The interdependence of governance systems, human action and decision-making is the focus of the chair's theoretical and empirical research. The sustainable development of our society and a fair and transparent design of governance systems with the support of relevant research and knowledge transfer are the vision of the chair.
Governance is not only the reserach focus of Professor Jungwirth. She has also gained practical experience in this field over many years - as dean, as university women's representative, as vice president of the HRK (German Rectors‘ Conference) and WiSoFT (association of management and social science faculties) and as president of the University of Passau. Linking theoretical and practical knowledge in the field of governance in such a way that the abstract topic becomes tangible for society is the mission of the chair's research and teaching activities.
Digital technologies are increasingly reshaping communication, decision-making, and steering processes in higher education institutions. Platforms for electronic participation, virtual discussion forums, and digital voting tools enable new forms of stakeholder involvement and transparency, accelerate procedures, and extend the reach of governance practices.
This research project examines how these digital instruments affect governance and leadership processes within universities. Particular attention is given to tensions between transparency and bureaucracy, between academic self-governance and heightened compliance requirements, and between participation and efficiency.
The project explores how understandings of roles within university leadership and among faculty and staff are shifting in this digital environment, which micro-practices emerge in the use of digital participation tools, and how these influence institutional power dynamics and negotiation processes. It also investigates whether and how digital participation formats foster trust and loyalty within the academic community, or conversely, contribute to increased tendencies toward disengagement or exit.
Deliberately broad in scope, the project integrates various theoretical and empirical approaches - from concepts of shared leadership and academic self-governance to discourses on compliance, New Public Management, and digital participation research including e-democracy perspectives. This provides an open framework to incorporate multiple sub-studies, case analyses, and publications that address the diverse interrelations between digitalization and university governance.
The increasing normalization of remote and hybrid work is fundamentally reshaping labor markets, organizational practices, and career trajectories. Flexible work arrangements are praised as tools for autonomy and better work-life integration. At the same time, recent research shows that not all employees benefit equally from these opportunities.
This research project examines how remote capability – understood as an individual dynamic capability to adaptively and strategically use remote work – contributes to successful career development in hybrid work environments. It analyzes why some employees can leverage remote work as a career advantage while others face disadvantages, identifying key influencing factors such as prior remote work experience, job autonomy, education, and gender.
The quantitative study is based on analyses of the German Family Panel (pairfam) and uses the COVID-19 pandemic as a natural experiment to examine differences in career trajectories under mandatory remote work conditions.
The project combines approaches from dynamic capabilities theory with career and gender research, providing valuable insights into how individual capabilities and structural conditions interact to either reinforce or mitigate inequalities in hybrid work models.
Stigma is a central topic in management research. It affects individuals, organizations and entire industries. Recently, the focus has increasingly been on industrial stigma - for example in the US medical cannabis industry - and on strategies to reduce social stigmatization.
The project examines how stigmatization dynamics change when new actors with a burdened reputation enter a field that has already undergone a process of destigmatization. The focus is on the question of how established actors react to such new entries - whether they defend their destigmatization and how this changes social evaluations at industry and individual level.
The study uses a qualitative research design with archive analyses and interviews. The German market provides a suitable setting for this: the new legal regulation of 2024, the emergence of digital prescription platforms and the public debate about these business models form the empirical framework.
The project contributes to research on social evaluations, in particular the interaction of stigma and reputation in regulated digital markets.
