Research project Manager on demand. New conditions for leadership and learning in the fluid work life.
A new manager enters the workplace with no previous knowledge of employees, organizational culture, or history and is supposed to lead a development project for six months with no future in the business. This scenario is increasingly common in contemporary working life. But what happens when even the manager is there temporarily?
This thesis project is about leadership and governance by hiring interim managers. An interim manager is a temporarily hired external consultant who takes on a management position for 6-12 months to implement changes, manage crises, or cover vacancies. How can the interim managers contribute to learning and change in their client organizations under these premises? Thus, the thesis addresses some of the new conditions for organizations in the flexible working life and, more specifically; how the hiring of interim managers creates conditions for leadership and learning in organizations.
The project is divided into three sub-studies:
- The first partial study includes a literature review of the research performed on interim managers throughout the 2000s. This knowledge is then analyzed through the theoretical lens of organizational learning to circle the state of knowledge and point to possible future research areas.
- The second partial study focuses on the interim manager’s position on the border between being an insider and an outsider. What does this position mean for the possibilities to contribute to change in the workplace?
- The third partial study will focus on interim management, i.e. how organizations manage their business through the employment of interim managers.
Project members
Project managers
Viktoria Rubin
PhD student
Members
Jon Ohlson, Main supervisor
Professor
