Research projects

Current research topics

To date, little is known about the extent to which different strategies of informal workplace learning influence each other over time. In collaboration with an international medium-sized enterprise, diary studies and follow-up surveys will be used to find out more about the interactions between learning behavior and metacognitive processes that regulate and monitor learning.

The literature emphasizes the overwhelming benefits of informal workplace learning. However, there is also a "dark side" of informal learning, such as learning tricks to circumvent safety mechanisms in industrial workplaces through model learning or sharing experiences with colleagues. This potentially dangerous learning will be investigated in more detail using experimental research designs.

In this research project, experimental approaches will be used to determine the extent to which a leader's sense of humor influences informal learning and employees' personal development. Learning culture will also be considered. Primary target group of this research are nurses in hospitals.

People who are employed in algorithmic work contexts, for example web design freelancers or drivers of delivery and passenger transport services, have to reckon with negative effects of their work on well-being and health. Experimental methods will be used to examine the extent to which perceived work autonomy and well-being can be influenced by proactive behavior (job crafting) of working individuals.

Employability is becoming increasingly important in an ever-changing labor market. To what extent employability can be promoted by different forms of work-related learning is the central question of this research project. The project also takes into account contextual factors such as the appraisal of stress levels in one's job, as well as demographic characteristics of employees.

A person's ability to seek, recognize, and grasp learning opportunities is referred to as self-directed learning orientation (SDLO). SDLOis considered one of the most significant predictors of informal workplace learning. This research project will therefore develop and validate an economic scale to measure SDLO. For this purpose, associations with constructs of work-related learning will also be investigated.

Work-related learning encompasses various forms of learning, of which formal, informal, and self-regulated learning are the most popular. However, research lacks conceptual classifications that take these distinctions into account. Hence, it is also unclear how consequences and outcomes of learning might differ, for example, in institutionally controlled vs. learner-controlled learning processes, in on-the-job vs. off-the-job learning processes, or in online vs. offline learning processes. This will be examined in this research project.

This research project aims to sharpen the theoretical foundations of the concept of "New Learning", which has so far only been roughly outlined in science and is becoming increasingly significant in New Work research. For this purpose, an empirical test of a conceptual framework model will be conducted using questionnaire data with multiple measurement time points.