Teaching

We provide our students with current scientific knowledge on the human side of leadership, organization, and innovation. Together with a focus on practical relevance, this provides the basis for our discussions with students.

Courses

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Courses in the Winter Term 2024/25

All events, including exams, will take place exclusively in person. All information on the individual courses can be found in LSF.

Please note that a registration via LSF for all examinations is mandatory, both for written exams and seminars!

Further information on master plan exams can be found on the websites of the ISC.

Bachelor

Master

Courses in the Summer Term 2025

All events, including exams, will take place exclusively in person. All information on the individual courses can be found in LSF.

Please note that a registration via LSF for all examinations is mandatory, both for written exams and seminars!

Further information on master plan exams can be found on the websites of the ISC.

Bachelor

  • Lecture: People and Organization / Organizational Behavior and HR
  • Lecture and Tutorial: Organizationa and Innovation
  • Pflichtseminar: Leadership and Organization
  • Seminar Executive Leadership - Styles and Personalities

Master

  • Seminar: Selected Topics in Organizational Behavior
  • Projektkurs: Leadership and Organization

MBR

  • Basic Readings in Management - lead by ISM (Prof. Tuschke)

Theses Information

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Bachelor Thesis

Requirements

We expect all candidates for bachelor theses at our institute to participate in the seminar course Leadership & Organization (Hauptseminar). The content of the seminar is important to write a thesis at our institute. Students who completed this seminar course are sure to being able to write their bachelor thesis at ILO. We expect a high scientific standard.

Procedure

  • Start: see Bachelor Thesis Schedule (important!)
  • Topics: from those listed below, freely choosable
  • Application: send the following documents and information via email to Ann-Katrin Eicke (a.eicke@lmu.de): (1) grade sheet ("Kontoauszug"), (2) preferred start date, (3) examination regulations, and (4) topic preferences (3 topics from the list "Topics for Theses")
  • Duration: 8 weeks
  • Colloquium (Official Presentation): ~4 weeks after the start date

Due to the multitude of applications we receive, we are unable to send a confirmation of receipt. If we received your complete application, you will hear from us on the dates specified in the schedule.

Topics

Our current research focus centers around the following main topics:

  • Leading PEOPLE: Leadership & Teamwork, Leveraging Diversity, Trust & Intercultural Collaboration, Multi-Teaming & New Forms of Collaboration
  • Leading INNOVATION: Innovation & Team Agility, Digital Innovation, Open Innovation & Crowdsourcing, Leading Innovation Projects, Sustainable Innovation
  • Leading ORGANIZATIONS: Organizational Agility & Strategy Execution, Change Management & Organizational Transformation, Inter-Organizational Collaboration, Dispersed/Virtual Organizations, Organizational Change & Temporality

You can find specific topics that we currently offer below.

  • Proposals for own topics should fit to our research focus and summarize the following on max. one page: (1) description of the topic incl. research idea, (2) research motivation, (3) methods/data collection possibilities (e.g., qualitative or quantitative).
  • We are open to supervising theses in collaboration with companies, but cannot guarantee that we will be able to supervise the suggested topics.

Formalia

For information on formatting, please check the ILO Style Guide.

Master Thesis

There are no additional prerequisites to apply for a master thesis. However, we expect a high scientific standard.

Procedure

  • Start: at any time during the semester
  • Topics: freely choosable from those listed below
  • Proposals for own topics should fit to our research focus and summarize the following on max. one page: (1) description of the topic incl. research idea, (2) research motivation, (3) methods/data collection possibilities (e.g., qualitative or quantitative).
  • We are open to supervising theses in collaboration with companies, but cannot guarantee that we will be able to supervise the suggested topics.
  • Application: 3-4 weeks before the desired start date with the following documents and information: (1) grade sheet ("Kontoauszug"), (2) preferred start date, (3) examination regulations, and (4) topic preferences (3 topics/respective keywords from the list "Topics for Theses") via email to Ann-Katrin Eicke (a.eicke@lmu.de)
  • Duration: 22 weeks
  • No official colloquium

Topics

Our current research focus centers around the following main topics:

  • Leading PEOPLE: Leadership & Teamwork, Leveraging Diversity, Trust & Intercultural Collaboration, Multi-Teaming & New Forms of Collaboration
  • Leading INNOVATION: Innovation & Team Agility, Digital Innovation, Open Innovation & Crowdsourcing, Leading Innovation Projects, Sustainable Innovation
  • Leading ORGANIZATIONS: Organizational Agility & Strategy Execution, Change Management & Organizational Transformation, Inter-Organizational Collaboration, Dispersed/Virtual Organizations, Organizational Change & Temporality

You can find specific topics that we currently offer below.

Formalia

For information on formatting, please check the ILO Style Guide.

ILO Style Guide

Our style guide (PDF, 261 KB) offers you insights into:

  • how to structure your text and which formatting requirements we have;
  • which citation style you should use; and
  • how the declaration of honour should look like.

You will also find a template for the title page of your paper.

Recommendation Letters

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We only provide letters of recommendation for applications to specific addressees and no generalized assessments.

Prerequisite for this is the successful participation (excellent grades overall) in one of our interactive courses (Seminars or Project Course) or that you have written your Bachelor or Master Thesis at our Institute with outstanding results overall. The participation in one of our lectures is not sufficient!

We will need following information from you in advance:

  • Statement of purpose: Where do you want to apply (incl. address of the organization) and why? For this purpose, why would you be a suitable candidate? Why do you want a letter of recommendation from our Institute in particular? In how far can we contribute to your application?
  • List of courses taken at our Institute incl. grades and names of the respective lecturers/thesis-advisor.
  • Current transcript incl. failed courses, if applicable your graduation certificate.
  • Current curriculum vitae, if applicable job references.
  • Recommendation standards: Different organizations request a variety of distinct formalities and formatting requirements for letters of recommendation. It is your responsibility to inform us about these and provide us with all relevant information. Please also note the relevant deadlines and inform us in a timely manner.

Please read the above listed prerequisites for obtaining a letter of recommendation from our Institute. If you meet all of them, please send all required documents and relevant information to the respective assistant or supervisor of your thesis. We will check your eligibility and subsequently contact you in order to discuss the next steps.

Please ensure sufficient time for this process, as the completion of the letter of recommendation may take a few weeks.

Thesis Topics

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BSc-Topics

In principle, we offer all topics as literature reviews or conceptual papers; if helpful, they can be combined with interviews/surveys.

Leading People

  • Psychological needs and time at work
  • Learning from success and failure
  • Status, power, and political behavior
  • Top managers & psychology
  • Globally dispersed/virtual teamwork
  • Moral disengagement and unethical behavior at work
  • Motivation at the workplace
  • Employee wellbeing

Leading Innovation

  • Creativity as a collective effort
  • Artificial intelligence & innovation/creativity
  • Strategic technology management
  • Dynamics of corporate innovation
  • Datafication and quantification in organizations
  • Artificial intelligence and teamwork

Leading Organizations

  • Organizational change management
  • Digital transformation and change
  • Diversity as a signal to stakeholders
  • Problemistic search in organizations
  • Technological change in organizations
  • Organization’s adaptation to change
  • Networks and relations in and across organizations
  • Self-organization (online communities)
  • The politicization of organizations
  • Social activism in, around, and by firms
  • Political conflicts & management practice
  • Diversity and organizational change

MSc-Topics

In principle, we offer all topics as empirical papers. When applying, please send the relevant keywords only.

Leading People

  • Experiencing Work: How do individuals experience thrive and meaning in and outside the job? (Keyword: Thrive & Meaning)
  • Emotions in Online Communities: How do emotions manifest in online communities? How do they develop or spread over time? (Keyword: Emotion & OC)
  • Being seen when being virtual: How does virtual work influence the process by which people (e.g., managers, collaborators, etc.) distribute their attention toward others? (Keyword: Virtuality & Attention)
  • Being understood when being virtual: How can virtual teams overcome miscommunication and misrepresentation? (Keyword: Virtuality & Understanding)
  • Leading from a distance: How do various leadership styles play out when leader-follower interactions are mediated by communication technologies? (Keyword: Virtuality & Leadership)
  • Collaboration in Hybrid Work Environments: The effects of hybrid work on employee engagement and organizational outcomes (Keyword: Collaboration)
  • Looking behind closed doors: Examining the role of CxOs in coporate behavior and performance (Keyword: Top Management Teams)
  • Technology & People: How does technology innovation perception change over time (Keyword: Technology & Time)
  • Unethical behavior at the workplace: What influences unethical behavior? (Keyword: Unethical behavior)
  • The changing nature of work: How does virtual work affect performance? (Keyword: Virtuality and performance)
  • Stress at the workplace: What are the costs of stress at work? (Keyword: Workplace stress)

Leading Innovation

  • Perceptions and reactions to datafication: How does datafication in and of organizations look like? How do individuals react to datafication approaches? (Keyword: Datafication)
  • Sensemaking and digital transformation: How do individuals make sense of digital transformation of organizations? How does their sensemaking differ from current findings? (Keyword: Sensemaking)
  • Innovation and Organizational Performance: How is innovation linked to overall organizational performance? (Keyword: Innovation Performance)
  • Technology & People: How does technology innovation perception change over time (Keyword: Technology & Time)
  • Growing technology expertise: which behavioral patterns show online users when new technology is introduced? (Keyword: Technology & User Behavior)
  • Reimagining innovation: How Artificial Intelligence transforms human creativity (Keyword: AI creativity)
  • Intellectual properties, creativity, and AI (AI training) (Keyword: Intellectual Properties & AI)

Leading Organizations

  • Transparency and visibility through quantification of change: How do transparency and visibility differ? What is the role of quantification regarding transparency and visibility endeavors? (Keyword: Transparency)
  • AI orientation of firms and its impact on employer attractiveness (Keyword: AI Employer Attractiveness)
  • The role of secrecy in organizing (Keyword: Secrecy)
  • The political identity of firms: How can we identify/quantify the political orientation of corporate organizations? (Keyword: Political Orientation & Firm)
  • The political identity of CEOs: How can we identify/quantify the political orientation of CEOs? (Keyword: Political Orientation & CEOs)
  • Offensive silence: When is not speaking out on sociopolitical issues costly? (Keyword: Signaling Theory & Firm Activism)
  • In what market circumstances are organizations most willing to explore new technologies? (Keyword: Technology & Innovation)
  • Innovation in the digital era: How companies foster and manage (digital) innovation (Keyword: Digital Innovation Management)
  • AI in the boardroom: Analyzing drivers or outcomes of a strategic AI orientation (Keyword: AI Strategy)
  • Network dynamics in online communities (Keyword: Network Dynamics)
  • How can homogeneous organizations become more diverse? (Keyword: Diversity)
  • How can leaders successfully drive organizational change? (Keyword: Organizational Change Leadership)