Research Topics
Vocational identity is to a large extent driven by individual career aspirations, which reflect individual career-related intentions, goals and motivational elements during one’s career. In this research stream, we are interested in better understanding sustainable career development. With sustainable career development, we mean a career that allows people to be happy, healthy, and productive. Moreover, we emphasize the lifespan perspective here, since career development does not stop at a certain age, but continues until high age (e.g., when we think about people working past retirement age). In sum, the aim of this research stream is to identify the factors that support successful career transitions and allow sustainable career development over the lifespan. Based on quantitative research methods, we develop and test psychological theories in real world business settings to ensure their applicability and value for individuals, organizations, and the society.
The workforce is becoming more diverse than ever with people of different ages, gender, ethnic backgrounds, sexual orientations, and other diversity features coming together in the workplace. Organizations need to find ways to effectively engage people of different backgrounds and support high-quality interactions between them in order to benefit from increasing diversity levels in the workplace. In this research stream, we aim to understand the factors and psychological mechanisms that contribute to high-quality cross-group relationships at work (including high-quality interactions and friendship) as well as the consequences of these workplace relationships for the organization (e.g., in terms of employees’ task performance and cooperation behavior, but also employees’ well-being and reduced conflict experiences). Moreover, we are keen to unpack the role that organizations play here, by for example, investigating the impact of diversity-related HRM policies and practices. This research stream utilizes quantitative research methods (e.g., experiments, vignette studies, questionnaires).
Find out more about our Volkswagenstiftung-funded project on age-diverse friendships.
Overcoming Societal Tensions in Europe: Can Age-Diverse Friendships be the Solution?
Project funding: Volkswagen Foundation, funding for 4 years, 1.647.300 Euro (University of Hohenheim share: 642.500 Euro), PI: Ulrike Fasbender (Universität Hohenheim), Co-PI: Lisbeth Drury (Birkbeck, University of London, the UK), Anita Keller (Rijksuniversiteit Groningen, the Netherlands), Bernadeta Goštautaitė (ISM University of Management and Economics, Vilnius, Lithuania), und Michela Vignoli (Università degli Studi di Trento, Italy), Project management: Ulrike Fasbender
The project aims to uncover the full potential of age-diverse friendships to strengthen cooperation and tolerance across different generations in Europe. Many of Europe's current challenges, such as migration or pension and social security, are linked to tensions between different social groups, including age groups. Friendship is the most powerful form of contact. When different social groups develop friendships, it can change their behavior. This project focuses on age-diverse friendships in the workplace as it is a hub for people from different generations to meet and the positive effect of age-diverse friendships formed in one context such as the workplace can spill over to other contexts. This project combines qualitative and quantitative methods, experimental designs, and intervention methods. By doing so, the consortium will explore the potential for age-diverse friendships to function as social glue in society across five work packages: (1) understanding the meaning of age-diverse friendship in different contexts, (2) studying why and when age-diverse friendships lead to support towards other age groups, (3) explore the potential of age-diverse friendships to reduce wider societal tensions, (4) ask whether and under which conditions age-diverse friendships facilitate social cohesion and (5) how organizations can support the formation and maintenance of age-diverse friendships.
We currently have two open vacancies as part of the project funded by the Volkswagen Foundation:
- Postdoc Position in Work and Organizational Psychology
Here you can find the job profile and the link to the University of Hohenheim's job portal Postdoc or PhD Position in Work and Organizational Psychology
Here you can find the job profile and the link to the University of Hohenheim's job portal
Knowledge transfer, learning and innovation are necessary to the ever-evolving job and organization changes through digitalization and artificial intelligence that are characteristic of the future of work in the 21st century. In the workplace, learning refers to enhancing one’s human capital through acquiring or updating one’s knowledge, skills/abilities, and other relevant characteristics. Employees may continue learning in an informal manner through on the job learning and self-development (once they have completed the formal vocational training). Knowledge transfer between employees is a big aspect contributing to everyday on the job learning and eventually supports innovation in organizations. In this research stream, we aim to investigate the factors that contribute to knowledge transfer, learning and innovation using a mix of quantitative research methods (e.g., experiments, vignette studies, questionnaires) and innovative research designs (e.g., experience sampling and measurement burst designs).
Find out more about our DFG-funded project on knowledge transfer.
Project funding: German Research Foundation (DFG), funding for 3 years, 257.599 Euro (University of Hohenheim share: 217,739 Euro), PI: Ulrike Fasbender (University of Hohenheim), Co-PI: Fabiola H. Gerpott (WHU Düsseldorf), Project management: Laura Dietz (University of Hohenheim), International collaborators: Anne Burmeister & Steffen Giessner (Rotterdam School of Management)
Knowledge is an important asset for organizations and its effective transfer between younger and older employees is a challenge. Whereas an increasingly age diverse workforce can be beneficial when employees of different ages learn from each other through bidirectional knowledge transfer, these processes do not occur automatically. That is, employees often experience a motivational dilemma about whether to engage in knowledge transfer as a reaction to social comparisons with each other. This motivational dilemma is particularly pertinent between younger and older employees due to existing and expected future status differences. Older employees often have a longer work history (both within and outside the organization) and possess a higher current status than their younger counterparts, but younger employees may have more “potential” to climb the career ladder and gain status in the future. Thus, although older employees may be naturally motivated to pass knowledge to the next generation, they may also fear to lose status by sharing their knowledge with younger colleagues. In contrast, younger employees may be naturally motivated to develop and learn through knowledge transfer and at the same time may experience fear of losing “face” when sharing knowledge with their older colleagues. To untangle this motivational dilemma, this project seeks to advance our understanding of knowledge transfer in organizations from a social comparison perspective between younger and older employees. Specifically, we aim to explain how knowledge sharing enhancing and inhibiting processes play together to determine older and younger employees’ decision to share or not to share their knowledge with their younger or older colleagues. Furthermore, we seek to investigate organizational boundary conditions that alter these relationships.
Technological advancements, such as digitalization and artificial intelligence change the way we work and shape the future of work in the 21st century. Acquired knowledge expires quickly, while the duration of a working life is constantly rising (as we tend to work longer than ever), which requires us to update our technology-related knowledge and continue learning about using new technologies over the lifespan. In this research stream, we aim to uncover the motivation of employees to engage with and learn new technology as well as its potential organizational barriers and facilitators. Moreover, we seek to understand employees’ wider role in organizational change processes, including their change readiness (vs. resistance) and support (vs. counterproductive) behaviors. In addition, we are interested in the role that leaders play in organizational change processes (e.g., their leadership behavior but also their other-oriented cognitive and emotional capacity, such as perspective taking and empathic concern). In this research stream, we use quantitative research methods (e.g., experiments, vignette studies, questionnaires). Specifically, we develop and test psychological theories in real world business settings to ensure their applicability and value for organizations.