Christina Mauléon
About Christina Mauléon
Background
I earned my PhD in Technology Management and Economics with a specialization in Quality Management at Chalmers University of Technology in 2009. I have an interdisciplinary academic background, including a Licentiate degree in the same field from Chalmers, as well as a Bachelor's and Master's degree in Education within Human Resource Management and Work 91Ě˝»¨ from Linköping University.
Following my dissertation, I have held positions as researcher and senior lecturer in business administration with a focus on organization and leadership at the School of Business, Economics and Law at the University 91Ě˝»¨, the University of Skövde, and the University of BorĂĄs. I have also conducted research at IMIT (Chalmers) and served as an HR lecturer at Sahlgrenska University Hospital in collaboration with the Västra Götaland Region. In addition, I have been invited as a guest lecturer at ESSEC Business School in Paris.
Research Profile
My research explores how organizing, governance, and professional practice are enacted and shaped in everyday work. Drawing on a relational and sociomaterial perspective, I examine how policies, technologies, and governance models are negotiated, interpreted, and made meaningful in contexts where professional judgment, responsibility, and knowledge are central.
Particular focus is placed on digital forms of governance – such as performance management systems, quality assurance tools, and indicator-based follow-up models. The research investigates how these systems are enacted in practice, how they interact with professional norms and organizational goals, and what consequences they have for decision-making, knowledge practices, and legitimacy.
Through case studies across sectors such as healthcare, education, higher education, and high-reliability organizations (HROs), I study how professionals navigate between competing logics and demands – and how organizing is continually negotiated under conditions marked by uncertainty, complexity, and conflicting expectations.
Current Research
Digitalization, governance, and Professional AutonomyThis project examines how regulatory frameworks, digital performance management systems, and performance indicators shape professional discretion and everyday work in the public sector. Focusing on schools, healthcare, and higher education, the project approaches governance as an unfolding process, enacted in the interplay of regulation, formal policy, and informal practice. It investigates how governance is negotiated and made operational in daily work, and explores its effects on professional identity, agency, organizational trust, and legitimacy. Conducted in collaboration with Linnaeus University and the University of BorĂĄs.
Digital Governance, Indicators, and Safety in Regulated Contexts
This project investigates how digital management control systems and safety indicators are interpreted, adapted, and enacted in the ongoing organizing of high-reliability organizations (HROs). The focus is on how safety is continuously constructed in practice – by the way indicators are interpreted, how responsibility is distributed, and continuous sensemaking. By examining the way digital management control systems and safety indicators are embedded in day-to-day routines, the project traces how formal mechanisms of control are translated into situated actions and its consequences on safety.
Quality for Sustainability (Q4S – Quality for Sustainability)This international research network investigates how quality-, and sustainability goals are defined, enacted, and measured in higher education institutions (HEI’s). In collaboration with Uppsala University (Sweden), Luleå University of Technology (Sweden), University of Alberta (Canada), Toronto Metropolitan University (Canada), FURB – Regional University of Blumenau (Brazil)
Ungendering STEM – Toward Inclusive Technical ProfessionsThis project examines how gender norms and assumptions about technical competence shape STEM education and professions. Using a norm-critical and sociotechnical approach, it analyzes how professional identity, responsibility, and status in technical fields are often linked to masculine ideals—and how such ideals are reproduced through seemingly neutral initiatives. Rather than focusing on increasing the number of women, the project explores how technical professions can be redefined by disrupting the traditional association between technology and masculinity. In collaboration with Chalmers University of Technology.
Teaching
I teach in Swedish and English at undergraduate, master’s, and doctoral levels. My areas include work science, business administration, HRM, quality management, and research methodology. I have extensive experience in both on-campus and distance education. I also work with commissioned education for professionals.
I serve as Deputy Program Director for the Master’s Program in Work 91Ě˝»¨ and am course coordinator for:
- Labour Market and Employment Relations in a National and International Perspective (advanced level)
- Project Leadership and the Role of the Consultant (undergraduate level)
- Evaluation and Change (undergraduate level)
Collaboration
My research is practice-oriented and anchored in several research collaborations across the public, private, and civil society sectors. These include close partnerships with i.e. Västra Götalandregionen, Sahlgrenska University Hospital, and private sector organizations.