The First Year of Service: A Longitudinal Study of Organisational Antecedents of Transformational Leadership in the Social Service Organisations

In this longitudinal interview study, we have strived to advance the understanding of how organisational factors may hinder the emergence of transformational leadership among first line managers in social service organisations. By interviewing managers in a Swedish social service organisation during their first year of leadership, we first identified leadership ideals and then asked them to identify factors that hinder the performance of this leadership. Qualitative content analysis was used to analyse the data and the results revealed that the managers strived for a transformational leadership, but several factors in the organisation made it difficult to lead in the way they intended. Hindering factors were identified both at the organisational level, such as 'top-down management', 'financial strain' and 'continuous change', and in the managers' own working environment in terms of no support', 'high work-load', 'limited influence', 'administrative tasks' and 'distance to employees'. This study contributes to our understanding of organisational antecedents of transformational leadership as well as the premises of transformational leadership in social service organisations.