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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
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do team building remotely and one mentioned the risk of meetings becoming inefficient. As the one informant becoming a manager during the first infec- tion wave recalled, even after one year, he still felt he was missing some tacit knowledge of his new organisation. He elaborated:
But I recognised it: even though I'd been with the company for a whole year, I thought that there are things that I still don't know, but I can't say what they are. -- Others perhaps assumed that I was more 'inside' in the organisation than I actually was.
-Informant 4, quote 15 The second important topic for this group of informants was the lack of or- ganisational support. Either the received support felt being too little or then the informants did not receive any support. In one case the delicate situation of becoming a manager for the first time was not recognised. This experience is visible in the following quote:
We discussed openly in the management team and otherwise.
They assumed that "yeah, you'll handle these things". But it re- ally wasn't considered that I was actually doing those things for the first time.
-Informant 4, quote 16 One informant reported lacking sparring time from his own supervisor. An- other informant did not receive enough peer support because his instructor passed away just after the informant had become a manager. Unfortunately, also another informant in this group had lost her instructor due to a sudden death. The emotional responses were self-evident.
In this group half of the informants mentioned the increase of workload as a challenge. For two of them, the workload was already high due to the existing expert tasks and the managerial role came on top of those. On the contrary, one informant in the group had experienced a seemingly rare situation. Due to a cancellation of a large project, he suddenly did not have enough to do, which he found unpleasant.
Finally, common to half of the informants in this group, were challenges re- lated to team building. One informant had challenges with building a team remotely as mentioned earlier and another had challenges in introducing a new team member to the team’s work. Also, one informant had experienced a challenge in building a well-operating team and was now worried about a newly appointed additional member possibly damaging the established team dynamics.
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The more unique challenges this group had faced were mainly related to their subordinates or to themselves. First, one informant had gone through a very disturbing case where her subordinate bullied her in a covert manner. As she recalled, even her previous knowledge of labour protection did not help her:
At first, I didn't even understand that it was systematic bully- ing, and now we should remember -- my knowledge of occupa- tional health and safety, which I have gained during over 20 years. So, it should be remembered you aren't immune, so to say, even if you'd have all the know-how.
-Informant 13, quote 17 Another informant explained that he had to lay off a subordinate during trial period. Furthermore, another informant had encountered a subordinate hav- ing too high a workload and was required to intervene. He explained:
We had a situation in which a subordinate had said yes to a lit- tle too many things and then all the 'yesses' realised at the same time. It started to show in how he/she behaved towards others.
It led to snapping and so forth, clearly related to being ex- hausted.
-Informant 12, quote 18 Last but not least, one informant had been surprised with the amount of bu- reaucracy related to having subordinates, which requires her to book time for it. The challenges related to the first-time managers themselves included identity work and well-being such as occasional insomnia.
4.2.3 Challenges faced by group 3
In group 3 there were only few common challenges between the informants.
However, two informants working in the same field had faced similar chal- lenges. The first was related to collective agreements and both mentioned that it had been a challenge to familiarise with them and that their subordi- nates expected them as managers to know the agreements. As one of the in- formants explained, she expected to get more training and support from HR:
Well, [laughter] it really doesn't help [to say] that "here's the agreement" and roughly "read it yourself". It is text written by lawyers and its interpretation depends on the employer.
-Informant 5, quote 19 The second common challenge for the two was related to company’s Covid- 19 policies and how they would be applied to the staff. The reason the policies were an issue, was the fact that in their teams they had both experts required
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to work on-site and those who could work fully remotely. As one of the in- formants explained it required finding balance so that it would feel fair for the employees. Also, the policies were changing every once in a while, which added to the challenge and required the managers’ updating their own infor- mation about the policies in force.
Furthermore, the two informants had also encountered challenges in rela- tionships between people in their organisations. One of them mentioned a situation, where a conflict was close due to employees’ differing views on ways of doing work. The other informant recalled having to deal with a case of bullying amongst her subordinates and another subordinates’ burnout.
In group 3 the two other informants had had challenges because they re- ceived either very little or no organisational support when becoming manag- ers. Especially one of them felt it was a major drawback, which made it more difficult for her to get familiar with the organisation and e.g., its IT systems.
As she recalled:
My then superior, he/she had this ingenious pedagogy that you really don't onboard or support people, but you see whether they have it in themselves, whether they're tough enough to sur- vive.
-Informant 3, quote 20 The more unique challenges of group 3 included changes to the FTM role, poor organisational culture and people hiding emotions at work. One inform- ant’s managerial role changed due to an organisational change, which oc- curred a bit after one year into her FTM role. It meant that she would now carry also the business responsibility of her team and she found it quite bur- densome. Furthermore, she also found the organisational culture quite poor and felt it had lowered her own motivation and also saw it as a potential threat for the organisation in the long run. She described the situation:
It is an expert-organisation so in my opinion, it is very short- sighted that job satisfaction, well-being, such things at work have so comprehensively been ignored.
Even though we would not have the resources, or they would be scarce or already overloaded, the message from the upper organisational level is that -- more sales and more work and more this and that is the best that can happen to us.
-Informant 3, q:s 21 and 22
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There were also challenges related to the newly appointed managers' own selves. One informant explained that she is demanding to herself. Another informant explained how she was almost terrified of the idea of becoming a manager for the team in which she had been working. She recalled:
First, for a couple of months I was thinking that "Oh my God, this is terrible, I'm going to lose all friends and everything at work".
-Informant 11, quote 23 4.2.4 Challenges faced by several groups
Next, I will present challenges that were common to two or more groups. In addition to groups 1 and 2 also informants in group 3 mentioned some chal- lenges related to workload and agenda management. However, they did not seem to be as prevalent as in the two other groups.
In all groups there were some informants, who had experienced challenges in taking care of their well-being and for example, were still trying to find balance in their life while working in their new managerial role. One inform- ant from group 1 and two from group 2 mentioned having feelings of insuffi- ciency. As one informant from group 2 elaborated, it had affected his well- being because it had been hard for him to be off from work. He explained:
I've been insecure whether I'm good enough, doing well enough, so I've been always available. I've had holidays, yes, but thought that also on a vacation a leader should be available.
-Informant 4, quote 24 In addition to one informant in group 3, one informant from group 2 had had challenges with a poor organisational culture. The latter was mainly trying to make it better after his predecessor left. He described the situation:
I was stressed and strained about whether we could try to change the [culture] so that there would be more time left for doing the work -- rather than [using time] bouncing from one direction to another.
-Informant 12, quote 25 Interestingly, in all groups some informants mentioned challenges in recruit- ing. One had dealt with failed recruits, two found it hard to find candidates and one was left longing for better organisational support for the recruiting process.
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Two informants, one from group 1 and the other from group 2 described how it was hard to trust their subordinates. It seemed to be related to the idea of delegating some expert tasks they had previously done themselves. As one of them explained:
It has been hard for me to perhaps give up or hand over tasks to others -- It was hard to trust others when I was thinking that I can do it better.
-Informant 2, quote 26 Even though in group 2 the team-related challenges were the most prevalent, also in group 3 one informant had encountered challenges with team dynam- ics. However, thanks to becoming a manager in her then current organisa- tion, she knew this challenge beforehand and was able to utilise her previous experiences with the team.
Finally, it became evident, that the Covid-19 pandemic had posed additional challenges to informants in all groups even though these were most prevalent in group 2. The challenges were related to getting familiar with a new organ- isation and a new team due to remote or hybrid modes of work. Moreover, one informant also described how her subordinates had had challenges with well-being due to the Covid-19 measures in the society. And for her, the situ- ation was challenging because in the remote work setting it was hard to find out how her subordinates were doing. A further challenge that her organisa- tion had encountered, was the difficultness of getting people back to office.
Employees were reluctant to return to commuting with e.g., public transpor- tation. However, the issue was more prevalent with her colleagues’ teams, who had had some tough discussions about the matter.
A further challenge linked to the Covid-19 pandemic one informant had en- countered, was a recruiting ban due to the turbulence the pandemic first caused. This led to a delay in getting a replacing person to her team. Similarly, also other informants reported about uncertainties the pandemic had caused to their lives. Even at the time of the interviews in summer 2022 it was still unclear whether the pandemic was over, even though it had started almost 2.5 years ago.
4.2.5 Summary of challenges faced
As a summary, the main areas bringing challenges to the informants are pre- sented in Table 2. Some challenges were more common for certain groups or only single informants and some challenges were common to all groups and almost all informants. In my opinion, this shows, how varied the overall ex- periences of becoming a manager can be and how FTMs need abilities to tackle challenges in many areas. Furthermore, the impact of the Covid-19
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pandemic amongst my informants became very clear. Finally, I was a bit sur- prised, because there appeared to be less challenges per informant than I had anticipated.
Table 2. Summary of the main challenges faced by the informants (the less prevalent challenges are marked with (X)).