In the following list, you can find potential topics for your master's thesis. Your own ideas for possible topics are also welcome. Usually, master's theses include an empirical analysis in addition to a literature review. We encourage master's theses written in English.

Four-Day Workweek

• Possible subtopics and research questions:
• What are the expectations of companies and employees regarding the four-day workweek?
• How does a four-day workweek affect productivity?
• How does a four-day workweek affect outcomes connected to wellbeing, such as stress or work satisfaction?
• How do organizations and teams manage the change to a four-day workweek?
• Methods: Qualitative
• Note: This topic is connected to the German pilot study on the four-day workweek, which is scientifically monitored by the Chair for Transformation of Work. You will conduct interviews and subsequently analyze the content of the interviews. The interviews will take place as in-person interviews in different German companies. The latest starting date for this topic in Q3 2024 is August or preferably July. For this topic, we can only offer a limited number of places.

Remote Work

• Possible subtopics and research questions:
• How does effective remote leadership look like? Which specific leadership challenges are caused by remote work and how should leaders respond to them?
• How does remote work change working times? How do more flexible working times affect work life balance and wellbeing of employees?
• How can organizations create a sense of belonging for employees who work from home to avoid loneliness?
• What are the factors that influence technology usage and its consequences for employees who work from home versus in the office? How do individuals develop acceptance or rejection of technological tools in the workplace? What role do task demands and environmental factors play in explaining technology acceptance and usage among employees?
• Methods: Qualitative or Quantitative (Focus on Quantitative)
• Note: For a qualitative work, you will develop a literature-based interview guideline, conduct interviews, and subsequently analyze the content of these interviews. For a quantitative work, you will develop and execute a literature-based survey, and subsequently analyze the gathered data. Potentially, you can collaborate with a partner company.

Digital Nomads

•  Possible subtopics and research questions:
•  How do digital nomads manage to maintain their working productivity?
•  How do digital nomads avoid or deal with possible adverse side effects of their freedom, such as loneliness?
• Methods: Qualitative and or Quantitative
• Qualitative: You will create a literature-based interview guideline, conduct interviews, and subsequently analyze the content of these interviews.
•  Quantitative: You create a literature-based questionnaire and subsequently evaluate the results statistically

Virtual Team Dynamics

• Possible subtopics and research questions:
• How do environmental cues (e.g., background or lighting) and technical settings (e.g., camera perspective or video and audio quality) in virtual teams influence group dynamics and leadership?
• How do interruptions between team members (i.e., one team member interrupting another) affect group dynamics in virtual teams?
• Are the effects only destructive or can interruptions foster constructive conflict and enhance creativity?
• How does the virtual setting shape the nature and effects of interruptions?
• Which leadership styles prevent or encourage interruptions and which leadership styles foster destcrutive or constructive effects of interruptions?
• How do female leaders interact with their team members in virtual teams?
• Which gender differences prevail in virtual environments, and which vanish? What role do individual and technical characteristics play in these relationships?
• Methods: Quantitative
• Note: You will create a dataset by coding video footage from a current team experiment. You can then use this dataset for your subsequent empirical analysis

AI as a teammate

• Possible subtopics and research questions:
• How does the use of AI tools affect teamwork?
• Which processes within teamwork are strengthened or weakened by the use of AI?
• Does the use of AI have a creativity-enhancing or inhibiting influence?Methods: Quantitative
• Methods: Experimental and Quantitative o Experimental: Design of an experiment to answer the research question(s) o Quantitative: You create a literature-based questionnaire and subsequently evaluate the results statistically.

Workation as a new means of increasing work productivity?

• Possible subtopics and research questions: o How does workation influence work engagement and productivity in the short term and the long term perspective?
•  What are the challenges when introducing workation into organizations? o What are the challenges for employees who are on workation?
• Methods: Qualitative or Quantitative. o Qualitative: You create a literature-based interview guide yourself, conduct interviews and then analyze their content.
•  Quantitative: You create a literature-based questionnaire yourself and then evaluate the results statistically.

Employer attractiveness in times of technological change

• Possible subtopics and research questions:
• What factors influence employer attractiveness?
• What factors are particularly appealing to Generation Z?
• How can employers position themselves in the future to retain employees in the long term?
• Methods: Qualitative or Quantitative. ▪ Qualitative: You create a literature-based interview guide yourself, conduct interviews and then analyze their content.
• Quantitative: You create a literature-based questionnaire yourself and then evaluate the results statistically.

Firm-Level Outcomes of Gender Diversity and Female Leadership

• Possible subtopics and research questions:
  
  • How do gender diversity and female leadership affect innovation in teams and organizations? How does this relationship depend on contextual contingencies regarding the institutional and organizational environment?
  • How does culture in the form of social gender roles affect female leadership? How do gender roles and stereotypes shape the view of external stakeholders on gender-diverse firms?
  • How does female leadership and gender discrimination affect firm internationalization processes? Can female entrepreneurs internationalize their businesses to escape adverse institutional cenvironments?
  • How does female leadership in family firms affect outcomes, such as innovation or social performance? Does the special dual role of female family leaders as family matriarchs (e.g., mothers) and business leaders lead to different effects of female leadership in family firms and non-family firms?
• Methods: Quantitative
• Note: Depending on the topic, you will conduct a quantitative analysis in the form of a meta-analysis or a vignette-study. For some topics, it is also possible to rely on secondary data.

Digital Nomads 

• Possible subtopics and research questions:
  
  • How do digital nomads manage to maintain their working productivity?
  • How do digital nomads avoid or deal with possible adverse side effects of their freedom, such as loneliness?
• Methods: Qualitative
• Note: You will create a literature-based interview guideline, conduct interviews, and subsequently analyze the content of these interviews.

Managing Impressions in Video Conferences

• Possible subtopics and research questions:
  
  • How do features of the video background or the technical setup affect impressions in video conference settings?
  • How do these effects depend on characteristics of the spectator (e.g., personality) or the actor (e.g., gender)?
• Methods: Quantitative
• Note: You will develop a survey to collect data on impressions evoked by existing video footage, and subsequently analyse the collected data.

Multiple Team Memberships

• Possible subtopics and research questions:
  
  • How can teams deal with the challenges (e.g., stress, conflicting demands, lack of focus) and leverage the potential (e.g., learning, knowledge sharing, creativity, networking) of multiple team membership?
  • What is the right balance between the demands and potential adavantages of multiple team membership? What are context dependencies regarding its outcomes?
• Methods: Qualitative
• Note: You will create a literature-based interview guideline, conduct interviews with multiple related team members, and subsequently analyze the content of these interviews.