










IOA Research Forum #1 2023
Presentation of People and Organizing: Wellbeing in Organizations
Presenters:
Associate Professor Elisabeth Naima Mikkelsen/
Assistant Professor Christian Dyrlund Wåhlin-Jacobsen
Associate Professors Camilla Sløk & Johan Simonsen Abildgaard
Moderator: Professor mso Anne Reff Pedersen
Time: 21 February 2023 from 12.00-13.30 PM
Location: CBS Kilen ground floor, Ks 48
PnO research forum seminar: Wellbeing at work?
In the present labor market, we see clear signs that wellbeing is both a sought-after commodity and something that is under pressure. We see workers and leaders resigning or going on sick-leave due to stressful working conditions. Perhaps we also know from our own experience that work and wellbeing are related… but how? Why? And what can we as researchers do about it? In this research forum event, three presentations will cover relevant research from the People and Organizing group:
Emotional processes of interactional troubles in street-level exchanges
Naima Mikkelsen and Christian Dyrlund Wåhlin-Jacobsen
Our presentation focuses on the psychological aspects of street-level work, specifically how police operators handle emergency calls made by citizens. We perform a detailed analysis of one illustratory conflictual call for emergency assistance to understand the mutually reinforcing patterns of actors’ emotional expression and reactions. We show how caller and call-taker’s subtle emotion management results in misalignment and dispute, which ends up contaminating the call, causing the street-level exchange to go ‘wrong’.
Under pressure? Attributional guilt in leadership
Camilla Sløk
Leaders are up for examination when organization’s fail. It might be scandals like Region Midtjylland in which at least 194 wrongly had their legs amputated (sic!) Or decisions in work life that affects employees’ wellbeing, e.g., causing them to fall ill with stress. But how do leaders perceive their responsibility and guilt in their daily practice? The presentation gives insights to my research for the past 10 years of leaders’ perception of these matters. Apparently, leaders do not see the connection between their own decisions and negative effects, while positive effects usually are considered to the benefit of a great leader.
Organizational interventions
Johan Simonsen Abildgaard
This presentation provides illustrative examples of how intervention projects can provide insight into how we can study organizational initiatives to improve wellbeing.