"Jag är bonden i schack" : En studie av medarbetares indirekta och direkta protester gentemot en hierarkisk organisationsstruktur

Sammanfattning: The aspiration of every organization is to collectively gather people in order to perform structured activities to fulfill its purpose. But what if there are circumstances within an organization that interferes with this? The thesis of this study is to scrutinize how employees experience their position in a hierarchical organizational structure, and what management strategies they use to direct and indirect protest against this structure. Through semi-structured interviews, employees have shared their experience of how they cope with being a part of an organization that has, against its own will, a hierarchical organizational structure. By analyzing their empiricism in the context of theories about hierarchy, organization culture and Hirschman’s theory about Exit, Voice and Loyalty, this study concludes that a hierarchical structure roots a barrier between management and its employees. This barrier has caused a lack of trust between these two much needed groups of the organization.                       The employees within the organization that the study is based on, use a varied amount of management strategies due to how they experience their position. These strategies include using their voice for the reason of feeling loyal to the organization, they use their ability to exit the organization for the lack of loyalty, and the employees experience the lack of both voice and exit, because they are finding themselves being dependent of the organization. To manage the rooted barrier and decrease the employees need to use management strategies, management should consider developing a strong organization culture, due to increase trust and motivation among its employees.