30 October 2023, 18:00 UWH, NB. BEGE.021 and per Zoom.

Ellen Nathues and Matthias Wenzel will present research on how the shape-shifting of boundary objects across visual, verbal, and embodied modes affects collaborative meaning-making.

Boundary objects are artifacts that support collaborative meaning-making by actors with varying and in part even divergent views and understandings. As such, they are extremely important for interorganizational collaboration. Today, teams can use a great variety of objects in different ways, but how does this affect their work? Drawing on a detailed video-based analysis of interorganizational teamwork, Ellen Nathues, Mark van Vuuren, Maaike Endedijk (all U of Twente), and Matthias Wenzel (Leuphana U of Lüneburg) unpack how a roadmap emerges in varying forms across visual, verbal, and embodied modes, with varying effects on collaborative meaning-making. In their talk, Ellen and Matthias will give rich insights into how precisely boundary objects jump across modes and stretch within them, as well as how these dynamics both enable and constrain collaborative work.

Ellen Nathues is Assistant Professor of Organization, Collaboration & Communication at University of Twente. Her research broadly focuses on processes of organizing and communicating, particularly in pluralistic, open, and/or temporary contexts such as interorganizational collaboration or learning communities. More specifically, she is interested in questions of multivoicedness, agency, materiality, and multimodality.
Matthias Wenzel is Professor of Organization Studies at the Leuphana University of Lüneburg. He examines the process and practices of organizing and strategizing, as well as their societal implications. His current research interests include atmospheres, multimodality, and temporality.

RMI Research Seminars provide a forum for discussing latest findings in research areas matching or complementing those of the Reinhard Mohn Institute of Management at Witten/Herdecke University. Speakers are usually international, early-career and/or interdisciplinary-minded researchers. This hybrid event is open to anyone interested. Please register, indicating if you intend to participate in person on Campus or via Zoom (link will be sent), by email: rmi@uni-wh.de.

Sabine Hossenfelder and Christina Hoon are looking for new ways on how science can communicate.

Science communication conveys research results in an accessible way. It is an important link between science and society as well as best practice in the natural sciences. Business administration is also expected to communicate its findings in a way that is clear to the public. Can business administration learn from science communication in the natural sciences? This question is the focus of this event organized by the Reinhard Mohn Institute for Corporate Management.

We look forward to a stimulating discussion with our guests: Sabine Hossenfelder is a renowned physicist, author and content creator who reaches an international audience of millions with her YouTube channel "Science without the Gobbledygook“ and her books. She will discuss with Christina Hoon, Chair of Business Administration, especially Leadership of Family Businesses at Bielefeld University and Head of the Public Relations Department of the Association of University Teachers of Business Administration. Hendrik Wilhelm (UW/H) will moderate the discussion. The RMI debate is organized in cooperation with the Evangelische Stadtakademie Bochum.

After the debate, there will be an opportunity for informal exchange.

Please register under the upcoming link (tba).

* this seminar will be held in German

"Organization and Myth" goes back to a conference in March 2022 in cooperation between the RMI and the University of Siegen, conceived and curated by Prof. Dr. Thomas Klatetzki (University of Siegen) and Prof. Dr. Günther Ortmann (RMI), who are now also editors of the volume published by Velbrück Wissenschaft. The book contains contributions by Dirk Baecker, Timon Beyes, Stefanie Büchner, Alfred Kieser, Maximilian Locher, Maria Moss, Elke Weik, Bennet van Well, Stephan Wolff and the editors. Their interdisciplinary reflections show myths of organizing and organizations in a new, perhaps surprisingly positive light: "Myths matter" (title of the introduction, p.7).

Book website:

The Bachelor students in Prof. Dr. Wilhelm's seminar "Sustainable Corporate Management in Practice" successfully completed their project work. This involved a final presentation to Katjes’ Executive Director Mr. Bastian Fassin, at the company's headquarters in Emmerich. The purpose of the seminar was to examine and evaluate, together with the partner company Katjes, the requirements from the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive, which defines the requirements for sustainability reporting by companies.

The aim of the seminar, which is offered in cooperation with the Center for Sustainable Corporate Management at Witten/Herdecke University, is to enable students to solve practical problems in the context of ecologically and socially sustainable corporate management in a scientifically sound manner. In addition to knowledge in the field of sustainability management, students train their skills in qualitative data collection, evaluation and presentation. Last but not least, the seminar offers excellent opportunities to build a personal network. Prof. Wilhelm sums up: "I am very pleased that we were once again able to win Katjes as a prominent co-operation partner for our seminar, and that our students completed their project with great success, also from the company's point of view."

We would like to thank Katjes for their kind invitation to Emmerich and we thoroughly enjoyed our successful joint project.

Since 2021, the University of Witten/Herdecke has been working together with the German Maritime Search and Rescue Services (DGzRS) and the German Aerospace Center (DLR) on the joint research project - AMARIS. The aim of the project is to improve the cross-organizational teamwork for sea and rescue services in both the North Sea and Baltic – an area for which the DGzRS is responsible.

The future of sea search and rescue, which involves cross-border cooperation, presents new challenges for the mostly voluntary DGzRS’ crew. The accomplishment and completion of difficult sea and rescue operations were just some of the topics that were discussed at the XXIV World Maritime Rescue Congress (WMRC) 2023 in Rotterdam from 18th to 20th of June. The WMRC congress is held every four years and invites maritime rescue services from around the world. It is a highly interactive congress, where participants attend maritime rescue demonstrations, helicopter flights and numerous panels discussions related to the work of dedicated sea and air rescue crews.

Anika Sprakel, research associate at RMI and team member in the AMARIS research project, presented the project in the panel "New Technologies for Training and Learning". Her presentation elaborated on the goal of the project - the creation of a simulated environment to train complex large-scale emergency situations at sea - and the procedure and capabilities of the cross-organizational network. AMARIS’ goal is to enable sea rescue and helicopter teams to train in closer collaboration when rescuing ships’ crew from vessels under extreme weather conditions. In accordance with this, the DGzRS’ simulator center in Bremen and the helicopter simulator at DLR's AVES (Air Vehicle Simulator) simulator center in Braunschweig, are now technically linked. Through this mutual co-operation, the crews of seagoing and flying units can train and improve their coordination and thus act even more efficiently in complex scenarios. The Professorship for Strategic Organization (Prof. Dr. Wilhelm) at the RMI, together with the joint partners, has developed a specific training concept for this endeavor. In addition, the professorship is systematically evaluating the effectiveness of the training. The feedback from WMRC participants was that the AMARIS project is successful in addressing the research gap in sea and air rescue issues and offers a sound approach to solving cross-party organizational challenges.

AMARIS enters its final phase in September, when participants will complete the training program for the first time.

'Which essential qualities should a manager possess?' Does a more heterogenic managerial stlye contribute to a better working environment? Do we even need managers?' - these questions were addressed by Eva Röder from SWR2 in an interview conducted on June 6 2023 with Guido Möllering (RMI), Maren Lehky (managerial coach), and Stephan Heiler (manager director of a glass manufacturer).

The complete radio interview can be downloaded from the SWR Mediathek (German language no translation available).

Reinhard Mohn (Patron name of the RMI and an important benefactor and supporter of the University Witten/Herdecke) was deeply dedicated to the research and understanding of managerial qualities - what makes them definitive and indispensible to entrepreneurial leadership. Guido Möllering examines these attributes for the magazine people&work 2/23 (pages 26-29).

Mohn's fundamental managerial premise was founded on the belief that employees should participate in decision making processes and thus encourage and strengthen corporate identification. Individual contribution and responsibilty is paramount to a healthy working environment and ultimate company success. A manager should be open and responsive to such participation whilst encouraging and fostering such processes.   

We are pleased to announce, that as of the 1st of June 2023, Joanna Krahe will be our new RMI Team Assistant. Joanna is well acquainted with the University of Witte-Herdecke from her time as a Master’s student at the Faculty of Management, Economics and Society studying Philosophy, Politics and Economics. Prior to her completing her Master’s degree, Joanna attained her Bachelor of Arts at Melbourne University before entering the world of finance. She has many years of experience working as an analyst, in institutional sales and as a government bond broker.

Joanna has lived and worked in many different countries and continents, and we are pleased to welcome a true cosmopolitan to our institute. We look forward to working together and welcome her return to the Faculty of Management, Economics and Society in Witten.

Joanna replaces Claudia Galys who has worked as Team Assistant at the RMI for the past six years. We thank Claudia for her excellent work and wish her the very best for her future plans.​

Dr. Francesca Ciulli (Tilburg University) and Dr. Leona Henry (UW/H) presented their current research on the use of digital technologies in multi-stakeholder partnerships to address grand challenges to the guests present in the room, as well as participants tuned in via Zoom.

There is increasing recognition that our societies’ “grand challenges”, such as climate change, poverty, or the transition to a circular economy, can only be addressed collaboratively. Consequently, we have seen the rise of several multi-stakeholder partnerships, in which organizational actors from different sectors bundle their expertise and resources to address such complex societal issues. Recently, multi-stakeholder partnerships have started to experiment with digital technologies to achieve their mission. In this research seminar, the authors discuss the interplay between digital technologies and multi-stakeholder partnerships that try to tackle complex societal issues.

Dr. Francesca Ciulli is Assistant Professor of Organization Studies/Global Management of Social Issues at Tilburg University, the Netherlands. Her research focuses on organizations and novel digital technologies, in relation to grand challenges, sustainability and sustainable development. Her research has been published in journals such as Journal of International Business Studies, Journal of Business Ethics, Journal of Management Studies and Environmental Innovation and Societal Transitions.

Dr. Leona Henry is a research associate at the Reinhard Mohn Institute (UW/H). In her research she focuses on collaborative forms of organizing for sustainability and sustainable development, such as multi-stakeholder initiatives and cross-sector partnerships. Her work has been published in journals such as Business & Society, Business, Strategy & the Environment and Management Revue- Socio economic studies.

RMI Research Seminars provide a forum for discussing latest findings in research areas matching or complementing those of the Reinhard Mohn Institute of Management at Witten/Herdecke University. Speakers are usually international, early-career and/or interdisciplinary-minded researchers.

In 2018, Elieti Fernandes was a visiting scholar at RMI for seven months. At that time, she came from the Unisinos Business School in Porto Alegre, but she is now a professor at the Universidade Federal do Rio Grande, Brazil. From the cooperation with Guido Möllering from RMI, which began at that time, an article has now been published in the Project Management Journal with the title: "Governance of Interorganizational Projects: A Process-Based Approach Applied to a Latin American-European Case".

Among other things, it discusses how relational factors such as trust in interorganizational projects help to compensate for the destabilization of the governance configuration in the event of unexpected events. All projects have some turbulence, but in this Latin American-European WEEE research network, some project disruptions were quite severe, such as the death of a leading project participant. With a process-based approach, the study contributes to a dynamic theory of the so-called Relational View and a network-governance-based understanding of project management, which is particularly practically relevant in contexts of high uncertainty.

For Prof. Fernandes and the RMI, the publication  is a nice, lasting memory of the guest stay at Witten/Herdecke University.
 

To kick off 2023, we were delighted to welcome Dr. Michael Beier (Swiss Institute for Entrepreneurship) as a guest in our RMI Research Seminar on January 23  here on campus and via Zoom.

Dr. Beier presented his recent research findings on the question “How do genders differ in their collaborative startup behaviors?” to the 20 or so participants. In an in-depth study of platform data from reward-based crowdfunding, he uncovered differences in and implications from females and males collaborative startup behavior, some of which were previously unobservable.

Doctoral Research Assistant at the Chair of Strategic Organization

• Phone: +49 (0)2302 / 926-502 (Office)
• Email: Eiko.Gerten@uni-wh.de
• further information: https://www.digitalhub.de/

Postdoctoral Research Assistant at the RMI

• Phone: +49 (0)2302 / 926-502 (Office)
• Email: m.heimstaedt@udk-berlin.de
• Publications & Research
• Curriculum Vitae

Postdoctoral Research Assistant at the RMI

• Phone: +49 (0)2302 / 926-502 (Office)
• Email: Simone.Schiller-Merkens@uni-wh.de
• Publications & Research
• Curriculum Vitae

Doctoral Research Assistant at the RMI

• Phone: +49 (0)2302 / 926-502 (Office)
• Email: Clemens.Wagner@uni-wh.de