In addition to the Excel workbook, I created a timeline, which visualised the timing of the informants’ FTM processes in relation to the Covid-19 pan- demic in Finland (see Appendix E). I hoped the timeline could shed light on how the pandemic had affected on the informants’ overall experience of be- coming a manager as well as the challenges encountered during the process.
To the timeline, I added the Covid-19 infection waves in Finland as well as the major events such as the first case of the disease in Finland and isolation of the Uusimaa region. The isolation of Uusimaa region (March 28–April 15, 2020) was “one of the strictest freedom-limiting action in Finland during its independency (since 1917)” (in press: Tiainen, 2020). These exceptional times had impacted me and many others, so why not someone who was in the delicate phase of their career when they became managers?
3.5.3 Synthesis and conclusions
Next, it was time to start taking the analysis further and towards synthesising the material. Laine (2018, p. 43–44) explains that “typical to phenomenology is to find the richness of diversity”. With the answers to both of my research questions, I saw the richness of the experiences as a key element of the data and wanted to portray it to the reader as well.
38
To answer the research question about the FTM challenges, I began inspect- ing the similarities and differences within and between the groups in the challenges they had faced during their FTM process and how they had tackled them. To do this, I copied the related quotations to a new Excel workbook and categorised the challenges under the topics ‘Becoming FTM, Workload, Covid-19 and Well-being’. I did this to all the informants and then started summing up and comparing their experiences.
The research question about well-being was answered only after the litera- ture review, which helped me to find patterns across the informants. Again, quotations were added to an Excel workbook, similarities and differences mapped and finally, the findings were formed.
Finally, after these steps syntheses and conclusions on a more general level were drawn, which form the outcomes of this research. The outcomes include a list of recommendations for both individuals and to organisations to smoothen the FTM process. Also, they include observations that might help both parties to think about the FTM process critically.
3.6 Final note on the research methods
As mentioned also earlier, throughout the analysis process until the end of the synthesis, the hermeneutical circle (Laine, 2018, p. 38) was applied. It meant that I both personally and with others reflected the correctness of my interpretations. It included many discussions with my supervisor and col- leagues at the Aalto University’s IEM department, some of the alumni from the FTM training program as well as my personal contacts such as my family and friends. These discussions helped me to adjust or confirm my lines of thought and end up with a “meaningful whole” (Puusa, 2020, p. 148) not only describing the research material and answering the research questions but also to serve the larger audience of people working in organisations.
The limitations of the study as well as a self-evaluation will be provided in the discussions. For more details on them, please refer to chapters 5.6 and 5.8.
39
4 Findings
In this chapter I will present the findings of my study and I will do it with the help of the grouping which was discussed in more detail in chapter 3.5.2. In short, the informants were grouped by their overall experience of becoming a manager. I will start by presenting the three groups’ key features and then offer some possible explanations for their experiences. This will help me back up the outcomes of this study such as recommendations for individuals and organisations (see chapter 5.5). After this I will elaborate the challenges, these groups encountered and the ways they had overcome those challenges.
Finally, I will present the findings about the informants’ well-being during their process of becoming managers. Throughout the results I will explain similarities and differences between groups as well as shed light on seemingly unique cases to enable a wider understanding of realised FTM experiences.
Before jumping to the results, I would like to make a few notes to help a reader to understand my intentions better. First, the informants received two kinds of support for becoming a manager: 1. Support from their own work organisations and 2. Support from the FTM training program they all partic- ipated. In the following, I separate between these and refer to the former as organisational support. Furthermore, as will become clear, many informants found the FTM training program useful in overcoming some of the challenges they encountered. As the training program included a lot of reflective essays and the informants likely were in different phases of their FTM process dur- ing it, their takeaways from the program might be varied. However, for ex- ample managing personal agenda was an important part of the FTM training program.
This brings us to the next note I would like to make. In the following chapters, I will refer to having challenges in agenda management. In general, agenda management requires that individuals have capabilities in self-leadership and with agenda management I refer to e.g., their abilities to prioritise, dele- gate and schedule tasks i.e., to build their personal agenda as well as their abilities to work in a systematic way.
Finally, I also refer to the concept of ‘other than role-related managerial ex- perience’. By this I refer to two things: 1. The managerial experience the in- formants have previously gained either in non-work activities such as leading student associations or getting leadership training during their military ser- vice and 2. The managerial experience, that the informants have gained dur- ing their previous work in situations, where they have in fact managed people without an official manager role. An example of this would be a lecturer guid- ing their students in e.g., thesis work.
Interestingly, I found that among the 13 informants there were three kinds of overall experiences of becoming a manager and I divided the informants ac- cordingly to three groups. Three informants’ overall experience could be in- terpreted as challenging, and they form the group 1, six as neutral and they form the group 2, and four as either good or easy and they form the group 3.
Examples of each group are below. One informant from group 1 described his overall experience of becoming a manager as follows:
Quickly after getting two [subordinates] I had challenges, be- cause I didn't have a pure managerial role, I always had my own [expert] tasks too.
-Informant 2, quote 2 Another informant from group 2 quite casually remarked when asked what kind of experience it was to become a manager:
Well, nothing special -- the employer provided -- some courses for the job. I took the courses and received mentoring, which helped to familiarise with [managerial work].
-Informant 14, quote 3 In group 3, one informant summarised her experience of becoming a man- ager as follows:
to the managerial role in
slid ve ' I n the end, I would say, that I
y.
very easil
-Informant 3, quote 4 4.1.1 Comparing the groups
The key features defining the groups seemed to be the amount of workload, the demandingness of the FTM role, either having challenges with agenda management or not, possessing other than role-related managerial experi- ence as well as the age of the informants. A summary of the informant data in all three groups is presented in Table 1. Next, I will compare the groups with the help of the key features as well as some other aspects.
First, in the group 1 (overall experience challenging) all three informants ap- peared to have a significant workload whereas in group 2 (overall experience neutral) half of the informants i.e., three out of six seemed to have a signifi- cant workload and the other half a reasonable workload. In group 3 (overall experience good or easy) only one appeared to have a significant workload, and the other three informants a reasonable workload. Therefore, it seems
41
that a more reasonable workload would at least partly explain a better and smoother experience in the transition to one’s first managerial role.
Second, the demandingness of the FTM role might be linked to the overall experience of becoming a manager. This demandingness of the FTM role was especially visible with group 1: the informants either had many subordinates, or great responsibilities or both. Two of the informants had a pure manage- rial role and had 11 and 16 subordinates. One had a combined expert and manager role and 4 subordinates and large responsibilities. One of them knew beforehand that her FTM role would be challenging. She elaborated:
I knew that this is a very challenging role, and I knew that the times will really be very tough regarding managing the supply chain and so forth.
-Informant 10, quote 5 Third, it appeared that in group 1 all the informants had at least in the begin- ning challenges in agenda management and at the time of the interview two of them seemed to try to do better in it while one had become the master of her agenda. This is explained in more detail in chapter 4.3.1. Interestingly, she was also the one in the group who had received good organisational sup- port. In group 2 three out of the six informants seemed to be actively doing agenda management while one was doing it to some extent and trying to do it better. In group 3, three out of the four informants were doing agenda man- agement, while one was trying to improve in it. From these findings, it can be argued, that being capable of doing agenda management seems to smoothen the experience of becoming an FTM. Furthermore, it could also be argued, that poor capabilities in agenda management could be linked to how the amount of workload is perceived.
Fourth, in group 1 only one of the three informants possessed other than role- related managerial experience whereas in group 2 the number was five out of the six and in group 3 three out of the four informants. It seems, that having this kind of other managerial experience can smoothen the overall experi- ences. On the contrary, all three informants in group 1 had experience in pro- ject management whereas in group 2 three out of the six informants and in group 3 only one out of the four informants had experience in project man- agement. It might be so, that managerial experience in general is pretty much transferable between areas of life and that a project manager position does not encompass all of the aspects important for managing people. Therefore, it seems that project management might not offer the best possible practice for people aiming at managerial roles. However, it must be noted that in this study there were quite few participants and no control groups to compare the effects of the types of previous managerial experiences or having no previous
42
managerial experience at all. Also, interestingly two informants mentioned that they found managing similar to teaching.
Fifth, the majority in group 1 were around 30–35 years-old, while in groups 2 and 3 the majority was around 40–50 years-old. Therefore, a more mature age, often resulting to having more work experience, seems to be a possible factor smoothening the FTM process leading to a better overall experience.
This work experience might include important tacit knowledge about an or- ganisations’ operations in general and/or hands-on experience about work life.
The role of the work organisation
Interestingly, all informants in group 1 and in group 3 were working in com- panies. The three informants of this study working in non-business organi- sations belonged to group 2. All three had a seemingly significant workload and two of them had multiple managerial roles in their organisations. The experiences of these people describe to some extent modern work life and its pitfalls. Another interesting feature is that in all groups there were people who received very little or no organisational support, some support and good support. The majorities of informants who received very little or no organi- sational support and some support belonged to group 2.
Becoming an FTM in one’s then current or ‘old’ organisation was most com- mon for informants in groups 1 and 3 and becoming an FTM in a new organ- isation was the most common in group 2. Both have benefits and possible drawbacks. Moving within a company from an expert role to a managerial position might mean, that some previous expert role responsibilities follow people to their managerial roles adding to their workload. The two younger informants in group 1 had become FTMs in their then current organisations, which for the other seemed to have become a liability. He explained:
It was really hard to find a balance between the managerial role and expert role. It was very challenging, because I felt I needed to support others for them to proceed, but then it easily led to me not having time to do my expert work. Or if I focused on my own tasks, then I very quickly realised being the bottle neck for others [laughs].
-Informant 2, quote 6 The older informant in group 1, who was around 50 years old, had experi- enced additional challenges, as he had started in his first managerial role in a new company, which also operated in an industry new to him. He stated:
43
Altogether, I of course had exceptionally many changes, which is diving to the deep end, when the company, its field and the role are new, and where the premise is to keep away from the things you can the best and do something new.
-Informant 6, quote 7 In group 2 there were examples of positive sides of becoming a manager in a new organisation. As one informant described, starting fresh in a new organ- isation had helped him to limit his workload:
For me, an advantage was that I hadn't worked in an expert role in the organisation but came straight to the managerial position. It was easier for me. Perhaps especially regarding the workload.
-Informant 4, quote 8 In group 3 it could be seen that becoming a manager in one’s current organ- isation can in fact be an asset instead of a liability. One informant had clearly benefited in her new team-lead role from first-hand information gained from the team while she had been working as a member of it. It included recognis- ing the vocal and more silent people and dealing with these dynamics. Also, her team seemed to support her nomination to the team-lead position, which of course might have smoothened her FTM process. Furthermore, her supe- rior had been wise: because the informant had previous expert tasks ongoing besides her managerial role, the superior had limited her managerial tasks.
The informant explained:
On the other hand, my superior has said that he/she hasn't, during the first year, given me so much e.g., developmental tasks, because he/she has been aware that I still have the 'tails' of the previous [projects] ongoing. This has kept the workload reasonable.
-Informant 5, quote 9 But again, the diverse preferences of individuals were also visible: one in- formant mentioned that she preferred becoming a manager in a new organi- sation. Another said she had been almost terrified of becoming a manager for her then current team. Luckily, things had turned out well after all. Because of the specific challenges the Covid-19 pandemic caused, there was a further advantage of becoming an FTM in one’s ‘old’ organisation. It meant, that the informants did not have to familiarise themselves with a new organisation during the pandemic and possible remote work.
44 The role of the Covid-19 pandemic
The only informants becoming FTMs before the Covid-19 pandemic were ei- ther in groups 2 or 3. Another special case was visible with one informant from group 3: he was working in an organisation that by default operates in a remote work setting due to their employees living in different areas of the world. Furthermore, one informant who became an FTM just before the sec- ond infection wave in Finland was required to work at the office due to or- ganisational policies. She described the contradictory situation:
I think it's really stupid, our [laughter] grounds for the small amount of remote work, but personally for me it has been for- tunate and helped me to succeed in my work.
-Informant 3, quote 10 Not only informants starting as managers during the early days of the pan- demic were influenced by it: both in groups 1 and 2 some informants starting later during the pandemic experienced some effects related to it. It could also be argued, that due to the Covid-19 pandemic some informants had only e.g., a neutral overall experience of becoming a manager. It is possible, that with- out the pandemic, they might have had a good or an easy overall experience.
Other factors
Also, possible contributors to a better overall experience could be personal- ity-related as not being overly conscientious or perfectionistic as one inform- ant from group 2 explained. One informant lacking organisational support in group 3 was only 30, so age or experience could not explain why poor support did not affect him. In his case personality had likely helped him out. He said:
Actually, I've always been -- quite independent and self-regu- lating so perhaps because of that I haven't found it especially or too difficult --
-Informant 9, quote 11 In groups 1 and 2 the majority were males, two out of the three informants and four out of the six informants respectively. In group 3 the majority, three out of the four informants were female. The three informants having a pure managerial role were in groups 1 and 2. The rest had a combined expert and manager role. The informant having the most subordinates (over 50) was in group 2 and otherwise the number of subordinates varied from 2–4 up to 14–
16 in each group. Finally, the three informants who seemed to work in an organisation with a culture supporting individual well-being were in groups 2 and 3.
45
Table 1. Summary of informant data in the groups.
Key: Green=Good Yellow=Adequate Orange=Poor-ish Red=Poor
*Age of the informants has been rounded to the nearest five years.
46 4.2.1 Challenges faced by group 1
As already explained before, the group 1 had especially faced challenges re- lated to workload and agenda management. These included challenges in managing the workload resulting from a combined expert and manager role or in general having a lot of tasks and responsibilities in their role. One in- formant explained, how the first months in her FTM role had been quite cha- otic due to poor agenda management. Another informant said he had not had a clear orientation period to his role:
I perhaps didn't have the kind of time to orientate or have peace to get the routines of the team functioning for some months, but there has also been quite a lot of thinking -- how quickly, what kind of changes are we going to implement.
-Informant 6, quote 12 This informant also felt, he did not have enough time to familiarise himself with topics important for his new role as a manager. He also felt that he was lacking knowledge on previous organisational events and relationships be- tween people. Another informant also mentioned this as a challenge, though she did not mention it being a cause of being too busy. The significant work- load had at least partly contributed to one informant experiencing a burnout a year after becoming a manager:
I put a lot of pressure on myself to get a lot done and ended my- self burning out -- over a year ago -- I needed to take a short break from work because I couldn't take it anymore.
-Informant 2, quote 13 There were also a few challenges, that were related specifically to this group.
One informant explained how she knew the managerial role she was taking on would be challenging due to operational challenges and the resourcing of the team. Another informant explained that his own choice of becoming a manager through changing to a new organisation operating in a field new to him caused him challenges. Furthermore, one informant explained how she had had challenges with distance management due to her organisation oper- ating in a multinational setting. As she recalled: ”ison tiimin etäjohtaminen on ollu aika haasteellista” (Informant 10, quote 14). One informant also mentioned having challenges in finding his own principles of leading people, for instance how to support subordinates appropriately.
4.2.2 Challenges faced by group 2
In group 2 all but one mentioned having some kind of problems due to re- mote working caused by the Covid-19 pandemic. Some had problems with getting to know the organisation in a remote setting, one found it difficult to