GRI is currently visited by four guest reseachers. Two of them, Mehmet and Filiz Eryílmaz, come from Uludag University in Turkey and will stay at GRI for a year. Mehmet is interested in translation of management knowledge, and Filiz in macroeconomics policies. At GRI they hope to continue their academic progress while getting to know the Swedish academic culture and Sweden in general.
Filiz Eryílmaz comes from the Department of Economics at Uludag University. She is studying monetary policies of European Central Banks, especially how these banks abandoned more unconventional monetary policies after the global economic crisis of 2008-2010.
- Before 2008, the banks quite often used unconventional monetary policies. But after the crisis they changed their policies. During my stay at GRI I want to compare the Swedish and the Turkish Central Banks' operations in relation to price stability and financial stability.
Mehmet Eryílmaz comes from the same university but from the Department of Business Administration. His main focus is organization theory and research methodology, and especially translation of management knowledge.
- I will examine the knowledge translation/transfer tendencies of the Turkish business scholars in the context of Balanced Scorecard (BSC) technique. It is well known that in many countries, both managers of business organizations and academics often eagerly transfer popular management techniques from abroad, especially from United States. During my study, I will try to find answers for some research questions such as “what is the main tendency of Turkish business scholars in the context of BSC?” and “If they show a stronger behaviour of translation of management knowledge compared to the past, what are the possible reasons behind this change?”.
They contacted GRI because Mehmet Eryílmaz for a long time had followed the work of Barbara Czarniawska.
- Absolutely, I am one of her biggest fans. In addition, I opened the GRI website for the first time, and then I realized that many other interesting articles in management and organization theory I had read before were written by researchers at GRI.
Both Filiz and Mehmet find GRI to be an attractive research environment.
- The academic culture is very different from what we are used to, and we would like to bring something of it back to our university, Filiz Eryílmaz says. I like the discipline of Swedish people and especially the academics'.
Both of them appreciate the habit to use lunch and coffee time as an occasion to connect with others. Mehmet Eryílmaz has already learned the Swedish words “räksmörgås” and “kanelbullar” and he hopes both to improve his academic skills and to get new friends during their stay in Sweden.
- I think the fika tradition is an excellent tool to create connections and to establish a friendly emotional atmosphere, he concludes.
Mehmet Eryílmaz: mehmetery@uludag.edu.tr
Filiz Eryílmaz: filizgaygusuz@gmail.com