This thesis studies political elites’ beliefs about the ideal party leader. This ideal, like other human ideals, is characterized by ambivalence. The thesis explores the ambivalence expressed in party elites’ leadership ideal and how it can be understood. The study draws primarily on qualitative interviews with members of the party elites in the Social Democratic Party and the Liberal Party in Sweden. Specifically, it analyzes the “life world” of the party leaders, party secretaries, group leaders in the Swedish Parliament, and election committee chairmen. Building on classical and modern research on leadership and political parties, the thesis derives an analytical tool to guide the interviews which covers six aspects of party leadership: Characteristics, Leadership style, Tasks, Freedom of action, Representation, and Status. The empirical analysis shows that the elites’ party leadership ideal is ambivalent and different across the two parties. The ambiguities can be summarized as dichotomies, where the ideal leader should encompass both sides of the dichotomy. The Social Democratic Party elites’ ideal is represented by two dichotomies: the leader versus the team and the party versus the government. To bridge the ambiguities, the elite resort to the idea of “anchoring”. This notion resolves conflicts between the leader and the surrounding team and the party and the government. The ideal of the Liberal Party’s elites includes four dichotomies: dogmatism versus pragmatism; idea versus person; appearance (outward-looking) versus action (inward-looking); and free versus constrained. Unlike the case of the Social Democratic Party, it is less evident how the Liberal Party’s elites accommodate the ambiguities. However, an emphasis on accountability and maintaining a balance between existing conflicts, partially remedies the dilemma. Also, the idea of leadership within the Liberal Party is less problematic compared to the Social Democratic Party. In sum, while the Social Democrats’ ideal resembles the “friendly father figure”, the Liberals’ ideal is portrayed by the “superficial intellectual”. The findings also indicate that the way in which the parties were established, their experience of being in government, size, ideology, and position within the party system affect their beliefs about leadership ideals.

De organisatoriska villkoren för ledarskap inom den offentliga sektorn har förändrats kraftigt sedan slutet på 1980-talet. Socialtjänsten ställs ständigt inför nya utmaningar i form av exempelvis budgetåtstramningar, effektiviseringar och nu även en pandemi (covid-19). Dessa utmaningar ställer höga krav på socialtjänsten som organisation och på dess ledare samt deras ledarskap. Syftet med studien är att söka reda på, sammanställa och analysera kunskap om ledarskap inom svensk socialtjänst. Vidare syftar studien till att undersöka vad det innebär att vara ledare inom socialtjänsten, vilka utmaningar ledaren ställs inför samt om det finns ledarskapsideal inom socialtjänsten. Men även att undersöka hur ledarskap påverkar organisationer inom socialtjänst samt att kunna bidra med bredare kunskaper inom fältet. Metoden är en kunskapsöversikt med 24 analyserade artiklar. Resultatet visar att det inte finns en entydig definition av vad ledarskap är i socialt arbete. Det transformativa ledarskapet anses i flertalet av artiklarna som ett eftersträvat ideal inom socialt arbete. / The organizational conditions for leadership in the public sector have changed dramatically since the late 1980s. The social services are constantly faced with new challenges in the form of, for example, budget cuts, efficiency requirements and now also a pandemic (covid-19). These challenges place high demands on the social services as an organization and on its leaders as well as on their leadership. The purpose of the study is to research, compile and analyze knowledge about leadership in Swedish social services. Furthermore, the study aims to investigate what it means to be a leader in the social services, what challenges the leader faces and whether there is an ideal of leadership in the social services. But also, to investigate how leadership affects organizations in social services and to be able to contribute with broader knowledge in the field. The method is a knowledge overview that consist of analyzing 24 articles. The result shows that there is no clear definition of what leadership is in social work. In most of the articles, transformative leadership is considered a sought-after ideal in social work.