Master thesis

What issue is your MA dealing with?

Global developments and unexpected events such as the COVID-19 pandemic present organizations with complex challenges. In the context of organizational crises and the associated uncertainty, proactive individuals are a supportive force due to their tendency to actively bring about change in their working environment. They are able to reinterpret stressful situations in a positive way and feel responsible for constructive change. To this end, the study examined contextual factors that promote proactive behavior in uncertain times and can compensate for a lack of proactive disposition. Implications for practice were also derived.

How did you investigate this question?

Based on the theories of trait activation and situational strength, two-way interactions between proactive personality and the supervisor-employee relationship (LMX) or proactive personality and situational uncertainty were expected to predict proactive behavior in organizational crises. Competing hypotheses about the structure of these interactions were tested using an experimental design and a quantitative online questionnaire with employees(N = 184) from different industries. Crisis scenarios were developed that manipulated the level of situational uncertainty. Other constructs (e.g. proactive personality, LMX and proactive behavior) were measured using established scales.

What did you find out?

Instead of the hypothesized two-way interactions between proactive personality and LMX and proactive personality and situational uncertainty, a more complex interaction of the variables in the form of a three-way interaction was found. The results show that a solid relationship between manager and employee in highly uncertain crisis situations has a reinforcing effect on the relationship between proactive personality and behavior. If, on the other hand, the uncertainty in the crisis situation is perceived to be weaker, a positive LMX can compensate to a certain extent for a lack of proactive disposition. The findings point to the importance of a trusting relationship between manager and employee, which - depending on the situational uncertainty - is a motivational factor for proactive behavior in crises for both proactive and less proactive personalities. In order to manage organizational crises, it is advisable to select proactive personalities as part of the personnel selection process and to implement measures to promote the relationship between managers and employees.

Contact:

Christina Veronica,www.LinkedIn.com/christina-veronica

What question does your master's thesis deal with?

In my thesis, I compare the wishes of new hires for so-called socialization tactics with the characteristics of the socialization tactics of the existing onboarding process at Fraunhofer IEE. I then derive recommendations for action to improve the onboarding process. The aim is to meet the expectations of the socialization tactics as well as possible, as these support newcomer adjustment as part of organizational socialization. This and why this is relevant is examined in detail in the paper.

How did you investigate the question?

Two quantitative online surveys were conducted in order to record both the wishes for socialization tactics and to find out how they are currently implemented at Fraunhofer IEE. The German translation of the 30-item scale by Jones (1986), which appeared in the dissertation by Zdravkovic (2011), was used to determine the organizational socialization tactics. Mean values and confidence intervals were calculated to answer the four research questions and two hypotheses. In addition, cluster analyses were carried out after a thorough examination of the prerequisites and sample differences were determined using Mann-Whitney U tests.

What did you find out?

It can be seen that the 105 (potential) employees of energy research institutes want collective, sequential, fixed, serial and constructive tactics, but have no preference for formal-informal tactics. The induction process at the IEE currently ensures serial and fixed socialization. By comparing the two, there are implications for the implementation of collective tactics in particular. The procedure used can be used to validate onboarding processes.

What question does your Master's thesis deal with?

My master's thesis investigated the extent to which the integration of social nudges in web-based training can increase learning success. Social nudges are mostly known from other contexts, such as shopping on online sites (e.g. "Other people also bought ...") or the promotion of environmentally friendly behavior (e.g. "85 percent of our hotel guests use their towel one more time") - always with the aim of "nudging" people's behavior in a certain direction. However, the use of nudges in online learning has been little researched, so my master's thesis focused on stimulating learning-promoting behavior with social nudges, such as "Max and 95 other learners have tested their knowledge with this exercise", and observing the resulting learning success.

How did you investigate the research question?

I investigated my research question using an online experiment. Test subjects underwent a self-constructed web-based training course in which no social nudges (control group) or various social nudges (experimental groups) were integrated. After completion of the training, the learning success was assessed in a knowledge test.

What did you find out?

With my experiment, I was able to achieve a significant improvement in learning-promoting behavior induced by the integration of social nudges. Test subjects used exercises more frequently, tested their knowledge, reflected on it or looked at additional materials. This behavior also led to increased learning success. My hypothesis that social nudges improved performance in the knowledge test mediated by more behavior conducive to learning was confirmed. It was also shown that test subjects who were presented with social nudges felt more intrinsic motivation while learning with the web-based training. The master's thesis resulted in a conference paper at the Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences(https://hdl.handle.net/10125/102634).

Contact:

Laura Schlegel, schlegel@uni-kassel.de

What question does the Master's thesis deal with?

Digitalization is changing work in the office: activities are changing and requirements are increasing. Therefore, recovery during work is increasingly becoming the focus of research interest. The insertion of less strenuous routine tasks between complex work tasks could provide relief. However, routines at work and the underlying processes are still largely unexplored. In order to close this gap, the master's thesis investigated for the first time how the interruption of a complex task by a routine task affected fatigue, motivation and task focus.

How did you investigate this question?

The study was aimed at people who carried out their work at a desk. An online experiment was developed with a complex creativity task and a routine task. The participants were divided into two groups:

Group 1 was asked to briefly interrupt the creativity task, switch to the routine task and then finish the creativity task,

Group 2 worked on the creativity task first and was then automatically directed to the routine task (no task switch).

What did you find out?

The results showed that interrupting a complex task with a routine task a) reduced perceived fatigue and b) increased motivation to complete the task and task focus.

In addition, it was shown that individual preferences seem to play an important role: participants only benefited from the task switch if they stated that they enjoyed switching between tasks during their work.

In summary, it can be noted that routines at work can provide meaningful variety and relief instead of boredom.

Contact:

Christina Nuhn, christina.nuhn44@gmail.com

What question is your Master's thesis dealing with?

Scientific issues are becoming increasingly complex and interdisciplinary. This is why the number of co-authorships or collaborative projects is constantly increasing. But what actually happens before that? How and why do researchers come into contact, what prevents them from thinking outside the box and what promotes it, and what is the significance of such informal interactions (without a monetary, project-related background)? My research was about identifying these success factors and barriers to informal interactions - using the specific case of applied research. The aim was to find out to what extent scientific staff already collaborate, exchange ideas and network informally and what advantages and disadvantages they see in this behavior, as well as what causes this behavior.

How did you investigate the question?

Through qualitative research, I was able to identify various influencing factors. I used the case study design by Yin (2014) and the structured content analysis by Kuckarzt (2018). To this end, I conducted eleven interviews with group and project leaders from various research institutes. The interviews lasted 55 minutes on average and were conducted over a period of four weeks. I transcribed the interviews with the help of Word and used MAXQDA for the analysis (I highly recommend this).

What did you find out?

First of all, building and maintaining a network is seen as very important and is also practiced in the specialist area (keyword: specialist communities). However, competitive structures, time and financial pressure, thematic and linguistic differences, a lack of attractive meeting places and face-to-face events canceled due to Covid-19 prevent low-threshold access to interdisciplinary exchange. To summarize, I have created a theoretical model with thirteen influencing factors that now need to be tested in future research.