Leadership and social cohesion
Our times are dominated by crises as well as social polarization and fragmentation. When it comes to strengthening cohesion, leaders play a special role: this is the fundamental thinking behind the interdisciplinary Centre for Advanced Studies in the Humanities and Social Sciences approved today by the DFG. The “Goethe Leadership Centre”, whose foundations lie in psychology and economics, will conduct research on this topic for an initial four years. In addition, the DFG announced that funding for the research unit QUAST, which focuses on predicting the properties of quantum materials, has been extended.
How can leaders foster a sense of community among their staff and in this way enhance their well-being, resilience and willingness to cooperate? This is the question that researchers from psychology and economics will explore within the project “Rethinking leadership: Identity leadership as a group-oriented tool for addressing the challenges of our times” / “Goethe Leadership Centre – Centre of Advanced Studies”, the DFG’s new Centre for Advanced Studies in the Humanities and Social Sciences at Goethe University Frankfurt. The proposal for the center, which will be hosted at the Forschungskolleg Humanwissenschaften in Bad Homburg, was submitted by Rolf van Dick, Professor of Social Psychology, and Michael Kosfeld, Professor of Business Administration, Chair of Organization and Management.
“The new Centre for Advanced Studies in the Humanities and Social Sciences hits the nerve of our times. Social polarization, such as we have observed for several years, calls most urgently for a holistic approach. That the world of work plays an important role for society overall is clear to see. I am very pleased that Goethe University Frankfurt is laying the scientific foundations for the right course of action,” says Professor Enrico Schleiff, President of Goethe University Frankfurt.
“We are very proud that our proposal has been approved. Our idea of building a bridge between psychology and economics was evidently very convincing. We want to pave the way for a new definition of leadership in a polarized world – with evidence-based instruments for more social cohesion,” says Professor Rolf van Dick, who will initially act as the center’s spokesperson, adding that it is the first Centre for Advanced Studies in the Humanities and Social Sciences ever approved by the DFG in the field of psychology.
That leadership style shapes the identity of a group as such seems almost trivial, explains van Dick. But it makes a big difference whether a person in a position with more responsibility simply tells others what to do or whether they successfully convey the message: “I am one of you, I represent the group and our shared goals.” This concept of “identity leadership” needs, however, to be extended: a person does not become an integrative leader solely by influencing their own group and realizing group interests, as the example of Donald Trump, President of the United States, clearly shows.
Together, van Dick and Kosfeld want to develop a concept for the research program over the next four years. The aim is to (further) develop a model of identity leadership that integrates findings from both disciplines as well as the concepts of “common good” and “shared leadership”. The center will also evaluate identity leadership methods in a cross-cultural comparison. “Here, we also want to also use qualitative approaches and ask open-ended questions. We might find completely different types of identity leadership in other cultures,” says van Dick.
The center can build on extensive preliminary work by the two main applicants. On the psychology side, Rolf van Dick, one of the most-cited scholars at Goethe University Frankfurt, and his team examined the concept of identity leadership around the world within the global GILD network and showed the connection between identification and innovation, trust and reduced burnout. During the coronavirus pandemic, he was able to corroborate that a leadership style based on identity leadership encouraged citizens to act in a manner commensurate to such pandemic conditions. On the economics side, the experiments conducted by Michael Kosfeld have shown how sharing a common goal improves cooperation within a team. “Michael Kosfeld and I know that we work well together. Although we use different methods and have different ideas, we are both investigating the same phenomena,” says van Dick.
The new center includes a fellowship program, with Rudolf Kerschreiter and Alex Haslam as permanent fellows, 20 further senior and junior fellows as well as 60 shorter-term guest stays by visiting researchers. To support young scientists, two postdoctoral positions, one tenure-track professorship and half the fellowships are earmarked for early career researchers. The plan is to hold a workshop once a year and a conference every two years. The researchers involved will update each other about current questions and results in a weekly forum. The intention is to start recruitment in the summer of 2026. The first fellows will be invited to Frankfurt in the fall/winter of 2026.
Slightly over €3 million are available for the first funding phase. Van Dick and Kosfeld have already begun contemplating a second funding phase, for which a proposal would be due after four years: “Embedded in Frankfurt’s research landscape with the Center for Leadership and Behavior in Organizations (CLBO) and the Frankfurt Laboratory for Experimental Economic Research (FLEX), we would widen the spectrum to include topics such as AI, digitalization and demographic change,” proposes Rolf van Dick.
Source: Goethe University
Photo: Uwe Dettmar
