Medarbetarskap – en inblick i ledarens perspektiv En fallstudie om medarbetarskap i en offentlig verksamhet

Abstract

Employeeship has in recent years become a large trend in the labor market. It seems like the awareness within the field is increasing and organizations are starting to realize the importance of having responsible and committed employees, who are included in decision making at multiple levels. With an eye to previous research in the field of employeeship, we feel that there is a shortage of studies which aim to put the concept into local context. The purpose of the study is consequently to increase the understanding of employeeship based on a managerial perspective. With this study, we want to increase the knowledge about how leaders actively work to promote employeeship. Furthermore, the study aims to identify the effects of conducting an active employeeship, both on an organizational- and individual level. To achieve that, the study will be based on the following questions: What is the perception of employeeship according to managers in a public company? How do managers facilitate employeeship on a regular basis? What are the implications of encouraging employeeship according to the managers? The study was conducted on a qualitative basis where eight managers were interviewed. A thematic analysis was used to process the data. The result was divided into three parts aligned with the aim of the study: “Managers’ perception of the concept of employeeship”, “Managers’ encouraging employeeship” and “Managers’ view of implications related to employeeship”. By analyzing the empirical data relating to the understanding of employeeship we found that responsibility, commitment, relationships and communication were key elements in the interpretation of the concept of employeeship. In the second part of the result which related to how the managers' worked to promote employeeship, three main categories were deduced: Through involvement and promotion of development, by being present and through a continuous dialogue. Finally, based on the results we could also identify the managers' perception of what effects the promotion of an active employeeship could provide. These were divided into implications related to the organization and implications linked to the individuals within the organization. Among the result-oriented consequences, managers mentioned higher quality, increased efficiency and higher attainment. The main individual-oriented consequences were job satisfaction, and personal development. The conclusion that can be drawn is that the terms used to define co-workership in research (reponsability, relations and commitment), is basically consistent with the results of our study. What we have found is that these terms can be defined in various ways depending on the context and the people using them. To create an understanding of what co-workership actually means, the catchwords, which in this study was responsibility, commitment and relationship, needs to be commonly attributed to a content and related to the context they are in, by the people involved in the organization.