Monika Kostera


Monika Maria Kostera is a Polish economist, professor of management and organization theorist. She is known for her contribution to business studies, organizational archetypes and myths, storytelling and narrative analysis in organizational anthropology. She holds professorships at Jagiellonian University in Cracow, Poland, at Durham University, United Kingdom, and at Linnaeus University in Sweden.

Career

Monika Kostera graduated from the Lund University, Sweden and Warsaw University, Poland. She defended her doctoral dissertation at the faculty of Management, Warsaw University in 1990 and her habilitation in 1996. In 1997, she became professor in management at Leon Koźmiński Academy in Warsaw, Poland. During 2000–2002, she acted as director of the Interdisciplinary Organization Research Center at Leon Koźmiński Academy. In 2004, she received the title of Professor Ordinaria of Economics in Poland. She is now employed as professor and chair at Durham University in the United Kingdom. She is also professor at the Institute of Culture at Jagiellonian University in Poland as well as Linnaeus University in Sweden.

Research

Kostera’s past research considered self-organizing and self-managing of organizations as well as collective work for the common good. She also has made the contribution to organizational changes in transitional economy theory, and critical management studies. Her current work focuses on disalienation of work, imagination and organizing, narrative organization studies, organizational ethnography and the humanistic turn in management studies. She often collaborates with her husband Dr Jerzy Kociatkiewicz, making up a duo which jointly contributes to the field of organizational anthropology, the “first-hand” sources of scientific knowledge, narratives, myths, archetypes and organizational nomadism. In her research she applies the constructionist approach. In her most recent publications - together with Jerzy Kociatkiewicz, Irena Bauman and Zygmunt Bauman - she tackles the subject of management in social reality perceived through the lens of liquid modernity. In addition, her current work explores human dignity in organizations and utopian or dystopian future imaginaries of higher education and contemporary universities.
Monika Kostera authored and edited over 40 books, both in Polish and English, published by such renowned publishers as Polity, Blackwell, Edward Elgar, and PWN. She has also published articles in such journals as Organization Studies, Journal of Organizational Behavior, Organizational Dynamics or British Journal of Management. She seats on 11 editorial boards of leading management and organization theory journals among which are the European Management Review, Journal of Organizational Change Management, Human Relations, Management Learning, and Culture and Organization.
Kostera is also a member of Collegium Invisibile – the community of Polish academics similar to the 17th century Collegium Nobilium – and the commission of Culture and Media Management of the Polish Academy of Learning.

Selected books