Researcher of the month is Sari Yli-Kauhaluoma

Sari Yli-Kauhaluoma is currently working at Mika Pantzar's research group (Paper in practice) at the Helsinki School of Economics. She is a researcher in the RAMI project, which belongs to the research program FoCus (Customer solutions for the future) of the Forestcluster Ltd. In 1992, Sari graduated from Turku School of Economics. Her main subject was Management and Organization studies. In 2008, she completed her Doctoral Thesis in the Helsinki School of Economics. In her dissertation, Sari studied the commercialization process of an innovative chemical fibre catalyst.

‘Paper in practice’ project focuses on finding out how paper is used at work in offices. The goal of Sari’s research is to study how paper that is used at work in offices can either help or hinder people to do their job. The aim is to get better understanding about material usage in offices. This is a new type of approach to study paper in practice. The project describes and analyzes the ordinary work practices in offices and administrative settings and in what ways people in these contexts use paper in their daily-based work tasks. Currently the trend is toward a paperless office. But, can there be paperless offices? Paper is often related with strong positive or negative feelings. Some papers are not only useful, but wonderful, and other papers can remind people of things that need to be done in near future.

Sari applies qualitative research methods in this study. The research material consists of interviews, photos and observations. Sari analyzes how paper is related, for example, to thinking, work organization, instructions and filing systems. The idea is that paper has many functions at office work which gives a lot of opportunities to paper products. The best thing in working with the forest industry is the ability to get excellent industry insight into her research work. The benefits for Sari to work in this kind of RAMI project is co-operation and interaction with the industry experts.

When not working, Sari spends time with her family, for example, doing a lot of different things with paper like drawing and painting.