Outstanding Disputation at the Chair of Leadership

Directly following the joint team day, the last week of August was crowned by the outstanding disputation of Ph.D. student Vera Schweitzer on August 24 at the Chair of Leadership.

Her dissertation entitled "Dear Diary: An experience-sampling perspective on modern work demands in the daily lives of employees and gig workers" was presented by Vera with flying colors. In a short presentation with subsequent discussion, she introduced three papers of her dissertation thesis, which have already been accepted for publication in the prestigious "Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes", "Work & Stress" and the Academy of Management Best Paper Proceedings. The papers address the impact of perceived information gaps at work on employees' experienced frustration and curiosity in everyday work, the protective effect of short positive impulses (e.g., a funny video or text) in the workplace and dealing with work-related challenges through social support among "gig workers" who perform small orders via online platforms.

After a brief consultation by the dissertation committee, her overall performance was awarded a well-deserved summa cum laude. Together with many of her research colleagues, the committee and her family, a toast was raised to this great achievement.

We congratulate Vera on this outstanding achievement and wish her all the best for the future as a PostDoc at the University of Cologne!