Laws and regulations guide all police work, but the authority based on them is different from police officers’ opportunities to influence their own work. Especially in preventive work that emphasizes multidisciplinary cooperation and expertise, there are better – if not essential – opportunities to strengthen professional agency, understood as the ability to act and exert […]

The JATKOT research group participated in the Nordic Adult Education Conference held in Turku with a delegation of nine researchers. This year, the conference combined the Finnish Adult Education Research Days (AITU) and the Nordic Adult Education Conference (NAEL). The conference theme was crystallized into a single question: “What is the role of adult education […]

Our research on ethics in police work (link) has often prompted spontaneous comments such as “This is such an important topic! This is needed. Absolutely.” or “Why the police? Why them in particular?”, but also more skeptical remarks: “Are you, as researchers, going to give instructions and tell the police what they should do? Surely […]

During my PhD, I sent questionnaires to people in a specific leadership role. One response stood out, not because it was a completed survey, but because it was a single line: “You, researchers, are a bunch of (…).” The message was nothing along the lines, “You, researchers, are a bunch of people who can’t do […]

Study leave in the middle of a long career has opened a new kind of window and rhythm, allowing a different way of breathing and structuring everyday life. A researcher’s everyday life, however, is not just wildly flowing creativity—at least not for me—but rhythm, routine, and listening to one’s own energy levels. Welcome to take […]

Work loneliness has become a broad societal challenge today. One in five working-age Finns and one in three young adults experience loneliness at work. According to the 2026 loneliness barometer conducted by the Finnish Red Cross, experiences of loneliness have increased since 2025, as 65% of respondents reported feeling lonely at least sometimes. Loneliness thus […]

The past couple of years in the JATKOT group have involved not only active research but also the dissemination of research knowledge. The most typical way to spread research findings – in the university context – is naturally through teaching. The traditional idea in universities has been, and still is, that researchers also teach and […]

The year 2026 has started with great enthusiasm in the JATKOT research group. Before Christmas, we received some exciting funding news: the Kone Foundation grant for the EEPO (Ethical Police) project and the Work Environment Fund funding for research on workplace pedagogy, innovation, and wellbeing (TYSTI). Our researchers also secured personal grants and paid doctoral […]

How are you, how are you doing? It is easy to respond to these questions with something vague, so that the conversation can then move on. But how are you really doing? This can even be an uncomfortable question, because it offers an opportunity to pause and reflect on who you are, what you need, […]

The 21st European Conference on Management, Leadership and Governance took place on 13–14 November at the CESI Engineering School campus in Paris-Nanterre. The event brought together timely discussions on leadership, showcasing research across a wide spectrum – from digitalisation and sustainability to cross-cultural collaboration. A shared underlying question was how organisations and leaders can act […]