Pernille Piechowiak Strøbæk

Pernille Piechowiak Strøbæk

Part-time lecturer, External Lecturer

Member of:

    Primary fields of research

    The social psychology of stress and emotion i organizations

    Current research

    Returning from maternity leave in the Summer 2015 I continue my focus on the social psychology of stress and emotion in organizational settings. Especially I am interested in the social psychology of emotion in organizations characterized by emotional labor. For example how emotional labor forges links between professionalized, personalized, and socialized zones of emotion work (Stroebaek,P.S. 2011). Also I pay attention to the social makeup of group life and the cultural synergy processes in organizations (Müller-Leonhardt, A.; stroebaek, P.S., Vogt, J., 2015; Stroebaek, P.S. & Willert, S. 2014; Stroebaek, P.S. & Vogt, J., 2013).

    A major contribution in recent years is my 2013 paper published in Symbolic Interaction entitled "Let's have a cup of coffee! Coffee and coping communities at work". Here I show the power and legitimacy of social coping through a focus on coffee sociality at work. - A focus that from a research perspective can be seen as a revisit to the social value of work already suggested by the Elton Mayo studies back in the 1920's. From a societal perspective the paper ecchoed a need and an interest for re-establishing a focus on the human and social factor in modern political and economic thinking led by waves of new public management ideas and the neo-liberal turn. My paper led to interviews and discussions worldwide and it had a socital impact. Since my 2013 paper I have been invited to write a book chapter on Drinking Coffee (Stroebaek, P.S. in press, in: Waskul, D. & Vannini, P. (red.): Popular Culture as Everyday Life, Routledge) and a paper on Coffee and Worksite Stress soon to be reviewed in Beverages special issue on Coffee.

    My interest in the social psychology of stress and emotion has moreover led me to an interest in situations. As the Danish collaborator I work with Professor David Funder, University of California, Riverside, USA, on an international situation study using the Riverside International Q-sort (RSQ) examining situational assessment across cultures. This study is an advangement of a pilot study (Guillaume, E. et. al., 2015. The World at 7:00. Comparing the Experience of Situations Across 20 Countries, Journal of Personality). In our new study 45 countries participate and more seem to come before data gathering starts next year.

    As the Danish collaborator I currently collect data on a project led by Mark Brandt, Toon Kuppens, and Russell Spears at Tilburg University, Holland, investigating power, status and legitimacy across countries. This is a broader project that is adaptable to my current research focus on power and legitimacy in relation to stress and emotion.

    Other both national and international collaborations on the sociality of emotion and on dealing with cliental aggression are being discussed and developed.

    Besides my research activities I concentrate presently on engaging in the compulsory course program planned for Assistant Professors "Teaching and Learning in Higher Education".

    Teaching

    I am the responsible coordinator of Social Psychology at the Bachelor Level of Psychology.

    Most of my teaching takes place as grand lectures in the Social Psychology Program. However, I also teach seminar classes and overview lectures in the following areas: 

    Work- and Organizational Psychology

    Bachelor course with supervision on bachelor project ending the BA in psychology

    Project Management (Graduate School of Health and Medical Sciences, Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences, University of Copenhagen)

    Besides my teaching I supervise student instructors and TAs in social psychology and supervise both master and bachelor projects.

    Fields of interest

    The social psychology of stress and emotion; emotional labor; feeling and feeling rules; social structure; organizational change; social acts and activity

    ID: 1503920