“Det är ju inte så att jag ringer någon digitalt och frågar: vad har du haft i matlådan idag?” - En kvalitativ studie om chefers upplevelser av deras arbete med den psykosociala arbetsmiljön vid distansarbete

Abstract

Teleworking is a form of work that has increased significantly in recent years, not least due to the Covid-19 pandemic that had a big impact on the labor market and placed high demands on readjustment in many organizations. Teleworking means that employees increasingly work from home instead of from the office, which has an impact on the employees' work environment, both when it comes to the physical and psychosocial work environment. Regarding the physical work environment, there are explicit laws and regulation as to how the environment should be managed, while regarding the psychosocial work environment, it is multidimensional and thus more complex. Nevertheless, if the employees are working remotely or from the office, it is still within the managers responsibility and obligation to work with the work environment and determine that it is convenient. The aim of this study is to examine the managers’ senses and experiences on how the increased teleworking impacts their work with the psychosocial work environment, focusing on demand, control, and social support, where the theoretical framework of this study consists of the demand, control, and social support-model. This study intends to examine managers' experiences, considering that previous research more focused on the employees' senses and experiences of the psychosocial work environment during teleworking. Furthermore, the aim is to examine what opportunities and challenges can be identified regarding managers' work with the psychosocial work environment, due to the increased telework. This study is based on a qualitative method where ten managers were interviewed about their senses and experiences of how their work with the psychosocial work environment is affected due to the increased telework. The result presents that all the managers that have participated express that their work with the psychosocial work environment is impacted due to the increased telework. The central aspects that are noticeable in the empirical findings of this study are flexibility, systematic reconciliations and feedback, informal exchange, compatibility, and community. The result also contributes to identifying the opportunities and challenges that telework entails regarding managers' work with the psychosocial work environment, where flexibility is highlighted as the main opportunity, while also entailing challenges linked to demands, control and social support.