Skills

Key areas

We investigate, design, and discuss new forms of work and organisational forms in applied research, services, and teaching, the latter at bachelor, master, and continuing-education levels. We wish to be flexible, inclusive and mindful.

Our focal points:

• New forms of work and organisational forms
• Diversity and inclusion
• Mindfulness and positive leadership

New forms of work and organisation

Our group New Forms of Work and Organisation deals with the changes to our work brought about by the ever-accelerating pace of digitalization and digital transformation  in our society:

• How does our construct of work and work content itself change in response to changes in society and the economy?
• What are the interactions between workplace design and employee satisfaction and performance?
• What are the opportunities and risks of platform-based forms of work (gig work)?
• How do companies - especially SMEs - master the challenges posed by  digital transformation and automation, and how do they design successful transformation processes?

Our contribution:

We deal with the changes in work, the labour market and organisational and corporate cultures. We ask about interactions between structures, lived cultures and working conditions at individual and team levels.

Diversity, Equity & Inclusion

Our Diversity, Equity & Inclusion group is concerned with how companies and organisations deal with the diversity of their employees:

• We specifically focus on a variety of dimensions including generation, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, and multilingualism issues.
• We ask how diversity affects teams and look at the conditions necessary for successful collaboration.
• We investigate how employers, employees and freelancers organise and experience the compatibility of gainful employment, unpaid care work and personal time.
• We examine how discrimination manifests itself in the labour market and examine how it can be reduced.

Our contribution:

We take the perspectives of both employers and employees and look for solutions that strengthen the attractiveness of the employer, prevent discrimination, and enable employees to reconcile the multitude of demands placed upon them. In addition to traditional forms of work in a corporate context, we also deal with new forms of participation or exclusion through platform-based forms of work.

Mindfulness and Positive Leadership

Positive leadership lays the foundations for a completely new understanding of leadership. It builds upon some of the following ideas:

• Knowing your own strengths
• Investing in the strengths of our employees
• Leading teams in a strength-oriented manner
• Creating positive framework conditions

Mindfulness promotes key qualities that are expected of managers today. Moreover, it has been demonstrated that regular practice of mindfulness:

• regulates blood pressure
• reduces the risk of burnout
• is conducive to a more relaxed way of dealing with challenges

Our contribution:

By including mindfulness and positive leadership in the design of relationships and processes at individual, team and leadership levels, organisations can create a positive corporate culture. We examine the prerequisites and effects of mindful leadership cultures and offer courses and workshops in continuing education on these topics.