Intervjustudie av personer med ledarpositioner inom startup-företag, om hur de påverkats av och hanterat personalförändringar

Sammanfattning: The purpose of this study is to investigate how people who manage startup teams report that the team is affected by team member change and how such change is handled within a company. Even though frequent team member changes are common in startups, fast results and efficient working are still expected, therefore there is big interest in handling team member changes as efficiently as possible. The study’s primary focus is to explore the social processes that occur in a team when member changes take place - when members join, leave or get replaced. To evaluate this, a cross-sectional study with qualitative, semi-structured interviews was conducted. Eight people were interviewed, who were either currently working at a startup or had done so in the past. The interviews were then analyzed through a thematic analysis and four main themes were identified: 1) The unique prerequisites of a startup; 2) Focus on social dynamics rather than performance; 3) One individual can make all the difference; 4) Handling staff departures successfully. Within each of the four main themes, three further sub-themes were identified. In large, the study findings support the existing literature on startups and their vulnerability to team member changes. However, the results also demonstrate that the existing models and general research on team member changes and team performance cannot necessarily be applied to startup teams. Further, the study highlights the importance of focusing on social processes when investigating team member changes in startups. All with the aim to provide an informed contribution on how startups could handle team member changes successfully and avoid negative outcomes.