Research
News
April
2015
Contents: New Funding, Grants and Research Projects Our Researchers Travel the World Recent Publications and Scientific Articles Dissertations Research Group in Focus The Graduate School Announces
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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.
3 New Funding, Grants and Research Projects (< 10 000 â&#x201A;Ź)
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 capabilities as drivers of industrial renewal â&#x20AC;&#x201C; 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.
APRIL 2015
4 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 Conference 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 Ceylon) 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 conference, 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, Colombo. In his apartment, where the windows 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 living 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. RESEARCH NEWS
Gerald Porter and E.A. Gamini Fonseka
5 Recent Publications and Scientific Articles
Several high-quality articles have been published by the researchers of the university. 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 mittaamisen käytänteet ja ongelmat in Hallinnon tutkimus.
Level 3 journals/publishers Vesa Suutari and Olivier Wurtz a book chapter Work-life balance and coping 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 Routledge 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 Comments in Representations of War, Migration and Refugeehood. Intedisciplinary 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.
APRIL 2015
6 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 stepby-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 establishing a shared will, needed for committing the participants to ongoing organizational change. The data come from a planning meeting, in which 20 city employees and a facilitator 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.
RESEARCH NEWS
7 Dissertations
20.3. Elina Nevasaari (swedish language) Bakom orden – språkbadselevers kontextuella begreppstrukturering. Acta Wasaensia 319.
Elina Nevasaari examines how students construct and verbalize concepts by observing three content-specific, natural scientific, concepts describing how animals acclimatize 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 terminological 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 nature 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 evaluating 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 intensions 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.
APRIL 2015
8 Dissertations
Upcoming events: 5.5. Emma-Riikka Myllym채ki (accounting) 9.5. Maria Eronen (communication studies) 13.5. Marika Salo (business law) 13.5. Pekka Kurvinen (management) 21.5. Linda Turunen (marketing)
RESEARCH NEWS
9 Research Group in Focus
Human Resource Management Comprising five professors and research managers, eight post-doctoral researchers and around 20 active doctoral students, the Human Resource Management (HRM) research group is Finland’s largest collection of scholars 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 important 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 HRMrelated 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 programmes 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 Graduates) 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.
APRIL 2015
10 The Graduate School Announces
The Graduate School of the University of Vaasa admits only the most motivated, 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
RESEARCH NEWS
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