Bachelor Thesis, Master Thesis or Project Study
📌 Key facts
Contents
- 💡 Background
- 🦾Who We Are
- 🎯 Goals
- 🧠 Topics of Interest
- 🎓 Profile
- 📚 Further Reading
- 📄 Requirements to any Work
- 📬 How to Apply
💡 Background
Digital technologies, Covid-19, working from home, new team structures, new jobs, interdisciplinarity - they are all things leaders must keep in mind and consider when making decisions and inspiring their employees. Future leader will need to possess a new arsenal of skills and mindsets to lead effectively. This is because our businesses will look and operate fundamentally differently in ten years, which means we need a new type of leader at the helm of these organizations. Mindsets will have to shift, and new tools must be incorporated into new organizations and strategies.
There are already research and best practices out there, but a comprehensive overview or clear evaluation of certain trends is lacking. What does the future of leadership look like? What will be more important what less? How is leadership changing in response to digitalisation? What new forms of leadership styles do we see emerging? How do leaders in digital star firms lead versus leaders in more traditional firms? What are key skills leaders need today and will lead tomorrow to a) manage digital disruption and transformation b) lead followers virtually?
🦾Who We Are
The Chair for Strategy and Organization is focussed on doing research with impact. This means we do not want to repeat old ideas and base our research solely on the research people did 10 years ago. Instead, we currently research topics that will shape the future. Topics such as Agile Organizations and Digital Disruption, Blockchain Technology, Creativity and Innovation, Digital Transformation and Business Model Innovation, Diversity, Education: Education Technology and Performance Management, HRTech, Leadership and Teams. We are always early in noticing trends, technologies, strategies, and organizations that shape the future, which has its difficulties.
🎯 Goals
- Creation of conceptual frameworks
- Desk research on companies and real leaders in actual leadership practices of digital and non-digital firms
- Desk research on companies and real leaders for virtual and non-virtual leadership
- Analysis of case studies or empirical study on leadership 5.0
- Research and analyse company material on virtual leadership: Are there any manuals/books/videos that companies have produced to prepare their virtual leaders?
🧠 Topics of Interest
- Virtual and non-virtual leadership
- Future skills of leaders
- Most important competencies, behaviours, and tools
- etc.
🎓 Profile
- Reliable and self-driven
- Enthusiasm for innovation in politics and governance / digital disruption
- Ability to do sophisticated internet and desk research
- Passion to learn more about the future and do research with impact
📚 Further Reading
Sinek, S. (2019). The Infinite Game. Portfolio Publishing.
Day, G. S. & Schoemaker, P. J. H. (2019). See Sooner, Act Faster. The MIT Press.
📄 Requirements to any Work
We do not want your research to gather dust in some corner of bookshelf but make it accessible to the world. Thus, we warmly encourage you to create some or all of the following:
- Infograph - visually represent some of your work (find examples here)
- Slide Deck - summarize your research and possibly present it
- Extract most important sequences from podcasts, videos, and other media
- 3-4 Tweets about the most important findings and summarizing the topic
- optional: Medium Article - let people outside university know about your research and start your personal brand
📬 How to Apply
If you are interested, please contact Prof. Dr. Isabell Welpe (e-mail below) by submitting your CV and grade report. Please also briefly outline your tentative research idea (research question, data and methods, possible outcomes with a tentative outline all in word as *.docx)
We're greatly looking forward to hearing more about you!