Research and findings
What change does to people and companies
— in the short and the long run
I have examined what different kinds of change at work do to employees, to the working day and to organizations over time — whether it is a redundancy process, the introduction of new technology, or the arrival and withdrawal of remote work.
The themes
The overarching themes
Unpredictability, not the change itself, is the main burden
It is not necessarily the change itself that wears people down, but not knowing, over time, what is coming. In data from more than 12,000 employees across 66 Norwegian organizations, unpredictable change in particular was linked to a poorer working environment and poorer health — with effects still measurable up to three years afterwards, with knock-on consequences for how many people leave and ultimately for the bottom line (Frontiers in Psychology, 2019 ↗; Scandinavian Journal of Work, Environment & Health, 2019 ↗).
When working life moved home during covid — and stayed there
As Associate Professor and head of department at STAMI, I led the work on meta-analyses and systematic reviews of what remote work does to health, the working environment and the working day — published while the whole working world was moving home, and still just as relevant in the hybrid debate (STAMI, 2021 ↗; BMC Public Health, 2022 ↗; Int. Archives of Occupational and Environmental Health, 2022 ↗).
Leadership eases the burden
Leaders who are inclusive, fair and supportive through change significantly reduce the strain that unpredictability causes (Scandinavian Journal of Work, Environment & Health, 2020 ↗). Sometimes uncertainty cannot be removed at all — but how a leader acts in that situation is one of the most effective ways to prevent the negative effects, for employees and for the business alike. Given the sweeping changes working life now faces with AI, this may well be the most important finding of all.
An honest caveat
What the research does not answer conclusively
— yet
We know that unpredictability has a price, and that leadership eases it. We know less about exactly where the limit lies for how much change an organization can take — and less still about how adopting AI differs from other kinds of restructuring.
That last one is what I am working out now.
The publications
The original papers, for the curious reader
The three doctoral papers, the thesis — and the three systematic reviews on remote work from the STAMI years. Everything is openly available; no subscription needed.
Organizational change and mental health
Prospective multilevel study · Scandinavian Journal of Work, Environment & Health, 2019 ↗
What change does to the work environment
Prospective study · Frontiers in Psychology, 2019 ↗
The leadership that eases the strain
Prospective multilevel study · Scandinavian Journal of Work, Environment & Health, 2020 ↗
The thesis: A healthy change?
Doctoral thesis · University of Oslo, 2020 ↗
Working from home — the full picture
Systematic evidence review (in Norwegian) · STAMI, 2021 ↗
Remote work and health
Systematic review · BMC Public Health, 2022 ↗
Remote work and the working environment
Systematic review · Int. Archives of Occupational and Environmental Health, 2022 ↗
Coverage
Where the research has been covered
STAMI
Coverage of the defence and the main findings (in Norwegian) ↗
FriFagbevegelse
“Can cause a lasting psychological blow” — interview, 2020 (in Norwegian) ↗
Psykologisk.no
“Unpredictability at work raises the risk of health problems” (in Norwegian) ↗
The doctorate at UiO
“A healthy change?” — defence 27 August 2020 ↗
Talks
Would you like to hear more about this?
I give talks and workshops, or advise on change, unpredictability and what adopting AI means for the people in an organization.