As hybrid work has become a more common way of working, the practical application of leadership to promote motivation and performance has changed. The purpose of the study is to investigate different leadership styles and how these different styles affect employee motivation and performance in a hybrid work environment, as well as how motivation functions as a contributing factor to performance. The theoretical framework is based on Self-Determination Theory as the choice of motivation theory and three different leadership theories where transformative, transactional and situational leadership are used as the choice of theories.

The study uses a qualitative research approach with ten semi-structured interviews with both managers and employees from different industries. The analysis of these ten semi-structured interviews was conducted using a thematic analysis that focuses on finding connections between leadership, motivation and performance in a hybrid work environment.

The results showed that transformational and situational leadership has a greater positive impact on employee motivation and performance compared to transactional leadership in a hybrid work environment that reduces physical presence among individuals. Furthermore, the results also explained that motivation is highly dependent on the satisfaction of the psychological needs from the SDT theory, which were autonomy, competence and relatedness, where a lack of satisfaction of any need leads to reduced motivation and performance. The three psychological needs work together to create motivation, where it does not work to only satisfy one of the needs. Hybrid work functioned as a factor that can both strengthen or weaken the connections depending on how the application of leadership works in a hybrid work environment. Finally, it turned out that leadership in a hybrid work environment requires a form of awareness, communication and freedom for employees to have a positive impact on employee motivation.