This is a qualitative study aimed at examining the perspectives on leadership development among managers who lead employees in low-wage occupations, the methods and forms they use to develop their leadership skills, and how complex their conceptualization of the term leadership development is. We, Henrik Ingelström and Andjela Mihic, conducted this study as a thesis project for the Master's program in Leadership at University West, spring term 2024. The background is that the difficulties in recruiting employees in low-wage occupations have strategic significance for many socially important functions, and leadership is a key factor.

Research indicates that leaders often conceptualize leadership development solely as leader development, rarely including the broader organizational aspects that could be part of the leadership development concept. Research has described forms of leadership development that can be categorized into developmental relationships, challenging job assignments, feedback, training, and self-development. It has also been shown that experience accounts for 70 percent of all leadership development, and that there are particular conditions for leadership in low wage occupations.To achieve the study's aim, a hermeneutic approach was adopted during the analysis phase. We maintained a reflexive attitude toward the collected material, giving substantial space to both the respondents' answers and our interpretations of them. The selection of respondents was a strategic convenience sample. Fifteen respondents, who are managers of employees in occupations belonging to the lowest-paid decile during 2014-2022, participated in semistructured interviews. The empirical data were handled using a thematic approach where the responses were first categorized under the methods of developmental relationships, challenging job assignments, feedback, training, and self-development. Then, thematic similarities in the responses within each method were sought.

It turned out that the general complexity in the level of conceptualization is low among managers, although individual exceptions occur. Relationships with employees, feedback from them, the ability to perform their jobs, managerial experience, and training are important for leadership development. It is more crucial to understand leadership in diversity, among younger individuals, and those with low education levels than to group them by wage level, even though these often involve the same individuals. Managers of employees in low-wage occupations do not seem to spend time on norm-critical thinking and often feel isolated in their roles.The limited number of participants and the qualitative approach of the study make the significance of the study's results limited. However, if the results we have reached apply generally to managers of employees in low-wage occupations, there should be good reasons todevelop better methods and forms for leadership development. Leaders' leadership likely doesnot positively influence recruitment to low-wage occupations at a societal level, but at anorganizational level, an organization that succeeds in developing good and effective leaders should have an advantage in situations where there is high competition for labor.