Theses

Information on writing theses
Are you interested in writing your thesis in our specialist area? You are very welcome!

Requirements
The following formal requirements must be met in order to write a thesis at the Department of Human Resource Management and Organization:

• For Bachelor theses, the successful completion of at least two courses of 4 SWS each in the subject area as well as participation in the training course of the university library on database research is amandatory requirement. Corresponding proof must be submitted to the department. Please note: Successful completion of BWL-1a is independent of these prerequisites and students are expected to have completed at least two courses of the department with 4 SWS each.
• For Master's theses, we recommend the successful completion of a term paper in at least one Master's seminar in the subject area, as well as participation in the course "Leadership & Change Management". Participation in the seminar "Qualitative Research Methods", which is recognized as a project seminar, is strongly recommended. In addition, we recommend the training courses offered by the University Library to all students who would like to refresh their knowledge of systematic research work and would also like to point out the training courses offered by the University Library on literature management with Citavi.

Please understand that we cannot consider your project if the formal requirements are not met.

Allocation of supervision capacities
To submit a specific topic proposal, please use the PMG form, which you should send to the academic staff (Mr. and Mrs. Vakilzadeh) of the chair. Our information sheet serves to explain the PMG form and should help you to draft a meaningful topic proposal. 

We will decide whether to accept your thesis proposal on the basis of the PMG form you submit: 

• From 01.04.2023, we will establish two fixed dates per year on which we will review submitted PMG forms and allocate any supervision capacities. PMG forms should therefore be submitted to us by 15.04. or 15.10 . of the respective year. Please note these dates when planning and submitting your PMG. You will then receive a reply within a few weeks of these deadlines regarding the acceptance or rejection of your supervision.
• In the context of Master's theses, your proposal will be more attractive if it is an empirical research project. We are particularly interested in the use of qualitative research methods (e.g. expert interviews) and data analysis with MAXQDA.

Once you have been accepted as a supervisor, we will register your thesis on your preferred date.

Formal information 
Answers to formal questions about writing your thesis can be found in the document "Wissenswertes zur Anfertigung wissenschaftlicher Arbeiten am Fachgebiet Personalwirtschafts- und Organisationslehre".

Our area of expertise focuses on topics related to human resource management and organization. This includes in particular the following topics:

• Strategic Human Resource Management,
• Strategic communication,
• personnel management,
• change management,
• corruption,
• Empowerment,
• Teamwork / Collaboration,
• Collective cognition(s),
• Organizational practices/routines,
• Organizational learning,
• Organizational competence,
• Organizational Creativity,
• Organizational Identity,
• Organizational Resilience,
• Crisis Management / Turnaround Management,
• Entrepreneurship,
• Sensemaking and Innovation.

If your thesis project fits into one of these topic complexes or basically to topics of human resource management and organizational studies , we are looking forward to your ideas, topic suggestions and projects.Please note that your project should be characterized by a certain degree of novelty and should not have already been worked on in a similar way in the field. In principle, you should orient yourself to current publications in internationally recognized journals. In the context of master's theses, independent empirical investigations are particularly welcome.

• The Future of Temporary Work as a Factor for Increasing Flexibility in Organizations
• Aspects of a successful foreign assignment
• Workplace health promotion for older employees
• Instruments of e-recruiting
• The importance of praise for employee motivation
• Possibilities and limits of e-learning in the field of personnel development
• Customer Lifetime Value - A concept for managing customer relationships?
• Requirements for personalized and depersonalized leadership and their interdependencies in lateral organizational forms
• How can companies counteract the effects of mental illness?
• Human Resource Architecture: State of the Art
• The role of corporate culture in dealing with international mergers & acquisitions
• Advantages and disadvantages of e-recruiting
• Signal effect of recruitment outsourcing
• Restoring organizational trust
• Organizational development through systemic intervention
• Fundraising strategies in nonprofit organizations
• Incentive design: theoretical perspectives and implications
• Ethical Leadership - a critical examination of a new approach to leadership research