Ledarskap inom socialtjänsten : - En studie om första linjens chefers upplevelser av förväntningar på dem som ledare inom socialtjänsten

• Main Author: Sundin, Sandra
• Format: Others
• Language: Swedish
• Published: Stockholms universitet, Institutionen för socialt arbete - Socialhögskolan 2019
• Subjects: Social work; leadership; first line management; expectations; social constructions; Socialt arbete; ledarskap; första linjens chef; förväntningar; social konstruktion; Social Work
• Online Access: http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:su:diva-165869

This study focuses on how leadership is constructed in the Social Service of Sweden. The aim is to study how first line managers experience expectations on themselves as leaders and how they handle these as well as how they perceive their possibility to live up to these expectations. The study is based on eight interviews with first line managers in the fields of Social Service. Even though the result show that first line managers experience a lot of, sometimes conflicting, expectations, both from within the organisation but also external expectations from society, they feel that they can handle the pressure. The managers appear to have developed strategies to handle these expectations by re-formulating them into new expectations that is easier to live up to. Also, they believe that they have good opportunities as they feel supported in their work and they have a good self-esteem. Overall the interviewed first line managers don’t describe themselves as stressed or overworked, troubled with meeting up to expectations on them, which somewhat contradicts the result of previous research.