Research

Digital innovations are fundamentally changing how people in organizations work, collaborate, and are led. New approaches to designing digital applications (e.g., motivational design, gamification, nudging) and new underlying technologies (e.g., artificial intelligence, extended reality) not only unlock potential for productivity, engagement, and well-being, but also pose risks for employees, teams, and leadership. The role that digital innovations play in the workplace depends largely on how the people who interact with them perceive them—on their motivations, emotions, needs, habits, and values.

Research focus

Our interdisciplinary research profile, “Human-Centered Digitalization for Sustainable Management,” places people at the center and examines how digital innovations shape motivation, behavior, collaboration, and work. Our research focuses on two key areas at the intersection of digitalization, artificial intelligence, and sustainability: the conscious design of digital systems to promote sustainable employee behavior and well-being, and the conscious management of AI and digital transformation to support sustainable business practices.

Conscious design of digital systems

In this research area, we investigate how digital systems can be specifically designed to promote employee motivation, behavior, and well-being. The focus is on the motivational design of digital applications - for example, through gamification and persuasive systems - to support acceptance and sustainable use in the workplace. Sustainability is understood here to encompass both environmentally responsible employee behavior and the mental health and well-being of employees. In addition, we investigate how the immersive potential of virtual and extended reality applications makes effects tangible and how design options - such as those for collaborative robots - can be simulated to anticipate effects on human-technology collaboration at an early stage. Knowledge generation follows a design-science-based, iterative approach, ranging from theory-driven design hypotheses through implementation to formative and summative evaluation.

Conscious management of AI and digital transformation

In this research area, we examine the effects of artificial intelligence and digital transformation on employees, their collaboration, and their work. Our research focuses in particular on the perception and adoption of digital innovations in organizations, the use of generative AI in innovation and team processes and its effects on team dynamics, collaboration, and critical thinking, as well as the consequences of changing work environments for health, well-being, and self-organized work. Questions regarding digitally supported leadership in distributed and hybrid work contexts are also among the various facets we examine. Methodologically, we combine qualitative methods (e.g., semi-structured interviews, participatory workshops, thematic analysis) with quantitative methods (e.g., cluster and regression analyses, structural equation modeling) and data-driven behavioral analysis to develop theory-based, practically applicable insights into the sustainable management of digital transformation in forward-looking organizations.