Public defence in Industrial Engineering and Management, MA Lasse Granroth

Title of the doctoral thesis: Role of individuals and groups in organizational cultural changes

Opponent: Professor Juha Laurila, University of Turku, Finland
Custos: Professor Marina Biniari, Aalto University School of Science, Department of Industrial Engineering and Management

The public defence will be organised in Zoom. Link to the event

The thesis is publicly displayed 10 days before the defence in the publication archive Aaltodoc of Aalto University.

Electronic thesis

Public defence announcement

Initiatives of cultural change in organizations have interested managers and scholars for decades. The importance of organizational culture for well-being of employees and the success of a company is widely acknowledged. Still, cultural change initiatives often fail. Recent studies have more focused on how formal and informal groups impact cultural transformation. Lasse Granroth’s doctoral thesis follows this line of study by investigating how employees’ in-group and inter-group actions and interactions trigger cultural changes. It illuminates the role of hidden in-group activities such as; whining and gossiping, unpacking how in-group activities generate resources that enable inter-group change activities such as norm-breaking. Similar logic can be found in social movements. The findings elaborate on the understanding of how cultural transformation may proceed via group-members’ actions and why cultural transformation may fail. It suggests managers and scholars acknowledge in-groups as a hidden domain of interaction where beliefs and attitudes incubate.

Contact details of the doctoral student: [email protected]