Franziska Steiner

I am a Doctoral Researcher at the Department of Management and Organisation at Hanken School of Economics in Helsinki. My doctoral research is about social connection and disconnection at work. As part of this, I am studying how changing work practices are influencing the ways in which we relate to each other at work. Particularly, I am exploring how employees in knowledge-intensive work environments experience and navigate everyday interactions and relations with others at work and how they try to achieve connection and belonging in hybrid and virtual work settings.

My doctoral thesis is supervised by Professor Frank den Hond.

Research interests

I am interested in social relations in the workplace, individual and collective wellbeing at work, and the meaning of work, including questions of justice, all contributing to debates on the future of work. This includes topics such as interpersonal and group dynamics, communication patterns, and discrete and complex emotions and it includes aspects such as presence, vulnerability, listening, and the experience of loneliness at work.

Further, I am interested in the study of professions and occupational groups as well as in the study of career trajectories and transitions.

Research approach

I use interactionist and phenomenological perspectives to study social dynamics and lived experience. I employ qualitative and interpretivist methods informed by hermeneutic tradition and inspired by process philosophy. For my current research project, I am relying on interviews and diary studies.

Teaching

I am active as teaching assistant and I am available for supervising Master’s theses at the department.

Other

My research is funded by the Dr.h.c. Marcus Wallenberg Foundation and by the Foundation for Economic Education (Liikesivistysrahasto).