Bakgrund: Konflikter är ett fenomen som förekommer i alla kontexter där individer integrerar med varandra. Konflikter har alltid funnits men synen på konflikter samt hur det hanteras har förändrats genom tiden. Konflikthantering är en viktig del i ledarskapet och är en av de viktigaste och centrala uppgifterna för en ledare. De flesta ledare ser konflikthantering som problematiskt eftersom de tycker att det är jobbigt och obehagligt att hantera konflikter på grund av rädslan för individernas reaktioner. Tidigare forskning har visat att det finns ett samband mellan ledarskap och konflikthanteringsstrategier men det finns fortfarande en kunskapsbrist inom området. Syfte: Syftet med studien är att förklara om det finns ett samband mellan det situationsanpassade ledarskapet och konflikthanteringsstrategierna samt om sambandet kan ge ledare större möjlighet att hantera konflikter framgångsrikt. Metod: Denna studie har en kvalitativansats, där semistrukturerade intervjuer har genomförts med två organisationer, där en butikschef och tre medarbetare i respektive organisation intervjuades. Resultat: Denna studie har kommit fram till att det finns ett samband mellan det situationsanpassande ledarskapet och konflikthanteringsstrategier. Genom att kombinera stilarna i det situationsanpassade ledarskapet med konflikthanteringsstrategier och med hänsyn till både medarbetares och ledares åsikter kan rätt konflikthanteringsstrategi väljas, vilket också kan främja individernas utveckling. / Background: The phenomenon conflict occurs in every context where individuals integrate with each other. Conflicts have always existed but the way we see and manage them have changed through time. Conflict management is an important part of leadership. Most leaders believe conflicts are a problematic issue that is difficult to manage, because of the fear of the consequence that may appear. Previous research has shown that there is a correlation between leadership and conflict management but there is still a lack of knowledge in the field. Purpose: The purpose of this study is to examine if there is a correlation between the situational leadership and conflict management strategies and if it can provide leaders with greater possibilities to handle conflicts successfully. Method: This study has a qualitative approach where semi structured interviews with two organizations were made, with both of the store manager and three employees in each organization. Results: The results of this study have shown that there is a correlation between the situational leadership and conflict management strategies. Through combining the styles of the situational leadership with conflict management strategies and with regard to both employees and managers opinion and behavior can a suitable strategy be adopted, which can encourage individual growth.

The purpose with this examine was to study the teachers perception of leadership in the classroom and also how they experience the conditions of this. The method used was qualitative, and builds on a total of six interviews. Stensmos five leadership tasks in the classroom that constitute leadership context have provided the theoretical basis of this study. The leadership tasks have therefore been used as theoretical tools in this study to analyze the teachers’ reasoning about their own leadership style. In general, results showed that the teachers talk about dissimilar qualities within different kinds of leadership tasks which results in different consequences and effects on the pupils, the teaching and on the teacher leadership in the classroom. The study also shows that some teachers reason about leadership styles in a way that I would like to call autocratic situational leadership and democratic situational leadership. The concept is based on the finding that teachers who advocate the application of an autocratic leadership style express the standpoint that it is the circumstances and the situation in the classroom that demands this kind of leadership style. This is the reason why teachers interpret the autocratic leadership style as an application of a situation related leadership. The teachers that articulate a democratic approach also express the necessity to adapt their leadership style to the level of the pupils and thereby the teachers interpret the democratic leadership style to be situational leadership as well.

Denna kvalitativa studie syftar till att utveckla kunskap och öka förståelsen om socialsekreterares upplevelser av arbetsmotivation och upplevelser av motiverande ledarskap. Utifrån fem semistrukturerade intervjuer och med utgångspunkt i teorierna, situationsanpassat ledarskap och tvåfaktorteorin visar resultatet i studiens tematiska analys, på upplevelser där relationsinriktat ledarskap är otydligt och bristande från socialtjänstens ledare. Vidare visar resultaten att socialsekreterarnas inre arbetsmotivation  påverkas negativt av ledarnas bristfälliga förmågor och  engagemang att uppmuntra sin personal. Socialsekreterarnas upplevda motivation skapas istället från trivsel med sina arbetskollegor samt i mötet med klienter. / This qualitative study aims at developing knowledge and increasing understanding of social workers 'experiences of work motivation and experience of motivational leadership. Based on five semi- structured interviews and based on the theories, situational leadership and two-factor theory, the results of the study's thematic analysis show experiences in which relationship-oriented leadership is unclear and inadequate from the social services leaders. Furthermore, the results show that the social workers 'internal work motivation is adversely affected by the leaders' inadequate abilities and commitment to encourage their staff. The social motivators' perceived motivation is instead created from well-being with their colleagues and in the meeting with clients.

The aim of this master´s thesis is to capture and describe the perceptions and opinions of selected entrepreneurs on leadership in small and medium enterprises. In the theoretical part is outlined the development of leadership, its characteristics, styles and approaches. Among the approaches are the Situational leadership II, Transformational leadership, Authentic leadership and Versatile leadership. Using qualitative research through a semi-structured interview and a written survey, the main factors of the selected approaches that are most frequently encountered in the management of the respondents are described, and the use of the given approach relative to the whole sample is then evaluated. In conclusion, this work focuses on the individual assessment of the versatility of the styles of selected entrepreneurs.

Background: The COVID-19 pandemic has caused a major shift towards remote work and its practices are predicted as here to stay. It entails many challenges since both the physical and psychosocial working conditions vastly differ from an office-setting, posing a threat for employee well-being. Leaders have the ability to control employee well-being through activities and their leadership style, emphasizing the importance of exploring the topic from a leader’s perspective.  Purpose: The purpose of this thesis is to explore employee well-being in a remote work setting from a leader perspective, including the leadership activities used to manage it and how leaders adapt their leadership to the remote setting.  Method: The primary data is collected from ten in-depth, semi-structured interviews with leaders in both public and private organizations. The data have been analyzed and interpreted using an explorative approach and inductive thematic analysis.  Conclusions: This study adds multiple aspects within the common theoretical themes of the social context, communication, work-life balance and stress identified as affecting employee well-being remotely. Moreover, it expands the knowledge of leader activities used to enhance employee well-being remotely such as providing opportunities for social interactions. Lastly, the study suggests leaders to balance remote work’s demand for employee independence by providing job resources such as support and adapt their leadership not only to the employee readiness, but also the expectations set on them, their own readiness and the remote situation.

Covid-19 is a virus that has been rapidly spreading throughout the entire world from the start of 2020 and continued even during 2021. In a little bit over a year Sweden had more than one million confirmed cases of Covid-19. This virus has caused companies to start working remotely, by distance, to minimize the spread of the virus, which has forced employees and managers to adapt to the new way of working. The quick change to working remotely, in virtual teams, can cause challenges that require managers to adapt or change their leadership to effectively handle the transition. In this study, the purpose is to examine leadership and how managers experience the way of managing by distance. This study will also seek an understanding of which challenges and changes in the leadership that are the main consequences and also how managers have changed their way of working with motivation, communication and monitoring during remote work. To conduct the study a qualitative research method has been applied where only one company has been studied to get a deeper understanding of this phenomenon and to collect data ten semi-structured interviews were conducted and six questionnaires were sent. The company in this study is anonymous, which means that when the company is mentioned it will be by a fictitious name. The findings showed that the leadership’s main challenges were the social distance, the lack of natural encounters, the sensitive conversations and to see employees’ well-being as well as their body language. Based on the empirical evidence, the focus of motivation was perceived to be more focused on maintaining relationships and to look after the employees' health and well-being. It seems that the communication has increased in view of regular meetings and reconciliations, but also to maintain the social contact. The reconciliations are used to create an overview, not to micromanage or exercise control but instead the managers rely on trust and competence. Their leadership also seems to have become more present and more engaged with the employees. Finally, this study concludes that some aspects that managers perceive as important in their leadership are reinforced when working remotely. These are for example communication, to be present and building relationships. Additionally, there are also aspects that are not as important (development) at the same time as new aspects (well-being) are highlighted more during leadership by distance. / Covid-19 är ett virus som har haft en snabb spridning över hela världen från början av 2020 och fortsättningsvis även under 2021. Inom lite mer än ett år hade Sverige mer än en miljon bekräftade fall av Covid-19. Viruset har gjort att företag behövt börja arbeta hemifrån för att minska smittspridning, vilket tvingat medarbetare och chefer att ställa om till det nya arbetssättet och virtuella team. Att arbeta på distans kan medföra några utmaningar som ställer krav på chefer att anpassa eller förändra sitt ledarskap för att effektivt hantera omställningen. I denna studie är syftet att undersöka ledarskap och hur chefer upplever att det är att leda på distans. Studien söker även efter en förståelse för vilka utmaningar och förändringar i ledarskapet som är de huvudsakliga konsekvenserna och även hur chefer förändrat sitt sätt att arbeta med motivation, kommunikation och översyn under distansarbetet. För att genomföra studien har en kvalitativ forskningsmetod applicerats där endast ett företag har undersökts för att få en djupare förståelse för fenomenet och för att samla in data har tio semistrukturerade intervjuer genomförts och sex frågeformulär skickats. Företaget i denna studie är anonymt, vilket betyder att när företaget nämns är det med ett fiktivt namn. Resultatet visade att ledarskapets främsta utmaningar var den sociala distansen, avsaknandet av naturliga möten, känsliga samtal och att se medarbetarnas välmående samt deras kroppsspråk. Utifrån respondenterna uppfattades motivationens fokus vara mer inriktat på att vårda relationer och även att se över medarbetarnas hälsa samt välmående. Det verkar som att kommunikationen har ökat med tanke på de regelbundna mötena och avstämningarna men också för att den sociala kontakten ska bibehållas. Avstämningarna används för att få en överblick, de använder sig inte av mikromanagement för att utöva kontroll utan istället förlitar sig cheferna på förtroende och medarbetares kompetens. Ledarskapet verkar ha blivit mer närvarande med ökad delaktighet med medarbetarna. Avslutningsvis drar denna studie slutsatsen att några aspekter som chefer upplever som viktiga i deras ledarskap förstärks under distansarbete. Dessa är exempelvis kommunikation, att vara närvarande samt bygga relationer. Vidare finns det även aspekter som inte är lika viktiga (utveckling) samtidigt som nya aspekter (välmående) lyfts mer vid ledarskap på distans.

For many years there has been a gap in knowledge about female and male leadership. Although the debate on gender is very tangible, the topic still remains an unfinished debate and challenge. Due to the unequal distribution of power, there is an endeavour to understand the differences between the leadership styles of women and men, but as of yet there are no direct and clear answers to this. The study was conducted due to the fact that women historically have had less access to leadership positions, and to fill the existing knowledge gap in research on this area. The purpose of this study was to examine and compare leadership styles between women and men, and to compare perceived influencing factors on leadership. Data was collected through semi-structured interviews consisting of both competency-based and semi-structured questions. A total of six interviews were conducted, three with women and three with men. The results of the study showed minimal differences in leadership styles, without a specific gender pattern. Instead, it appeared that the differences in leadership styles were individual-based, which raises questions about why there is an overrepresentation of men in leadership positions. However, the image of the stereotypical leader was challenged by the fact that the men in this study tended to adopt more stereotypically feminine characteristics. The results also showed how previous experience and feedback were perceived as important influencing factors by the majority of the respondents. Finally, based on the results of the study, suggestions for future studies were presented in terms of exploring and challenging the image of the stereotypical leader.

The study shows that today's leaders find that generation Y is more adaptable and in need of more feedback unlike previous generations. We have also come to the conclusion that today's leaders need decentralized approaches to generation Y. The majority of leaders suggest that generation Y questions, advances and demands leadership, which also has a positive impact on the organization in the long run. Today's leaders find it challenging to handle all the different individuals and generations present in the labor market today. For example, there are differences in how much freedom employees want, the degree of maturity among employees varies and leaders have a fear that generation Y will leave the workplace if they fail to meet their needs. We can thus see a pattern of how today's leaders adapt coaching, leadership, communication, and also skills development across different individuals rather than generations. / Studien visar att dagens ledare upplever att generation Y är mer förändringsbenägna samt i behov av mer feedback till skillnad från tidigare generationer. Vi har även kommit fram till att dagens ledare behöver ha ett decentraliserat förhållningssätt gentemot generation Y. Majoriteten av ledarna antyder att generation Y ifrågasätter, går snabbt framåt samt ställer krav på ledarna vilket också har en positiv inverkan på organisationen på lång sikt. Dagens ledare upplever att det är en utmaning i att hantera alla olika individer och generationer som finns på arbetsmarknaden idag. Det framgår exempelvis skillnader i hur stor frihet medarbetarna vill ha, att graden av mognad bland medarbetare varierar och att ledarna har en rädsla för att generation Y ska lämna arbetsplatsen om de inte lyckas möta deras behov. Vi kan alltså se ett mönster i hur dagens ledare anpassar coaching, ledarskapet, kommunikationen och även kompetensutveckling utefter olika individer snarare än utefter generationer.

Sammanfattning Syfte – Syftet med studien är Att undersöka samband mellan ledarskap och god psykosocial arbetsmiljö hos medarbetare.För att svara på studiens syfte har syftet brutits ned till tre frågeställningar enligt nedan. 1. Vad ser ledare på företag med god psykosocial arbetsmiljö som ett gott ledarskap respektive mindre bra ledarskap? 2. Vad gör ledaren på ett företag med god psykosocial arbetsmiljö för att göra individen motiverad i sitt arbete? 3. Hur kännetecknas ledarskap på de olika förtagen med god psykosocial arbetsmiljö? Metod – Studien är en kvalitativ intervjustudie med en induktiv ansats där teori och empiri samlats in och jämförts analytiskt under arbetets gång. Teorin samlades in med hjälp av litteraturstudier. Den insamlade data sammanställdes utifrån fem olika intervjuer med fem olika ledare från varje utvalt företag. Intervjuerna transkriberades och därefter utfördes en kodningsprocess för att välja ut det mest relevanta till analysdelen. Resultat – Uppfattningen var att flera av ledarna hade utvecklats i sin roll och verkade ha gått från ett transaktionellt ledarskap mot ett transformativt, då det transformativa ofta bygger på ett transaktionellt ledarskap. Vad som kan tydas efter analysen är att det krävs motivationsfaktorer som till exempel uppmuntran/uppmärksamhet, relation till chef och kollegor, samt personlig utveckling i främsta led för att ha en god psykosocial arbetsmiljö. För att kunna ha fokus på motivationsfaktorerna är faktiskt hygienfaktorerna en viktig del för att kunna uppnå denna anda. Det transformativa ledarskapet var beskrivet hos alla företag, vissa med den bemärkelsen, andra med liknande men beskrivningen var densamma. Fokus ligger på medarbetarens behov och ledarskapet utgår därefter. Slutsatsen som dras i den här studien är att det transformativa ledarskapet kan verka som det självklara ledarskapet, men faktum är att det inte alltid passar i alla lägen. Ett situationsanpassat ledarskap varar längst och ger individerna möjlighet till att motiveras och utvecklas anpassat efter deras behov. Därav är ett flexibelt ledarskap det som borde eftersträvas. Implikationer – Studiens praktiska bidrag är hur ett flexibelt ledarskap bäst utvecklar motivationen bland medarbetare. Trots olika bakgrunder kan en gemensam bild av ett gott ledarskap uppnås med olika vägar dit. Det teoretiska bidraget är att studien har funnit en relation mellan transaktionellt, transformativt och situationsanpassat ledarskap, där det transformativa är det som övergripligt bör användas i ett ledarskap. Begränsningar– Studiens är begränsad till företag med mer än 600 medarbetare, samt enbart tillverkande företag. Inga medarbetare har blivit intervjuade i studien vilket begränsar studien till ledares perspektiv. Nyckelord– Transaktionellt ledarskap, tranformativt ledarskap, psykosocial arbetsmiljö, situationsanpassat ledarskap, motivation, arbetstillfredsställelse / Abstract Purpose – The purpose with the study is “To investigate the relationship between leadership and good psychosocial work environment with employees”. To answer the purpose with the study, the purpose has been broken down to three questions as below. 1. What do leaders in companies with good psychosocial work environment see as a good leadership and less good leadership? 2. What does the leader of a company with a good psychosocial work environment do to make the individual motivated in their work? 3. How is leadership characterized by the different companies with good psychosocial work environment? Method – The study is a qualitative interview study with an inductive approach where theory and empirical data are collected and compared analytically during the process. The theory was collected using literature studies. The collected data was compiled from five different interviews with five different leaders from selected companies. The interviews were transcribed, and a coding process was performed to select the most relevant parts for the analysis. Findings – The perception was that several of the leaders had developed in their role and seemed to have gone from a transactional leadership to a transformative, since the transformative is often based on the transactional. What can be explained after the analysis is that motivation factors such as encouragement/ attention, relationship with manager and colleagues are required, as well as personal development at the forefront of having a good psychosocial work environment, but in order to be able to focus on the motivational factors, the hygiene factors are actually an important part to be able to achieve this spirit. The transformative leadership was described by all companies, some by that sense, others by similar but the description was the same. The focus is on the employee's needs and the leadership is based on that. The conclusion drawn in this study is that the transformative leadership may seem like the obvious leadership, but the fact is that it does not always fit in all situations. Situational leadership lasts the longest and gives individuals the opportunity to be motivated and developed according to their needs. Hence, flexible leadership is what should be pursued. Implications – Practical contribution from the study is how flexible leadership best develops motivation among employees. Despite various backgrounds, a common image of good leadership can be achieved with different ways to do so. The theoretical contribution is that the study has found a relationship between transactional, transformational and situational leadership, where the transformative is what should be used broadly in a leadership. Limitations – The study is limited to companies with more than 600 employees, and only manufacturing companies. No employees have been interviewed in the study, which limits the study to the leaders' perspective. Keywords – Transactional Leadership, Transformational Leadership, Psychosocial Work Environment, Situational Leadership, Motivation, Job Satisfaction

The primary trouble befalling Nigeria and its Niger Delta has been described as a failure of leadership. At various periods during the late 20th and early 21st centuries, Nigeria endured a bloody civil war and years of repressive military rule. Violence in the Niger Delta region, widespread brain drain, and frequent strikes that disrupted academic calendars at universities had serious ramifications for the region's educational system. This study explores former students' perceptions of perceived leadership qualities seen in educational leaders at universities in the Niger Delta and how those qualities impact the acquired leadership skills of expatriate Nigerian postgraduates. Participants were Nigerian postgraduates living in Africa, Europe, and North America. Twenty-three men and 4 women took part in the study. Purposeful snowballing sampling procedures was used to select the sample. A mixed method design was used to collect data through structured electronic-mail surveys, and data were analyzed using constant comparative analysis procedures. Fifteen areas of influence emerged from expatriates' perceptions of these educational leaders. Areas of influence were categorized into 4 major constructs: Leading qualities, Perceived produced impacts, Perceived barriers, and Responses. Expatriates perceived few negative leading qualities but perceived too many real negative impacts that posed barriers to their acquired leadership skills. They are aware that these perceived barriers could be social, economic, environmental, and ethnic. These perceived impacts and barriers have generated fear in respondents. Anger appeared to be postgraduates' most common response to negative leadership qualities of educational leaders, while restlessness, associated with desire for effective leadership in the region appeared to be a common attitude among respondents. Because educational leadership has tremendous impact on the lives of the country's postgraduates, and in light of increasing reports of "brain drain" from the region, Nigeria's educational leadership should be researched from every possible angle. A new theoretical model of perceptions of leadership qualities should be the focus of future research as Nigerian expatriates examine their own leadership qualities and, eventually, put them to use.