Maija Vähämäki profile picture
Maija
Vähämäki
University Teacher, Management and Organisation
D.Sc.(econ.)

Contact

+358 29 450 2907
+358 44 562 5060
Rehtorinpellonkatu 3
20500
Turku

Areas of expertise

Management and organising
leadership
leadership communication
organizational learning
working life studies

Biography

After my Masters' degree at TSE I worked 15 years in various organizations in Finland and abroad (Sweden, Germany, Austria). After some years specialization in purchasing and import I attended Fintra's certification programme of international business and acted as vice commercial attache, export manager and coordinator for international relations. I also worked 4 years as project manager in developmental projects for media and graphich arts industiries just before starting my doctoral studies at TSE in 2002.

Since then I have acted in various academic positions, now beeing university teacher in the department of management and organization.I belong to the university's planning group of teachers pedagogc studies. I also act as arbitator.


Teaching

I have taught diverse courses in management and organization studies for business students, non-business students at university and in the executive courses of Turku School of Economics. I have also taught qualitative methods courses and supervised bachelor's, master's as well as doctoral thesis. In the year 2016 I qualified for university pedagogy.

Currently I'm teacher on the following courses: Introduction to Management and Organization, Leadership communication and Human Resources Management. I also facilitate learning with cases and group work in courses of Future Studies, and supervise Bachelor's thesis. Over 400 students enrolled in my courses every year keep me rolling...


Research

In my doctoral thesis (2008) I studied knowledge management and organizational learning by applying participative action research method. In my doctoral thesis Dialogue in organizational learning I have investigated social learning in work communities and discuss the relationship between empowering and accepting power. Further, the dialogic negotiation process of the limits of self management in teams is illustrated in the thesis.

My post doc research topics have deepened the understanding of dialogical relationships of leadership and learning. My current research interests include organizational social learning, manifestations of conflict in organizations, management learning, and new meanings of work. In the field of university pedagogy I have one ongoing study; Doctoral supervison as leader-member relationship.

Publications

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