Kai Klein, MA

Biographical Sketch

Kai U. Klein is a researcher at the Institute for Public Management and Governance at the Vienna University of Economics and Business. Since April 2023, he is employed in a third-party-funded FWF project and is investigating how civil society organizations active in human services are coping with Western welfare state retrenchment. Kai focuses on volunteer/paid staff dynamics in non-profit organizations for his dissertation, investigating managerial discretion during inter-group conflict, volunteer satisfaction in accordance with employed managerial practices, and split organizational identity's consequences for group inclusion. Further Kai developed and organizes the Volunteer Environment Check (VEC) project: A third mission initiative based on citizen science with the goal to empower volunteer managers as co-researchers. He was awarded the WU Impact Grant for his engagement in third mission activities.

Kai further holds an M.A. in Public Policy from the University of Bamberg, Germany, where he focused on economic policy in Western welfare states. His master's thesis examined the hegemonic discourse of neoliberalism in times of crisis (interregnum) in the UK - comparing its implementation under Margret Thatcher (1970-80s) and its resurgence under David Cameron (post-2008).

Research Interests

His research focuses on welfare state retrenchment, inter-group collaboration dynamics, human service provision under austerity, conflict and satisfaction of volunteers, as well as how to bridge distinct collective identities. His methodological interests include structural equation modeling (for scale development and preregistered mediation analysis), social network analysis, reflexive thematic analysis, hegemonic discourse analysis and qualitative comparative analysis.