Therese Nordlund Edvinsson (just married, my new name)
      

           Me in Belfast, 5th of July 2007, City Hall, North Ireland.

 

             PhD-exam of Economic History 2005
I'm currently a post-doc reseacher and a teacher at the department of Economic History, Stockholm University.

Room A924

Telephone office: 08-162270

Email: Therese.Nordlund@ekohist.su.se

 

 

 

 

                 Current post-doc research

Postdoc grant: An invisible work?: Women’s informal leadership and influence of large corporations in Sweden 1900-1970.

Business history is often described as the history of male leaders. The Wives of Swedish management is an untold story. This project will investigate the relation between business corporations and executives wives. I intend to analyse ”her” duties and work behind the business leader. What kind of work was a woman expected to do as a corporate wife? And how can we explain her role in business life? The wife of the executive often worked for no salary and was still expected to support her husband, take care of business-associates in the home, act like a hostess and raise the children. Her work has seldom been acknowledged in the Swedish business history. This project will investigate her work inside and outside the big business corporations during the 20th century from a historical perspective, with focus on the gender issues.

In the USA, the corporate wife is often group minded, as she becomes a part of the organization and develop a “professional” identity. For example, many corporations see the wife as very important, as she can contribute to the success of the executive as well as the corporation. We know very little about this matter in previous Swedish research.

The work of the wife will be related to the male manager/her husband, as well as other employees of the corporation or the bank. Her role as a wife of management will be analysed also in relation to the women who actually worked inside the organization and had earned “real” money and had a “real” working identity.

This project suggests that the wives of management must be studied closely in relation to their social environment. For this purpose a biographical method is helpful as well as theoretical tools like network analysis. To use a biographical method one must have close access to the empirical material. This study uses archives previously never used by researchers. A mix of correspondence, diaries, and interviews will be used.

 

                                 My Thesis

    Big Business Leadership: A study of Social Competence and Entrepreneurship in Swedish Industry with Focus on Axel Ax:son Johnson and J. Sigfrid Edström, 1900-1950. My thesis is written in Swedish and its called:

  Att leda storföretag: en studie av social kompetens och entreprenörskap i näringslivet med fokus på Axel Ax:son Johnson och J. Sigfrid Edström 1900-1950. 

Abstract

This thesis investigates leadership in Swedish business during the period of 1900-1950. The main aim is to explore the relationship between entrepreneurship and leadership and how the leader uses his social competence, both inside and outside the company, to enhance economic and organizational change. The study focuses on two main characters: Axel Ax:son Johnson (1876-1958), manager and owner of Johnsonkoncernen (the Johnson Group), and J. Sigfrid Edström (1870-1964), professional manager of ASEA (today ABB). They represented Swedish Capitalism in its golden years. The study uses archives previously never opened to researchers.

  To understand how and why leadership have changed during the 20th century, the theoretical framework is based on the concepts of entrepreneurship, paternalism, network and charisma. Leadership involves communication. The corporate leader in the early 20th century had to build networks both of stronger and looser types, each of these two types with a different aim, but with the ambition to care for the company's best interest. Johnson and Edström used their personality to attain more power inside the company as well as to attract attention from the outside. This thesis shows that if the leaders took advantage of their social communication skills they could create new combination, which could benefit their companies. Therefore, the leader had to bring out the best in his co-workers, in order to attract new ideas, competence and entrepreneurial skills around him. The leader did not only involve himself in networks with fellow industrialists, but also with Social Democrats and journalists. 

 Johnson and Edström had to be leaders not only within the company but also in the surrounding society. They involved themselves in many other areas; in the local community and as opinion builders. The patriarchal strategies still proved fruitful during the period. Yet, modern strategies connected to large organizations and bureaucratic methods were also introduced. It was hard for the employees to accept these changes. If the companies would expand, the leader could attract admirers and followers who fully accepted the leadership and strategies. The leader had to become an entrepreneur with a will to encourage others. 

Key words, leadership, entrepreneurship, social competence, charisma, paternalism, network, Axel Ax:son Johnson, Sigfrid Edström, Johnsonkoncernen, Avesta Jernverk, ASEA, biography, big business, opinion-builder, family business, professional leadership, economic history.

                              Teaching

Entreprenörer i historien: från Ford till Gates (7,5 poäng)

Ledarskap och företagande i historisk belysning (7,5 poäng) sommarkurs

www.oocities.org/theresen76/ledarskap.html

I am currently responsible for the summer courses in Economic History. 

 

         CV Therese Nordlund Edvinsson (Born 1976)

Exams

PhD-exam of Economic History (9th of December),  2005.

Licentiate of Economic History (5th of September),  2003.

PhD candidate at the Department of Economic History, Stockholms University January 2001-December 2005.

MA in literature, 2000.

MA in history, 1999.

 

Scholarships

2007: FAS post-doc grant.

2006: Scholarship from Föreningssparbankens forskningsstiftelse.

2001-2005 Scholarship from Axel & Margaret Ax:son Johnsons Foundation.

Scholarship from Avesta Community 2000.      

 

Selected publications

Article about female entrepreneurs (forthcoming 2007).

Review, Scandinavian Economic History Review (2007) forthcoming.

”Carl von Linné: en vetenskaplig nytänkare” (artikel inför Linnéåret 2007, Stockholms universitet).

”Jakt och broderskap: J:Sigfrid Edström och Kung Orres Jaktklubb", Idrott, historia och samhälle (2006).

”Företagskultur och myt: om Sigfrid Edström och Asea”, kommande artikel Bergslagsarkiv 2006.

”Att studera företagsledare: biografisk metod som hjälpmedel”, antagen och kommande artikel, publiceras hösten 2006, Personhistorisk Tidskrift 2006.

”Det samhällsbyggande ledarskapet: om storföretagares inflytande i några svenska kommuner 1900-1950”, Arbetsmarknad & Arbetsliv, årg 12, nr 2, sommaren 2006. Går att ladda ner och läsa på Internet, 

Historik över ekonomisk-historiska institutionen, Stockholms universitet, (Våren 2006).

Intervjuer med professorna vid ekonomisk-historiska institutionen. (publicerat på Internet, www.ekohist.su.se  Våren 2006).

”Näringslivets fruar: oumbärliga samarbetspartners?”, PM presenterat vid ekonomisk-historiska institutionens högre seminarium 16/3 2006. (opublicerad)

"Att se det möjliga i något omöjligt: Axel Ax:son Johnson och Johnsonkoncernen", "Bäste broder!": nätverk, entreprenörskap och innovation i svenskt näringsliv (red Ylva Hasselberg & Tom Petersson).(Hft 368s, utkommer april 2006 Gidlunds förlag).

Att leda storföretag: en studie om social kompetens och entreprenörskap i näringslivet med fokus på Axel Ax:son Johnson och Sigfrid Edström, 1900-1950. Doktorsavhandling, Stockholm 2005: Almqvist & Wiksell.

"Vem är den som ej sin broder minns?: om industrimän och broderskap i Kung Orres Jaktklubb" (Paper presenterat vid ekonomisk-historiska mötet i Umeå 7-9 oktober 2005) går att läsa som pdf http://www.ekhist.umu.se/ekhistmote2005/papers/6-2-Therese_Nordlund.pdf

Participated in a movie about ”Ledarna - the Swedish association for managerial and professional staff (April 2005)

"Axel Ax:son Johnson som opinionsbildare i politik och tidningspress", Personhistorisk Tidskrift (2004) (1)

För näringslivets bästa?: nätverk, planhushållningsmotstånd och företagande med fokus på Axel Ax:son Johnson (1876-1958), Licentiatuppsats Stockholm 2003

"Ledarskap och paternalism: Axel Ax:son Johnson och Avesta Jernverk", Bergslagsarkiv 2000 (årg. 12)