Chair of Human Resouce Management
Strategy is executed by people. Understanding their behavior is key.
The Chair of Human Resource Management, led by Prof. Dr. Petra Nieken, investigates what motivates people, how they lead and cooperate, and how digital transformation reshapes work and organizations. We combine rigorous economic theory with experimental methods to generate insights relevant to both academia and practice, and we collaborate closely with partners from science and indust
Our research is interdisciplinary, combining organizational and personnel economics with methods from experimental economics and management insights. We conduct laboratory experiments, field experiments, and randomized controlled trials. We publish regularly in leading peer-reviewed journals including European Economic Review, Experimental Economics, Games and Economic Behavior, Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, PNAS, and The Leadership Quarterly, where Prof. Nieken serves as Associate Editor. Our research infrastructure is embedded in the Karlsruhe Decision & Design Lab (KD2Lab) and the DFG-funded research training group KD2School, and we collaborate with industry partners including NIM — the Nuremberg Institute for Market Decisions.
We offer courses at the Bachelor's and Master's levels that prepare students to understand and shape people-centered organizations in a technology-driven world. Our teaching covers HR in the Age of AI, Fairness, Organizational Behavior, Leadership, and Incentives. We also offer courses related to leading methods in Human Subject Research and Experimental Economics. Further information is available on the Teaching page.
Research topics (bullet list):
Future of work and new forms of organization
Digital leadership and cooperation
Incentives, motivation, and performance
Fairness, gender, and inclusion in organizations and digital systems
Experimental methods and Human Subject Research
ManyDesign and ManyLabs Projects
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