750DiVA, id: diva2:1581290
Subject / course
Business administration
Educational program
Magisterprogram i ledarskap
Supervisors
Examiners
2021-07-212021-07-202021-07-21Bibliographically approved