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This thesis investigates the role of leadership behaviours of C-level executives in the context of post-M&A integration processes. The primary focus is on understanding the impact of specific leadership behaviours on inspiring desirable follower effects and facilitating emotional acceptance during organizational change. Drawing on the frameworks presented in “Six- Dimension Integrative Model of Leadership” and "The Six Domains of Leadership" developed by Sitkin et al., the study conducts expert interviews with managers from middle management who have recently experienced M&A integration. The answers are analysed in depth to identify the most effective leadership behaviours, highlighting those mentioned most frequently and those capable of triggering multiple follower effects simultaneously. The result is a list of behaviours that can serve as a guideline for C-level executives who want to foster desirable follower effects throughout the M&A integration journey.
This study aims to address the research gap surrounding the role of leadership in the formation of high-performance teams within startup companies. While there is existing research on high-performing teams, limited attention has been given to leadership in this environment. To bridge this gap, the study combines a literature review and qualitative analysis through semi-structured interviews with diverse stakeholders in startups, with the goal of providing practical guidance for startup executives based on the research findings. The study uncovers key aspects of leadership in high-performance teams, emphasizing the importance of skills such as motivation and support for team members, fostering psychological safety and trust, and effectively managing uncertainty. In addition to resource constraints and high expectations, the study sheds light on the challenges faced by leaders in startup and high-performance team environments, particularly the blurring of traditional leadership roles as team members seek autonomy and decision-making authority. These findings present opportunities for future research to explore this progressive leadership style. Overall, this study contributes to our understanding of leadership dynamics within high-performance teams operating in the context of startups. It offers valuable insights that can help startup executives navigate the complexities of leadership and foster the development of successful and high-performing teams.
Scrum has been a prominent project management framework for managing software development projects. The scrum team embodies values such as commitment, focus, respect, courage, and openness to develop trust, which serves as the foundation of the scrum framework. However, in recent years, scrum teams are shifting towards a work-from-home environment which is relatively new to most of them and known to present various challenges. Looking at the benefits of adhering to scrum values, this study aims to investigate the challenges scrum teams experience in adhering to scrum values while operating virtually, as well as to explore practical strategies to overcome the identified challenges, particularly during the storming stage of team development. This research employed a qualitative methodology using semi-structured interviews with scrum team members who have experience working in a virtual environment. Through qualitative content analysis of semi-structured interviews, this research identifies significant challenges within five main categories: communication, collaboration, interpersonal dynamics, the virtual work environment, and personal workspace issues. However, beyond the challenges, the study reveals practical strategies as well for successful team dynamics and higher efficiency. The strategies derived from team members' experiences are categorized into six categories: enhanced meeting management, leveraging in-person engagements, optimizing tools & technology, effective communication strategies, team-building, and nurturing a positive work culture.
A rapid change to remote work during the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic allowed many organizations to roll out new collaboration platforms to rapidly digitalize their workflows and processes in order to continue operation. This sudden shift to remote work revealed to employees the potential benefits of working remotely in the form of additional flexibility and also showed the challenges and barriers organizations could face by introducing such a strategy. This thesis aims to uncover the key considerations that the organizations of the industrial sector in Vorarlberg need to consider establishing a remote work strategy. According to the results from the research, the Covid-19 pandemic was as a paradigm change for the interviewed decision makers about how they thought about remote work and how they transformed their respective organizations too continue to operate. After the initial phase of Covid-19 restrictions organizations started to experiment with a remote work strategy of their own, based on their past experiences. For now, most of the interviewed organizations use already different remote work concepts and evaluate which one suits best their needs. The main considerations as to why an organization introduced a remote work strategy are to be an attractive employer and to stay ahead in the search for new talent. Further by introducing a remote work strategy, organizations need to change their rules of collaboration, adapt their core values to fit a remote workplace and to introduce collaboration platforms which are designed to support a remote workforce.
Recent years have been commanded by a cascade of unpredictable incidents, that have redefined new standards in our private, but also in our professional life. Events like the financial crisis, the COVID-19 pandemic, the energy crisis in Europe, resource scarcity and so forth have caused instability, forcing companies towards flexibility, constantly adapting their operative structures according to the needs of the moment. The effective adaptation to this environment is the key for reacting the dynamism of the market, and for guaranteeing future success. However, the introduction of these crucial changes on a stable company organisation is challenging. Furthermore, due to digitalisation, boundaries between countries have been removed, and the daily cooperation with co-workers and customers all around the globe became the new standard. The establishment of a good corporate culture where diverse people can work in harmony and, is a difficulty that comes ahead.
This master thesis developed from a professional perspective. The topics of change management and corporate culture where combined, and the relationship between these two concepts was studied. This master thesis aims utilising corporate culture as an instrument in managements favour, to implement strategical changes easily and successfully in a more efficient way. The relation between corporate culture and the resistance to change, focusing on the initiation of the change process, was the main area of study. Research questions and hypothesis, formulated with a solid theoretical background, are to be answered based firstly on literature, and secondly on the results of empirical quantitative re-search. To conclude, a set of recommendations for corporates were suggested with the intention of guiding companies how to use corporate culture as an instrument for change management.
Purpose: In this thesis the viable system model (VSM) is used as a framework to develop a model for the management of a business alliance that contains the necessary and sufficient conditions for maintaining synergy of its constituent organisations and for adapting to a changing environment so that it can remain a long-term viable alliance. In addition, a model is developed that makes explicit the inherent link between the VSM and the core elements of knowledge management theory. Based then on the alliance management model and the link established between the VSM and knowledge management, an application framework is developed to guide practitioners in defining necessary alliance management functions and relationships, the knowledge required by that management to fulfill those functions, and the processes that need to be in place to manage that knowledge. Design/strategy: The research has been divided into four phases: theoretical construction, refinement with practitioners, real-world application, and evaluation of test case and toolset. The researcher has worked closely with practitioners actively involved in the formation of a new international alliance to develop a VSM model and application framework for the alliance management. Formally, the research strategy has been defined as an action research and the research philosophy as one of pragmatism. Findings/limitations: The developed application framework, has been successfully used to identify absent and incomplete roles, actions, and interactions within the management of the specific alliance test case. This has helped to demonstrate how the application framework and VSM model can be used to diagnose and, most importantly, to articulate and visualise management deficiencies to facilitate clear and unambiguous discussions. The timing of this cross-sectional research did not allow the application framework to be utilised from the outset of the alliance formation as an organisational planning tool and also not to its full extent to support the development of knowledge processes for the alliance management. However, the step-by-step approach used in developing the toolset and then explaining its application will allow the reader to judge its credability and generalisability for other practical applications. Practical implications: The developed toolset consists of a VSM for an alliance management, job descriptions for that management (responsibilities, interfaces, and core competencies), a visual model illustrating the link between the VSM and knowledge management, and an application framework to guide the filling of the alliance management job descriptions in phases of recruitment, onboarding, and development (of interfaces and activities processes). Overall, one could say that the conditions prescribed by the VSM are rather obvious and yet, as seen by the specific alliance test case, many of these conditions have been completely overlooked by a management that was more than capable, willing, and empowered to enact those conditions. This gives a good indication that the toolset which has been compiled in a visual and tabular systematic fashion may well be useful to practitioners for the organisational planning of an alliance management. The visual representation of a management role in the VSM as a set of knowledge episodes put forward by this research is significant. It forces the express recognition that knowledge management is an integral part of every interaction that takes place and every action performed that, according to the VSM, are necessary and altogether are sufficient for viability. It means that knowledge management cannot be considered as some abstract topic or unnecessary overhead or afterthought – it is entirely necessary, practical and forms a natural course of events during design of action/interaction processes. In other words, if an organisation is viable then, by definition, it does knowledge management whether or not it is formally recognised as such. The VSM, by defining necessary and sufficient actions and interactions for its roles, therefore provides a focus for relevant knowledge and serves as a tool for structured knowledge management. Originality/value: This research addresses a general academic call for hands-on insights of VSM applications by sharing real-world insights, artifacts and reflections generated by a practical and relevant organisational management application. It also addresses the potential, recognised by academics, for VSM as a framework for knowledge management by developing an intuitive model linking those theories and then using that model as part of a framework to guide its application. The introduction to aspects of knowledge management theory relevant to the model developed as well as the meticulousness and comprehensive explanation of the VSM provides a solid theoretical foundation for practitioners. The developed toolset is based on existing theories from multiple fields of research that have been logically linked and extended in an original and novel manner with a strong focus on practical application. This researcher’s hope is that this will stimulate interest for future research and practical application from academics and practitioners alike.
The presented master thesis of the study subject International Management and Leadership at the University of Applied Science Vorarlberg in Dornbirn handles the potential future influence of the EU Corporate Sustainability Due diligence on SMEs. First this thesis introduces the most important regulations that might come into place with this Due Diligence Act and gives a theoretical input when and how it will come into place, and also who it will affect directly and who will be affected indirectly. The empirical data resulted of several qualitative expert interviews and a following quantitative research. The expert interviews are split in two different groups, first the topic experts from institutions like chamber of commerce or chamber of labour and second experts from highly successful Austrian companies which are already handling the topic and the future challenges. Expected outcome of the qualitative interviews was a better view on the actual situation especially the impact on small and medium enterprises. On the basis of this results the quantitative survey was produced. In the quantitative survey the goal was to see, how much entrepreneurs and companies in the small and medium sector already are aware of the upcoming legal challenges throughout the supply chain. With all this collected data the practical outcome of this thesis is the Checklist, which helps entrepreneurs to find out if and how much they will be affected by the Act. And finally, the most important part is the Guideline, which introduces first risk assessment tools, that will help companies to prepare for future legislation and bring undoubtedly a certain advantage for the upcoming challenges.
Supply shortages faced in products and resources from semiconductors to natural gas in recent years have had impact massive on global economy, but such challenges are not new for supply chain professionals. Many major events in the past have disrupted supply chains: 9/11 attack in New York, Tsunami in Japan to name a few, but COVID19 have had the biggest and widespread impact in the modern times. Even though supply chain resilience being a term coined in early 2000’s, its usage and importance has increased since then. With the curiosity of assessing the current state of sup-ply chain resilience literature and finding a resilience measurement method which is a one-fit for all supply chains in the manufacturing industry of Vorarlberg, the following research project was undertaken. Research is carried out with mixed methods, using a systematic literature review followed by expert interviews. In the conclusion of the research the author argues that there is a significant difference in the understanding of the term resilience within industry, there is a lack on the need for a meas-ure for resilience. The ways in which the structure of an organization impacts the level of resilience, foreseen benefits of digitalization and technologies for resilience are also dis-cussed. A comparative analysis on the SCR measurement methods discovered in literature, resulted in recommending Resilience index for on-time delivery proposed by Carvalho et al for the mentioned industry.
Having autonomy in the workplace can have a positive impact on employees’ performance, which in turn can benefit the organization’s competitive advantages. While previous researches have primarily focused on the psychological effects of job autonomy on employee performance and has been limited to certain domains, the relationship between job autonomy and organizational design is an important area of study for organizations seeking to improve their competitiveness. This thesis proposes a conceptual model for designing an organization structure that promotes employee performance in manufacturing companies by removing obstacles towards obtaining job autonomy. The focus is on ambitious employees who seek growth and development opportunities within their organization. The model is based on a review of existing literature on job autonomy and organizational design. Exploratory qualitative research was conducted with selected ambitious employees from different industries by means of one-on-one semi-structured interviews. Overall, the proposed model has practical implications for manufacturing companies looking to motivate their employees, as well as for researchers seeking to advance their understanding of organizational design in our times.
The control measures for the COVID-19 pandemic, early 2020, caused a chain reaction that eventually led to a shortage of components in the electronic manufacturing industry. A lack of components meant that the production and sales were interrupted or even stopped. For many electronic manufacturing firms, this was seen as a crisis. A crisis is mostly divided into three phases called the pre-crisis phase, crisis management and post-crisis phase. The pre-crisis phase involves an environmental assessment and setting up of crisis management teams, and plan. The crisis management phase has to do with the collection and interpretation of information and the mitigation of the crisis. The post-crisis phase looks at learnings from the crisis. In this paper it was investigated how the electronic manufacturing firms in Vorarlberg managed the crisis in the period between 2020 and 2022. The overall aim was to get a full understanding of how it affected the operations regarding the respective crisis teams and which factors were considered most important for setting up the teams. Two basic criteria which had to be over-come was the uncertainty and lack of time. It was seen that even though the fundamental structure did not change, crisis teams were added in the form of a crisis management team and task forces. The task forces played a major role in getting an understanding of the problem and the effect it has on the business. The crisis management team, which includes high level managers from all affected functional areas, had to re-evaluate the high level strategy and decide what needs to be done, and who will be doing it. In order to do so, they needed to understand what the priorities are regarding components and products and then decide on the priorities regarding affected business. The new strategy was then handed down to the task forces for implementation. A major focus of this paper was also on decision making and how everything contributed to making decisions that had the right effect in resolving the financial crisis for the organizations.
This paper sought to identify and analyze what are the barriers towards women career’s development as business leaders in Brazil and Nicaragua when it comes to the country societal variables. In order to comprehend these barriers through women’s perception, qualitative data was chosen for this investigation, which was gathered through one-to-one interviews within businesswomen from Brazil and Nicaragua that have experience in leadership positions. The results of this research confirm that societal, economic, and political factors have great influence at gender equality and in how it affects women’s progress as business leaders. Thus, it can vary considerably between countries, even when they have similar culture backgrounds. Furthermore, it is imperative to comprehend these differences in order to close any gender gap in the field.
Projects, in which software products, services, systems and solutions are developed, all rely on the right requirements to be established. Software requirements are the expression of user wants or needs that have to be addressed, business objectives that have to be met, as well as capabilities and functionality that has to be developed. Meanwhile, practice shows that very often incorrect, unclear or incomplete requirements are established, which causes major problems for such projects. It could lead to budget overruns, missed deadlines and overall failure in worst-case scenarios.
The field of requirements engineering emerged as an answer to these shortcomings, aiming to systematize and streamline the process that
establishes requirements. Requirements elicitation is a key component of this process, and one of its starting points. The current thesis attempts to outline best practices in requirements elicitation, as well as what issues, obstacles and challenges are currently faced, and then present this through the lens of national culture. In this way its effects on the practice, if any, could be highlighted and studied further. The way this was achieved was by interviewing practitioners from two nations, which are shown to be
culturally different, and then comparing and contrasting the findings.
Meanwhile, the validity of those findings was enhanced by comparisons with existing literature.
Even though the findings were not compelling enough to form generalizations or concrete conclusions about the effects of national culture on requirements elicitation, these findings revealed patterns that could be worth exploring further. When it comes to requirements elicitation itself, it was observed to benefit from a structured and systematic approach, and be
most effective with one-on-one, instead of group interactions. The main pain points of the process stem from the complexity of communication, but are not always obvious. Practitioners are also advised to carefully plan the gathering of requirements, as the source may not have them readily available, and could even be unclear about what exactly is needed. Overall, this thesis research could be considered successful in its goal to shed a modicum of light on the issue at hand from a different, underexplored angle. By following a systematic and methodical approach, this research has also been made easier to expand or replicate.
Observing the ratios of the rail usage in terms of passenger travelled per km and per capita, we see that there are huge differences between countries, so some railway systems are performing better in catching passengers than others. By analysing the factors that make the railways attractive for users, and setting standard values for these factors, we can analyse how well a system is performing. This paper has investigated those factors and developed an assessment tool that will inform about the required improvements, so in a later stage specific strategies can be developed to increase the performance in order to attract more passengers. Spain will be used as case study, since the country has specially low passenger rail usage compared to other countries even though the large investments in high speed lines the country undertook in the last decades.
The rapidly evolving nature of Industry 4.0 has confronted corporates with the challenge of being able to react rapidly and nimbly (Van Solingen, 2020). Hence, many corporates need to embark on a journey of adaptation toward becoming agile organisations (Schmitz, 2018). However, this adaptation can only be achieved if employees fully commit to changing to an agile posture, and the required commitment is simply not forthcoming without proper corporate initiatives (Neves & Caetano, 2009). As there is no holistic summary of corporate initiatives required to boost employees' commitment to change when approaching an agile transformation, this study supplements the current research. The initiatives are derived from the existing literature and from unique insights given into a European automotive supplier that is currently managing a global agile transformation. Employees’ perceptions of the transformation in Austria and China were recorded and conclusions regarding what drives employees’ commitment to change and what led to job terminations were determined.
This master thesis investigates drivers and barriers of innovation workshops for an intercultural participant group. Actively dealing with innovation management is considered vital for companies which are acting on competing markets. An innovation workshop is a useful tool in order to foster innovation ability, develop innovative ideas and drive innovation forward. Intercultural participant groups are not only a common challenge in today's business world but also entail several benefits as they incorporate diverse knowledge bases and perspectives and hence contribute to the ideation and innovation process. Within the master thesis a broad variety of barriers and drivers are evaluated. Main barriers of innovation workshops for an intercultural participant group are high conflict potential, miscommunication, language barriers, a lack of management support, no agreement on workshop objectives as well as poor workshop preparation, organization and facilitation. Main drivers of innovation workshops for an intercultural participant group are a heterogeneous group composition, intercultural competence of the facilitator, the opening up of mindset silos, an intensive workshop preparation and empathetic facilitation. These drivers and barriers build the basis for the determination of success factors and recommendations for action for organizers and facilitators of an innovation workshop for an intercultural participant group. In the further course of the paper an exemplary workshop design will be presented as a guideline and framework for managerial practice
The impact of organizational citizenship behavior for the environment on corporate sustainability
(2022)
Today, many businesses increasingly engage in pro-environmental activities to face environmental challenges such as pollution or climate change. In addition to formal management practices, employees are impacting environmental advances with voluntary pro-environmental activities, also known as Organizational Citizenship Behavior for the Environment. The purpose of this master thesis is to explore factors that could influence employees’ engagement in Organizational Citizenship Behavior for the Environment. For this aim, five semi-structured interviews were carried out with multinational corporations from the DACHL region. The results show that certain leadership styles, corporate culture, a sustainability-driven mindset, environmental concern, communication and motivation can influence employees’ engagement in Organizational Citizenship Behavior for the Environment. In addition, the cumulative effect of small initiatives seems to considerably impact environmental sustainability. In contrast to past research on this topic, this study takes a qualitative approach to explore different influencing factors of Organizational Citizenship Behavior for the Environment. In addition, the study focuses on businesses located in the DACHL region.
Data is the new oil,” said British Mathematician and Tesco marketing mastermind Clive Humbly1. Data has also been described as the backbone of digital retail enterprises2 and the currency of the digital age. Whether these statements live up to be true is debatable, but what is certain is the fact that the internet age has contributed to the avalanche of data witnessed today. In a century dominated by predictive analysis and artificial intelligence, it is no surprise that by the end of the last decade, data companies Apple, Amazon and Microsoft closed as the world´s first trillion-dollar companies, with their revenues dwarfing economies of several countries across the globe.3The recognition of the importance of data in today´s economy bears with it the responsibility to protecting its owners. While this intricate balance has long been the subject of legal analysis the General Data Protection Regulation, 2018, is hailed as the world´s most comprehensive and strict data protection regime currently in force. In addition to protecting the personal data of persons from its member countries, the Regulation also seeks to ensure the same protection accompanies any data transferred out of the European Union to other countries. It is almost 5 years since the Regulation was passed and process of implementation into business operations an important topic of discussion. Of importance to this study are the Modernized Standard Contractual Clauses, a tool of data transfer to countries outside the EU, which replace the three sets of SCCs adopted by the now repealed Data Protection Directive 94/46. These Standard Contractual Clauses came into effect on 27th September 2021, and companies have until 27th September 2022 to rely on the old set of clauses. With this deadline coming up, how far have the clauses been integrated into operations by businesses in Austria and the EU?
In the current international business environment employees are spending large amounts of their time in meetings. More than ever these meetings take place remotely and often have the problem that individuals in the meeting do not share information or opinions. Employees often stay in muted in meetings and allow one or two participants to drive the conversation. This habit is especially troublesome for problem solving meetings. Problem solving meetings invite individuals from different disciplines to share and brainstorm possible causes for issues related to poor company outcomes. Active and open contribution from all members is required to achieve the group goals. This study aims to find methods that will increase contribution amongst meeting participants in regular meetings as well as problem solving meetings. The study tested sixteen topics for their influence on contribution in meetings. This was done in a survey, that was distributed within a multination engineering corporation, and on LinkedIn. There was a total of 68 responses. These responses were then separated by above average and below average participation in problem solving meetings. Hypothesis testing was done on the total group and separately on the problem-solving group. Employee participation in decision making and psychological safety were found to correlate highly with Contribution in meetings for both groups. Psychological safety was found to be of even greater importance to problem solving group. This study demonstrates that to increase contribution in meetings, leaders should provide a psychologically safe climate where employees share in the decision making. Furthermore, a psychologically safe environment is critical in problem solving meetings where members of different disciplines with low familiarity take part.
Fear of failure is a major factor influencing entrepreneurial actions. Since the female quota for startups and self-employment is still lower than for men, the aim is to determine the extent to which the fear of failure is incorporated into the entrepreneurial actions of women in Austria. The trailblazer and pioneer in female entrepreneurship America is used as an international benchmark for evaluation. A quantitative survey was conducted among women from Austria and America on their fears of failure related to self-employment and their aspirations to become self-employed. There were significant differences in the quantitative study between self-employed and non-self-employed women, irrespective of their country of origin. As a result, recommendations for action were created to reduce the influence of Fear of Failure on entrepreneurial actions of Austrian women.
The term start-up has become indispensable when new ideas are to be turned into business ventures. The number of start-ups is continuously increasing, but at the same time, many new start-ups are marked by failure. The successful path from start-up to a stable business model is to be explored in more detail in this thesis. The focus here is on the various success factors and how decisive they are.
At present, start-ups are mainly focusing on the area of digitalisation, not only triggered by the Covid19 pandemic but also by the high demand for digital products and services. In the past, start-ups founded in Silicon Valley/USA have been incredibly successful. Nevertheless, currently many other countries offer decisive advantages for start-ups and are therefore more attractive than the Silicon Valley. In Europe, Spain stands out with a rapidly growing start-up scene, primarily in the metropolises of Madrid and Barcelona.
This Master's thesis aims to empirically investigate the interrelationships of the necessary success factors in the start-up scene for the country of Spain. The focus of the study here is on the digitalisation industry. Qualitative content analysis is used for closer examination and is carried out through expert interviews. Qualitative research allows a much deeper insight into the interviewees' personal experiences and examines non-measurable factors. The subsequent evaluation is intended to present correlations and provide new insights. In summary, a list of recommendations is generated to provide future founders with suitable suggestions and advice right from the start.
In the context of this master thesis, general tensions within the relationship between headquarters and their subsidiaries are examined using the practical example of a Swiss company with its subsid-iary in Kenya. Thereby, the influence of cultural aspects and the associated different expectations on management and leadership are emphasized. In doing so, two countries are compared which have not yet been considered in the same context. The objective of this master thesis is to develop a framework that enables the headquarter in the German speaking area of Switzerland and the sub-sidiary in the Bantu speaking area of Kenya to overcome cultural barriers and to increase mutual understanding in the business context. This will facilitate the identification of potentially dysfunc-tional aspects in the working relationship and provide a basis for optimizing the existing business relationship between the Swiss headquarter and the Kenyan subsidiary.
This thesis addresses the overarching question of what the two business entities need to know about each other in terms of cultural characteristics and emerging differences in business practices (in terms of management/leadership) in order to improve the overall cooperation and working rela-tionship between the headquarter and its subsidiary. Thus, the following topics are emphasized with-in this thesis: tensions within the headquarter/subsidiary relationship, concise country profiles of Switzerland and Kenya including a cultural overview of both countries, cultural concepts including organizational culture, common leadership theories related to the situational leadership approach, and finally, an evaluation of the current status quo in the working relationship between the Swiss headquarter and the Kenyan subsidiary based on interviews.
Companies worldwide and, therefore, companies from Vorarlberg face a common problem: the lack of skilled workers that led to the so-called “war for talents” in the last decades. This problem encouraged scientists to investigate the importance of many different monetary incentives and non-cash benefits to win this war for talents. This master’s thesis aims to examine if and how companies in Vorarlberg already use non-cash benefits. Furthermore, the most important benefits and their influence on the attractiveness of job advertisements are identified.
For this purpose, interviews with three HR managers from companies in Vorarlberg are carried out. Subsequently, in a quantitative survey, 21 different monetary incentives and non-cash benefits, intangible non-cash benefits, and corporate culture are evaluated by 316 participants. Furthermore, the participants ranked five different job advertisements to conceive results on the research questions.
The results clearly show that non-cash benefits are far more critical for future employees than classical monetary incentives. Although the number of international participants was lower than the number of Austrian and German participants (41 to 81 to 194), it is still obvious that independent of nationality, non-cash benefits can lead to a competitive advantage for companies in Vorarlberg. The interviews show that companies already work with such benefits in their daily business but do not strategically communicate on the topic.
To summarize, it can be concluded that a variety of non-cash benefits should be implemented within a company and also should be mentioned in job advertisements as they can help to attract more applicants not only from Austria but also from abroad and, therefore, help to win the war for talents.
Leadership, leader-follower relationship, and
subordinates’ behaviors during the Covid-19
pandemic
(2021)
This master thesis investigates leadership traits and how they can drive success within international organizations in the digital era. The basic principles of what defines a leader have undergone significant scrutiny throughout the past one hundred years, however, the digital revolution has created the most upset when considering the requirements for efficient leadership.
This paper utilizes a literature review to first determine how modern leadership theory developed and the implications of current research, followed by an empirical study designed to collect real-world data which represents how current leaders active in various industries understand their role as a leader and what skills they use to promote success within their organization.
Cross-examination of these sources indicates that the most effective leaders employ a combination of Transformational Leadership Theory and Emotional Intelligence-based leadership. The extent to which a leader must individualize their style is strongly contingent on the organizational culture, the individual employees, and the external environment. While traits such as communication, charisma, and trustworthiness are certainly strong indications of an efficient leader, agility and adaptability clearly stand out as the traits which are most required for highly effective leaders in the digital era.
This paper gives an insight into how cybersecurity is built inside and outside banks in Austria. The research was conducted based on information received from bank representatives in Austria as well as on literature, participation in various kinds of online conferences, and so on. The main objective of this paper was to investigate the cybersecurity execution scheme and to consider the possible impact of the cultural factor on cybersecurity execution. Due to a force majeure situation like coronavirus, the author was able to obtain little information from participants, but even this helped to draw satisfactory conclusions and make recommendations to banks. Thanks to the vast amount of literature and research, confirmation of the factor under study was found, confirming the relevance of the work and the potential for further research.
The research activity described in this master thesis focus on global leadership in team sport. Football head coaches working or who have worked in the globalised Big Five leagues of England, France, Germany, Spain and Italy are investigated. These leagues are host to players, staff, executives, fandoms and head coaches from around the globe. Sport in general is posed as a valid platform to investigate global leadership. Elite and globalised clubs in association football are further posed the archetype of global sport. Head coaches at the helm of the on-field and off-field teams are hypothesised as global leaders, due to their squad, staff and networks of global nature and the span of their influence on individuals around the globe.
It is proposed that investigations of the leadership in this setting can usefully contribute to insights on global leadership. The research activity follow an exploratory purpose resulting from a gap found in the literature review. The research design framework is a first sequential loop of Ground Theory methodology with the aim to identify useful hypotheses for future theoretical sampling. Secondary data was gathered and analysed qualitatively. The data stems from the public domain and statements from interviews, commentaries, biographies, and conferences on or by the head coaches. The theoretical framework of the presented re-search covers the personal traits and attributes of the investigated individuals.
Findings both overlap and contrast with findings from other global leadership research activities. The differences were identified in properties of the global sport business such as constant public attention. Based on the findings from the purposive sampling and acknowledging applicable limitations on the findings, hypotheses for theoretical sampling are proposed. Theoretical sampling is the next step in the workflow of the Grounded Theory methodology used for this study.
Whenever foreign activities turn out to be essential to ensure the company's goals and competitiveness, companies become international. New markets, new lucrative resources promise profitable growth. The new step beyond the national borders requires careful consideration based on the political conditions of the target market (e.g. stability of the political system, social peace, legal certainty, institutional barriers to market entry, attitude to direct investment). The legal framework, such as state funding, environmental protection laws, tax legislation, state requirements or bureaucratic regulations, appear to be at least as relevant too. However, SMEs often lack the capacity and/or courage to take this step. Political authorities at the European level and below are aware of this problem. Numerous studies show that internationalisation is not only necessary to improve competitiveness, but greatly promote innovation, e.g. within international collaborations, it is important to get the authorities to treat these issues with special attention. Governmental promotion is supposed to work in terms of establishing regional balance and supporting socially relevant topics and research. Nevertheless, despite the willingness to support SMEs in their cross-border projects, billions of released Euros are lying around and have not been used. It seems reasonable to assume money is not easy to come by. Enormous bureaucratic hurdles are on everyone's lips. But is that the only reason? Are the people sufficiently informed to be able to take advantage of the numerous financing opportunities? Or is there even more behind the invisible hurdle at first glance? To ascertain this circumstance more precisely, an in-depth analysis to answer the research question ‘what can the institutions do better to make it easier for SMEs to access funding?’ is required.
Purpose: The purpose of this qualitative phenomenological study is to explore the of self-initiated expatriates prior to and during acculturation to life in a smaller periphery region such as Vorarlberg, Austria. By providing insights into their lived experience this research aims to fill in the gaps of missing information on motivators, success factors to adjustment, issues, and stressors, and more that SIEs experience when adjusting. Specifically, what items promote adjustment and what items hinder adjustment.
Findings: Developed a better understanding of how and what motivational factors lead to expatriation. Furthermore, that opportunities arise by chance. During acculturation, language factors (dialect), cultural differences act as stressors. While social support, and organizational support, learning of the language act as promoters of acculturation.
Further Research could be done including ethnicities, SIEs moving from developed to developing countries, adjustment in regions with dialect vs no dialect.
Key words: self-initiated expatriates, expatriation, acculturation, adjustment, promoting acculturation, hindering acculturation.
Increasing international competition and accelerated technological change characterize the environment in which companies must maintain and, if possible, expand their competitive advantage. In this context, the new, popular keyword innovation management is often mentioned. Many corporations propagate and use it for marketing purposes. As a result, the companies have to evaluate, develop and launch innovations increasingly faster, which poses great challenges for many and requires a high degree of adaptability.
This master thesis analyzes innovation management (IM) in the automotive industry and in other industries (material manufacturers, service providers, medicine, ...) depending on the number of employees and turnover. In addition, the maturity levels of the IMs and the innovation management systems (IMS) are examined. It also tries to determine which design or "building blocks" are necessary for a successful innovation management. Furthermore, factual and monetary guidelines by the management are evaluated. The thesis also aims to find out how the success of IM is measured. Therefore, guideline-based expert interviews were conducted with responsible people from the innovation departments and then systematically analyzed.
In the literature, expenses for innovations are often wrongly equated with the R&D rate. In this master thesis, it could be shown that this ratio is highest in the automotive industry. However, it does not correlate with the number of employees, turnover, maturity level, success or design of the IM. Furthermore, it could be shown that larger companies have a higher degree of maturity. The reason for this is that more people are usually involved in innovation and that a holistic understanding of innovation is better anchored in large corporations. When designing the IM or the roles of the innovation department, large companies use several different types. While the IM departments in small and medium-sized companies are usually incubators and accelerators, large companies also use corporate venture capital to support start-ups and develop new business models. In this thesis, the success of IM was determined by the number of innovations implemented in customer projects. It was found that, regardless of the size of the company, a higher degree of maturity of the IM and the accelerator role seem to have a positive influence.
Unfortunately, there are rarely concrete goals and targets set by the management although these, along with a holistic understanding of innovation in the company, are without doubt the most important part of a successful innovation management.
Moving from one country to another, from one cultural context to a different one comes with many challenges and problems. The expatriate adjustment process, in general, has been evaluated extensively in the literature. Little is known if the knowledge in the literature is also valid for the situation of expatriates in rural Vorarlberg. In this paper was examined, which are the most common problems for highly skilled immigrants that are moving to Vorarlberg. In a mixed-method approach, information was gathered with an online questionnaire whose results served as a basis for a series of semi-structured interviews. In addition, an expert talk with a local relocation consultant was conducted. It was found that by far, the most severe difficulty is based on the domestic language situation. An expatriate needs to talk and understand German, but the local language is an Alemannic subsection of the German language that is not easy to understand. Additional difficulties that cause culture shock are limited opening hours, mobility troubles, and several others. The awareness about the composing of these problems might help to find the appropriate measures to support expatriates to come in the future.
This master thesis investigates effective leadership behaviour of multicultural teams during change management. Multicultural teams can be highly effective in dealing with complex change processes and can represent a key player to tackle today’s VUCA-world challenges.
Effectiveness of multicultural teams during change depends critically on leadership with a range of specific behaviours. Involvement and support of the employees in a coaching role is key. Leaders need to display behaviours such as continuous development of cultural and emotional intelligence, critical self-reflection, open-mindedness, and readiness to serve as authentic role models. Furthermore, the creation of a sense of unity based on good communication and common sense is essential to build multicultural teams, and to enable them to embrace their differences as opportunity. Trust, transparency and a holistic change process are vital. Effectiveness essentially depends on the following factors: the organization’s culture, the characteristics of the employees and of their leader, and on the external environment. Leaders should take these factors into consideration at all times.
This research seeks to explore the cultural impact in the development of a new product, and if operational CRM (CRM technologies) can bring these two concepts together. As an industrial designer, the researcher finds it fascinating to explore how the abilities that a designer uses can help to solve users' problems could be implemented into structural or strategic decision-making of a company. Therefore, the researcher believes that the results might bring value to the head of international teams in charge of Product Development, by bringing some ideas for what is essential to consider in these processes and how CRM could become a relevant tool to satisfy customers and users.
This research generates value to international management and leadership studies because it brings the management of new product development from an organizational point of view within an international context to the forefront. It also builds an understanding of what to consider when the value chain is decentralized and involves international collaboration in product development processes. And positive elements and/or problems that may arise concerning culture and the role of the CRM within this process.
For centuries, companies and institutions are working on the development of organisational project maturity models. The purpose of these models is to develop a path for improving an organisation’s capability of managing projects. Projects are the means by which companies implement their strategic objectives. Trends like globalisation and advances in IT lead to more geographically distributed teamwork. Therefore, this thesis gives a comprehensive answer to how project management maturity models address transnational project management.
For accomplishing the research objective, this thesis follows an integrated, qualitative literature review approach. Theoretical frameworks and applied research on project management maturity assessments were systematically collected and analysed. The results extracted from these two sources were synthesised to extract findings.
The main research result shows that models continuously adapt to transnational project management. They are doing this by aligning the organisational culture and values, focusing on organisational wide learning and gradually embedding behavioural and intercultural competencies. Maturity assessments need to follow this trend.
Furthermore, transnational convergence of the models’ dimensions was observed. This development leads to growth in size and complexity. To apply them internationally, the models should be simplified or easily adapted to specific countries and cultures.
The workplaces are changing with the increase in the use of technology, digital communication, the shift towards multicultural teams, and remote work due to COVID-19. Leaders need more collaboration and acceptance of digital communication tools such as Teams, Slack. This study aims to determine the influence of culture in the acceptance of digital tools in leadership communication. In the literature review, 3 cultures (organizational, national, Individual) were assumed. And Individual culture was tested using Schwartz (openness to change) value survey along with other qualitative questions in 1-1 interviews of Austrians and multinationals living in Austria. Analysis from findings suggests that culture plays an important role in technology acceptance of digital tools in leadership communication. This was confirmed by the Schein model and Schwartz value ratings. The culture comprises of organizational, national, regional, and individual culture. Individual culture plays an important role, but other cultural factors cannot be avoided. Key factors affecting the technology acceptance in Vorarlberg (Austria) are listed along with recommendations to leaders.
How people perceive stigmatization at work in connection with mental health problems and what role this stigmatization fulfils in the DACH-Region, means Germany-Austria-Switzerland, has so far received no greater attention from scientists. Although the stigma of mental illness has been extensively researched among the general population, little is known about its consequences of the stigma of mental health in the workplace.
This study seeks to bridge the gap in this area. As the purpose of this thesis is to illustrate the dynamics of stigmatization rather than to explain its mere quantitative relevance, I have chosen to investigate how the complex systemic interdependencies according to Forrester (1968) manifest in the reflection of the subjects.
On the background of socio-cultural aspects in the DACH-Region regarding mental health problems and forms and natures of stigma while following the question what role stigmatization plays in this German-speaking area DACH, I conducted a qualitative social research study with affected persons (employees from various German companies) to investigate this issue. Hereby I focus on people working in the industry sector.
The present thesis begins by exploring the question of intercultural and sociocultural differences in the DACH region according to Hofstede’s Dimensions, as well as their possible relevance for answering the research question. Definitions and theoretical interpretations regarding the backgrounds about mental health, mental health problems and their appearance will be mentioned. Based on Goffman’s (1963) research on stigma, I investigate why mental health issues have the potential to stigmatize especially at the workplace. Goffman’s ideas on stigma illustrate how by providing important insights into understanding the situation of affected persons. The connection between stereotypes, stigmatization, and discriminatory behaviour according to Major & O’Brien (2005) is hereby necessary to be noticed.
Through personal interviews I explore how, what way, people at work perceive stigmatization surrounding mental health problems and how stigmas interact. The findings conducted in this study give a cue towards the systemic approach of stigmatization. That is why a new hypothesis on the ways of stigmatization in German-speaking countries is drawn up. Stigmatization is under investigation as a systemic instrument for maintaining management and group power to affect single employees and restore group identity, consciously or unconsciously. I discuss the theoretical and practical implications of these findings for management behaviour and leadership development in organizations.
The boom of information technology development created high demand for skilled labour force in IT occupations. IT professionals install, test, build, repair or maintain hardware and software and can do the job from any location in the world.
Demand for the workforce significantly outstrips the global supply. In a situation of staff shortage employers have to compete on local and global labour markets. The ability of a firm to attract and retain the best talent would become a source of its sustainable competitive advantage.
Aim of the study is to understand what influences perception of employment attractiveness by IT professionals the most. This study intends to expend the existing knowledge about employees´ needs and “psychological contract” concept.
The research was conducted with the participation of 4 IT and 4 HR English-speaking experts who live and work in Austria. In the study the grounded theory approach and the descriptive qualitative methods were applied.
The research findings explain which factors influence the decision of IT professionals to join, stay or leave an employer. The results are discussed in relation to talent attraction and retention practices of Austrian employers.