Katja Einola

Katja is Assistant Professor and member of core faculty at the Center for Responsible Leadership at Stockholm School of Economics. She is also an affiliated researcher at Hanken School of Economics in Helsinki.

Before completing her PhD in 2017 and joining academia, Katja worked in tourism and telecommunications and has lived in Spain, Brazil, Canada and Finland before settling down in Sweden. She is fluent in six languages and has twenty years of professional experience in various roles in sales, marketing, project and program management as well as consulting in both small and large multinational firms.

Her research seeks to join practical work experience with theory and focuses on digital/virtual team work, leadership, wilful ignorance in organisations, research methods, human resource management and organisational aspects of technology/AI. Katja is interested in looking at phenomena from novel angles challenging received wisdom and existing research. Her work puts the human experience at the center and she seeks to uncover secrets and surprises that the organisational life in all its richness offers.

Her article ‘Warning for excessive positivity: Authentic leadership and other traps in leadership studies’ (with Mats Alvesson) published in Leadership Quarterly won the article of the year award in 2019 in that journal.