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First line managers in home care face major challenges and high expectations from society. Health reforms during the last decades have contributed to major changes in their tasks. With the Norwegian welfare policy that encourages citizens to remain longer in their own homes, along with demographic trends, home care services will have to deal with new demands and challenges also in the future. The purpose of this study was to explore and interpret the discourses that appeared in the descriptions of the first line managers’ everyday work, and how these discourses are shaping first line managers’ leadership in home care services inspired by ideas from New Public Management. Eight interviews were analysed using discourse analysis. The analysis revealed two constituting discourses; a discourse of care and a discourse of cost efficiency. From a social constructionist gendered perspective, the first line managers described a «good girl»- and a «manager»-position respectively in these discourses. Both subject positions constructed their practices as leaders and provided opportunities and obstacles. This study revealed that both discourses have moral issues, but require different approaches. To the managers themselves this entails moral problems that challenge their personal norms and values.

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