Open Access

Im April 2020, d.h. zum Start der Online-Lehre des Corona-Semesters, wurde unter Studierenden der HFU eine Umfrage durchgeführt. Dieses Dokument beinhaltet die Ergebnisse der 1.150 teilnehmenden Studierenden.

The understanding of what lies behind actions and how our mind functions is the basic requirement for effective and successful intercultural teamwork, management and leadership. While the literature acknowledges the importance of cultural differences in influencing teamwork and management, it ignores differences in cognitive processes, that can influence how attitudes are developed and behaviors are manifested in local environments. With this in mind, this paper examines the different learning styles, which are the foundation of thinking patterns, problem-solving methods and working styles of Chinese and German employees at IMS Gear. To get a better understanding of how the members of each culture approach a project, a project planning observation is conducted and the findings are compared. Based on the results, different leadership styles are suggested.

In recent years, the topics of new work and agile practices have received growing at-tention. The concept and mindset Working Out Loud are embedded in this field. It is described by five practices and attitudes being visible work, relationships, leading with generosity, purposeful discovery, and having a growth mindset. The present study attempts to evaluate whether it holds that this concept is predomi-nantly adopted by employees in hierarchical companies. The underlying assumption is that employees in hierarchical settings are deprived of a sense of self-efficacy which they gain by applying Working Out Loud. The results and conclusions are based on a combination of the findings of existing academic literature and the outcomes of con-ducted interviews with Working Out Loud promoters. As the concept Working Out Loud is not yet scientifically proven, the interviews are particularly important to draw relevant conclusions. For this purpose, employees were asked questions aiming at de-fining the present organizational structure in their companies and the underlying rea-sons for them engaging in Working Out Loud practices. The conducted interviews and analyses yielded the result that employees tend to adopt Working Out Loud practices due to an underlying missing sense of self-efficacy, among other reasons. It could be shown that although not previously selected, the in-terview sample of Working Out Loud promoters appeared to be predominantly posi-tioned in hierarchical structures. Whether this proves the hypothesis right or whether the benefit and visible change in a hierarchical context is higher than in an agile one, needs to be further analyzed in future research.

The bachelor’s thesis deals with the question of whether a treatment with neurofeedback could provide a benefit for the members of an organization during a change process. In particular, the motives and challenges of change projects were identified. Furthermore, the methods which can be used to reduce and even prevent these problems were examined. The non-achievement of basic human needs, the associated fear, the loss of trust and stress plays a major role here. A good change management is able to address some of these issues, for example through good communication and the implementation of a change vision. The difficulty is that people may be too stuck in their views, including previous bad experiences, to be helped by current methods. It could be shown, that the training with neurofeedback achieves positive and fast lasting effects. The thesis explains how the person to be treated must be prepared and what a training might look like. Various areas in which neurofeedback has already been successfully used are briefly described and it is investigated whether there are treatments for disorders that are similar for the resistances in change processes. Expert interviews have examined these assumptions more closely and provided a practical and concrete perspective on the treatment with neurofeedback in an organizational context. Finally, it was found that training with neurofeedback in companies is quite an interesting option. At this stage, however, there is a lack of studies that can prove the concrete benefits. Until now, neurofeedback has been applied almost exclusively to the medical field and this will probably not change in the upcoming years due to the high complexity of the procedure. Other methods, such as yoga or meditation, are on the one hand easier to carry out and the other hand already established in society. However, since positive results have already been achieved with biofeedback and people are beginning to take an interest in it, this could be a first step towards neurofeedback.