NewsResearch

April

2015

New Funding, Grants and Research Projects Our Researchers Travel the World

Recent Publications and Scientific Articles Dissertations

Research Group in FocusThe Graduate School Announces

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Contents:

Editor: Virpi Juppo, Publication and Science Editor

tel. +358 29 449 8111, email virpi.juppo@uva.fi

Layout: Mari Ala-Mikkula

Research News in the Internet:www.uva.fi/en/research/popularisation/news

Next newsletter will be published in September.

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APRIL 2015

New Funding, Grants and Research Projects (< 10 000 €)

Professor Kimmo Kauhaniemi RoadMap2015 46 250 euros from ST-pooli, STEK ry and companies. Research Director Erkki Hiltunen WasaLabs-laboratories 51 776 euros from European Regional Development Fund/Council of Ostrobothnia. Research Director Erkki Hiltunen Waterheat battery -prereport 12 555 euros from European Regional Development Fund/Council of Ostrobothnia. Director of Technology Jari Kuusisto Enabling technologies and innovation ca-pabilities as drivers of industrial renewal – an international comparative analysis funded by Tekes. Total budget 375 130 euros.

Professor Merja Koskela and Associate Professor Niina Koivunen Leadership and time 15 000 euros from Liikesivistysrahasto.

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RESEARCH NEWS

Our Researchers Travel the World

Who? Gerald Porter, Professor Emeritus of English Literature and Culture

When? 2–4.3.2015

Where? University of Ruhuna, Matara, Sri Lanka

What? I gave the keynote speech ”More interlude than Empire. Displacing colonialism and the Power of the word” at the opening of the International Confe-rence on Postcolonial Societies in Transition at the University of Ruhuna.

Why? Professor E.A. Gamini Fonseka, who defended his doctorate in Vaasa in 1997, is now in charge of English studies in Ruhuna. He was the first of my doctoral students in Vaasa to become a professor himself. He invited me because I am what Sri Lankans call a ”beloved enemy”, an Englishman who takes a critical postcolonial attitude to the British who occupied their country (then called Cey-lon) for more than a century after 1815. I spoke of the resistance to the British occupation from the very beginning, and the way Tamil labourers were brought in from India to work in the tea plantations, a ”divide and rule” policy that eventually led to the terrible civil war that has only just ended. But I also mentioned the way colonial rule swept away the corrupt and oppressive King of Kandy. Sometimes history advances by its ”bad side.”

The highlight? After the confe-rence, I met Professor J.A. Karunaratne, a former researcher in the Department of Regional Geography at the University of Vaasa, now Professor of Economics and Director of the Research Centre on the CINEC Campus in the capital, Co-lombo. In his apartment, where the win-dows are always open (the temperature never falls below 20 degrees), I found a collared dove with two greedy fledglings nesting on top of a lampshade in the li-ving room. In the four days that I stayed there they grew big enough to push their way out of the nest and eventually fly away themselves, just as Professors Fonseka and Karunaratne had done. Gerald Porter and E.A. Gamini Fonseka

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APRIL 2015

Recent Publications and Scientific Articles

Several high-quality articles have been published by the researchers of the uni-versity. Publications at level 2 or 3 in the Finnish Publication Forum classification are presented.

Level 2 journals

Maria Järlström an article Henkilöstöosaston suorituskyky ja sen mittaami-sen käytänteet ja ongelmat in Hallinnon tutkimus.

Level 3 journals/publishers

Vesa Suutari and Olivier Wurtz a book chapter Work-life balance and co-ping of international assignees in The Routledge Companion to International Human Resource Management, published by Routledge.

Vesa Suutari with Christelle Tornikoski and Marion Festing a book chapter Compensation package of international assignees in The Routled-ge Companion to International Human Resource, Management, published by Routledge.

Daniel Rellstab a book chapter Refugees? No Refugees? Categorization of Migrants in the Wake of the Arab Spring in Swiss Online News and Com-ments in Representations of War, Migration and Refugeehood. Intedisciplina-ry Perspectives. Published by Routledge.

Yuqiuge Hao and Petri Helo with Ahm Shamsuzzoha a book chapter

Cloud-based Data Storage for Data Management in Virtual Factory in Could Systems in Supply Chains, published by Palgrave Macmillan.

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RESEARCH NEWS

Recent Publications and Scientific Articles

Riikka Nissi wrote an article From entry proposals to a joint statement: Practices of shared text production in multiparty meeting interaction.

Article investigates how a written text document is constructed collaboratively in organizational meeting. Using ethnomethodological conversation analysis as a method, it shows how the activity of text production is locally brought into being through the interplay between verbal, embodied and material resources of the setting.

– Contemporary workplaces are characterized by heightened textual demands. This textualization of work has been connected for example to the ‘audit culture’ and seen manifested in the way staff members engage in documenting their work practices for the sake of accountability. However, very little is known about the way various organizational texts are constructed in actual workplace interaction, Nissi explains.

Examining the sequential positioning and formation of participants’ conversational actions, the study shows how they intertwine with writing and thus enable a step-by-step evolvement of a written document. Moreover, the study demonstrates how the activity of shared text production advances larger social processes by making the organizational identity of the project members visible and by establis-hing a shared will, needed for committing the participants to ongoing organiza-tional change.

The data come from a planning meeting, in which 20 city employees and a faci-litator construct a rejoinder to the statement of the citizen jury. The study is part of the project “Networks of texts and face-to-face encounters as organizational practices”, funded by the Academy of Finland for 2011–2015.

Article was published in Journal of Pragmatics which is level 3 journal.

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APRIL 2015

Dissertations

Elina Nevasaari examines how students construct and verbalize concepts by observing three content-specific, na-tural scientific, concepts describing how animals acclimati-ze to the winter in Finland.

The data includes 344 essays written by Swedish-language immersion students and 100 essays written by students in basic education for native Swedish speakers in Finland. All students were in grades 3, 6 or 9.

– I observe the possible differences and similarities in concept construction both between the examined grades and between the groups of students using either their second or first language. I approach my research questions by using ter-minological concept analysis which shows the consistency of the characteristics of the concepts, Nevasaari tells.

The analysis indicates that the examined natural scientific concepts differ in na-ture and that it is possible to define differences both in concept intension and in the characteristics that students associate with the concepts in different grades. Additionally some differences in how second and first language users verbalize concepts were found.

When analyzing the results in relation to Cummins’ (1984) framework for eva-luating language demand in content activities and in relation to curriculum the results indicates that concept intension and combinations of characteristics are connected to the students’ cognitive development.

– The teacher should be aware of differences between concepts, concept in-tensions and how different concepts are being verbalized in subject teaching in immersion. The results of this study can be utilized in class planning to promote students’ use of language for special purposes, especially in integrated language and content teaching in immersion, Nevasaari explains.

20.3. Elina Nevasaari (swedish language)Bakom orden – språkbadselevers kontextuella begreppstrukturering. Acta Wasaensia 319.

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RESEARCH NEWS

Dissertations

Upcoming events: 5.5. Emma-Riikka Myllymäki (accounting) 9.5. Maria Eronen (communication studies)13.5. Marika Salo (business law)13.5. Pekka Kurvinen (management)21.5. Linda Turunen (marketing)

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APRIL 2015

Research Group in Focus

Human Resource Management

Comprising five professors and research managers, eight post-doctoral re-searchers and around 20 active doctoral students, the Human Resource Management (HRM) research group is Finland’s largest collection of scho-lars dedicated to examining people management issues in organizations.

– The effective management of people is critical to organizational and national economic performance, and continues to represent one of the most impor-tant managerial challenges in organizations. Since work takes up a significant part of people’s lives, good people management – as well as bad – also has significant spillover effects on society at large, the Head of the HRM Research Group, Professor Adam Smale summarises the key idea of the group.

The group produces high-quality academic research on a variety of HRM-related topics that companies can utilize to improve their competitiveness – through the creation of a skilled and more committed workforce, and via more effective HRM processes that support strategic objectives. The main focus areas of the group’s research are international HRM, strategic HRM, and leadership.

The research group also carries out research-based development program-mes in collaboration with private and public sector organizations.

– We participate actively in joint research initiatives with other prestigious domestic and international partner universities, as well as with key partner companies and professional development bodies such as HENRY ry (The Finnish Association for HRM), SEFE (Association for Business School Gra-duates) and the Finnish Institute for Occupational Health. These research initiatives leverage both the group’s scientific expertise in HRM and a focus on practical relevance, says Smale.

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RESEARCH NEWS

The Graduate School Announces

The Graduate School of the University of Vaasa admits only the most motiva-ted, talented and research-oriented students to its doctoral programmes. The students apply for admission to the doctoral programmes. The deadline for the applications is 30th of April.

Graduate School Coordinator, Ms. Virpi Juppo started 1st of April. You can contact her on any matters concerning post-graduate studies at

virpi.juppo@uva.fi.

Read more:

www.uva.fi/en/research/researcher/graduate_school

University of VaasaWolffintie 34

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