Self-leadership and shared leadership in the Swedish public sector

The purpose of this project is to support the public sector in expanding beyond mere policy and strategies to develop and embody approaches for self-leadership and shared leadership in everyday work routines, promoting sustainable hybrid workplaces. The aim is to cultivate practices that assist Swedish public sector organizations in transitioning from traditional top-down governance towards increased participation and bottom-up engagement, with enhanced competencies in self-leadership and shared leadership within their organizations. 

This shift can enable a more purpose-driven organization with self-organized teams making decisions closer to citizens. It can also enhance learning, well-being, engagement, and perceived meaningfulness at work among employees. The project also aims to build a learning network among participating organizations, a starting point for a national platform to innovate governance systems and practices in the public sector in Sweden by supporting the shift from traditional hierarchies towards increased self-leadership, shared leadership, strengthened collaboration, and a systemic perspective.

The research process involves "change agents" and their pilot teams from various public sector organizations, such as the Police, Haninge Municipality, Umeå Municipality, Lidingö Municipality, RISE, Formas, and the Swedish Transport Administration. This process includes various methods of collaboration, reflection, joint data analysis, and knowledge dissemination. 

A central part of the process is the use of participatory action research, where change agents participate in workshops to learn and develop different methods and approaches that can support their organization's change journey. These methods are then implemented in their own organizations and further developed in collaboration with their teams.

To evaluate the project's progress and effects, the research process includes both quantitative methods such as surveys and qualitative methods such as photo elicitation, interviews, and observations. These are used to analyze the needs within organizations and to assess the effects of the change process. Control groups responding to the surveys are also included to enable a comparison with the results from the teams actively participating in the action research.