Master Thesis opportunity, Leadership, Safety Culture & Employee Engagement

At Stora Enso, we are shifting from a compliance-driven safety culture towards a leadership-driven culture built on care, trust and open communication. This is a significant cultural transformation, and we want to understand how leadership can help create safer and more engaged workplaces.

Innovate for a better climate. Every day.

Across our business units, countries and sites, we see differences in employee engagement, proactive safety reporting and speak-up culture. We are offering a master thesis opportunity to explore how leadership styles and psychological safety influence these variations.

Your Mission

• Analyze how different leadership styles impact trust, care and proactive safety behaviors
• Examine the role of psychological safety in shaping safety culture and employee engagement
• Identify whether leadership effects vary across units or countries
• Recommend leading indicators to track cultural and engagement development
• Turn your findings into practical recommendations for strengthening leadership and safety culture

You will get the chance to visit selected sites to observe operations and culture, analyze safety survey results and reporting data, and conduct interviews with leaders and employees. Your insights will be presented directly to company leadership.

This is a unique opportunity to contribute to a major cultural shift while gaining hands-on experience in leadership, safety and organizational development. After agreement with your university supervisor, the project scope and design will be tailored to suit your academic requirements, your interests and Stora Enso’s goals. We encourage you to work in a thesis pair for optimal support and impact.

For this position, we see that you can plan your time and work both from home and at one of our offices, with additional visits to our factories. You will belong to the Packaging Solutions business area. The project will be executed during the spring semester 2026, from January to June and therefor consists of 30 HP (Swedish university credits).

What We Offer

By writing your master thesis with Stora Enso you will get industry insights and valuable contacts for future work life while gaining valuable experience in a leading global company. After finishing your master thesis work with us we encourage you to apply for the offered scholarship from Ljungbergsfonden. They offer scholarships to Swedish university or college students for forestry-related projects carried out in collaboration with Stora Enso. Not the least, by joining Stora Enso for your master thesis project you will contribute towards a more sustainable world, as we believe that anything made from fossil-based materials today can be made from a tree tomorrow.

Who are we looking for?

We believe that you’re studying in the last year of your master’s program at a Swedish university within Organizational Psychology, Management, Leadership, HR, or Safety Science with an interest in leadership, culture, and change management. You are fluent in English.

How can you apply for this master thesis project?

To apply, submit your application through our recruitment tool. Include your CV and a cover letter. If applying as a thesis pair, send one joint application under one name. Attach both CVs and a shared cover letter. We review applications continuously, so apply as soon as possible and no later than October 13th. The position may be filled earlier, and the ad will then be removed.

If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact our Talent Acquisition and Employer Branding Partner Veera Kaislasalo, veera.kaislasalo@storaenso.com. She is more than happy to answer your questions.

Join the renewable materials company! 

The forest is at the heart of Stora Enso and we believe that everything made from fossil-based materials today can be made from a tree tomorrow. We are the leading provider of renewable products in packaging, biomaterials, and wooden construction, and one of the largest private forest owners in the world. Stora Enso had approximately 19,000 employees at the end of 2024.

See our film: The high-performing teams behind our renewable materials - YouTube