Chefers ledarskap under pandemins framfart -En intervjustudie om hur chefers ledarskap har förändrats av distansarbete

Sammanfattning: During the year 2020 the world was struck by the covid-19 pandemic. Due to this, many businesses asked their employees to work from home (Sheehan, 2020) and thus presented organizational leaders with new challenges. Leaders started to operate their teams through virtual communication channels.The purpose of the study is to investigate whether leadership has changed due to working at distance. To investigate this, we have brought forward a model of "optimal distance leadership" based on previous research within the field, including theories regarding leadership and communication. The previous studies tend to focus on the pros and cons of distance leadership. This study intends to review how the leadership has changed in the transition to distance work.The study is based on qualitative semi structured interviews with nuanced descriptions of management leadership. The result of the study shows that the leadership has changed. Leaders adopted a situational leadership, became more solid in their communication and more available than before the pandemic. The change can largely be explained through the model of "optimal distance leadership".