Browsing by Subject "supervisors"

This research aims to to explore servant leadership (SL) in the dioceses of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland (ELCF). The aim will be addressed by exploring these two research questions: 1. Which categories of servant leadership are the strongest amongst supervisors’, and which are the weakest? 2. What are the possible antecedents for the supervisors’ servant-leader behavior? The data used in this quantitative study has been collected as part of the Exponential Work -project, which is a part of Future of Work -research, a Finnish Academy-funded research program. The data used in this study consists of 650 parish work personnel who evaluated their immediate supervisor’s SL. Over 400 leader-follower dyads were formed based on the information given by these participants. Based on the findings of this study, supervisors emphasize first and foremost behaving ethically. The category, which was the second strongest, was having a sense of purpose. The two categories where church leadership struggled most were helping followers grow and succeed and creating value for those outside of the organization. Except for behaving ethically, every category of Ehrhart’s SL had quite a bit of variance in them. The church also provided an interesting context for Ehrhart’s measure. The measure could be used as two-dimensional instead of one. Compared to a small sample of previous studies with Ehrhart’s measure, the level of servant leader behavior is quite average in the ELCF. As for the antecedents for SL, the most basic comparison of male and female supervisors did not find significant differences between the genders. The means of dioceses differed more than those of male and female supervisors, but the differences were not statistically significant. The first significant differences between supervisors were found when examining differences between organizational levels; SL got better the higher the organizational level of the supervisor was. Differences were also found when examining the age and work experience of supervisors. On average, SL improves until the age of circa 49, after which it declines. The trend was somewhat similar with regards to supervisors’ work experience. On average, the first twenty or so years have a positive trend, followed by a decline. The study ended with comparing supervisors according to the years they had been in their current position. The findings of this process were that, first, supervisors could enjoy a “honeymoon” period when they begin in a new position. Secondly, the number of years spent in the same position seems to affect male and female supervisors differently. Unlike their female colleagues, with male supervisors, the number of years spent in the same position negatively correlated with their SL.

This study examines supervisors' emerging new role in a technical customer service and home customers division of a large Finnish telecommunications corporation. Data of the study comes from a second-generation knowledge management project, an intervention research, which was conducted for supervisors of the division. The study exemplifies how supervision work is transforming in high technology organization characterized with high speed of change in technologies, products, and in grass root work practices. The intervention research was conducted in the division during spring 2000. Primary analyzed data consists of six two-hour videorecorded intervention sessions. Unit of analysis has been collective learning actions. Researcher has first written conversation transcripts out of the video-recorded meetings and then analyzed this qualitative data using analytical schema based on collective learning actions. Supervisors' role is conceptualized as an actor of a collective and dynamic activity system, based on the ideas from cultural historical activity theory. On knowledge management researcher has taken a second-generation knowledge management viewpoint, following ideas from cultural historical activity theory and developmental work research. Second-generation knowledge management considers knowledge embedded and constructed in collective practices, such as innovation networks or communities of practice (supervisors' work community), which have the capacity to create new knowledge. Analysis and illustration of supervisors' emerging new role is conceptualized in this framework using methodological ideas derived from activity theory and developmental work research. Major findings of the study show that supervisors' emerging new role in a high technology telecommunication organization characterized with high speed of discontinuous change in technologies, products, and in grass-root practices cannot be defined or characterized using a normative management role/model. Their role is expanding two-dimensionally, (1) socially and (2) in new knowledge, and work practices. The expansion in organization and inter-organizational network (social expansion) causes pressures to manage a network of co-operation partners and subordinates. On the other hand, the faster speed of change in technological solutions, new products, and novel customer wants (expansion in knowledge) causes pressures for supervisors to innovate quickly new work practices to manage this change.