TIIMIN JOHTAMISEN MUUTOKSET OPPILAITOSYMPÄRISTÖSSÄ Jukka Oksanen
Changes in team leadership in vocational education The covid-19 pandemic has changed the way we work as distance work has been a periodical must for most working environments. The vocational education and training provider Keuda has also adjusted to distance work and needed to introduce distance working methods. The emphasis on leadership methods, communication and teamwork are key elements when reflecting on the occurred changes. Therefore, the aim of this work is to find out how the workload of team leaders has changed due to distance work and what are the best practices as part of leading a team. The study was based on three research questions which provided knowledge and answers leading to the conclusion: How did the transferal to distance work change the team leaders' work? Did distance leadership add the workload of the team leaders? What are the best practices that have been taken into use in leading distance work? The study was conducted through methods of case study and the interviews conducted as theme interviews. The methods were chosen as they are most suited for researching a phenomenon. Based on the interviews distance work has affected the workload of the team leaders making everyday communication and teamwork more difficult. The situation has put pressure on the team leaders and their ability to organize work and lead their employees in the rapidly changing situation covid-19 has inflicted. Sharing the best practices, making the responsibilities of team leaders visible to the employees, and clearly separating the leadership responsibilities from the teaching responsibility and outlining the time allocated to leadership are key elements in enabling better vocational education distance leadership in the future. Keywords: teamwork, leadership, distributed work, distance work, distance leadership
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