Dr Pasi Ahonen
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Email
pasi.ahonen@essex.ac.uk -
Telephone
+44 (0) 1206 873472
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Location
EBS.3.80, Colchester Campus
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Academic support hours
Please see https://calendly.com/pasiahonen/meet
Profile
Biography
I joined Essex Business School at the University of Essex in November 2014, and since then it has been my academic home. Currently, I serve as a Senior Lecturer in Management and Cultural Theory in the Management and Marketing Group on the Colchester campus. Before Essex, my academic path led me to work at Swansea University in Wales, the University of the West of England, and Lappeenranta University of Technology in Finland. These experiences have granted me a broad perspective on business education. In my research, I explore how individuals become managed subjects and their managers. My focus includes diversity management, examining the intricacies of diversifying workforces and management practices and the knowledges that that inform those phenomena. Currently I am working on understanding the history of viewing people as a resource in modern management. I also have a longstanding interest in understanding how media shapes our perceptions of organisations. My educational journey spans continents, with a doctorate from Lappeenranta University of Technology in Finland and degree level studies at the University of Victoria in Canada and the University of Turku in Finland. I also also spent a rewarding year as a visiting student both at the University of Saskatchewan in Canada (1993-1994) and at the University of Georgia in the USA (1991-1992). From 2009-2010, I had the opportunity of being a Visiting Scholar at Laurentian University in Canada. Beyond academia, I have had the privilege of working for a Finnish location technology SME in London and a regional development agency in Finland on EU-funded projects. These roles have offered valuable insights into the challenges of business and management. I welcome PhD proposals related to diversity and inclusion, particularly exploring racialization and whiteness in management. I am equally interested in projects examining the media's relationship with organizations and the historical and cultural dimensions of management as a phenomenon.
Qualifications
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DSc (Economics and Business Administration), School of Business, Lappeenranta University of Technology (Finland)
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Phil Lic, Department of History, University of Turku (Finland)
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MA, Department of History, University of Turku (Finland)
Appointments
University of Essex
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Deputy Head of Group, Essex Business School, University of Essex (2/9/2024 - present)
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Associate Director of Research and Impact (Management/Marketing), Essex Business School, University of Essex (20/2/2023 - present)
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Associate Director of Postgraduate Research (Management/Marketing), Essex Business School, University of Essex (1/9/2021 - 9/5/2023)
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Associate Director of Research (Management/Marketing) (Acting), Essex Business School, University of Essex (1/9/2021 - 16/1/2022)
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Associate Director of Education (Management/Marketing and Organisation Studies/HRM), Essex Business School, University of Essex (15/1/2018 - 25/4/2021)
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Assistant Undergraduate Programme Director (Organisation Studies/HRM), Essex Business School, University of Essex (15/8/2016 - 31/8/2018)
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Undergraduate Programme Director (Management/Marketing and Organisation Studies/HRM) (Acting), Essex Business School, University of Essex (21/3/2016 - 14/8/2016)
Research and professional activities
Research interests
Management of diversity and difference in organisations
History, memory and temporality in and of organisations
Leadership, power and ways of leading
Organisations, the media and representation and mediatisation of organisations
Current research
History and memory in organizational restructuring and change
Situatedness and ethico-politics of knowledge on diversity and its management
Coloniality in management and organization studies
Roles of language, culture and power in leadership
Historiographical theories and methodologies in management and organization studies.
Conferences and presentations
Involved professional fathers: An investigation of work-family balance dynamics. Paper presented at 11th International Critical Management Studies Conference, 27-29 June 2019
11th International Critical Management Studies Conference, Milton Keynes, United Kingdom, 29/6/2020
Beyond ordering Others: A postcolonial feminist framework for diversity and its management
Gender, Work and Organisation International Interdisciplinary Conference, 13-16 June 2018, Sydney, Australia, 16/6/2020
Who does the work?: Epistemology and representation in inclusion
Invited presentation, ‘Gendered Inclusion in Contemporary Organisations’ ESRC Funded Seminar Series 2015-2018, Seminar 7: Drawing conclusions and setting research agenda for Critical Inclusion Studies, London, United Kingdom, 1/6/2020
Organisational death and remembering: Newspapers as mediators of organizational memory and makers of mnemonic communities
The 33rd EGOS Colloquium, 6-8 July 2017, Copenhagen, Denmark, 7/7/2017
Caveman meritocracy: Misrepresenting women managers online
Invited presentation, Challenging Gendered Media Mis(s)Representations of Women Professionals and Leaders, Seminar 5: Multi-disciplinary Approaches: Analysing Media Text and Visual Methods, an ESRC Funded Seminar Series 2014-2017, Bradford, United Kingdom, 15/3/2016
Emma Watson, HeForShe and the discontents of feminist organizing
The 9th Critical Management Studies Conference 2015, 8-10 July 2015, Leicester, United Kingdom, 2015
The culturally different subject in management knowledges
The 31st EGOS Colloquium, 4-6 July 2015, Athens, Greece, 2015
Imagined bodies: Reflections on leadership and embodiment of globalization
The 29th EGOS Colloquium EGOS Colloquium, 4-6 July 2013., Montreal, Canada, 2013
Whats the difference? Postcolonial interventions in diversity and its management
The 15th Asia-Pacific Researchers in Organisation Studies Conference, 15-17 February 2013., Tokyo, Japan, 2013
The Voikkaa Case and politics of history: Historyless futures, selective memories and news of a towns death
Organizational Death, Memory and Loss Workshop, 4-5 October 2012, Newcastle-under-Lyme, United Kingdom, 2012
Realignments of leadership, gender and embodiment in organizational death
British Academy of Management 2012 Conference, 11-13 September 2012, Cardiff, United Kingdom, 2012
Leadership, ethics and modalities of power
28th EGOS Colloquium EGOS Colloquium, 5-7 July 2012, 2012
Strategy in the Public: Mediation of strategy in public debate
The 7th Critical Management Studies Conference 2011, 11-13 July 2011, Naples, Italy, 2011
Managing postcolonialism: Towards disciplinary revolutions
The 2nd Biennial Conference of Postcolonial Studies Association, 7-8 July 2011., Birmingham, United Kingdom, 2011
Shifting roles of media and politics of history: A comparison of two industrial shutdown cases in the pulp and paper industry in Finland
The 24th EGOS Colloquium, 10-12 July 2008, Amsterdam, Netherlands, 2008
Framing Voikkaa: A media discourse perspective on a corporate shutdown
The 19th Nordic Academy of Management Meeting, 9-11 August 2007, Bergen, Norway, 2007
On the discursive construction of industrial shutdowns: A discursive perspective on the Voikkaa case
The 5th Critical Management Studies Conference, 11-13 July 2007., Manchester, United Kingdom, 2007
Industrial shutdown and discursive realignments of gender, race and class in the global economy: A case from Finland
The 23rd EGOS Colloquium, 5-7 July 2007, Vienna, Austria, 2007
Regional open innovation system as a platform for SMEs: A survey
Paper presented at the International Association for Management of Technology IAMOT, 13-17 May 2007., Miami, United States, 2007
Canned diversity: Transnational cooperation in an EU project
EURODIV Conference on Qualitative diversity research: Looking ahead, 19-20 September 2006, Leuven, Belgium, 2006
A pre-racist society in a postcolonial world? An analysis of contemporary Finnish racial discourse in the pages of Helsingin Sanomat
Racism, Postcolonialism, Europe Conference, 15-17 May 2006, Leeds, United Kingdom, 2006
Teaching and supervision
Current teaching responsibilities
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Strategy (BE857)
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Research Evaluation (BE950)
Previous supervision
Degree subject: Management Studies
Degree type: Doctor of Philosophy
Awarded date: 28/2/2025
Degree subject: Management Studies
Degree type: Doctor of Philosophy
Awarded date: 21/6/2024
Publications
Journal articles (7)
Greedharry, M., Limki, R., Johansson, M., Johnson, JL. and Ahonen, P., (2023). Race difference and power: Recursions of coloniality in work and organization. Gender, Work and Organization. 30 (2), 457-468
Ahonen, P., Blomberg, A., Doerr, K., Einola, K., Elkina, A., Gao, G., Hambleton, J., Helin, J., Huopalainen, A., Johanssen, B., Johansson, J., Jääskeläinen, P., Kaasila-Pakanen, A-L., Kivinen, N., Mandalaki, E., Meriläinen, S., Pullen, A., Salmela, T., Satama, S., Tienari, J., Wickström, A. and Zhang, L., (2020). Writing resistance together. Gender, Work and Organization. 27 (4), 447-470
Schedlitzki, D., Ahonen, P., Wankhade, P., Edwards, G. and Gaggiotti, H., (2017). Working with Language: A Refocused Research Agenda for Cultural Leadership Studies. International Journal of Management Reviews. 19 (2), 237-257
Ahonen, P., Tienari, J., Merilainen, S. and Pullen, A., (2014). Hidden contexts and invisible power relations: A Foucauldian reading of diversity research. Human Relations. 67 (3), 263-286
Ahonen, P. and Tienari, J., (2009). United in Diversity? Disciplinary Normalization in an EU Project. Organization. 16 (5), 655-679
Ahonen, P., (2009). ‘The World Has Changed’: Discursive Struggles over an Industrial Shutdown in the Media, a Case from the Finnish Pulp and Paper Industry. Competition & Change. 13 (3), 289-304
Torkkeli, M., Kotonen, T. and Ahonen, P., (2007). Regional open innovation system as a platform for SMEs: a survey. International Journal of Foresight and Innovation Policy. 3 (4), 336-336
Book chapters (7)
Greedharry, M., Ahonen, P. and Tienari, J., (2021). Colonialism as Context in Diversity Research. In: Routledge Companion to Organizational Diversity Research Methods. Editors: Nørholm Just, S., Risberg, A. and Villesèche, F., . Routledge. 13- 23. 9780367211486
Greedharry, M., Ahonen, P. and Tienari, J., (2020). Race and identity in organizations. In: The Oxford Handbook of Identities in Organizations. Editors: Brown, AD., . Oxford University Press. 654- 668. 9780198827115
Greedharry, M., Ahonen, P. and Tienari, J., (2020). Race and identity in organizations. In: The Oxford Handbook of Identities in Organizations. 654- 668
Tienari, J. and Ahonen, P., (2016). Caveman Meritocracy: Misrepresenting Women Managers Online. In: Gender, media, and organization: Challenging mis(s)representations of women leaders and managers. Editors: Elliott, C., Stead, V., Mavin, S. and Williams, J., . Information Age Publishing. 133- 151. 9781681235332
Greedharry, M. and Ahonen, P., (2015). Managing Postcolonialism. In: What Postcolonial Theory Does Not Say. Editors: Bernard, A., Elmarsafy, Z. and Murray, S., . Routledge. 49- 66. 9780415857970
Ahonen, P. and Tienari, J., (2015). Ethico-politics of Diversity and its Production. In: The Routledge Companion to Ethics, Politics and Organization. Editors: Pullen, A. and Rhodes, C., . Routledge. 271- 287. 978-0-415-82126-1
Ahonen, P. and Tienari, J., (2011). There is no alternative–or is there? A critical case study approach for international business research. In: Rethinking the Case Study in International Business and Management Research. Editors: Piekkari, R. and Welch, C., . Edward Elgar. 85- 106. 0857933469. 9780857933461
Thesis dissertation (1)
Ahonen, P., (2014). Between Memory and Strategy: Media Discourse Analysis of an Industrial Shutdown
Grants and funding
2024
JRF - Ethnicity, racism & the labour market in the UK � a literature review
Joseph Rowntree Foundation
2017
Reorganizing race: Racialization and organization
British Academy
Contact
Academic support hours:
Please see https://calendly.com/pasiahonen/meet
