AbstractThe subject of the study is leadership in elderly care. The purpose is to study what the unit managers for senior housing of the public sector consider that an elderly work involves and to what extent they consider that an elderly-centered work is possible to perform compared to the conditions and co-existent factors. The empirical study was performed by a web-based survey that contained questions regarding the background of the unit managers, their work situation and what they consider an elderly-focus is. The theoretical framework is formed by transformational leadership theory, the concept of management and the theory of the Sense of Coherence.The study has resulted in, among other things, that there is no significant difference between what the unit managers consider an elderly-centered work involves and what they consider as possible when working in an elderly-centered way. The result shows also that there is a lesser extent of possibility to perform excursions and activities for the elderly people. Unit managers consider that enabling of activities is less important in their elderly-centered work. It has also been studied whether the work situation of the unit managers is related to their possibility to work elderly-focused. Some factors of their work situations showed a co-variation. These factors include the financial- and human-resources, the adequacy of the administrative assistance and the time spent by unit managers in the meetings. On the other hand, no linear correlation was showed by the result between the number of employees per unit manager and their view of having possibility to work elderly-centered, which has been proved by earlier research. The conclusion that can be drawn from this study is that the unit managers consider the elderly-centered work being important and to a significant extent even possible. This benefits the elderly people.