Creating a Toolkit for Managers to Ensure Work Engagement in a Hybrid Working Environment

Abstract

In the aftermath of Covid-19, the circumstances in which we work have changed significantly. Many employees have moved from office work to hybrid working environments and simultaneously the work engagement and wellbeing of the Finnish workforce have declined. The purpose of this thesis is to research ways in which knowledge work managers can help ensure work engagement in their teams, by creating a simple and easy-to-read toolkit. The aim of the toolkit is to provide focus points and practical tips to knowledge work managers with different backgrounds.

The theoretical framework focuses on work engagement, transformational leadership, self-leadership, and hybrid work. A new work engagement model for the hybrid working era is built on the existing theories in these fields. These areas also create the focus points for the qualitative research performed via semi-structured interviews on a group of employees and managers selected via purposive sampling.

The research results highlight the importance of acknowledging the new ways of working. The research emphasizes the areas which managers should focus on. These are a combination of known theories on work engagement and transformational leadership, but also on the key areas rising from newer research on hybrid working. An easy-to-read toolkit was drawn from the research results to help the knowledge work managers in their daily lives as hybrid team managers.