Research in Organization and Management

Research and teaching in our discipline focus on three main areas:

• strategy practices, managerial cognition and institutional environments of organizations
• sustainability management, corporate social responsibility, and business ethics
• organizational behavior and human resource management

The interests of our group members extend further to innovation processes within companies and society at large, and to the study of academic work and management education as well as philosophy of management.

Our research rests on the discipline's core strength of pluralist and multi-vocal understandings of organizational settings as sites where actions are taken and decisions are made in the face of potentially incompatible demands and rationalities. 

Our researchers’ work spans disciplinary boundaries. We aim for cross-disciplinary research collaboration in the spirit of the Aalto University mission. The empirical phenomena we study are often complex and multifaceted; for example, sustainability challenges are systemic and call for joint efforts of researchers in different fields.

Our senior faculty members are active in international research communities and networks, serving in editorial positions and as editorial board members. Our strategic research partners in Finland include Aalto SCI (Department of Industrial Engineering and Management) and Hanken School of Economics. We are active in SCANCOR at Stanford University, and collaborate with scholars from universities around the world.

Widely published research

Our discipline seeks actively to engage with the international academic community and practitioners. Members of our discipline have recently published their research in top tier journals such as:

• Academy of Management Review
• Academy of Management Journal
• Administrative Science Quarterly
• Human Relations
• Journal of Applied Psychology
• Journal of Business Ethics
• Journal of Management
• Journal of Management Studies
• Organization Science
• Organization Studies
• Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes
• Strategic Management Journal

Projects and networks

Much of the research in the discipline takes place in international and Finnish collaborative projects, funded by e.g. the European Union, the Academy of Finland, and the Finnish Innovation Agency Tekes. We design our research projects to provide actionable knowledge for our partners and to accumulate comprehensive empirical data sets that enable high quality research. On-going research projects are also an important source of teaching materials.

Our scholars’ research collaboration involves companies, non-governmental organizations, the public sector, as well as Finnish and international universities. Together these networks provide tangible benefits for our students:

1)    Our collaboration with a variety of organizations offers our master’s students opportunities to design and conduct their thesis research in collaboration with practitioners in order to create real-life impact.

2)    Our doctoral students make use of collaborative ties by gaining insight and data on problems faced by companies and the public sector. Connections with leading scholars abroad provide our doctoral students with opportunities to spend periods studying abroad and to learn by working together with international scholars.

Administration

Head of Department: Nina Granqvist

Unit Coordinator: Alexei Koveshnikov

Secretary: Manuela Shampemba