The purpose of this dissertation was to evaluate the Emerging Leaders series, a leadership and management training curriculum offered by NFP, an international broker-dealer organization with over 6,000 employees. Previous learners were contacted and asked to participate in a course reflection survey and follow-up semi-structured interviews to evaluate the training program. The instructional design team and company leadership were also approached for semi-structured interviews. The questions in the survey and interviews sought to get the participants’ opinions on the Emerging Leaders training program. Participants were asked if they viewed the program as a successful training series, asked about the content taught within the program, identified gaps in the content, and provided suggestions for improving the series. The final output was a list of recommendations for improving the series in the years to come. The analysis results were presented to company leadership, who then prioritized the top issues and agreed upon a course of action. This study's findings could help organizations considering building similar leadership or management programs by providing them with common themes, difficulties, and solutions as lessons learned to be adapted and applied within the context of their company cultures.

Syfte: Syftet är att skapa en ökad förståelse för hur offentliga verksamheter i mindre kommuner uppfattar och hanterar utmaningarna vid chefsrekrytering samt vad som ligger till grund för hur de hanterar det. Metodik: En tvärsnittsstudie på offentlig sektor i Kalmar Län har använts som forskningsstrategi med en induktiv ansats. Genom en kvalitativ metod med åtta semi-strukturerade intervjuer har vi producerat fram data. Slutsats: Studien har visat att offentliga verksamheter i mindre kommuner upplever ett problem i att finna lämpliga kandidater till chefstjänster, men ser inte det som krisartat. För att hantera rekryteringssvårigheterna utnyttjar offentliga verksamheter i mindre kommuner både operativa och strategiska åtgärderna. Operativa åtgärder som används är exempelvis förlängning av annons och informell rekryteringsmetod. De strategiska åtgärderna är exempelvis det ledarförsörjningsprogram som både kommun och landsting har samt genom att arbeta med Employer Branding. Det framgår också att offentliga verksamheter i mindre kommuner hanterar svårigheterna både genom att ta hand om det synliga problemet och de faktorer som gett upphov till problematiken. De bakomliggande orsakerna till verksamheternas hanterande styrs av informella och formella krafter. Olika påtryckningar gör att de blir begränsat flexibla och offentliga verksamheter i mindre kommuner imiterar varandra för att upprätthålla sin legitimitet. / Purpose: The purpose of this study is to gain greater understanding of how the public sector in smaller communities perceive and handle difficulties in recruiting executives and what they base their chosen approach on. Methodoly: Using an inductive approach, a survey study was performed on the public sector of Kalmar Län. A qualitative method was used to collect data, by conducting eight semi-structured interviews with executives in public sector organizations. Conclusion: The study has shown that public sector in smaller communities perceives a problem finding relevant candidates for executive positions, but they do not see it as a crisis. To handle the difficulties in finding relevant applicants they use operative and strategic actions. Operative actions include for example extending the ad and using the informal recruitment method. The strategic actions involves for example the talent management programs and by working with employer branding. The public sector in smaller communities is taking actions to handle the problem they perceive and also to handle the underlying factors that led to the problem. The way they handle the problem is based on formal and informal forces. Different forces prevent flexibility and the public sector in smaller communities imitates each other to maintain their legitimacy.