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Areas of expertise
Biography
Johanna Raitis is an International Business scholar. Currently she holds a postdoctoral position at Turku Institute for Advanced Studies (TIAS) and is a member of the Executive Committee of Cultural Memory and Social Change at the Turku University. Johanna defended her doctoral dissertation titled Identity and Multinational Corporation - Building Unity within Diversity in 2015. Since then she has worked in various research projects, such as the Tekes funded "Emotions in Mergers and Acquisitions" (2015-2017) and the Academy of Finland funded "Cosmopolitan Life, Identity and Future of Work" (2022-2026). She has published in the Journal of Management Studies, edited a book on Nordic approach to socio-cultural integration (Palgrave Macmillan) and contributed to several other international publications. Johanna has firsthand experience in cultural encounters and adaptation having studied and worked abroad several years in Australia, Brazil, France, Belgium and Chile.
Teaching
Johanna has an extensive teaching and supervising experience in bachelor’s and master’s levels. She has taught international business strategy, mergers and acquisitions, global innovation, qualitative research methods and currently she is responsible for “Managing across Cultures”-course. She has supervised more than 70 bachelors and 50 masters’ theses as well as several JOKO and eMBA leadership program theses at Turku University. Currently she is supervising one doctoral dissertation.
As a teacher she advocates and practices learning based teaching methods and student-centered approaches. Her strengths are close and open interaction with the students also evident in student feedback, where she is often rated as professional, inspirational and engaging. Johanna also emphasizes critical thinking, proper working techniques, mutual respect and people skills in her classes.
Research
Johanna’s TIAS project focuses on companies with social value going beyond the creation of organizational wealth to the broader value an organization can create for the society at large. The study takes a dual perspective on companies as carriers and preservers of local values and traditions, as well as players and forces in the borderless global economy. The research intersects the fields of international business, management and organization, cultural history and sociology.
Johanna’s expertise lie also in the organizational change processes, the creation and maintenance of ‘sense of us’, perceptions and actions of fairness in organizations, as well as meanings and meaningfulness at work. Recently, she has started a project on migration and cultural sustainability.
In terms of research approaches, Johanna excels in in-depth qualitative, cross-cultural research and data storytelling. Interviews, participant observation and close collaboration with the case companies are the core and strength of her research. The research ethics that Johanna follows are high quality, integrity, transparency in reporting, trust, mutual respect in collaborative work and accountability to the public.