Elias Flening

My interests lie in exploring micro and meso-level tension between perceived complexity and competence in engineering systems design in general, and in the project management of mechatronic systems development in particular. This is the topic area of my doctoral research, investigated through exploratory and mixed research designs. I’m cross-disciplinarily dispositioned, loving the mixing of potent (and sometimes explosive) different worldviews in research.

My interest in organizational research fundamentally stems from two points of care: First, I have retained a strong curiosity since childhood about the (seemingly) low-level mundane details of work as a lived experience; Second, the well-established and validated positive correlation between performance and subjective well-being, however defined and operationalized. To put it simply, I find intellectual stimulation in investigating how engineers (i.e., my friends) are faring at work.

I have previously been a research assistant at Stockholm School of Economics in various research projects, mostly relating to activity-based office design and development. I also retain a strong professional and personal interest in Japan, having studied and lived there over two periods.

Positions

• Oct 2016 – Ongoing: Ph.D. student at the MMK/Mechatronics
• Feb 2015 – Jun 2016: Research Assistant, Department of Management and Organization, Stockholm School of Economics, Stockholm.
  Research in projects on organizational leadership, creativity and aesthetics in activity-based workplaces.
• Dec 2014 – Aug 2015: Research Assistant, Department of Management and Organization, Stockholm School of Economics, Stockholm.
  Third Sector social innovation research.
• May 2013 – Jan 2014: Research Assistant, Department of Marketing and Strategy, Stockholm School of Economics, Stockholm.
  Designed and built a comprehensive qualitative database of all Swedish Biotech SMEs.
• May 2012 – Sep 2012: Research Assistant, Center for Banking and Finance, KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm.
  Designed and developed an agent-based bank-actor risk management model for credit risk assessment and flow in a bank organization.

Education

• Aug 2006 – Jun 2014: Industrial Engineering and Management, with a specialization in Mechatronics, KTH, Stockholm
• Sep 2010 – Mar 2011 Junior Year Program in English (JYPE), Tohoku University, Sendai
  Exchange program in Sendai, Japan, where I spent half my time in a lab-environment with 10 Japanese students and the other half taking Japanese and technical courses. The exchange year was cut short because of the tragic earthquake and tsunami in 2011, which was very close to Sendai.
• Sep 2008 – Mar 2009 Japanese Language Program, KAI Japanese Language School, Tokyo
  Studied Japanese in Tokyo, which was one of the best learning experiences of my life since I went there with no prior Japanese knowledge and had to learn because my day-to-day depended on it, as few people and none of the teachers spoke English.