Einola, Katja

Katja is Assistant Professor and member of core faculty at the Center for Responsible Leadership at Stockholm School of Economics. She is also an affiliated researcher at Hanken School of Economics in Helsinki.

She currently teaches courses in the areas of leadership, project management and organization theory.

Before completing her PhD in 2017 and joining academia, Katja worked in fashion, tourism and telecommunications/IT. She has lived in Spain, Brazil, Canada and Finland before settling down in Sweden. She is fluent in six languages and has twenty years of professional experience in various roles in sales, marketing, project and program management as well as consulting in both small and large multinational firms.

Her research seeks to join practical work experience with theory and focuses on digital/virtual team work, leadership, wilful ignorance in organisations, research methods, human resource management and organisational aspects of technology/AI.  Katja is interested in looking at phenomena from novel angles challenging received wisdom and existing research. Her work puts the human experience at the center and she seeks to uncover secrets and surprises that the organisational life in all its richness offers.

Her article ‘Warning for excessive positivity: Authentic leadership and other traps in leadership studies’  (with Mats Alvesson) published in Leadership Quarterly won the article of the year award in 2019 in that journal.

SELECTED PUBLICATIONS

2022

Einola, K., & Khoreva, V. (2022). Best friend or broken tool? Exploring the co-existence of humans and artificial intelligence in the workplace ecosystem. Human Resource Management.

Alvesson, M., & Einola, K. (2022). The gaslighting of authentic leadership 2.0. Leadership, 17427150221125271.

Alvesson, M., Einola, K. & Schaefer, S. (2022). Dynamics of wilful ignorance in organizations. British Journal of Sociology.

2021

Alvesson, M., Einola, K. & Schaefer, S. (2021). Philosophical minds or Brotgelehrte? Organization Studies.

Alvesson, M., Sandberg, J. & Einola, K. (2021). Reflexive research design. In Flick, U. (ed). The SAGE Handbook of Qualitative Research Design. London: SAGE (forthcoming)

Einola, K., & Alvesson, M. (2021). The perils of authentic leadership theory. Leadership. 17(4), 483-490.

Einola, K., Elkina, A., Gao, G., Hambleton, J., Kaasila-Pakanen, A. L., Mandalaki, E., ... & Pullen, A. (2021). Writing multi-vocal intersectionality in times of crisis. Gender, Work & Organization.

Gardner, W. & Karam, E and Alvesson, M. & Einola, K.(2021). Authentic leadership theory: a case for and against. The Leadership Quarterly.

Werr, A. & Einola, K. (2021). Individual Performance Management – Enabler or Threat to Academic Performance? Lindgreen, A. Irvin, F. Poulfelt, and T. U. Thomsen (eds). How to lead academic departments successfully? Edvard Elgar Publishing.

2020

Ahonen, P., Blomberg, A., Doerr, K., Einola, K., … Zhang, L. (2020). Writing resistance together. Gender, Work & Organization.

Einola, K., & Alvesson, M. (2020). When ‘good’ leadership backfires: Paradoxes of the leader/follower relation. Organization Studies. 

Einola, K. & Alvesson, M. (2020). Behind the numbers: questioning questionnaires. Journal of Management Inquiry. 

Einola, K. & Sveningsson, S. (2020). Ackreditering i högre utbildning. In Alvesson, M. & Sveningsson, S. (eds) Ledning och (sned)styrning i högskolan. Studentlitteratur.

Einola, K. & Werr, A. (2020). HRM I akademin: Byrokratiskt nonsens eller vägen till en bättre arbetsplats? In Alvesson, M. & Sveningsson, S. (eds) Ledning och (sned)styrning i högskolan. Studentlitteratur.

2019

Alvesson, M., & Einola, K. (2019). Warning for excessive positivity: Authentic leadership and other traps in leadership studies. The Leadership Quarterly. 30 (4), 383-395

Degbey, W. Y., & Einola, K. (2019). Resilience in virtual teams: Developing the capacity to bounce back. Applied Psychology: An International Review.

Einola, K., & Alvesson, M. (2019). The making and unmaking of teams. Human Relations, 72(12), 1891-1919. 

2018

Alvesson, M., & Einola, K. (2018). Excessive work regimes and functional stupidity. German Journal of Human Resource Management, 32, 3-4, 283-296 

2017

Einola, K. (2017). Making sense of successful global teams. Doctoral Dissertation. University of Turku.