Arbetsmotivation efter mammaledighet

Returning to work after maternity leave may bring about negative feelings for many women. Previous research has shown that a woman can experience negative emotions such as anxiety, fear, and stress when going back to work and also that the pension can drastically decrease for a woman, who has been on maternity leave for a longer period. It is therefore useful to examine if the maternity leave may have some effects on work motivation. In this thesis the aim is to examine the work motivation after maternity leave with the questions if there are changes in work motivation after maternity leave and if maternity leave can affect work motivation in one way or another. The results, based on interviews with 10 women, show that the women’s work motivation was relatively high after maternity leave. However, also that the factors that affect work motivation changed after maternity leave. Before the maternity leave, the interviewed women were focused on work-related factors such as building a career, making money, obtain work experience, and the satisfying feeling of doing a good job. After the maternity leave, these factors changed to childcare nearby work, a company’s family friendliness, colleagues, and new challenges at work. With Hakim’s (1998) Preference Theory, which deals with that a woman’s work pattern change after she had had children, analyzes have been carried out. All the women interviewed in this study started prioritizing a balance of work and family after their maternity leave. Analyses were also carried out with Roese and Summerville’s (2005) theory, Opportunity Principle, which deals with that regrets drive people to change their decisions, which might explain feelings of regret in a woman’s decision for returning to work.Validerat; 20130828 (global_studentproject_submitter