Research areas

In the research area Strategy & Change, we investigate how organizations plan, design, and implement strategic change. Our work focuses, among other topics, on portfolios of concurrent change initiatives, organizational transformation paths over longer periods of time (“rhythm of change”), and the management of profound structural change—such as in the context of digital technologies, increasing sustainability demands, diversity, or disruptions of markets and organizations.

Central questions include: How can organizations strategically cope with growing pressure to change? How can a sustainable capacity for change be developed? Which strategic initiatives are required, and which theories and change models help organizations effectively navigate and manage these initiatives?

The research area Leadership & Change focuses on the role of leadership and social influence in organizational change processes. We examine how leaders initiate, communicate, and support change, how they mobilize support and deal with resistance, and how responsible leadership can contribute to addressing socially relevant transformation processes. We understand leading change as a form of craft, because change processes are context-sensitive, emergent, and relational, and therefore rarely fully planable.

Central questions include: What ideas do leaders hold about how change works in organizations (mental models)? What intervention options do they have at their disposal, and how can these be effectively used (e.g., through participatory design approaches)? How can the intended and unintended effects of such interventions be better understood?

In the research area People & Change, the perspective of employees on change in organizations is at the center of our work. We study how employees experience, interpret, and evaluate organizational change, and how their individual and collective responses shape the trajectory and dynamics of change processes. A particular focus lies on concepts such as resistance and proactive support: we analyze their underlying drivers, how they can be measured, and their relevance for the realization of organizational change.

Central questions include: How do employee responses to different types of organizational change and how do these responses develop over time? Which theories help explain these processes? How do collective responses to change emerge in groups, and what effects do they have on change dynamics and outcomes?