[2] Malinen then joined the faculty of the School of Business at University of Canterbury, rising to full professor in 2024.
[3] She works as part of the Workplace Analytics group with Professor Katharina Näswall.
[4] Malinen is an organisational and applied psychologist, and her research covers topics such as leadership development, and how to build resilience in workplaces and communities.
[1] She has researched what factors in team meetings enable better decision-making, and the concept of 'paradoxical leadership' in public organisations, defined as 'the ability to balance competing structural and relational demands over time'.
[1][7] Malinen has collaborated on research on cultural and ecological resilience with Professor Jacinta Ruru of the University of Otago and Dr Phil Lyver of Manaaki Whenua – Landcare Research as part of the Biological Heritage National Science Challenge.