How leadership, organization, and HR structures must be designed so that digital work can be organized in a productive, fair, and sustainable way.

Our perspective on this is clear: Sustainable organizations emerge when technological possibilities and human needs are considered together.

Research Projects

How should leadership and organizational structures be designed to ensure that work functions effectively in digital and hybrid work environments? Our current and ongoing research projects examine how leaders, teams, and organizations can successfully navigate these changes.

Project: Understanding and Using People Analytics in Organizations

People Analytics offers great potential for supporting data-driven HR decisions—for example, in recruiting, talent development, or workforce planning. Despite these possibilities, People Analytics has so far been used extensively in only a few companies. In Europe in particular, there is a lack of insight into which factors promote or hinder its adoption in companies.

The project examines people analytics from two perspectives:

Organizational level: What technological, organizational, and institutional factors influence whether companies adopt people analytics or not?

Employee level: How do HR professionals perceive people analytics—as a tool to support their work or as an additional burden due to new requirements and skills?

The project helps to better understand the adoption and use of people analytics in European companies. At the organizational level, it identifies key drivers and barriers to adoption. At the individual level, the project examines how HR professionals experience people analytics in their day-to-day work and what impact this has on their jobs. The results provide both scientific insights and practical guidance for companies seeking to successfully implement data-driven HR decisions.

Projekt: Successfully Designing Hybrid Leadership

Mit der Verbreitung hybrider Arbeitsmodelle verändern sich auch die Anforderungen an Führung. Führungskräfte müssen Teams führen, die teilweise vor Ort und teilweise remote arbeiten. Dabei entstehen neue Spannungsfelder zwischen digitaler Zusammenarbeit, persönlicher Interaktion und Vertrauen im Team.

Welche Herausforderungen entstehen für Führungskräfte in hybriden Arbeitsumgebungen? Und wie können sie die unterschiedlichen Anforderungen zwischen digitaler Effizienz, Zusammenarbeit im Team und Vertrauensaufbau erfolgreich ausbalancieren?

This project examines the dynamics of hybrid leadership based on qualitative interviews with managers and employees at a financial services company. The findings reveal three key areas of tension in hybrid leadership:

Change vs. normality – navigating new ways of working while maintaining a desire for stability.
Digital connectivity vs. digital distance – striking a balance between efficient digital communication and social connection within the team.
Building trust vs. challenging trust – leadership navigating the balance between control, autonomy, and trust.

The results show that successful hybrid leadership requires new skills and strategies to actively manage these areas of tension.

Selected Publications

Biba S., Brechtelsbauer B., Laumer S.: Explaining the Adoption of People Analytics in European Companies: An Extension of the Technology-Organization-Environment Framework
Biba S., Brechtelsbauer B.: Barriers Impeding the Large-Scale Adoption of People Analytics: A Technology-Organization-Environment Approach ICIS 2024 (, 15. Dezember 2024 – 18. Dezember 2024) In: ICIS 2024 TREOS 2024 URL: https://aisel.aisnet.org/treos_icis2024/122
Biba S., Laumer S.: People Analytics as a Job Demand or Resource ECIS 2024 (, 17. Juni 2024 – 19. Juni 2024) In: European Conference on Information Systems 2024
Schwehn TJ., Meier F., Laumer S.: Hybrid Leadership as a Balancing Act – Qualitative Insights from a Financial Institution, Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences (HICSS) (Hawaii, 7. Januar 2025 – 10. Januar 2025)

Contact Persons

The future of work takes shape where new technologies intersect with people and organizations. If you, too, would like to help shape the interaction between people and AI, we look forward to hearing from you.

Get in touch with us!