Nordeas thesis award, diversity and inclusion

Frederik Lund-Petersen and Hedda Dahlström

ImageLinda Ferm

It is the first time that the award is given and the purpose of the award is to stimulate and maintain students' interest in how issues in business administration, economics and statistics can be related to diversity and inclusion. The financing of the prize, which is given as a scholarship, has been made possible by the USBEs collaboration with Nordea | BBU Botnia.

Comment from Nordea: 

– We are very pleased to have entered into this collaboration with USBE and to give the award this year to a very well-written and interesting thesis that highlights diversity and inclusion.

Thank you from the award winners

– Thank you for this award, it feels great to receive this scholarship! We are happy that this subject is getting more attention and that this scholarship has been introduced. We hope that diversity and inclusion will be given even more attention in the Business Administration and Economics programmes in the future and that this can inspire both students and professionals to get more involved in the issue.

– We are very happy for our four years at Umeå School of Business, Economics and Statistics and the education we have received.

Words from the jury

This thesis deals with a current and relevant empirical problem regarding the lack of female leaders in the tech industry. The topic is approached by the authors with an independently chosen and theoretically interesting angle in the form of female leaders' own experiences of how their leadership is adapted to masculine gender norms.

The study is well anchored in existing literature on gender roles and identity within organizations and leadership. The empirical study is well thought out and of high quality. The authors show a good ability to develop in-depth insights into the complexity of reality through critical reflection on the experiences of the interviewed female managers. They succeed in both maintaining respect for women's experiences and at the same time drawing their own conclusions with a more critical approach. The theoretical contribution is clearly carved out and the practical recommendations to companies in the tech industry are relevant and concrete.

They recommend that companies seek the help of independent gender equality consultants to become aware of the challenges and injustices that women may face, and then develop strategies for recruiting and allocating power and tasks that can be an integral part of the company's long-term plan rather than personal dependent.

The students also point to the societal potential that more inclusive and diverse organizations can increase profitability and competitiveness as well as facilitate the recruitment of co-workers.

The thesis supervisor was Associate Professor Ulrica Nylén.

The thesis can be found in DiVA

The Jury

Many thanks to the jury which consists of associate professors Ulrika Leijerholt, business administration, Tomas Raattamaa, economics, Maria Karlsson, statistics, Sofia Lundberg, USBE Dean and Fredrik Stenling from Nordea.