Research Areas

In our research at the Chair of Organization and Management, we study how the collaboration and leadership of actors and organizations with diverse backgrounds is influenced by changing, sometimes adverse work environments. Our research agenda can be subsumed in the perspective of collaboration and leadership despite conscious and unconscious differences. We aim at disseminating the findings of our research through presentations at international conferences and publications in the leading journals of our field.

The focus of our research on conscious (e.g., spatial and hierarchical) and unconscious (e.g., social and personal) differences between different actors in collective contexts can be thematically divided into four research areas, which are briefly outlined below.

• Team diversity and stress: Particularly when facing taxing work conditions, teams are at risk of paying insufficient attention to the diverse perspectives and information of the actors involved. In this research area, we therefore address questions apt to leveraging the full potential of diversity in teams and avoiding its pitfalls in challenging times.
• Co-created leadership: We deal with leadership that does not emanate unidirectionally from leaders, but rather only emerges from interactions with their followers in this research area. Amongst other things, we study the extent to which leaders and their followers must not only fit together in terms of their personality but also interact with each other so that their leadership is effective.
• Digital collaboration and leadership: In this research area, we shed light on conscious differences in digital contexts (e.g., related to space and time). We are particularly interested in the influence of such differences on collaboration between different actors as well as on leadership approaches that benefit in their effectiveness from personal interactions (e.g., authentic and charismatic leadership).
• Resilience of STEM students: While the responsible use of existing talent in organizations characterizes the previous research areas, we also consider how future talent can be sustainably developed in order to ensure that technology companies in particular remain viable. In this regard, we primarily focus on resilience, that is, the dealing with adverse circumstances and significant setbacks.