The paper presents a study of Swedish academic leaders’ perception of their work situation. The aim was to explore the conditions which can enable creativity and learning in higher education institutions. The KEYS survey was sent to a sample of 64 university managers from social sciences, humanities and technical departments at Swedish universities. The response rate was 39 % (n25). The result indicates that education managers perceive a lack of feedback from upper management, but at the same time, they claim to have a high level of trust from upper management.