Browsing by Author "Magnusson, Pia"

Due to advanced technology and globalization people have greater physical flexibility which also applies to workplaces. Employees in offices can work in more flexible ways which makes distance work even more common. The traditional office environments that we have been using for a long time are making way for more flexible offices, the most flexible of them is called agile workplace. Everyone is located in the same space, both leaders and workers, in the agile workplace office. Distance work is more common and the hierarchy be-tween the leader and the workers is smaller. The aim for this study is therefore to take a closer look at what challenges and possibilities the leaders experience in the agile workplac-es as well as how leaders experience stress and well-being in these offices. The purpose is also to study how the situation with the virus covid-19 year 2020 affected the leaders and their experience of stress and well-being during this time. Nine (9) interviewees participated in the study. The informants were leaders in agile work-places. The study used a qualitative research method with phenomenological semistructured interviews. The interviews were then analysed by a thematic analyse method with an induc-tive approach. Results indicate that challenges occur regarding the noises and disturbances in the offices. There also occur challenges regarding tasks that demand concentration and when dealing with confidential material. Possibilities was found in the environment itself as well as the freedom and flexibility in the office environment. The agile workplace created possibilities regarding quick and effective communication, great social interaction and the office contrib-uted with great ergonomics. The interviewees had good well-being and did not experience stress due to the office environment. Covid-19 had not affected the informants significantly. Some experienced occasional stress due to the virus. They had more leisure time which af-fected their well-being positively while the social contacts had been erased which had a neg-ative effect on their well-being.