Title: An active chain process of self-leadership: Dynamically practising self-leading strategies for sustainability. Keywords: Active and dynamic, Chain process of self-leadership, Self-leadership strategies Background: Sustainability is important and of current interest, requiring all organisations to be well-functioning, committed to sustainability and create strategic decisions for their long-term sustainability. Organisations thence benefit from training the employees into self-leaders, as it results in beneficial outcomes that lead to greatness within organisations, and hence society at large. Research question: Why do individuals succeed in maintaining and practising an active chain process of self-leadership? Purpose: This study aims to understand why individuals sustain maintaining an active chain process of self-leadership by dynamically practising self-leadership strategies, where they continue to be self-aware, manage and lead themselves, practice self-leadership strategies, attain self-efficacy and achieve beneficial outputs that in extension contribute to a more efficient and long-term sustainable society. To better understand what activates the chain process of self-leadership and creates the dynamic, the authors have developed a summarising model (see model 5.1 in chapter 5). Method: The study is of qualitative character with an abductive research approach, where the empirical data have been collected through semi-structured interviews and a collective case study design with ten informants who practise self-leadership, and then analysed by the Gioia method. Findings: The chain process of self-leadership is holistic and what maintains it active are feelings of well-being, competence, and efficacy, as well as succeeding, contributing to a greater good and seeing things in a greater context. Of significance is to be reminded and followed up regularly. Paper type: Master thesis

Välfärdssektorn i Sverige har sedan 1980-talet styrts med styrprinciper som till stor del hämtats från tillverkningsindustrin. Det har inneburit standardiserad arbetsdelning och managerialism vilket har medfört att professionernas handlingsutrymme kommit att inskränkas. Fokus för verksamheterna har varit mätbarhet och måluppfyllelse snarare än brukarens behov. Utmaningen avseende kompetensförsörjning inom de kommunala omsorgsverksamheterna idag innebär förutom att utveckla hållbara strategier för rekrytering att skapa förutsättningar som är hållbara för befintliga medarbetare. Under senare år har därför nya metoder för ledning och styrning av verksamheterna förespråkats. Dessa har fokus på tillitsskapande relationer mellan ledarskap, medarbetarskap och brukare. Till följd därav är det intressant att ta del av hur medarbetarna i en kommunal omsorgsverksamhet ser på sina förutsättningar hur de förhåller sig till sitt eget medarbetarskap samt deras möjligheter att utöva självledarskap. Detta studeras genom kvalitativ intervjustudie med sex medarbetare i en kommunal omsorgsverksamhet. Resultatet visar att medarbetarnas upplevelser av sina möjligheter att utöva medarbetarskap och självledarskap till stor del påverkas av uppgifternas karaktär. Det finns en hög motivation att utföra de arbetsuppgifter som direkt skapar mervärde för brukarna. Det är dock de mer standardiserade arbetsuppgifterna som är associerade med formellt ansvar vilket gör att upplevelsen av kontroll skiljer sig beroende på uppgift. Då medarbetarskap och ledarskap är tydligt sammanlänkade påverkar verksamhetens ledarstrategier möjligheten till att utöva medarbetarskap och självledarskap. Tillitsbaserad styrning och ledning utgår från ett tydligt brukarfokus, mer handlingsutrymme till professionerna och ökad möjlighet till kunskapsutveckling. / Since the 1980s, the welfare sector in Sweden has been governed by control principles that have largely been taken from the manufacturing industry. This has meant standardized division of labor and managerialism, which result in the professionals' room for maneuver has been reduced. The focus for the operations has been measurability and goal fulfillment rather than the user's needs. The challenge regarding the supply of skills in the municipal care activities today creates, in addition to developing sustainable strategies for recruitment, creating conditions that are sustainable for existing employees. In recent years, therefore, new methods for management and control of operations have been advocated. These focus on trust-building relationships between leadership, employees and users. Thereupon it is interesting to take part in how the employees in a municipal care operation view their conditions, how they relate to their own employeeship and their opportunities to exercise self-leadership. This is studied through a qualitative interview study with six employees in a municipal care operation. The results show that employees' experiences of their opportunities to exercise co-operation and self-leadership are greatly influenced by the nature of the tasks. There is a high motivation to perform the tasks that directly create added value for users. However, it is the more standardized tasks that are associated with formal responsibility that make the experience of control different depending on the task. As employeehood and leadership are clearly linked, business leadership strategies affect opportunities to exercise employeehood and self-leadership. Trust-based management and governance is based on a clear user focus, more room for maneuver for professionals and increased opportunities for knowledge development.

I en tid där en ny lågkonjunktur ökar pressen på företag att öka vinster och minska kostnader har engagerade medarbetares bidrag visat sig ha en avgörande roll. Trots detta utgör andelen engagerade medarbetare endast en femtedel av medarbetarna på Sveriges organisationer. De flesta medarbetare känner sig osäkra på sin uppgift eller om ledningen ens vill ha deras hjälp. Om engagerade medarbetare är nyckeln till organisationens överlevnad, varför nyttjas den inte i större utsträckning? Examensarbetets syfte har varit att undersöka hur delaktiga och engagerade medarbetare bidrar till förbättringsarbete utifrån frågeställningarna “Hur bidrar engagerade medarbetare till förbättringsarbetet?” och “Hur kan organisationer öka medarbetarnas delaktighet i förbättringsarbetet?”. Den teoretiska referensramen tar avstamp ur två av värderingarna som används inom offensiv kvalitetsutveckling: Skapa möjlighet för alla att vara delaktiga och arbeta ständigt med förbättringar. Studien utfördes utifrån en i huvudsak kvalitativ forskningsstrategi, genom utskickandet av en enkät. Enkätens utfall bekräftade tio identifierade faktorer från litteraturstudien som påverkar medarbetarengagemang. Studien visade vikten av bekräftelse och uppskattning, såsom belöning kopplat till engagemang och lyfte fram ytterligare en aspekt: Engagemang sprider engagemang. Forskningsfrågorna besvarades genom följande slutsatser: -        Engagerade medarbetare bidrar till förbättringsarbetet genom delaktighet, gott medarbetarskap, ett mer frekvent behovsinriktat idéflöde, självledarskap och genom att sprida engagemang i en lärande, idédriven organisationskultur. -        Organisationer kan öka medarbetarnas delaktighet i förbättringsarbetet genom att öka medarbetarengagemang, säkerställa progress och tillhandahålla tillfredsställande arbetsmiljö och arbetssätt. / At a time when a new recession is increasing the pressure on companies to increase profits and reduce costs, the contribution of engaged employees has proven to be crucial. Despite this, the percentage of engaged employees only makes up a fifth of the employees at the organizations in Sweden. Most employees feel uncertain about their role or whether management even wants their help. If engaged employees hold the key to the organization's survival, why is it not used to a greater extent? The purpose of this study has been to investigate how participating and engaged employees contribute to improvement work based on the following questions "How do engaged employees contribute to the improvement work?" and "How can organizations increase employee participation in improvement work?". The theoretical frame of reference is based on two of the values used in offensive quality development: Create the opportunity for everyone to participate and work continuously with improvements. The study was carried out based on an essentially qualitative research strategy, by sending out a questionnaire. The outcome of the survey confirmed ten identified factors from the literature study that affect employee engagement. The study showed the importance of affirmation and appreciation, such as rewards linked to engagement and highlighted another aspect: engagement spreads engagement. The research questions were answered through the following conclusions: -        Engaged employees contribute to the improvement work through participation, employeeship, a more frequent need-oriented flow of ideas, self-leadership and by spreading engagement in a learning, idea-driven organizational culture. -        Organizations can increase employee participation in improvement work by increasing employee engagement, ensuring progress and providing satisfactory work environment and working methods.

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Business today is conducted within societies facing complex global challenges and unprecedented demands for effective, ethical, and excellent business leadership that proactively manages its societal impacts. Integrating economic success with service of the common good requires a sound, shared understanding of “positive” executive business leadership to guide executive selection, education and development, and practice. This thesis formulates and theoretically grounds a general theory of positive executive business leadership. Integrative Executive Leadership (“IEL”) addresses the individual, pairs/groups/teams, organizational, and societal levels of business. Within these contexts, IEL exercises positive integrative agency through multi-stakeholder professional stewardship, integrated performance management, and living codes of ethics. This requires the practice of five mutually-reinforcing positive behavioural repertoires: contemplative self-leadership, functional-relational facilitative leadership, full range managerial-leadership, visionary strategic leadership, and transforming-developmental leadership. These are reinforced by five positive philosophies or styles of leadership: authentic, moral, spiritual, servant, and wise leadership. Consequently, IEL is predicated upon essential competencies, attainments, and positive dispositions. Especially, IEL requires the cultivation of positive psychological states, traits, and virtues, eudaimonic character, postautonomous levels of ego development, psychological complexity, integrative consciousness and flow. In addition to promoting intrinsic morality, these farther reaches of human nature contribute to effective and excellent leadership performance. Integrative Executive Leaders do well by doing good. IEL was developed through multiparadigm theory-building, adopting a pragmatic epistemology, and employing a transdisciplinary, positive scholarship approach to integrate the findings from a broad range of qualitative and quantitative research from the humanities and the social sciences. IEL theory articulates important theoretical relationships derived from: leading insights from management and organization theory; salient research findings from the social sciences and the humanities; insights from positive psychology, positive organizational behaviour, positive organizational scholarship, constructive developmental psychology, transpersonal psychology, and integrated empirical ethics; interpretive analyses of the biographies of great world leaders; and, a rich case study of an extraordinary executive business leader. Accordingly, IEL is advanced as an emergent theory with both theoretical grounding and empirical reference. The path forward requires further transdisciplinary, multiparadigm, multi-method research to further develop and refine IEL and establish it as a grounded theory of positive executive business leadership.

Business today is conducted within societies facing complex global challenges and unprecedented demands for effective, ethical, and excellent business leadership that proactively manages its societal impacts. Integrating economic success with service of the common good requires a sound, shared understanding of “positive” executive business leadership to guide executive selection, education and development, and practice. This thesis formulates and theoretically grounds a general theory of positive executive business leadership. Integrative Executive Leadership (“IEL”) addresses the individual, pairs/groups/teams, organizational, and societal levels of business. Within these contexts, IEL exercises positive integrative agency through multi-stakeholder professional stewardship, integrated performance management, and living codes of ethics. This requires the practice of five mutually-reinforcing positive behavioural repertoires: contemplative self-leadership, functional-relational facilitative leadership, full range managerial-leadership, visionary strategic leadership, and transforming-developmental leadership. These are reinforced by five positive philosophies or styles of leadership: authentic, moral, spiritual, servant, and wise leadership. Consequently, IEL is predicated upon essential competencies, attainments, and positive dispositions. Especially, IEL requires the cultivation of positive psychological states, traits, and virtues, eudaimonic character, postautonomous levels of ego development, psychological complexity, integrative consciousness and flow. In addition to promoting intrinsic morality, these farther reaches of human nature contribute to effective and excellent leadership performance. Integrative Executive Leaders do well by doing good. IEL was developed through multiparadigm theory-building, adopting a pragmatic epistemology, and employing a transdisciplinary, positive scholarship approach to integrate the findings from a broad range of qualitative and quantitative research from the humanities and the social sciences. IEL theory articulates important theoretical relationships derived from: leading insights from management and organization theory; salient research findings from the social sciences and the humanities; insights from positive psychology, positive organizational behaviour, positive organizational scholarship, constructive developmental psychology, transpersonal psychology, and integrated empirical ethics; interpretive analyses of the biographies of great world leaders; and, a rich case study of an extraordinary executive business leader. Accordingly, IEL is advanced as an emergent theory with both theoretical grounding and empirical reference. The path forward requires further transdisciplinary, multiparadigm, multi-method research to further develop and refine IEL and establish it as a grounded theory of positive executive business leadership.

Syftet med denna magisteruppsats har varit att utforska hur Covid-19 pandemin har påverkat ledarskapet och organisationens riktning.    Covid-19 pandemin har påverkar olika delar av ledarskapet. Resultaten visar tydligt att chefer känner sig överbelastade eftersom de måste hantera många administrativa uppgifter och alternerande möten. På grund av brist på tid och balans mellan arbete och privatliv har förmågan att ha en helhetssyn, tolka och ta in perspektiv utifrån och in och inifrån och ut varit en utmaning för ledarna. Resultatet indikerar även på behovet av tydliga kommunikationskanaler mellan ledarna, de anställda och deras kunder om vilka åtgärder som krävs för att anpassa sig till den nya situationen som pandemin har medfört.   Under pandemin har organisationerna tvingats att vidta snabba åtgärder baserat på föreskrifterna och begränsningarna från Folkhälsomyndigheten och regeringen. Etablerade digitala kanaler har använts men nya digitala kanaler har behövts identifieras för att skapa interaktion och relationer inom organisationen samt med kunderna.   Den snabba omvandlingen till den digitala världen har påverkat organisationens riktning att tänka annorlunda, vara mer flexibel och anpassningsbar till nya oväntade förändringar, såsom pandemin. Organisationerna har använt nyckelindikatorer för att identifiera och få en tydlig bild av hur pandemin har påverkat organisationens riktning internt och externt gentemot sina kunder. Denna nya digitala omvandling har också tvingat kunderna att gå in på nya digitala plattformar och interagera online med organisationerna. Den nya digitala medvetenheten från kunderna har framkallat nya digitala krav och tjänster som i sin tur har resulterat i behov av nya digitala självservice tjänster och en högre och starkare digital kompetens från organisationens kundtjänst.   En bidragande diskussion till organisationerna och samhället är att hänvisa till begreppet lönsamhet som en värdeskapande effekt som är hållbar över tid, kopplad till tre element: ledarskap, organisationens riktning och kundbehov. / The purpose of this thesis has been to explore how the Covid-19 pandemic has affected the leadership and the direction of the organization.   The Covid-19 pandemic has affected various parts of the leadership. The results clearly indicate that managers feel overloaded since they have to handle a lot of administrative tasks and alternating meetings. Due to lack of time and balance between work and private life, the ability to have a holistic view, interpret and take in perspectives from outside-in and inside-out has been a challenge for the leaders. The results also indicated the need for clear communication between the leaders and the employees and their customers about what actions are required in order to adapt to the new situation that the pandemic has imposed.   During the pandemic the organizations were forced to take fast action based on the regulations and restrictions from the Public Health Agency and the government. Established digital channels were used but new digital channels had to be identified to create interaction and relations within the organization and with the customers.  The fast transformation to the digital world has affected the direction of the organization to think differently and be more flexible and adaptable to new unexpected changes, such as the pandemic. The organizations have used key indicators to identify and get a clear picture of how the pandemic has affected the direction of the organization internally and externally towards its customers. This new digital transformational shift has also forced the customers to enter new digital platforms and interact online with the organizations. The new digital awareness from the customers has induced new digital requirements and services which in turn have resulted in the need for new digital self-services and a higher and stronger digital competence from the organizations customer service.   A contributing discussion to the organizations and to the society is to refer to the concept of profitability as a value-creating effect sustainable over time, connected by three elements: leadership, direction of the organization and customer need. / <p>2021-06-06</p>