Dr Sylwia Ciuk

MA, Ma, PhD

Reader in Organisation Studies

Oxford Brookes Business School

Research

Sylwia is a Reader in Organisation Studies and the Deputy Head of OBBS Doctoral Programmes. She has a background in sociology and applied linguistics and holds a PhD in Business from Oxford Brookes University. Sylwia has carried out multiple qualitative research projects in multinational organisations and in the public sector, across a range of national contexts. To more effectively explore complex research questions, she often builds in innovative research methods into her research designs. In her work, she has not only used existing novel methods, such as participant generated photo-elicitation, but has also developed a range of methodological innovations, such as narrative photo collages and experiential maps.

Her research interests span a range of topics and disciplines. There are currently three main areas of her study:

  • Sylwia has a long-standing interest in organisational change, organisational culture dynamics and the translation of management models and concepts across cultural and linguistic contexts. More specifically, she has explored how people make sense of, work with, translate/ contextualise, experience, negotiate and contest different types of change initiatives as well as the micropolitical dynamics of organisational change.
  • The second strand of her work focuses on linguistic diversity in multinational enterprises and its role in the process of organising and group functioning. Sylwia is concerned with the impact of language asymmetries on group processes and linguistic inclusion/ exclusion as well as the role of interlingual translation in multinational enterprises.
  • Sylwia has also done work on expatriation, more specifically expatriate-host country national relations and new forms of expatriation.

Sylwia serves on the International Editorial Board of Management Learning, the Editorial Reviewer Board of the Journal of Global Mobility and the Program Board of the Polish journal 'Studia i Materialy'. Sywia is a frequent reviewer to a range of Organisation Studies and International Business journals and international conferences, such as the European Group for Organization Studies Colloquium, Academy of International Business and the European International Business Academy. She is also a member of the UKRI Future Leaders Fellowships Peer Review College, the UKRI ESRC Peer Review College as well as the BAM Peer Review College. Sylwia's reviewing work has been recognised with the AIB's 2020 Best Reviewer Award. Since 2019, Sylwia has co-chaired the Critical Management stream at the British Academy of Management.

Sylwia leads the Oxford Brookes Business School PhD Registration and Transfer panel. She has supervised five PhD students to completion and is currently involved in the supervision of further six doctoral students. Sylwia has led range of undergraduate and postgraduate modules. Currently, she is involved in teaching on the MA programme.

Centres and institutes

Projects

  • Leadership, Language and Translating Meaning through Visual Methods
  • Pathways to organisational inclusion in hybrid working

Projects as Principal Investigator, or Lead Academic if project is led by another Institution

  • Pathways to organisational inclusion when hybrid working: a multisensory study among newly employed home and international graduates (04/01/2023 - 04/12/2024), funded by: British Academy, funding amount received by Brookes: £9,633
  • Leadership, Language and Translating Meaning through Visual Methods (led by Univ of the West of England) (01/01/2022 - 31/12/2023), funded by: British Academy of Management, funding amount received by Brookes: £17,996

Publications

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Professional information

Conferences

  • Ciuk, S., McCabe Darren and Grisoni, L. (2020): Managerializing the University: Organisational restructuring in a UK Higher Education institution and its Paradoxical Consequences for those who Work in them, Paper presented at EGOS, Hamburg, Germany July
  • Śliwa, M, Ciuk, S. and Harzing, A-W (2020): Reframing Our Theoretical Perspectives on Language Differences in IB: Leveraging Fluidity and Reciprocity to Achieve Linguistic Inclusion, paper presented at AIB, Miami, USA July
  • Śliwa, M., Ciuk, S, and Haring, A-W (2019) From language differences to linguistic inclusion: Breaking the native speaker stranglehold, Paper presented at EIBA, Leeds, the UK December
  • Śliwa, M. and Ciuk, S. (2017): Positive Consequences of Language Asymmetries in MNC Subsidiaries. Paper presented at EGOS Copenhagen, Denmark, July.
  • Jepson, D. and Ciuk, DS. (2016): Leadership Development – a case of discursive distancing, Paper presented at EGOS Naples, Italy July.
  • Ciuk, S. and Ybema, S. (2016): Narrating organisational crisis: Discursive struggles over organisational change. Paper presented at EGOS Naples, Italy July.
  • Ciuk, S. and Grisoni, L. (2015) 'Paradoxifying organisational restructuring as an invitation to explore alternative courses of action: The case of a UK Higher Education institution'. Paper presented at the 31st EGOS, Athens, January.
  • McCabe, D., Ciuk, S. and Gilbert, M. (2015) 'Resisting New Management Knowledge: An ethnographic study in manufacturing'. Paper presented at the 10th Annual Liverpool Symposium, Liverpool, January.
  • Ciuk, S., McCabe, D. and Gilbert, M. (2014) 'Resisting New Management Knowledge: An Ethnographic Study in Manufacturing'. Paper presented at the SCOS, Utrecht, July.
  • Ciuk, S. and James, P. (2013) 'Found in translation: Carving out spaces for local agency in a Polish subsidiary of an American MNC'. Paper presented at the EGOS, Montreal, July.
  • Grisoni, L. and Ciuk, S. (2013) 'Show me what it feels like to go through organisational restructuring'. Paper presented at the SCOS, Warsaw, July.
  • Ciuk, S. (2012) 'Narrating the visual: The case of photo and word collages'. Paper presented at the EGOS colloquium, Helsinki, July.
  • Ciuk, S. and James, P. (2012) 'Localising corporate values: The case of a Polish subsidiary of an American MNC'. Paper presented at the EGOS colloquium, Helsinki, July.
  • Ciuk, S. and Schedlitzki, D. (2012) 'Looking through the local lens: The local's tales of expatriate leadership'. Paper presented at the EGOS colloquium, Helsinki, July.
  • Ciuk, S. and Tezekova, A. (2012) 'Managed by a stranger: Local narratives of expatriate management'. Paper presented at the EGOS colloquium, Helsinki, July.
  • Ciuk, S. (2010) 'Not letting bygones be bygones: On the role of organisational nostalgia'. Paper presented at the SCOS, Lille, France, July.
  • Ciuk, S. (2010) 'Performing an identity bricolage. On the dramaturgy of translating corporate values into the local organisational context'. Paper presented at the EGOS, Lisbon, June.
  • Ciuk, S. and Jepson, D. (2009) 'Hopping off the expatriate carrousel. The locals' tales of expatriate leadership'. Paper presented at the International Conference on Studying Leadership, Birmingham, December.
  • Ciuk, S. (2009) 'Leading together and apart: On leadership in the process of organising'. Paper presented at the British Academy of Management Annual Conference, Brighton, September.
  • Ciuk, S. (2009) 'Glocalisation of corporate values: On the dramaturgy of embedding corporate values into the local organisational context'. Paper presented at the Standing Conference on Organizational Symbolism, Copenhagen - Malmo, July.
  • Ciuk, S. (2008) 'In search of meaning'. Paper presented at the SCOS, Manchester, October.
  • Ciuk, S. (2008) 'The road to perdition: The case of organisational depression'. Paper presented at the EGOS, Amsterdam, The Netherlands, October.
  • Ciuk, S. and Jepson, D. (2008) 'Leadership talk, buzz and discourse'. Paper presented at the British Academy of Management, Harrogate, September.
  • Ciuk, S. (2007) 'Consulting talk show'. Paper presented at the 4th Workshop on Trust within and between Organizations, Amsterdam, The Netherlands, October.
  • Ciuk, S. (2007) 'Collages of organizations'. Paper presented at the 2nd Ethnographic Conference, Keele, October.
  • Ciuk, S. (2007) 'The past as an asset and a curse'. Paper presented at the 25th SCOS Conference, Ljubljana, Slovenia, October.
  • Ciuk, S. (2006) 'Positive and negative social capital in the norm establishing and acquisition process'. Paper presented at the 1st Ethnographic Conference, Liverpool, October.