Work, Identity and Globalization
Abstracts of Research Projects
International Students-Research Conference
March 27th – March 31nd, 2017
University of Bremen,
Master of Science Wirtschaftspsychologie
Fachbereich 11: Human- und Gesundheitswissenschaften
Fachbereich 7: Wirtschaftswissenschaft
Work, Identity and Globalization – Abstracts of Research Projects
Table of contents
1 Projects Research Area A - Flexibility of Work and Life – Supervisor Birgit Volmerg . 3
1.1 Wind of change by new employees? Introduction of newcomers to an existing
corporate culture using the example of hkk......................................................................... 3
1.2 Horse-Assisted Coaching – To what extent does hors-assisted coaching change workrelated experience and behaviour? ..................................................................................... 4
2 Projects Research Area B - Sustainability – Supervisor Georg Müller-Christ .............. 5
2.1 The potential of mindfulness of the development of sustainable personal leadership
skills ................................................................................................................................... 5
3 Projects Research Area C – Market and Consumption – Supervisor Thomas Kühn .... 6
3.1 Dating-Apps – An analysis of the female perception in the context of objectification
through potential partners an the influence of society ......................................................... 6
3.2 Employerattractiveness within the german industry of information technology .............. 7
4 Projects Research Area D - Interculturalism– Supervisor Michael Schottmayer.......... 8
4.1 Identity and way of living in the retirement age ............................................................. 8
4.2 Organizational commitment in atypical employment relationships – An empirical study
of german students ............................................................................................................. 9
4.3 Fathers an paternity leave – Areas of tension in the person, the relationship an the
work environment ............................................................................................................. 10
5 Projects Research Area D - Interculturalism– Supervisor Sünje Lorenzen
5.1 What are the motives for human beings with migrant backgrounds to work as
geriatric nurses?
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Work, Identity and Globalization – Abstracts of Research Projects
1 Projects Research Area A - Flexibility of Work and Life –
Supervisor Birgit Volmerg
1.1 Wind of change by new employees? Introduction of newcomers to an
existing corporate culture using the example of hkk
By Angie Schenkel
Due to a cheap contribution rate and the merge with another insurance company in
2008 the hkk grew fast throughout the last years. As a consequence a lot of new
employees were recruited with the hope that they bring new ideas and change. With
the time the human resources department recognized that their expectations were
not fulfilled. Their wish for an explanation of the circumstances matches the interest
of the research team to investigate what effect the existing corporate culture of a
company has on the process of adaptation of new employees.
In cooperation with the hkk and the responsible professor the research team
designed a workshop layout that was used for three similar group discussions with
about ten participants each, to find out: How did the newcomers experience their first
time in the hkk?, What is motivating them during their work and what might be a
handicap?, How does the existing corporate culture effect their process of
adaptation? The target group for the workshops are social security employees who
are working in the company between six months and one year. One group is coming
from other insurances and the participants in the second group had different
professions before, such as dental assistant. Furthermore trainees in the third year of
their professional education are interviewed as they have an insight in several
departments of the company. With the usage of the topic centered interview the team
creates an open environment for discussion where all participants are equal and can
express whatever they want without fearing any judgement.
With the key sentence method the research team viewed the recorded results of the
group discussions after transferring them into transcripts. The main results of the
research are that the hkk is a company with a friendly working environment where the
employees enjoy to come to work. They see chances for individual development and
acknowledge the good atmosphere in their departments. But due to the growth the
structure seems handicap their work sometimes. Examples for that are the lack of
communication and the unclarified spheres of competences in some departments.
The resistance for change in some divisions led to resignation among some
newcomers who start to accept the situation as it is. Despite that there are ideas for
change among the new employees that the hkk could use to improve its
performance, for example a standardized documentary system. The next step for the
company might be to use that impulses in combination with a structural change to
create more transparency, a better communication and an environment of
participation.
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Work, Identity and Globalization – Abstracts of Research Projects
1.2 Horse-Assisted Coaching – To what extent does horse-assisted coaching
change work-related experiences and behaviour?
By Falko Giese & Anke Richter
Coaching or executive coaching is becoming more and more popular and
widespread. Coaching settings vary from classic face-to-face interviews in the office
to extreme outdoor-settings or even online-based settings. Horse-assisted coaching
is an emerging trend which focuses on the human-animal-interaction. The two-way
relation between Coaches and their clients is broadened by the medium of a horse.
This new type of coaching is discussed controversially: Whereas critical voices call it
impure edutainment or charlatanry, coaching-associations like the International
Association For Horse Assisted Education and advocates of the method praise
horse-assisted measures as a valuable feedback instrument for the identification and
reflection of the clients’ leadership and communication behaviours.
The subject of the research is the effect of horses in the coaching procedure dealing
with the human-animal-interaction and the potential emergence of different
perspectives of the clients.
For this study, we conducted a qualitative research design in which the experienced
perspectives of coaches and trainees were recorded using problem centered
interviews. Subsequently, the transcribed interviews were analyzed using the
Kernsatzmethode (core-sentence method) by VOLMERG & LEITHÄUSER (1988).
The major findings that emerged from the research were as follows: (a) during the
horse-assisted-coaching procedure the clients’ behaviour is mirrored through the
medium of horses (b) The non-verbal communication of the clients is sensitised
through working with horses (c) With regard to coaches, horses are a support-system
for broader perception and a major driver for gaining new insights (d) Horse-assisted
coaching positively influences the clients’ understanding of leadership, the individual
physical well-being as well as the awareness of the non-verbal communication
The findings suggest that participating in horse-assisted coaching is beneficial to
positively changing people’s communication skills, self-awareness as well as physical
and mental well-being in workplace contexts and in private life. It is recommended
that further research should explore the lack of scientific findings regarding the
effects and effectiveness of horse-assisted coaching. Furthermore, future research
should focus on the quality standards of horse-assisted coaches to improve the
reputation of this technique in society.
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Work, Identity and Globalization – Abstracts of Research Projects
2 Projects Research Area B - Sustainability – Supervisor
Georg Müller-Christ
2.1 The potential of mindfulness for the development of sustainable personal
leadership skills
By Katharina Gallas
The presented research report addresses the newly popular subject of mindfulness
and its effect on the competence of personal leadership that nowadays represents an
important resource both for individuals and corporations. Our goal was therefore to
analyze the diverse interaction of mindfulness and personal leadership and to reveal
any potential mindfulness has in developing the latter. Taking into account the
complexity of the research field an experimental set up was chosen that allows
examination from different perspectives. The methodic approach includes the classic
literature search and interviews of two experts as well as a system constellation and
the attendance and documentation of a 7-week mindfulness-based stress reduction
course. The mixed methods of data collection were evaluated separately for a first
step and afterwards connected to each other so that as a result a profound
examination of the object of interest could be ensured. The analysis is mainly based
on the use of the Kernsatzmethode. The findings indicate that a regular practice of
mindfulness is related to a high level of self-reflection and self-awareness, which both
can be regarded as requirements for personal leadership. But they also show a
strong value based discrepancy between the concepts of mindfulness and personal
leadership suggesting their contradiction. We therefore concluded that the potential
of mindfulness in developing the competence of sustainable personal leadership lies
in accepting the fact that a human in full charge of its own thoughts and feelings is
not intended by nature and hence not reasonable to assume. Nevertheless we found
a promising alternative to the idea of self-guidance in self-care, a favorable, positive
basic attitude towards oneself and the environment, that promotes psychic and
physical wellbeing.
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Work, Identity and Globalization – Abstracts of Research Projects
3 Projects Research Area C – Market and Consumption –
Supervisor Thomas Kühn
3.1 Dating-Apps – An analysis of the female perception in the context of
objectification through potential partners and the influence of society
By Dominic Görisch
In this study, we examined the female perception of modern dating with dating
applications like Tinder and Lovoo. We assumed that women might feel being rated
only based on their body or treated as objects and therefore objectified by their
potential partners. Within the apps, users have to choose if they like or don’t like a
potential partner almost solely based on their profile picture. This focus on pictures
and the high number of potential partners explains why recent studies have shown
that some users used market-metaphors like “catalogue” instead of romantic words to
describe their experiences with the app. The Psychological effects of this seemingly
more calculated and less emotional way to find a partner will be discussed. We
conducted six half-structured-interviews with German female students who already
have used a dating-app before and were between 20 and 30 years old. We used key
sentences to extract the main statements of the participants and revealed areas of
tension and ambivalent opinions in the further analysis. The participants agreed that
they have been reduced to their outer appearance by their potential partners but in
general that didn’t bother our participants who admitted to objectify their dating
partners as well and even positive effects on their self-esteem have been claimed by
one participant. However our findings also suggest that it predominantly depends on
the degree to which objectification happens, whether it is rated as acceptable or
unacceptable. There also was a need for safety and respect expressed which
reduces the reported acceptable objectification to aspects of instrumentality,
inertness and exchangeability. The opinions on the Apps were rather ambivalent. The
apps made it easy to get in contact with new people but also lead to some frustrating
experiences with potential partners who didn’t answered anymore for no obvious
reasons for example. Our study also revealed that the society still has an impact on
the dating behavior. Most of our participants also tried to show parts of their character
or interests in their profiles but also tried to present themselves feminine and
beautiful to match the selection criteria of men at the same time.
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Work, Identity and Globalization – Abstracts of Research Projects
3.2 Employerattractiveness within the german industry of information
technology
By Philine Pommerencke & Jan Seifert
The employment market has changed in a large degree. Globalization,
technologisation as well as decrease in birthrates and demographic change within
our society affect the supply of highly qualified employees. In recent years, the term
skill shortage has become very popular and some industries are more affected by
this problem than others. Talking of the skill shortage in the IT sector, some authors
even began to speak about a “war for talents”, because here, the challenges are
even bigger than in the other industries. IT and software services can only be offered
by very high qualified staff and therefore com-panies working in this area have to
fight for the best qualified and experienced personnel on the labor market in order to
assure their future success. Between the several existing opportunities to gain
competitive advantages on the labor market, the concept of em-ployer branding has
become most popular among both researchers and practitioners. Employer branding
means, using the concepts of marketing and brand development in the context of the
labor market in order to create a desirable employer brand, which attracts the best
qualified potential employees to apply at this company. Since the skill shortage is
more serious in the IT sector than in other industry branches, creating a desirable
employer brand and understanding how to attract potential employees can be seen
as a critical success factor for those companies. Therefore, within our research
project the goal was to analyze the employer brand and attractiveness of IT
companies in Germany from the view of experienced and highly qualified IT
professionals. This was done in cooperation with encoway, a small software
company located in Bremen. We captured the perception of its employer brand and
core factors contributing to its attrac-tiveness as an employer from both internal and
external points of views. For doing so, we conducted five problem-centered
interviews: Three of them with employees of enco-way and two with external IT
professionals. The interviews were analyzed with the method of the grounded theory.
Our goal was not to present final facts about the concept of employer branding and
how this applies to the chosen example, but more specific to understand the
employer brand of encoway from differing subjective points of view and gain insight
into the interdependencies between different personalities, different life-sit-uations
and different influencing aspects when rating the attractiveness of an employer
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Work, Identity and Globalization – Abstracts of Research Projects
4 Projects Research Area D – Interculturalism – Supervisor
Michael Schottmayer
4.1 Identity and way of living in the retirement age
By Luisa Hempel & Philipp Walch
The goal of this research project is to explore the experience of senior citizens who
are, despite having passed the age limit into retirement, still active in any means of
occupation, employment or voluntary work. The main focus is to explore individual
and, potentially, collective motivational factors for pensioners to remain active and
working although there is no financial necessity for them to do so. Another important
question this study raises is to what extent labour is essential for women and men
relating to the construction and perception of their identity.
Regarding the very individual and personal nature of these questions and to obtain
the best possible insights, the researchers directly consulted four male pensioners
aged between 58 and 71 years who continue to work or remain active as stated
above. This qualitative investigation was carried out through narrative interviews in
which the participants were free to talk about their individual course of life and
personal achievements or experiences that led to their wish to still be working
irrespective of age or financial necessity. To evaluate the resulting transcribed
interviews the researchers used the “core sentence method” to condense the
extensive amount of data.
After analysing the generated data, two distinguishable patterns emerged, which
describe the experience of the pensioners regarding their current occupation as well
as the motivational factors underlying their career: Either they were unsatisfied with
their previous professional life so that they decided to search for another more
fulfilling occupation within retirement. Or they had developed such a strong
identification with their occupation that they searched for continuing challenges inside
their field of profession after retirement. What all four participants of this study have in
common is the basic need for activity and the fear of losing structure in their everyday
life. Furthermore, they emphasised the meaningfulness and the support labour
provides them with in regards of constructing their identity.
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Work, Identity and Globalization – Abstracts of Research Projects
4.2 Organizational commitment in atypical employment relationships
By Thore Vagts
Increasing organizational change has brought up new work arrangements. Nowadays
more and more people work in atypical employment relationships which don´t
conform to the standard form of work. On the one hand these forms of work allow
employers to handle their workforce more flexibly but on the other hand they prevent
employees from feeling organizational commitment in a way they could do, if they
were employed in a standard work relationship.
Existing research have focused on the question whether employees are likely to feel
commitment towards the company. However those studies don´t adequately address
the question under what preconditions they are likely to feel commitment.
In this context, three German master students were interviewed who are working as
sales promoter in part-time jobs. The interviews were analyzed and evaluated by the
“Kernsatzmethode” from Leithäuser & Volmerg (1988).
The evaluation of the conducted interviews attests findings of other reports: People
can feel commitment towards the company they work for, even they work in atypical
employment relationships. The findings mainly suggest an affective commitment
which means a strong emotional bond between employee and company.
Apart from these findings the human need for social recognition as well as the work
in teams can be interpreted as major aspects for the development process of
organizational commitment. On the one hand the students describe the positive
experience of gaining recognition by their social environment, while working for the
company. On the other hand they describe the work in the team as an enrichment.
The theoretical models of Keupp (2008) and Schimank (2010) represent the basis for
the interpretation this way.
Furthermore the findings of the interviews suggest a differentiated consideration for
following studies. Following Volmerg (1990), the different personal needs as well as
the atypical employment conditions should be taken in account to explain the
development process of organizational commitment adequately.
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Work, Identity and Globalization – Abstracts of Research Projects
4.3 Fathers and paternity leave – Areas of tension in the person, the
relationship and the work environment
By Julia Even, Esther Gröninger
Politics aimed to improve the compatibility of work and family life by introducing
parental leave benefits in 2007, over 10 years ago, and thus supporting the aspired
goal of equality between men and women in society. The rate of fathers taking
advantage of the parental leave benefits has risen over the last years, but it could be
observed that the duration of the leave decreased. In order to support the equality
efforts this research aimed to examine the current inner and outer change barriers of
fathers.
To obtain diverse insight, three fathers with different backgrounds and family
situations were interviewed, who recently took paternity leave. All of them were in
their early 30’s, university-educated and married, however their length of paternity
leave varied from two to twelve month. Their employer ranged from SME’s to a global
company and no one had managerial responsibilities. Each interview centred around
the three main fields of interest: change barriers in themselves, their relationship and
in their work environment and was analysed by the key-phrase method by Leithäuser
and Volmerg (1988).
A common topic discussed across all interviews was that the financial situation and
possibilities of the families played a significant role in their decision for or against
parental leave. Especially in the event of a leave longer than two months, it seemed
inevitable that at least one parents had to earn well. It was argued by all fathers, that
despite the new legislation, is was still a trade-off between a career and parenthood
and that they even felt a certain pressure from society that more fathers should take
parental leave. In reality however, the possibilities offered by the legislation are not
as feasible as it seems, for many fathers.
A number of connections between the described experiences and theoretical
background presented in this research can be drawn, however it can the importance
of the influence of significant others (Gerth & Mills, 1970) can be highlighted. As
described in Keupp’s theory (2002) the concept of traditional gender roles becomes
slowly but surely less important and people breaking with that concept and building
up a new identity are performing pioneering work. In our opinion, fathers taking
paternity leave are doing so.
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Work, Identity and Globalization – Abstracts of Research Projects
5 Projects Research Area D – Interculturalism – Supervisor
Sünje Lorenzen
5.1 What are the motives for human beings with migrant backgrunds to work as
geriatric nurses?
By Nadine Heim, Carolin Nowotny
The demographic change in Germany, which is caused by rising life expectancy as
well as the steadily declining birth rate, leads to an increasingly aging society. This
means that in Germany the number of people in need of aged care is increasing and
for this reason, the nursing sector faces new challenges. Specifically, the resulting
higher demand for geriatric nurses is accompanied by a lack of qualified and
motivated people. For this reason, it is necessary to encourage individuals to pursue
an occupation in geriatric nursing in the future. Furthermore, not only German
citizens are affected by demographic change. People with a migration background
also grow old in Germany. That is the reason why culturally sensitive care of the
elderly becomes a more and more important issue. As a result, people with an
immigration background are a special resource for the nursing sector.
The aim of this research project was to understand the motives for human beings
with migrant backgrounds to work as geriatric nurses. Therefore, allowing for the job
profile of geriatric nurses to address these motives and become a more appealing
career choice for people with migrant backgrounds. There are a plenty of research
projects regarding motivation and contentedness of geriatric nurses so far, however
migrant backgrounds have not been taken into consideration. To get the results of
the research, three geriatric nurses were interviewed – two with Russian and one
with Turkish migration background – using half-structured theme-centered guided
interviews. The interviewees were acquired by personal contacts. The interviews
were analyzed with the Core Sentence Method from Leithäuser and Volmerg (1988).
The results of this research show that none of the interviewees decided consciously
to work as a geriatric nurse. They all took up this job by chance, or in consideration of
a number of factors, including income, and did so without finding out about the job
profile and requirements beforehand. Consequently, they initially doubted their
decision. Nevertheless, their motivation to work developed and strengthened over
time and changed from extrinsic to intrinsic. Now they are motivated by a desire to
help human beings and a pleasant working atmosphere.
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