Syftet med studien är att undersöka hur ledare arbetar med motivation när ledare och medarbetare har ett geografiskt avstånd mellan varandra. Studien kommer för organisationer med ledarskap på distans bidra med kunskap om hur motivationsarbete kan utföras trots en fysisk distans. Frågeställningen till studien är hur ledare motiverar anställda på distans och vad det finns för möjligheter till förbättring av motivationsarbetet? Då studien utgår från ett synsätt där vi utifrån intervjuer tolkat och analyserat individer och dess beteende har vi för att kunna besvara forskningsfrågan och uppfylla studiens syfte valt en kvalitativ metod med kvalitativa intervjuer. Vi har kommit fram till att motiverande ledarskap på distans i bemanningsföretag kräver resurser och tid på grund av det geografiska avståndet. Att motivera sina medarbetare kräver av ledaren extra ansträngningar då daglig interaktion uteblir. Därför har vi kommit fram till att motivationsarbete är något som måste planeras in i arbetet tillsammans med de dagliga rutinerna. Annars finns det risk för att motivationsarbetet blir bortprioriterat bland administrativa uppgifter. / The purpose of this study is to explore how leaders work with motivation when a geographical distance exists between the leader and coworker. The study will contribute with awareness of how motivational work can be continued despite the existence of physical distance for organizations that utilize leadership at a distance. The research question for this study is how leaders motivate their employees at a distance and what opportunities for improvement to the motivational work exist? Since the study is based on the approach of interpreting interviews and analyzing individuals and their behaviors, we have chosen to answer the research question and satisfy the purpose of the study using a qualitative method with qualitative interviews. The research has lead us to conclude that the required motivational leadership for recruitment companies demands time and resources due to the geographical distance. In the absence of daily interaction additional endeavors are required of the leader in order to motivate their coworkers. This is why we have reached the conclusion that any motivational work need to be planned and incorporated into the daily routines. Otherwise there is a risk that the motivational work is neglected amongst the administrative tasks.

Abstract Title: When the cat is away… A study of pedagogical leadership at a distance Level: Final assignment for Degree of Master of science (one year) in Educational Management Author: Evelyn Joelsson Supervisor: Ulla Sebrant Date: 2013 may Leadership is a subject that has been discussed for many generations. Today’s leadership is something completely different than what has been practiced before, in the more hierarchical companies, when leadership was something you were born to do and the workers had no choice but to follow. In the globalised world that we live in today there are demands of a different kind than before and physical distance between leaders and their followers gets more and more common. Communication is the focus and the catchwords are patency, trust and availability. In our information society it is important to have an open dialog and to aim for continuous development. Often this is built with close and supportive leadership. My question is; how can you be a close and supportive leader when you are physically somewhere else? To find the answer to my questions I began with studying some previous work that has been done in this area, Maria Nordengren & Bengt Olsen (2006) among others. I interviewed ten people who all have some kind of experience with working at a distance and the professional leadership from afar. Two of them were leaders, four were employees that worked at a distance from the leader and four were employees working physically close to the leader. I asked them about communication, trust, patency and availability and found out that educational leadership is possible at a distance but also at a price. If you are a leader placed at a distance from your employees you need to be clearer in your communication than the leader close at hand and give the right information at the right time. Trust is very important as well as the physical meetings they have twice a year. Availability is important and many claimed that it was working satisfactory. The physical contact proved to be irreplaceable even if there are many technical tools available in today’s businesses. Employees at a physical distance from their leaders automatically need to take more decisions on their own and learn to take initiative faster than the ones who can just walk over to the leader and ask. For future research I suggest that you could look at the different kinds of distance between leaders and their followers, not just de physical, and maybe also the gender aspect of leadership at a distance. One could conduct a comparative study between different kinds of companies and see if IT-businesses differ from producing- or service companies. The communication strategies that were used was something I found interesting and is probably something you can look more into, for example when you use what tool for communication. I think my thesis has contributed to the understanding of the complexity of leadership at a physical distance and what it takes to be an educational leader in a scattered company today concerning communication, patency, trust and availability. Keywords: leadership, educational leadership, leadership at a distance, communication, distance, development opportunity, trust, patency and availability.

We have completed our investigation on a LSS organization located in Västra Götalandsregionen. This organization has four leaders who has responsibility for multiple devices but do not have any physical contact daily. We have seen that organizations constantly living in some kind of change, which means that organizations are becoming more decentralized. This decentralization affects leaders' way of working in the organization, because the employees are geographically dispersed in the municipality. Our survey shows that the physical meetings between managers and employees are an important factor in creating a motivated team. This study aims to explore how the interaction between managers and employees in a decentralization organization may look to create a congenial working atmosphere. We will also present which ingredients that’s important in this organization to create a good working atmosphere. The questions are: How can the relationship between leaders and employees take place into this type of organization? What factors are important for the interaction? How is worker's perception of importance of interaction in the working atmosphere? To answer these questions we used a qualitative approach with focus group interviews. We had two different professions, leaders and employers which meant we created two interview guide, specially adapted for the focus groups. The content was the same, but adapted for the different groups. The content of the interview guides were divided into three categories, leadership, employeeship and teamwork. The study clearly shows how important the interactions between leaders and employees in a decentralized organization have for the work climate. The study also shows that social relationships are created through physical meetings, but maintained remotely by good communication / Vi har genomfört vår undersökning på en LSS verksamhet som ligger i Västra Götalandsregionen. Denna verksamhet har fyra ledare som har ansvar för flera enheter men de har inte någon fysisk kontakt dagligen. Sedan institutionsvård bytts ut mot mindre enheter menar vi att de arbetar i en decentraliserad organisation efter det att institutionsvård bytts ut mot gruppboende. Med decentraliserad menas att organisationen är uppdelad i flera enheter och den fysiska kontakten mellan ledare och medarbetare är begränsad. Vår undran är vad det innebär för samspelet mellan ledare och medarbetare i en verksamhet som är geografiskt spridd i kommunen. Vår undersökning visar att de fysiska mötena mellan ledare och medarbetare är en viktig faktor för att skapa ett motiverat arbetslag. Studiens syfte är att studera hur ett samspel mellan ledare och medarbetare i en decentraliserad organisation kan se ut för att skapa ett trivsamt arbetsklimat. Vidare presenteras vilka ingredienser som är viktiga i denna organisation för att skapa ett trivsamt arbetsklimat. Frågeställningarna är: Hur kan relationen mellan ledare och medarbetare se ut i denna typ av organisation? Vilka faktorer är betydelsefulla för samspelet? Hur är arbetstagares uppfattning av samspelets betydelse för arbetsklimatet? För att få svar på frågorna användes en kvalitativ ansats med fokusgruppsintervjuer. Vi hade två olika yrkeskategorier vilket gjorde att vi skapade två intervjuguider, speciellt anpassade för fokusgruppen. Innehållet var samma, men anpassat för de olika grupperna. Innehållet i intervjuguiderna var uppdelat i tre kategorier, ledarskap, medarbetarskap och samspel. Studien visar tydligt hur stor betydelse samspelet mellan ledare och medarbetare har för arbetsklimatet. Studien visar även att sociala relationer skapas via fysiska möten, men upprätthålls på distans genom god kommunikation så som mail och telefon