Elisabeth Naima Mikkelsen

Presentation

My research interests revolve around work relationships within and between organizations, particularly collaboration and everyday conflict management within and between different professional groups.

In my PhD thesis (published in 2012), I investigate the phenomenon of conflict by exploring those social processes of organizational sensemaking that arise when everyday conflict occur at work in a nonprofit organization. I have a particular interest in how meaning and action interact in processes of conflict handling in organizational conflicts that arise naturally in every arena of daily life when people meet in social interactions.

My current research includes two research projects:

A) Inter-organizational conflict dynamics. This study is about the inter-organizational work relationships between professionals from collaborating mental health care organizations. Given that many mental health service users, once they leave the hospital, receive follow-up care in community settings, multiple professional organizational actors often interact and coordinate treatment and care across traditional organizational boundaries. In our case however, failed coordination practices between hospital and community organizations is deeply interconnected with conflict between professionals. To provide insights into the processual aspects of inter-organizational conflict, we investigate the social micro processes of interpersonal and intergroup interactions that bridge organizations in concrete inter-organizational coordinating exchanges.

B) Prison work relationships. This study is about work relationships and social capital among correctional officers in Danish prisons. While research in the area of correctional work relationships focuses mainly on the guard-prisoner relationships, peer relationships among guards have received only little attention in the literature. In this study I investigate peer relationships among prison guards in two correctional institutions: an open prison and a maximum security prison. 

Primary research areas

• Work relationships and collaboration
• Conflict and conflict management
• Nonprofit and voluntary organizations
• Correctional institutions
• Organizational sensemaking
• Organizational interventions and organizational development
• Qualitative methods

Courses

• Personlighedspsykologi og Kognition, Ha(psyk)
• Socialpsykologi, Ha(psyk)
• Arbejds- og ledelsespsykologi, Ha(psyk)

Supervision

Master thesis supervision