When Eva Wittbom completed her degree in economics in 1978 she had no plans to continue her academic training. It was with great enthusiasm that she instead began her business career which continued for over twenty years before she decided to apply to the doctoral programme. It was her wish to develop further theoretical knowledge and to study the ways of organisations that eventually attracted her to the programme. Eva completed her thesis on management control in May 2009, and today she works as an Assistant Professor at the School of Business.
Please tell us about your research interests and your work at the School.
- In my research I examine management control aspects of state agencies with a focus on effectiveness, from a gender perspective. I enjoy asking questions about efficiency, management and power through a gender perspective, and my involvement in the Academy for Performance Management in Central Government allows me to do this on a regular basis. I teach management control and scientific method and I am also responsible for the Bachelor’s programme in business administration and political science. Through my role as ‘inspector’ in the association for economic and business students at the School, I also get the opportunity to meet the students under more festive circumstances.
Do you have any advice for students who are interested in the doctoral programme?
- My best piece of advice is to let yourself be guided by your own curiosity and motivation. Doctoral studies are perfect if you are interested in aspects and topics that are yet undiscovered. As a doctoral student you are given the opportunity to advance your ability to think and reflect analytically as well as the chance to meet skilled researchers and other ambitious doctoral students. The thesis project also allows you to develop in depth knowledge of a certain phenomenon. In your research you do not have to be smart in the way that you have to be inside organisations, you can collect and present information without regard to whether or not the results are ‘pleasant’ from an organisational point of view.
What do you like most about being a researcher and teacher at the School of Business?
- Meeting students and colleagues, and of course the constant development of new knowledge!
What does the term business administration mean to you?
- The term business refers to a business idea which requires an organisation. Administration usually refers to managing resources, however in my research the term administration means control of financial surplus. Human resources are usually not fully explored, and thus a surplus of resources is available to organisations. “The way that organisations manage resources towards a certain result” is therefore a definition of the term business administration that I can stand behind.