Browsing by Author "Vartiainen, Matti, Prof."

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  • Emotional sensegiving
    (2011) Vuori, Timo
     Perustieteiden korkeakoulu | Doctoral dissertation (monograph)
    Earlier research on strategic sensegiving has discovered numerous tactics that change leaders use to influence their followers' mental models. However, these studies have focused only on the content of the words spoken during the sensegiving process. This has led to an overemphasis of cognitive processes and identity dynamics in the existing theory. At the same time, the role of non-cognitive factors and, especially, emotional arousal, in sensegiving has been understudied. To fill this gap in the sensegiving theory, I analyze sensegiving from an emotional perspective in this dissertation. In contrast to previous studies, my empirical analysis goes beyond the content of words spoken. Instead, I use video-based, qualitative analyses to recognize emotional dynamics from non-verbal cues. A total of 1,252 sensegiving instances, which include both the sensegiver's actions and the sense-receivers' reactions, are analyzed in this way. The instances occurred during a strategic change seminar of a Finnish Property Service Company. This analysis is complemented and contextualized by interviews, surveys, and field observation. A process theory of emotional sensegiving is generated through the data analysis. Accordingly, emotional sensegiving consists of dozens of micro-sequences that further consist of three micro-phases. The micro-phases are increasing arousal, cognitive (re)framing, and reinforcing commitment. Emotional arousal that is generated during the first micro-phase decays slowly and transfers to the later micro-phases. The arousal becomes associated with cognitive content that is delivered during the subsequent micro-phases. Consequently, the latter content feels more emotional and is better internalized. The use of tactics for increasing emotional arousal is supported by a background process which counters resistant reactions in a pre-emptive way. This dissertation contributes to research on sensegiving in four specific ways. First, the recognition of "increasing emotional arousal" as a sensegiving tactic allows scholars to see that the primary purpose of many sensegiving acts is to influence emotions, not cognitions as the previous theory would indicate. Second, the process theory of emotional sensegiving explains how emotional arousal can be used to increase the effectiveness of sensegiving in organizations. Third, the process theory has implications for the current, identity-based sensegiving theories. Most importantly, the need to unfreeze sense-receivers' identities is reduced. Fourth, this thesis illustrates how video-based data collection and analysis methods can be used to enrich our understanding of sensegiving.
  • Fluency experiences in knowledge-intensive individual work and collaboration
    (2011) Bergström, Heli
     Perustieteiden korkeakoulu | Doctoral dissertation (monograph)
    Although knowledge-intensive work and leadership of knowledge workers have been studied from different viewpoints and with different approaches, the research in the field appears to be very fragmented. The existing literature concentrates on the nature of knowledge-intensive work, or productivity and effectiveness of it. Because of limited amount of scientific literature and lack of empirical evidence, significance of fluency is not well understood, although fluency is an important concept from viewpoint of e.g., effectiveness. Fluency refers to an expectation of planned, effective, and goal-oriented flow of work, which becomes apparent in fluency experiences. Data of this multiple-case study, aiming at finding enablers and hindrances affecting fluency experiences in knowledge-intensive individual work and collaboration, was gathered using two methods: texts written by the informants, and semi-structured interviews. Data was analyzed using inductive-abductive reasoning to construct enablers and hindrances affecting fluency experiences based on the informants' responses. Factors related to fluency experiences were analyzed with help of relevant theory-based frameworks. Nine informants representing various professions participated in this study. Contribution of this thesis is a generic model, which describes fluency experiences in knowledge-intensive individual work and collaboration. The model introduces knowledge workers' most common fluency experiences, and contextual and work factors related to them. This thesis suggests that: 1) an individual's fluency experiences are partly independent of the environment, because an individual's experiences seem to emerge from individual emotional experiences, which are influenced by different external and internal triggers; 2) fluency is a core concept in producing positive results in knowledge-intensive individual work and collaboration, and that fluency should be considered as important a concept as productivity and effectiveness when evaluating knowledge-intensive work; and, 3) enablers and hindrances affecting fluency experiences in knowledge-intensive individual work and collaboration should be evaluated more thoroughly as factors affecting productivity and effectiveness of knowledge-intensive work, because fluency as a part of the work process has a significant influence on effectiveness and quality of work.
  • Identification with virtual teams
    (2010) Hakonen, Marko
     Aalto-yliopiston teknillinen korkeakoulu | Doctoral dissertation (article-based)
    Virtual teams, that is groups of people striving toward a common goal, dispersed across many locations, and communicating with each other predominantly via information and communication technology have become increasingly common forms of organizing work. Globalization, the need to be near customers and the rapid development of technology have enabled and driven this development. The number of studies on virtual teams is increasing but many phenomena are still understudied, especially in real-life settings. In this dissertation I have chosen to investigate the dynamics of social identification with virtual teams. Identification has often been put forward as a major success factor for virtual teams because it has been claimed to provide a sense of belonging despite the relative lack of face-to-face interaction. In order to shed more light on identification in this organizational context I have concentrated on the concepts of perceived justice and interpersonal trust and theories that link identification with them. I have also studied many relevant structural variables which are typical in virtual teams. I studied real-life virtual teams in all the four original articles of this dissertation. The data consisted of subsamples from two questionnaires; altogether 42 virtual teams and 302 team members were included. The cross-sectional data were analyzed quantitatively. The findings gave strong support to the importance of perceived justice, especially perceived procedural justice in the development of shared virtual team identity. Moreover, identity was found to be a strong motivational force which mediated the effects of justice perceptions on outcome variables. Such structural factors as the lack of face-to-face interaction and geographical dispersion were found to create uncertainty within virtual teams and moderate the relationship between procedural justice and identification. The fewer face-to-face meetings there were and the higher the geographical dispersion, the stronger the uncertainty which, in turn, forced team members to increase their search of identity cues from procedural justice judgments. Finally, it was found that both strong identification and high levels of trust are needed at the same time to predict virtual team effectiveness.
  • The impact of pay knowledge on organisational performance : investigating Finnish profit-sharing schemes
    (2011) Sweins, Christina
     Perustieteiden korkeakoulu | Doctoral dissertation (article-based)
    Many studies have been carried out on the impact of pay systems on both employee attitudes and organisational performance. However, it is still unclear how the outcomes are developed. In this thesis my aim has been to study the impact of pay knowledge on employee attitudes and organisational performance in the context of Finnish personnel funds, which are deferred profit-sharing schemes. The findings in this thesis are based on four separate articles. By pay knowledge I mean employee knowledge of both joint and firm specific principles of personnel funds. The data used in the articles were collected using a questionnaire in 31 organisations and interviews in 36 organisations that have personnel funds. Additionally, financial data was gathered for personnel fund companies and comparison companies. The results reveal that the impact of pay knowledge is directly connected to performance and not mediated through pay satisfaction as earlier research argues. This finding suggests that pay knowledge may have a stronger independent impact on the effectiveness of the pay system than previously believed. I argue further that actual knowledge is a more reliable measure than perceived knowledge in estimating the relationship between pay knowledge and pay effectiveness, and thus researchers should prefer measures of actual knowledge. To enhance knowledge about the personnel fund, it is not enough to just provide feedback on financial figures. Communication about fund related matters is important in order to increase pay knowledge and the employees' 'line of sight'. The results suggest, moreover, that making subjective performance assessments based on uninformed respondents may be a more serious source of bias than single respondent bias. This would mean that many surveys on the financial impacts of the pay system could be done more economically since there would be less need to gather a large number of respondents from individual firms.
  • Leadership in a small enterprise
    (2010) Palmgren, Helena
     Aalto-yliopiston teknillinen korkeakoulu | Doctoral dissertation (monograph)
    Leadership is often seen as the premier force behind the success and failure of enterprises and the well-being of the personnel. In spite of the vast amount of studies on leadership, leadership in small enterprises has seldom been in focus in leadership research. The increasing importance of small firms to the economic growth and competitiveness raises questions about the role and practice of leadership in small enterprises. This study aims to deepen our understanding of leadership as a social phenomenon and a human activity in small, entrepreneurial enterprises. The study is based on an analytical review of leadership research and studies on small firms, family businesses, and entrepreneurship relevant to the investigation of leadership in small enterprises. A case study in a small, entrepreneurial enterprise builds up the empirical part of the study. It utilizes the phenomenographic framework as a constructivist-interpretative research approach to leadership. The data was generated during a one-year development project, and consists of interviews of the company managers and the owner-manager, a life-story of the company and company documents. The managers' interviews function as the primary data. Through the phenomenographic, contextual analysis twelve different categories of leadership conceptions are generated that describe the qualitatively different ways in which the managers experienced leadership. The relationships between the conception categories are further analyzed and five categories that reveal the central themes of leadership in the small enterprise are generated. By utilizing a novel methodology in examining leadership in a small enterprise this study contributes an alternative perspective to leadership compared to the mainstream leadership research and produces a tentative, conceptual model of leadership in a small enterprise. The study raises concerns about the taken for granted conceptions of leadership as something good and indispensable and their power related implications in organizations; particularly in small, owner-run enterprises, where employees are dependent on the owner-manager. The practical contribution of the study is associated with such issues as consciousness about the social construction of leadership and leadership ideals, their interpretation and utilization in the everyday life in organizations and their implications to organizations and organizational members. Suggestions for meeting leadership expectations and developing participatory approach to leadership in small enterprises are provided.
  • World-wide work stress multi-case study of the stress-coping process in distributed work
    (2010) Nurmi, Niina
     Aalto-yliopiston teknillinen korkeakoulu | Doctoral dissertation (article-based)
    The changing world of work is increasing demands on workers through greater need for flexibility in global collaboration. Many organizations utilize distributed teams in which a group of people with a common purpose carry out interdependent tasks across locations and time, using technology to communicate more than face-to-face meetings. Prior literature on distributed teams shows that distributed work creates several challenges for team members' well-being, but our knowledge about the unique stressors that arise from these new work settings is limited and calls for further investigation. This multiple-case study uses a qualitative research approach to study context-specific job stressors that contribute to employees' psychological strain, and the coping mechanisms employees use to alleviate that strain. Ninety-seven team leaders and members from ten distributed real-life work teams were interviewed. The semi-structured interview data was analyzed qualitatively on team and individual levels. Results reveal the unique stressors and coping mechanisms of distributed work and model their relations to psychological strain. Geographic distance, electronic dependence and cultural diversity hinder the information flow and task coordination in distributed teams, creating stress-evoking ambiguity and uncertainty for team members. Not only these job stressors but also some of the strategies used to cope with them contribute to overload and strain. In particular, certain team-level coping strategies, such as frequent traveling to face-to-face meetings, prolonged work hours due to synchronous computer-mediated communication, and email overload create secondary sources of work overload when people use them continuously to manage uncertainty and ambiguity in distributed collaboration. To cope with the team-level coping strategies, team members rely heavily on individual coping resources, because spatial and temporal distance hinder the mobilization of social resources related to emotional, instrumental and informational social support. This dissertation suggests that the team-level coping strategies that are effective in managing certain job demands may, however, create other stressors and overload for individuals. Experienced workers, who have good self-management skills, may succeed in coping with these secondary sources of strain by prioritizing and setting clear limits for workload. Less experienced workers may feel more overloaded and need more social support from their leaders and teammates. As a practical implication, this dissertation suggests that the self-management skills in coping, employees' efforts in setting clear limits and prioritizing tasks should be better supported by organizations.