Current Research Areas
People Analytics
People analytics is a trending topic that depicts algorithmic decision-making by the human resources function to improve organizational processes such as hiring, retention, or staffing. In the 21st century, discussions around big data and data-driven activities spawn in any business function. Human resources departments, see prospects in collecting and analyzing data about employees’ behaviors to transform their decision-making from intuitive and experiential towards data-driven and evidence-based. However, analyzing employees yields contentious debate, such as productivity promises on the one hand and privacy concerns on the other hand.
Sustainable, Smarter Work
Advanced communication and collaboration technology affords more individual and collective leeway in deciding when, where, how, and with whom to work. Yet, The impact of technology seems ambivalent: allowing individual solutions to the demands of modern life, while threatening employees to accomodate a culture of 24/7 responsiveness. Thus, we are interested in how individuals, managers and organizations can find apppropiate responses to the dilemmas of modern work. What are the practices that allow us to thrive in a demanding environment? How can we craft work in the digital workplace?
Virtual Work
The pervasiveness of Information Technology has contributed to the emergence of new forms of working and organizing. While, organizing across time and space is not a new phenomenon, the use of digital technologies has triggered its proliferation. It is hardly possible to imagine nowadays a work collaboration which is exclusively restricted to a common physical space. Settings, such as telework and homeoffice, are increasingly popular, above all since the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. We are interested in how individuals, managers and organizations adapt in those flexible work settings. How do they manage their virtual communication and collaboration? What does this mean for office design? What is the optimal share of virtual vs. analog work?