Lena Zander

Lena Zander specializes in cross cultural research on leadership and teams. Her recent projects focus on global virtual team leadership, migrant integration, and the academic brain drain problem. Her work, recipient of research grants, multiple best-dissertation, -paper and -reviewer awards, is published in international books and journals. She has served as Senior Editor of Journal of World Business, Associate Editor of Africa Journal of Management, and editor of books and special issues.

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Lena Zander (Ph.D.) is a Professor at the Department of Business Studies at Uppsala University, Sweden. She has earlier held positions as Honorary Research Associate and Professorial Fellow at Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand; Assistant and Associate Professor at the Stockholm School of Economics, Sweden; and she has been a visiting scholar at Stanford University, and the Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania, USA. She was a Visiting Professor at the Chinese University of Hong Kong during her sabbatical year 2016-2017.

Lena specializes in cross-cultural research within the field of international management. She is currently working on three projects: Leading global virtual teams; core values and leveraging culture in multinational organizational settings; and teaching in the multicultural classroom. Lena’s research and work has repeatedly attracted funding from: The Swedish Research Council (Vetenskapsrådet), Swedish Council for Work Life Research (Rådet för Arbetslivsforskning), Jan Wallanders och Tom Hedelius Stiftelse, Tore Browaldhs Stiftelse, and the Swedish Work Environment Fund (Arbetsmiljöfonden), and recently she was awarded Riksbankens Jubileumsfond Sabbatical grant for a project titled 'Global Virtual Team Leaders: Unexplored opportunities for multicultural management'. She is currently working on this project in Hong Kong and Singapore during 2016-2017. For a brief project description in English see link: http://anslag.rj.se/en/fund/50807 and in Swedish see link: http://anslag.rj.se/sv/anslag/50807. For an interview with Lena see link http://www.rj.se/Forskningsnyheter/Forskningen/2015/nya-mojligheter-for-virtuella-ledare/).

Lena has published her research in books and journals like the Journal of International Business Studies (JIBS), Journal of World Business (JWB), Journal of Management Inquiry (JMI), Asia Business Management (ABM), International Business Review (IBR), Organizational Dynamics (OD), European Journal of International Management (EJIM), Scandinavian Journal of Management (SJM), Journal of Teaching in International Business (JTIB), International Journal of Cross Cultural Management (IJCCM), International Studies in Management and Organization (ISMO), and Advances in International Management (AIM). Lena was commissioned by Edward Elgar Publishing to act as editor for the ‘Research Handbook on Global Leadership: Making a Difference’, which is forthcoming.

Lena has won several dissertation, best paper, and best reviewer awards. Her Ph D dissertation was awarded with the Barry M. Richman Best Dissertation Award (Academy of Management (AOM)), the Richard N. Farmer 1998 Dissertation Competition Award (Academy of International Business (AIB)), and the Best 1998 Dissertation in Business Administration in Sweden Award. Her master thesis on Small Scale Industry Development in Botswana was awarded with the Oscar Sillen’s Award for the Best Final M Sc Thesis. She has also been awarded several Best Paper and Best Reviewer Awards at AOM, AIB, and the Australia and New Zealand Academy of Management (ANZAM). Additionally, Lena’s work has for the last five years been either finalist for Best Paper Awards in the highly competitive International Management Division of AOM, and/or finalist for the All-Academy Emerald Best International Symposium Award at the annual AOM conferences. In 2013 Lena together with her colleagues participated in the symposium that was awarded with the All-Academy Emerald Best International Symposium Award at AOM, and she was finalist for the same award with another research team. Additionally, in 2013 Lena was one of the four scholars recognized especially for having received best reviewer awards several consecutive years at the International Management Division of AOM. In 2014, Lena together with her research team was finalist for the 'HRM-Researcher of the Year in Sweden' award ('Årets HR-forskare') for their project 'Leading Global Teams'. In 2015 and 2016, she was awarded a best reviewer award from the Academy of International Business.

Lena’s interest in culture’s impact on international management has led her to organize a series of international cross-disciplinary conferences and she is also the initiator, and main organizer of the annual meetings and workshops of an international research and teaching network on ‘Leveraging Culture in Teams’. She has also edited or co-edited books and special issues such as ‘Identifying Culture’ for IJCCM; ‘Language and Communication in International Management' for ISMO; and ‘Leveraging Values in Global Organizations’ for MIR. Lena is currently co-editing a special issue on ‘The Benefits of Global Teams for International Organizations: HR Implications’ for International Journal of Human Resource Management (IJHRM).

Lena has served in numerous organizational capacities such as Track Chair (AIB 2003), Track Co-chair (European Academy of Management (EURAM) 2002 & 2010), Doctoral Consortium Chair (AIB 2007), and Early Career Consortium Co-Chair (International Federation of Scholarly Associations of Management (IFSAM) 2012). She has also been invited as a panelist at Doctoral Consortia (AIB 2004, AOM 2009, and AIB UK/Ireland 2010) and at the International Management Junior Faculty Consortium (AOM 2011). Lena has served as Chair of the Best Doctoral Proposal selection committee (AIB 2007), as an elected Executive Board Member (Member-at-Large) of Women in AIB (WAIB) 2007-2011. Additionally, she has acted as a guest editor at the Journal of International Business Studies (JIBS) paper development workshops at the AIB conferences 2008 and 2010. Lena was on the organizing committee of the EIBA 2014 conference held at Uppsala University. She was also elected as Swedens' representative and member of the EIBA board in 2014. She also acted as a guest editor at the International Management Division's paper development workshop at AOM's conference in Vancouver, 2015, and will be a part of the faculty panel giving feedback to work-in-progress at the EIBA conference in Vienna.

Lena has been involved in the 'Global Leadership Summit’' organized by Northeastern University in Boston. In 2012 she was an invited participant, in 2013 and 2014, Lena was on the organizing committee. She was also invited as a panelist on the topic 'When, Where and How Do We Develop Responsible Global Leaders’ in 2013. An interview with Lena about the summit is posted on the internet YouTube channel, see link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TLZcghE-NPk In 2014 Lena was on the panel discussing 'Developing global leaders in the middle', which is available in full on YouTube see link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6nT0u1J00Yk

Lena is Senior Editor of Journal of World Business, and Associate Editor, part of the founding team of the newly launched Africa Journal of Management. She has served on the JIBS editorial review board for 14 consecutive years, and is currently an editorial review board member of the International Journal of Cross Cultural Management; the Journal of Leadership and Organizational Studies; the Cross Cultural and Strategic Management Journal (earlier Cross-cultural Management: An International Journal), and Advances in Global Leadership. She regularly also reviews for Academy of Management Learning and Education, Management International Review as well as for other journals, and for AOM's, AIB's, and EIBA's annual conferences.

Lena has been the external examiner of Ph D dissertations in Denmark, Spain and the UK, and she has acted as a member of Ph D dissertation evaluation committees in Sweden. She has also evaluated Master Honors Programs in New Zealand, research applications in Austria and Sweden, and served as an external reviewer on tenure and Professor promotion applications abd chaired Professor appointments in Australia, Norway, Spain, Sweden, and the USA.

At Uppsala University, Lena is course director and teaches at master level courses such as the 'International Firm in the Global Economy', 'Cross Cultural Management', and 'Investigating International Business' (a methods course). She has also supervised master and bachelor student theses, and acted as a member of the thesis examination committee. Lena was elected as a teacher representative to the executive board of the Department of Business Studies for the term 2014-2015.

Lena is regularly invited as speaker, facilitator and discussant at conferences and workshops for scholars as well as practitioners. In addition to her Swedish work experience, she also draws on her international work experience from Botswana, France, New Zealand, and the United States, and from spending her formative years in the Netherlands, Nigeria, Singapore, and Sweden. Her interest in student learning and pedagogy has led her to develop innovative course designs and to publish articles and text book chapters on the topic.

Lena is also interested in communicating her research to practitioners outside the classroom. In addition to publishing practitioner-oriented articles she has contributed to the Uppsala University blog at Uppsala’s main newspaper’s website, ‘Upsala Nya Tidning’, and to the Department of Business Studies’ business magazine ‘Mercury’ on a regular basis. Her Professorial Inauguration speech is among the select few uploaded by Uppsala University and made accessible for viewing on the internet ‘YouTube’ channel, link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WwZdY0zVOGA

Honors and Awards

2023-Best Conference Reviewer Award, Academy of International Business

2022- Finalist for the FIU/AIB Best Theory Paper Award, an all-conference award Academy of International Business (AIB)

2016 - Best Reviewer Award, Academy of International Business

2015 - Best Reviewer Award, Academy of International Business

2014 - Finalist, 'HRM-researcher/group of the year', Sweden (Årets HR-forskare/forskargrupp), 'Leading global teams'

2013 - Winner, the all-academy 'Emerald Best International Symposium Award'. Presenting ‘Positive Global Team Leadership: Leveraging culture across distance’, in the symposium titled ’The Upside of Cultural Distance: A Positive Organizational Scholarship Perspective’, AOM, Orlando

2013 - Finalist, the all-academy 'Emerald Best International Symposium Award' Presenting 'Culture-Free, Color-Blind and Gender-Neutral? A Study of Incoming Leaders’ Status Characteristics and Effective Global Team Leadership’, in the symposium titled ’Exploring the Dynamics of Multicultural and Global Teams’, AOM, Orlando

2013 - Multiple Year Outstanding Reviewer Recognition - International Management Division, Academy of Management annual conference, 2013 in Orlando, USA

2013 - Best Reviewer Award - International Management Division, Academy of Management annual conference, 2013 in Orlando, USA

2012 - Best Reviewer Award - International Management Division, Academy of Management annual conference, 2012 in Boston, USA

2012 - Finalist for the IM Division Skolkovo Best Paper Award at the Academy of Management annual conference, 2012 in Boston, USA, for the paper ‘Country clusters from taxonomy towards theory: Implications for international management’, co-authored with Christina Butler, Kingston University

2012 - Finalist for the IM Division's Best Paper in OB/HRM/OT award at the Academy of Management annual conference, 2012 in Boston, USA, for the paper ‘Country clusters from taxonomy towards theory: Implications for international management’, written together with Christina Butler, Kingston University

2011 - Finalist Emerald Best International Symposium Award 2011, Academy of Management (AOM), San Antonio, USA, for the elected as a Showcase Symposium, ‘Scientific Mindfulness’

2010 - Best Reviewer Award, International Management Division, Academy of Management (AOM), Montreál, Canada

2010 - Nominated for the Emerald Best International Symposium Award 2010 for the elected as a Showcase Symposium, ‘Leading multicultural teams for success: A prism of perspectives’, Academy of Management (AOM), Montréal, Canada (roles as organizer, chair and presenter)

2009 - Finalist International Management Division Best Paper in OB/HRM/OT, Academy of Management (AOM), for ‘Don’t Just Say what You Mean – Contextualise It: A leadership study across 17 countries’ together with Audra Mockaitis, Anne-Wil Harzing and 21 country collaborators, Chicago, USA

2009 - Finalist Emerald Best International Symposium Award 2009, Academy of Management (AOM), for the symposium ‘Windows on the World: Cultural Perspectives of Leadership Past-Present-Future’, Chicago, USA (role as presenter)

2009 - Nominated by the International Management Division for the Carolyn Dexter Paper Award, Academy of Management (AOM), for ‘Don’t Just Say what You Mean – Contextualise It: A leadership study across 17 countries’, co-authored with Audra Mockaitis, Anne-Wil Harzing and 21 country collaborators, Chicago, USA

2008 - Winner of the ANZAM Best Paper Award at Australia New Zealand Academy of Management (ANZAM) for ‘Getting Closer to the Action: Examining leaders’ behavioural intent with GLOBE’s leadership dimensions across 22 countries’, co-authored with Audra Mockaitis, Anne-Wil Harzing and 21 country collaborators, Auckland, New Zealand

2008 - Winner of the International Management Stream Best Paper Award at Australia New Zealand Academy of Management (ANZAM), for ‘Getting Closer to the Action: Examining leaders’ behavioural intent with GLOBE’s leadership dimensions across 22 countries’, co-authored with Audra Mockaitis, Anne-Wil Harzing and 21 country collaborators, Auckland, New Zealand

2006 - Winner of the Best Paper Award at the 4th Workshop on International Strategy and Cross-Cultural Management (organized by EIASM), for ‘The Primacy of Primary Socialization: A study of leadership preferences, tenure, and nationality in the MNC’, co-authored with Ciara Sutton, Toulouse, France

2005 - Nominated for the JIBS Emerging Frontier Award 2005 with the paper ‘Geocentric Aspirations, Ethnocentric Backlash and Regiocentric Realities: Modelling the relationship between national culture and MNC management’, Tilburg, The Netherlands

2005 - Best Reviewers Award 2005, International Management Division, Academy of Management (AOM), Hawaii, USA

1998 - Winner of the Best Dissertation in Business Administration in Sweden Award (Civilekonomernas Riksförbunds Ekonomipris 1998 för bästa doktorsavhandling i företagsekonomi framlagd under 1997), Stockholm, Sweden

1998 - Winner of the Richard N. Farmer 1998 Dissertation Competition Award, Academy of International Business (AIB), Vienna, Austria

1998 - Winner of the Barry M. Richman Best Dissertation Award, International Management Division, Academy of Management (AOM), Annual Meeting, San Diego, USA

1986 - Winner of the Oscar Sillen’s Award for the Best Final M Sc Thesis: ‘Can Small-Scale Industry Entrepreneurs be Developed in Less Developed Countries?’, Stockholm School of Economics, Sweden

1985 - Winner of the Award for ‘A business-oriented achievement of benefit for the students of Stockholm School of Economics’ (Initiated and organised the first Stockholm School of Economics Business Forum, ‘Handelsdagen’), Stockholm, Sweden

1979 - Winner of the Award for ‘Successful studies - Student of the Year’, A-levels (Studentexamen), St Jacobi School, Vällingby, Sweden

1974 - Winner of the School Poetry Competition (Kvarnskolan, Jakobsberg, Sweden) with ‘Framtiden vet’ (The Future Knows)