Employee Well-Being in Self-Managing Organizations
Nissi, Eliisa (2021)
Nissi, Eliisa
2021
Master's Programme in Leadership for Change
Johtamisen ja talouden tiedekunta - Faculty of Management and Business
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Hyväksymispäivämäärä
2021-05-18
Julkaisun pysyvä osoite on
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:tuni-202105034283
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:tuni-202105034283
Tiivistelmä
Today’s organizations have to a large extent, shifted from industrial manufacturing to mastering and creating high-level knowledge. However, the traditional way of organizing work and leading employees, which has reigned in organizations for a long has caused challenges on organizations’ performance. The change in the nature of work has also highlighted the importance of employee well-being as knowledge work may create high strains, leading to adverse impacts on employee well-being. Various organizations have responded to these challenges by degrading their hierarchical organizational structures and distributing the leadership in them. However, this phenomenon of self-organizing and its influence on employee well-being have been studied vaguely.
This thesis aims to examine how the characteristics of self-managing organizations influence the experienced employee well-being by adopting a comprehensive perspective on how employee well-being is formed in organizations. The formed research question is answered through literature review and analysis of empirical data. Interpretivism and, more precisely, phenomenology acted as the guiding research philosophies, and an abductive approach was adopted conducting the thesis. The research design consisted of a qualitative case study. Altogether, thirteen semi-structured interviews were analyzed using thematic analysis. This thesis is part of a TEOT -research project conducted at Tampere University, aiming to study employee well-being in self-managing organizations with no managers and minimal hierarchy. Two case organizations participating in the research project were examined, of which both the organizations operated in the software industry.
The findings are categorized under five themes, derived from the theory of comprehensive employee well-being perspective, which consists of factors influencing employee well-being in organizations. The themes are the organization, leadership, work community, work, and individual factors. To briefly summarize the results, several characteristics of self-managing organizations are identified to positively influence the experienced employee well-being regarding each of the themes. However, some characteristics also cause challenges and adverse impacts on the experienced employee well-being.
Both theoretical contributions and practical implications on employee well-being in self-managing organizations are offered in this thesis. This thesis composes the existing but scattered body of literature and research on self-organizing’s influence on employee well-being and confirms many existing views on self-organizing’s advantages as well as challenges to employee well-being in self-managing organizations. Furthermore, this study supports the perception of comprehensive employee well-being forming from various factors. However, the results also challenge some of the current views in literature and provide new aspects that have not been addressed previously. Practical implications on fostering employee well-being in self-managing organizations operating in the software industry are finally offered based on this thesis’s results, and future research possibilities are indicated.
This thesis aims to examine how the characteristics of self-managing organizations influence the experienced employee well-being by adopting a comprehensive perspective on how employee well-being is formed in organizations. The formed research question is answered through literature review and analysis of empirical data. Interpretivism and, more precisely, phenomenology acted as the guiding research philosophies, and an abductive approach was adopted conducting the thesis. The research design consisted of a qualitative case study. Altogether, thirteen semi-structured interviews were analyzed using thematic analysis. This thesis is part of a TEOT -research project conducted at Tampere University, aiming to study employee well-being in self-managing organizations with no managers and minimal hierarchy. Two case organizations participating in the research project were examined, of which both the organizations operated in the software industry.
The findings are categorized under five themes, derived from the theory of comprehensive employee well-being perspective, which consists of factors influencing employee well-being in organizations. The themes are the organization, leadership, work community, work, and individual factors. To briefly summarize the results, several characteristics of self-managing organizations are identified to positively influence the experienced employee well-being regarding each of the themes. However, some characteristics also cause challenges and adverse impacts on the experienced employee well-being.
Both theoretical contributions and practical implications on employee well-being in self-managing organizations are offered in this thesis. This thesis composes the existing but scattered body of literature and research on self-organizing’s influence on employee well-being and confirms many existing views on self-organizing’s advantages as well as challenges to employee well-being in self-managing organizations. Furthermore, this study supports the perception of comprehensive employee well-being forming from various factors. However, the results also challenge some of the current views in literature and provide new aspects that have not been addressed previously. Practical implications on fostering employee well-being in self-managing organizations operating in the software industry are finally offered based on this thesis’s results, and future research possibilities are indicated.