[article-cris] Kauppakorkeakoulu / BIZ

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The use of English as corporate language in global knowledge work over a 15-year business career
(Inderscience Publishers, 2024-08) Räisänen, Tiina; Kankaanranta, Anne; Department of Management Studies
This paper investigates the use of English as corporate language in the everyday global knowledge work of a business practitioner over his 15-year career. The data, collected over the practitioner's career, include both authentic data such as recordings of work practices and email communication, as well as interviews and ethnographic field notes. Applying content and genre analysis, we investigate how the practitioner's use of different genres of English as corporate language changes over time and how his experiences follow suit, enabling agency, participation and engagement in the global knowledge economy. While at the beginning of his career the trainee practitioner produces backstage genres only, as a manager he needs to navigate between official, frontstage genres and the mixed genres falling between the two extremes. Over his 15-year career the novice practitioner becomes a global knowledge worker who is empowered by his competence in English as corporate language.
Just Transition to Ethical Sustainability : Not Why or What but How
(Transnational Press, 2024-08-03) Häyry, Matti; Takala, Tuija; Department of Management Studies
Ethical sustainability would require that social and ecological matters are taken as seriously as economic considerations in political and legislative decision making. Currently they are not, although international policy makers are well aware of the requirement. We examine philosophically the possibility of making a shift transition from the current situation to ethical sustainability. Our main tools in the task are a thought experiment and the thin concept of the rule of law. We postulate, in the thought experiment, that all nations of the world have become democratic and law-abiding and agree on the need for the shift. The remaining question in this imaginary case would be how to effect the desired change. We present the formal conditions of the rule of law and apply them first in an ideal situation to the key aspects of a just transition to ethical sustainability and then to a non-ideal real-life case, that of fur farming.
Can I Sell You Avocadoes and Talk to You About Contraception? Well, It Depends Which Comes First: Anchor Roles and Asymmetric Boundaries
(Academy of Management, 2023-12-19) Shulist, Patrick; Rivera-Santos, Miguel; Kistruck, Geoffrey M.; Nguni, Winnie; Department of Management Studies; Sustainability in Business; Babson College; York University Toronto; University of Dar Es Salaam
Role theory generally predicts that when the demands and norms of two roles are highly contrasted, individuals will construct a strong boundary to separate the roles. However, such predictions are grounded primarily in the Global North, emphasizing role pairings such as ‘work-family’ and hybrid ‘work-work.’ Comparatively, the Global South is characterized by a relative lack of public services that creates a highly contrasted, highly salient, and yet understudied role pairing – ‘work-community.’ Additionally, the socioeconomic features of the Global South (e.g., dense and overlapping community networks, financial poverty) call into question whether existing predictions surrounding boundary strength are likely to hold. We conducted a qualitative study of 73 Tanzanian participants who had both a self-employed work role and a family planning counsellor community role. We found that highly contrasted roles can be simultaneously perceived as both incompatible and compatible. Specifically, the boundaries we observed were neither uniformly strong nor weak, but rather of asymmetric strength: strong when a social interaction was anchored in the community role, but weak when anchored in the work role. The specific role contrasts we identify, and the importance of role anchoring we observe, have important implications for role theory and literature on boundary setting more broadly.
Media Review: Can elite-driven social change save the world?
(SAGE Publications, 2023-12) Chliova, Myrto; Department of Management Studies
Book reviewed: Winners Take All: The Elite Charade of Changing the World by Anand Giridharadas
Imposing a Lifestyle: A New Argument for Antinatalism
(Cambridge University Press, 2024-04-27) Häyry, Matti; Sukenick, Amanda; Department of Management Studies; The Exploring Antinatalism Podcast
Antinatalism is an emerging philosophy and practice that challenges pronatalism, the prevailing philosophy and practice in reproductive matters. We explore justifications of antinatalism - the arguments from the quality of life, the risk of an intolerable life, the lack of consent, and the asymmetry of good and bad - and argue that none of them supports a concrete, understandable, and convincing moral case for not having children. We identify concentration on possible future individuals who may or may not come to be as the main culprit for the failure and suggest that the focus should be shifted to people who already exist. Pronatalism's hegemonic status in contemporary societies imposes upon us a lifestyle that we have not chosen yet find almost impossible to abandon. We explicate the nature of this imposition and consider the implications of its exposure to different stakeholders with varying stands on the practice of antinatalism. Imposition as a term has figured in reproductive debates before, but the argument from postnatal, mental, and cultural imposition we launch is new. It is the hitherto overlooked and underdeveloped justification of antinatalism that should be solid and comprehensible enough to be used even by activists in support of their work.
We are all pattern makers! How a flat ontology connects organizational routines and grand challenges
(SAGE Publications, 2024-08) Sele, Kathrin; Mahringer, Christian Alexander; Danner-Schröder, Anja; Grisold, Thomas; Renzl, Birgit; Department of Management Studies; University of Stuttgart; Technische Universität Kaiserslautern; University of St. Gallen
Adopting a flat ontology, we discuss how phenomena of societal concern are connected to organizational routines. We conceptualize grand challenges as large patterns of actions to overcome the micro-macro divide prevalent in existing research. We introduce spatial, temporal, and agentic relations as three interrelated aspects of scale that are of particular interest and demonstrate how social phenomena may be approached through these relations. Focusing on the situated enactment of routines allows us to identify weakening and strengthening between actors and their actions as important processes that reflect the continuous patterning of grand challenges. We contribute to the literature by highlighting the consequentiality of mundane actions and by questioning the dominant approach to change in research on grand challenges. Our insights offer several practical implications for intervening on grand challenges.
PhD studies hurt mental health, but less than previously feared
(Elsevier Science B.V., 2024-10) Keloharju, Matti; Knüpfer, Samuli; Müller, Dagmar; Tåg, Joacim; Department of Finance; Swedish Public Employment Service; Hanken School of Economics
We study the mental health of PhD students in Sweden using comprehensive administrative data on prescriptions, specialist care visits, hospitalizations, and causes of death. We find that about 7 % (5 %) of PhD students receive medication or diagnosis for depression (anxiety) in a given year. These prevalence rates are less than one-third of the earlier reported survey-based estimates, and even after adjusting for difference in methodology, 43 % (72 %) of the rates in the literature. Nevertheless, PhD students still fare worse than their peers not pursuing graduate studies. Our difference-in-differences research design attributes all of this health disadvantage to the time in the PhD program. This deterioration suggests doctoral studies causally affect mental health.
Navigating Place : Extending Perspectives on Place in Organization Studies
(SAGE Publications, 2024-08) Dacin, Tina M.; Zilber, Tammar; Cartel, Mélodie; Kibler, Ewald; Department of Management Studies; Sustainability in Business; Queen's University Kingston; Hebrew University of Jerusalem; University of New South Wales
We draw upon the metaphor of navigation to rethink how we think about place. We highlight three extensions that dominate current place-sensitive organizational research. We draw upon a set of six important papers published in Organization Studies that showcase the diversity, multiplicity and multidimensionality of place. The studies we select highlight three important movements in the study of place – from stable to dynamic, from physical to polymorphic, and from neutral to political. In doing so, they serve as a compass to guide our thinking and research on how place is created, negotiated and experienced.
A Year Older, A Year Wiser (And Farther From Frontier) : Invention Rents And Human Capital Depreciation
(MIT Press, 2024-07-08) Aghion, Philippe; Akcigit, Ufuk; Hyytinen, Ari; Toivanen, Otto; Department of Economics; London School of Economics and Political Science; University of Chicago; Helsinki Graduate School of Economics
We look at how the arrival of an invention affects wage returns and the probability of moving out of employment for white-and blue-collar co-workers of the inventor. First results suggest that older workers are hurt by the arrival of an invention. This negative effect disappears when we control for education and, in particular, for the time since obtaining the last formal degree, that is, distance to human capital frontier. If anything, this effect is slightly higher for non-STEM than STEM-educated co-workers. This result suggests that retraining programs could be helpful in making the process of creative destruction and economic growth more inclusive.
Counternarrating entrepreneurship
(Taylor & Francis, 2024) Kibler, Ewald; Laine, Lauri; Department of Management Studies; Sustainability in Business
Schumpeter envisioned entrepreneurship research as a way to examine and understand how capitalism changes. This notwithstanding, contemporary entrepreneurship studies predominantly explore the emergence and growth of new business firms, thus adopting a view that assumes a positive macro-level role for entrepreneurship in society even as it neglects the destructivity which was key to Schumpeter’s theory. To bring capitalism back into entrepreneurship, we suggest a narrative approach to entrepreneurial history. Specifically, we introduce counternarratives to discuss new ways of thinking about the micro-macro linkage in entrepreneurship and to open up fresh understandings of creative destruction within, and beyond, capitalism. We conclude the paper with practical suggestions for new entrepreneurial histories that develop alternative narratives.
Asymmetries of responsibility in self-managing organization : Authoring shared and hierarchical control
(SAGE Publications, 2024-08) Koistinen, Joona; Vuori, Johanna; Department of Management Studies; Haaga-Helia University of Applied Sciences
We studied change initiatives towards self-managing organization in five companies, focusing on changes in leader-follower relations. Our discursive analysis based on interviews of 18 middle-managers and 38 employees suggests that organizational members identify with different types of responsibilities depending on their organizational position. We grouped these responsibilities into four orientations – organizational, institutional, coordination, and individual/work – that involve both synergistic and antagonistic elements, reflecting a plurality of interests and organizational concerns. When the authority relations between ‘leaders’ and ‘followers’ were weakened in the case organizations, these asymmetries of responsibility pushed the authoring of organizational activities into divergent trajectories. Sometimes this divergence was perceived by managers as conflicting with the organizational or institutional responsibilities they identified with. Managers controlled this tension both by influencing their subordinates’ authoring normatively and by resorting to hierarchical control practices in situations and authoring arenas perceived as critical. This resulted in hybrid arrangements including both shared and hierarchical forms of control. Eventually, one of the companies remained in and another one reintroduced conventional hierarchical structures. Accordingly, we discuss our reservations regarding the emancipatory enthusiasm around shared forms of control, as the shared mode of control seems to ‘work’ as long as employee authoring is contained within managerial power and interests.
Linking institutional context to the community and career embeddedness of skilled migrants: The role of destination- and origin-country identifications
(Palgrave Macmillan, 2024-08) Stahl, Günter K.; Akkan, Eren; Reiche, B. Sebastian; Hajro, Aida; Zellmer-Bruhn, Mary; Lazarova, Mila; Richter, Nicole Franziska; Caprar, Dan V.; Zikic, Jelena; Björkman, Ingmar; Brewster, Chris; Cerdin, Jean Luc; Clegg, Callen C.; Davoine, Eric; Koveshnikov, Alexei; Mayrhofer, Wolfgang; Zander, Lena; Department of Management Studies; Vienna University of Economics and Business; KEDGE Business School; University of Navarra; University of Leeds; University of Minnesota Twin Cities; University of Southern Denmark; University of Sydney; York University Toronto; University of Reading; ESSEC Business School; Brunel University London; University of Fribourg; Uppsala University; Hanken School of Economics
Migration is one of the most pressing global issues of our time. However, relatively little is known about the factors and mechanisms that govern the post-migration experiences of skilled migrants. We adopt an acculturation- and social identity-based approach to examine how differences between institutional characteristics in the destination and origin country, as well as migrants’ experiences with formal and informal institutions shape their identification with the destination and origin country and contribute to their community and career embeddedness. Our study of 1709 highly skilled migrants from 48 origin countries in 12 destination countries reveals that the institutional environment migrants encounter provides both sources of opportunity (potential for human development and value-congruent societal practices) and sources of disadvantage (experienced ethnocentrism and downgrading). These contrasting dynamics affect migrants’ destination-country identification, their origin-country identification and, ultimately, their embeddedness in the destination country. Our results have important implications for multinational enterprises and policy makers that can contribute to enhancing skilled migrants’ community and career embeddedness. For example, these actors may nurture a work environment and provide supportive policies that buffer against the institutional sources of disadvantage we identified in this study, while helping migrants to leverage the opportunities available in the destination country.
Virtual Work and the Inclusion of Linguistic Minorities: A Double-Edged Sword
(2024-01) Back, Hilla; Back, Philipp; Department of Information and Service Management; Department of Management Studies; School Common, BIZ
Information technology has been shown to support organizations' diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives. However, the role of language as a dimension of diversity has often been overlooked, especially for highly-skilled migrants joining organizations in non-Anglophone countries where English serves as the corporate language. Through 25 interviews at the Finnish branch of an international professional service firm, we investigate how these individuals navigate language barriers in both physical and virtual workspaces, with particular focus on coping strategies to language barriers after the COVID-induced transition to full virtual work. We find a dual effect of virtual work on inclusion: while linguistic minorities may reduce their short-term emotional strain in virtual settings, they may also increasingly detach from the majority group in the long run. These findings challenge the prevailing assumption that technology universally overcomes hidden barriers, emphasizing the necessity for tailored DEI-initiatives that consider the individual needs of different minority groups.
Paradox blindness : How managers frame coopetition
(Elsevier Science Inc., 2024-07) Yrjölä, Mika; Niittymies, Aleksi; Tabas, Abdollah Mohammadparast; Department of Management Studies; Tampere University; University of Oulu
Coopetition, characterized by the simultaneous pursuit of cooperation and competition, presents a paradoxical challenge for organizations and the individuals involved. This study explores managers' capacity to manage the inherent paradox of coopetition, focusing on the managerial framings and the various contextual factors shaping them. While the importance of coopetition-oriented mindsets, paradoxical frames, and cognitive and emotional capabilities is recognized for successful management of these challenges, more research is needed to understand how individual managers frame coopetition. The framing perspective is important, because it shows how managers make sense of and try to influence their own behavior as well as that of others. Utilizing a qualitative approach, we analyzed 26 interviews with top managers from 24 organizations within the same healthcare ecosystem. As a result, we develop a framework outlining three distinct paths to framing coopetition: conscious denial, acceptance, and unconscious denial, along with five specific framings. Our findings highlight the impact of these framings on managers' ability to manage coopetition effectively and the conditions shaping the different framings. Through these insights, this research advances our understanding of coopetition management and underscores the crucial role of context, enriching both theoretical discourse and practical application.
Solving Mind-Body Issues Requires Combining Philosophical Reflection and Empirical Research
(AnKa :: publisher, 2023-03-16) Kakkuri-Knuuttila, Marja-Liisa; Department of Management Studies
This paper argues that to progress with philosophical issues concerning brain-mind relations one needs to combine philosophical reflection and empirical research with theoretical model building. Philosophy and abstract theorizing alone do not carry us far, as will be illustrated by analyzing the views about panpsychism by the quantum physicist David Bohm, who builds his reasoning on quantum mechanical analogies. His reflection around the notion of active information, adopted in his causal interpretation of quantum mechanics to replace the Newtonian notion of force, turns out to be a fallacy of equivocation. His other line of reasoning to specify matter-mind unity in terms of soma-significance and signa-somatic processes yields problems of its own. To illustrate empirical investigations on brain-mind relations, I shall present the tripartite model of the experiential selfhood and the related Self-Me-I index as proposed by the neuroscientists Fingelkurts and Fingelkurts, along with their background theory called operational architectonics (OA) of brain-mind functioning. The model states that the three components of selfhood, Self, Me, and I, correlate to three distinct operationally synchronized cortical areas, the frontal cortex, the right posterior cortex, and the left posterior cortex. The philosophical and practical benefits of their framework will be exemplified by presenting the results of a series of studies with the philosopher Tarja Kallio-Tamminen about the effects of meditation reflected in the Self-Me-I index.
Why Power (Dunamis) Ontology of Causation is Relevant to Managers: Dialogue as an Illustration
(Springer, 2023-09) Kakkuri-Knuuttila, Marja-Liisa; Department of Management Studies
Since management is about influencing - influencing people who work in the organization, the structure and practices of the organization, as well as its environment - how ‘influencing’ is understood evidently makes a huge difference. The still popular empiricist concept of cause-effect relations as presupposing regularities is mistaken, since it forms no sufficient basis for action in new and unique situations. As alternative notions of causation, the paper discusses the Critical Realist conception of causal powers and the counterfactual conditional view, arguing that the classical notion of power (dunamis in Greek; power, potentiality, possibility, ability, capacity, capability in English) offers the most fruitful analysis of causal relations for managerial purposes. The paper presents the four ontological features of power scrutinised already by Aristotle in his Metaphysics and Physics, and actively discussed in current philosophy of science. These are the potentiality-actuality distinction, full power as consisting of an active and a receptive component, the distinction of rational and non-rational powers, and the idea of hierarchy of powers. These ontological distinctions suit management contexts not only because they allow room for new unique decision-making situations, but primarily because they imply invaluable practical advice. The relevance of the power ontology for management is illustrated in the context of the Bohm and the new Timeout dialogue. The paper concludes with a summary of the practical implications of the classical power ontology to management and the adoption of dialogical practices to managerial expertise.
Consumer co-operation around the world : ‘Strategic renewal’ since 1980
(Society for Co-operative Studies, 2023-10-18) Wilson, John F.; Skurnik, Samuli; Ekberg, Espen; Webster, Anthony; Department of Management Studies; Northumbria University; BI Norwegian Business School
Evaluating performance in the context of mobile telework : an attention-based view
(Routledge, 2024-05-20) Myllymäki, Dina; Smale, Adam; Sumelius, Jennie; Department of Management Studies; University of Vaasa; Hanken School of Economics
This study is an empirical account of how line managers evaluate the performance of their subordinates in the context of mobile telework. Whilst the increasing use of new technologies affords certain advantages for line managers in remote performance evaluation (PE), it also results in a greater volume, fragmentation and variety of performance data, which can be challenging to manage. Adopting an attention-based view (ABV), we shed light on the role of technology in PE, elaborating on the kinds of attentional stimuli that are generated by technology as part of the broader socio-technical work environment, and how these together with the attentional perspectives of the manager influence attentional engagement, i.e. what managers direct their time, energy and effort on in PE. Our focus is on attention as something line managers do, in their immediate context. We contribute to the remote work and PE literature by showing how the interplay between two drivers of attentional engagement: attentional stimuli (different possible foci of attention in the external environment) and managers’ own attentional perspectives (the cognitive and motivational structures that influence what stimuli receive attention) influence the attentional engagement in PE of mobile teleworkers.
Consistent climate policies
(Wiley-Blackwell, 2018-02) Gerlagh, Reyer; Liski, Matti; Department of Economics; Tilburg University
What are the optimal climate policies when time preferences deviate from the standard exponential discounting and decision makers cannot commit to future policies? We show that, with time-declining discounting, the delay and persistence of climate impacts provide a commitment device to policy makers. We quantify the commitment value in a climate-economy model by solving time-consistent Markov equilibrium capital and emission taxes explicitly. The returns on capital and climate investments are no longer equal, leading to a large increase in the emission tax, compared to a benchmark with equalized returns. The commitment value increases the tax by a factor of 20 in our quantitative assessment.
Cross-country spillover effects of interest rate and credit constraint policies
(Elsevier BV, 2024-08) Nissinen, Juuso; Department of Finance; School Common, BIZ
Both rising interest rates and tighter credit constraints decrease investors’ funding positions in a given currency and cause the currency to appreciate. I extend the Gabaix and Maggiori (2015) global multi-country currency and bond model and show that the policy interventions have opposite effects on the value of an alternative funding currency through investor positioning. Rising interest rates encourage investors to shift their positioning and cause the alternative currency to depreciate. Tightening credit conditions have the contrasting effect and prompt appreciation for both currencies. Empirical evidence on Japanese Yen returns is consistent with the model.

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