How leadership within municipal organizations is expressed : From an employee perspective

It is said that leadership success can be measured by the well-being of employees therefore we believe it becomes relevant to research the employee’s preferences concerning which skills they believe; a good enough leadership should entail. However previous leadership research tends to focus on the opinions of the middle managers rather than the employees themselves. Therefor the following study will conduct semi-structured individual and thematic group-interviews to depict the ideas of both middle managers and employees within five different municipal care-organizations. Throughout the study an employee-perspective have been added to further investigate the most desired leadership skills vis-à-vis the actual leadership that occurs within municipal care operations to highlight differences and similarities.The following study can conclude that having a relationship between employees and middle managers is something that is important and something that everyone thinks is a prerequisite. The study can also draw conclusions surrounding the most preferred leadership skills. Employees need to feel involved and that the middle manager is understanding and insightful regarding the different roles and opinions of the employees. The studies theoretical theory, symbolic interactionism and Goffman's dramaturgy became helpful tools in order to analyze and understand how relationships are expressed and how communication can be interpreted. Furthermore, middle managers and employees agreed that it is difficult for middle managers to work with an employee-perspective in municipal care, since all performers have different perspectives and priorities, which means that they might have different opinions about which leadership qualities they consider to be most important. A leadership with an employee-perspective can be compromised by the fact that middle managers have many areas of responsibilities. Municipal care operations are an ever-growing workplace and a last home for many people which also can affect a middle managers ability to possess an employee-perspective