Frihet under ansvar? : En studie om ledares syn på självledarskap

Sammanfattning

Self-leadership has become increasingly relevant in modern organizations where employees are expected to take greater responsibility for their work and decision-making. Within such contexts, managers play an important role in shaping conditions that enable employees to work independently while also practicing self-leadership in their own roles. The purpose of this study was to examine how managers understood and practiced self-leadership and how they described their expectations regarding employee's self-leadership. The study was based on managers own experiences and reflections on their work and leadership practices. A qualitative research approach was applied to gain a deeper understanding of the phenomenon. Data were collected through eight semi structured interviews with managers from different organizations and industries. The interviews were recorded, transcribed, and analyzed using thematic analysis. The findings indicated that managers applied several approaches that could be understood in relation to self-leadership, such as reflecting on decisions, structuring their work, setting priorities and preparing for challenging situations. Interestingly, these practices were often described without explicitly referring to the concept of self leadership, suggesting that such strategies were integrated into everyday managerial work rather than consciously applied methods. The results also showed that managers expected employees to take responsibility, work independently, and make decisions within established organizational frameworks. At the same time, self-leadership appeared to occur in interaction with others, as managers frequently asked for support, exchanged perspectives and reflected together with colleagues. Overall, the study contributed to a deeper understanding of how self-leadership is interpreted and practiced within managerial roles and how managers created conditions that enabled employees to work more independently in organizational contexts.