About me

My academic background is very diverse and interdisciplinary, ranging from studies in English Literature & Linguistics to Intercultural Communication, European Law & Politics and Sociology. My common interest in these different disciplines has always been the themes of interaction and communication.
 

Teaching

Undergraduate courses:

Organisation and Work, 7.5hp/ECTS

Graduate courses:

Sociological Perspectives on Organisations and Labour Markets, 7.5hp/ECTS

 

Research

 

Research interests

• psychological / informal contracts
• empowerment
• employment protection
• organisational change
• human resource management/development (HRM/D) and leadership
• theories on social exchange and reciprocity
• sociological and social-psychological theories of communication and interaction
   

Current research
 

I am a researcher at the Ratio Institute, Stockholm, and my current focus is on two areas: employment protection legislation (LAS) and psychological contracts. In the project on employment protection in Sweden, we investigate how the employment protection act (LAS) works practically for employers, managers/bosses and employees. The project on psychological - or informal - contracts deals with the question whether current uncertainty, flexibility and organisational change affect informal contracts in Swedish workplaces.

 

PhD thesis

• Weidenstedt, Linda. 2017. A Sociology of Empowerment: The Relevance of Communicative Contexts for Workplace Change. Stockholm: Department of Sociology, Stockholm University.
   

Peer-reviewed articles

• Weidenstedt, Linda. 2016. "Empowerment Gone Bad: Communicative Consequences of Power Transfers." Socius 2: 1-11. doi:10.1177/2378023116672869.

• Schirmer, Werner, Linda Weidenstedt and Wendelin Reich. 2013. "Respect and Agency. An Empirical Exploration." Current Sociology 61(1): 57-75.

• Schirmer, Werner, Linda Weidenstedt and Wendelin Reich. 2012. "From Tolerance to Respect in Inter-Ethnic Contexts." Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies 38(7): 1049-1065.

Working papers

• Weidenstedt, Linda. 2017. "It Takes Two to Empower: The Communicative Context of Empowerment Change in the Workplace." Stockholm: The Ratio Institute.

• Weidenstedt, Linda. 2017. "Does One Size Fit All? Investigating Different Empowerment Orientations in the Heterogeneous Workforce of the Swedish Retail Sector." Stockholm: The Ratio Institute.

 

Conferences

• International interdisciplinary conference on HRM.
  University of Gothenburg, Sweden.
  March 2017
  "One Size Fits All: Investigating Workplace Empowerment as Generally Desireable for Employees in the Swedish Retail Sector."

• Conference of the Swedish Sociological Association.
  Uppsala University, Sweden.
  March 2016
  "The Dilemma in Communicating Empowerment at the Workplace."

• ReThinking Management. The Impact of Cultural Turns.
  Karlshochschule International University, Germany.
  October 2014
  "The Paradox of Empowerment from a Sociological Point of View. New Implications for Management Research."

• 30th International Labour Process Conference
  Stockholm University, Sweden.
  March 2012
  "The Double Bind in Communicating Empowerment as HRM/HRD Measure. A Theoretical Analysis."

• Inter-Ivy and Sorensen Memorial Sociology Conference
  Harvard University, USA.
  April 2011
  "Respectful Empowerment as a Solution to the 'Paradox of Empowerment'."