Browsing by Subject "organisaation toimintakulttuuri"

Several studies have been carried out in Finland on the leadership of early childhood education and care centres, which have highlighted problems, challenges and shortcomings in leadership. In this thesis, two sub-studies were used to address this issue. First, the literature review collected the studies published between 2013 and 2023 and found in a Finnish database, and the problems and challenges they presented. The problems were classified into five categories: ambiguity and lack of definition of tasks and job descriptions, leadership of self, leadership of others, structural problems of leadership, and organizational problems. The second part of the thesis looked at the ways in which discussion between actors at different levels of the organization (the 'organizational council') can contribute to finding solutions to previously identified problems. Based on the results of the literature review, three thematic platforms were put together to facilitate the discussion. Employees, officials and a representative of the political decision-making level of a large Finnish city's early childhood education and care organization were invited as discussants. Within the framework of the action research, the interest was in the suggestions for development that were put forward in the discussion. Most of the suggestions for improvement were made by the political level. A discursive analysis of the data traced the paths along which the conversation followed after the development proposals were made. The analysis looked at both the discourses that enabled development work and those that stabilized problems. Four different discourses emerged, which were called the path open to the proposal, the path closed to the proposal, the crossroads and the by-path. From a development perspective, the crossroads emerged as the most important path, as it contained a reflection on one's own agency and the need for development in general. In this way, the concept of the crossroads develops existing theory on the nature of development discourse in organizations. The thesis also provides further insight into the barriers to development discourse. One of the most interesting suggestions for development in the data was the desire for more interaction between policy makers and professionals working at different levels of the early childhood education and care organization, so that at the main stage the Board has a more complete picture of the everyday life of the day-care centres and the regions and the situations which have influence on them. However, efforts to increase the impact of the interaction between the two sides of the table mostly led to a closed path in the discussion. Despite the obstacles to development talk, the organizational board proved to be a good way to promote interaction between different levels of the organization and to provide opportunities to influence decision-making, according to the data in this thesis. It also served as a good way to increase the knowledge of the discussants about the research-based knowledge of leadership in early childhood education and care.