📌 Key facts
- When: Start anytime. Applications are open!
- How to apply: Send your CV, transcript of records, and a short statement of research interest (details below).
- 📌 Key facts
- 💡 Background
- 🦾Who We Are
- 🎯 Topics of Interest and Potential Outcomes
- 🎓 Profile
- 📝 How to Apply
💡 Background
While diversity is often praised as a driver of innovation, empirical findings are mixed. Diverse teams may bring more perspectives and creative potential, but they may also face challenges such as conflict, miscommunication, or lack of cohesion. This thesis addresses when and how diversity enhances innovation in entrepreneurial, corporate, or scientific teams, combining theory with rigorous empirical analysis.
🦾Who We Are
The Chair for Strategy and Organization is focused on 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 Organisations 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 organisations that shape the future, which has its ups and downs.
🎯 Topics of Interest and Potential Outcomes
- Types of Diversity: Gender, cultural, functional, and personality diversity
- Mechanisms: Cognitive variety, information elaboration, psychological safety, conflict dynamics
- Moderators: Leadership style, team climate, task complexity, resource constraints
- Innovation Outcomes: Creativity, originality, novelty, radical vs. incremental innovation, patent or product data
Potential outcomes:
- Systematic literature review
- Meta-analysis
- Conceptual model or experimental design
🎓 Profile
- Strong interest in leadership and team research, diversity, and innovation management
- Strong academic track record
- Reliable, structured, and self-driven working style
📝 How to Apply
If you are interested, please contact Nathalie Schenk by submitting your CV, grade report, preferred starting date & short motivation statement. Please also indicate which kind of thesis (= outcome) you are interested in.