Therese Monstad

University lecturer and assistant head of department responsible for the department's education. My research focuses on organizational communication, change- and crisis communication and digitalization processes in organizations. The research has involved studies with the aim of mapping and contributing to curbing the spread of covid-19 in U-A county (CRUSH Covid), on digital transformation of physical spaces (TROPHY) and change communication.

Organizations continue to face the longstanding participation trend, which involves encouraging employee participation in organizational life. In order for organizations to be competitive on a globalized and digitalized market with rapid technology advancements it is essential that employees continuously adjust their assignments and for that reason they need to have mandate to make decisions concerning their specific role. Hence participation processes are necessary for organizations. Participation requires continuous and extensive coordination carried out through complex interactions between all organizational members, not least between senior management and employees. These interactions involve communication with a greater range, more diverse communication and more information richness than communication in organizational settings with traditional hierarchical structures. The challenge for contemporary organizations is that inherent in these participation processes are tensions (in the form of contradictions, paradoxes, ironies and similar), which are produced and reproduced in communication. Practice and research scholars alike are therefore interested in the communicative constitution and enactment of tensions in organizations.

The overall purpose of my thesis was to contribute to the field of organizational communication by providing insight about the role of organizational tensions in the communicative constitution of organizations. In particular I explored the communicative constitution, enactment and interactive handling of tensions in organizations’ participatory processes. My interest is still in how these tensions, inherent as well as sprung out of the interactions, contribute to the communicative constitution of organizations. This includes studies of the role of communication for collaboration both within organizations and between external actors and individuals in society.

CRUSH Covid (Time period: 2020-09-15--August 2022)

CRUSH COVID is an innovative multidisciplinary research project, in which researchers at five academic departments of Uppsala University collaborate with Uppsala Region. The purpose of the project is to survey and attempt to control local outbreaks of COVID-19 in Uppsala County.

Managing the Digital Transformation of Physical Space (TROPHY) (Time period: 2018-11-15--2021-02-28)

The aim with this research project was to develop knowledge and tools to facilitate communication (between employees, customers, clients, visitors and partners) in the boundary between the digital and the physical space. The goal was to identify, and then create an understanding of, the factors that contribute to successful interaction and communication at the border between the digital and the physical space. Such knowledge contributes to research in the field, while providing normative guidance for managers in their efforts to effectively lead an organization toward successful interactions both internally and externally. For more information, please visit: https://www.im.uu.se/forskning/projekt/trophy/