Degree Theses

Please find all currently open topics below. PLEASE NOTE: We expect you to write your thesis in English. However, the underlying data may be in German. We indicate whether specific language proficiency is required for each topic.

If you are interested, please should submit a statement summarizing your motivation and a brief CV via email to the respective thesis advisor.

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Intelligent Virtual Agents in the Metaverse (2 master theses)

Intelligent Virtual Agents (IVAs) are becoming increasingly important in immersive virtual environments such as the Metaverse. As organizations increasingly rely on IVAs for customer service, training, and collaboration, it becomes crucial to understand how people interact with these agents more broadly and what makes such interactions effective and trustworthy. While prior research has explored chatbots and 2D agents, there is a lack of understanding about how social presence, proactivity, behavioral change, and user engagement in immersive 3D Virtual Reality (VR) environments impact trust in IVAs. This interdisciplinary research project addresses key questions regarding the (basic) use of AI in organizations, thereby contributing to the future of work more broadly.

Students will collect their own data in immersive VR sessions with head-mounted displays (HMDs) and will be supported in data collection (e.g., in finding study participants). Study participants will interact with an IVA embedded in an already developed immersive training scenario. Each student will receive their own VR headset for data collection. Data collection will involve a survey (e.g., trust, social presence, usability), behavioral observations (e.g., user questions, proactivity), and qualitative feedback (short interviews). The final version of the questionnaire and the interview guidelines will be made available to students in advance; comprehensive training is planned prior to data collection.

This is an interdisciplinary research project jointly developed by the University of Hamburg, the University of Osnabrück, and Curtin University in Perth, Australia. Students will also be advised by Dr. Martin Semmann, Director of the Hub of Computing and Data Science (HCDS) at the University of Hamburg. His background in Information Systems and applied AI supports this interdisciplinary approach.

Further requirements: No prior VR experience required. However, students should be open to exploring new technologies and motivated to work hands-on with VR equipment.

Supervision: Marvin Grabowski

Application: Please send a short letter of motivation (max. 1 page), your CV, and a current Transcript of Records to: marvin.grabowski@uni-hamburg.de

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Making 3D Immersive Meetings Work: Developing a Taxonomy of Success Factors in the Metaverse (2 bachelor theses)

3D immersive meetings hold significant promise for innovative team collaboration and learning experiences, often referred to as new opportunities in the "Metaverse." Users can wear VR-goggles that present a virtual environment, allowing for natural head movements and intuitive interactions similar to real-world experiences. Organizations increasingly experiment with 3D immersive meetings to bring distributed teams together, however, we currently have little empirical knowledge about how exactly meeting leaders should prepare, plan, and implement these 3D immersive meetings. In addition, we know little about the occasions for which 3D immersive meetings are suitable and how exactly they differ in practice from other meeting formats. Previous research has primarily worked with smaller empirical pilot studies; a comprehensive state-of-the-art qualitative research perspective can leverage our understanding of introducing this new technology to organizations.  

These two bachelor theses will follow a state-of-the-art qualitative research design based on semi-structured interviews with individuals from academia and industry who already have experience with 3D immersive meetings. An interview guide will be provided to ensure comparability across interviews, and students will receive support in identifying and recruiting suitable participants. Within this framework, students will develop own research questions aligned with their individual interests (the overarching goal is to develop a taxonomy for successful 3D immersive meetings).

This is an interdisciplinary research project jointly developed by the University of Hamburg, Helmut Schmidt University, Hamburg, and Anna University, India.

Further requirements: Students should demonstrate a strong interest in qualitative methods (conducting and transcribing interviews followed by coding of the data)

Supervision: Marvin Grabowski

Application: Please send a short letter of motivation (max. 1 page), your CV, and a current Transcript of Records to: marvin.grabowski@uni-hamburg.de

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The secret life of teams – What do team interactions tell us about how teams collaborate? (several bachelor theses)

As team members coordinate their knowledge, skills, and effort to accomplish task demands, their collaborative and interdependent integration of individual resources gives rise to team processes. These are central for team functioning and critical to organizational success. Team processes imply interactions amongst team members. This project aims at understanding how the verbal interactions of team members shape team processes over a team’s life.

Students will develop their own research questions (within the limits of the project). This may include all types of team processes observable from verbal interactions (e.g., problem-solving, emergent leadership) as well as those collected via the survey (e.g., shared mental models, entitativity). Note that research question may also address how these processes shape over time (across three meetings spread across a couple of weeks).

Students will be involved in coding team interactions at the utterance-level from video recordings that have already been collected. This will require working in a team with other students in order to distribute the amount of work equally. Therefore, a prerequisite is that all of the students start mutually (see below for further details). Coding will take place intensively at the beginning of the project. To allow for smooth data coding, students will be required to spend at least 20 hours per week in the coding period and be available in person during this time. All other parts of the thesis (literature research, data analysis, and writing) do not need to be completed in this period!

Further requirements: High German proficiency, interest in fine-grained verbal interactions

Start date: preferably October or November, but no later than December. Please indicate your availability and preferences (regarding the start date) in your application. Exact details will be discussed and agreed within the student-supervision team.

Advisor: Fabio Krüger, Dr. Clara Hemshorn de Sanchez, or Prof. Dr. Nale Lehmann-Willenbrock, 

Send your application with a short letter of motivation and CV to  fabio.krueger@uni-hamburg.de

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Research topic: The secret life of teams – What do team interactions tell us about how teams collaborate? (1 bachelor thesis) - already assigned

As team members coordinate their knowledge, skills, and effort to accomplish task demands, their collaborative and interdependent integration of individual resources gives rise to team processes. These are central for team functioning and critical to organizational success. Team processes imply interactions amongst team members. This project aims at understanding how the verbal interactions of team members shape team processes over a team’s life.

Students will develop their own research questions (within the limits of the project). This may include all types of team processes observable from verbal interactions (e.g., problem-solving, emergent leadership) as well as those collected via the survey (e.g., shared mental models, entitativity). Note that research question may also address how these processes shape over time (across three meetings spread across a couple of weeks).

Students will be involved in coding team interactions at the utterance-level from video recordings that have already been collected. This will require working in a team with other students. Coding will take place intensively in the period of mid-march to end of may. To allow for smooth data coding, students will be required to spend at least 20 hours per week in the coding period and be available in person during this time. All other parts of the thesis (literature research, data analysis and writing) do not need to be completed in this period!

Further requirements: high German proficiency, interest in fine-grained verbal interactions

Advisor: Prof. Dr. Nale Lehmann-Willenbrock, Fabio Krüger, or Dr. Clara Hemshorn de Sanchez

Send your application with a short letter of motivation and CV to  fabio.krueger"AT"uni-hamburg.de

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Research topic: From Talk to Teamwork: Investigating Transactive Memory in Agile Teams Through Language-Based Insights (1 bachelor or 1 master thesis) - already assigned

Transactive Memory Systems (TMS) describe how teams collectively encode, store, and retrieve knowledge, enabling efficient collaboration (Wegner, 1987). Especially in agile work environments, where rapid adaptation and knowledge-sharing are crucial, a well-functioning TMS can significantly enhance team performance (Pearsall et al., 2010). However, TMS has often been assessed using self-reports, which lack precision and objectivity (Ren & Argote, 2011). To overcome this limitation, we analyze transcripts of agile team meetings using Language Style Matching (LSM)—a linguistic approach that captures coordination patterns in communication (Gonzales et al., 2010).

Students will have the opportunity to develop their own research questions within the scope of the project. This could involve analyzing positive or negative TMS, examining how TMS develops over time, or comparing TMS across different types of agile meetings.

Part of this thesis focuses on preparing these transcripts by translating them from German to English and ensuring their quality for analysis, without requiring additional data collection or prior experience in language analysis. A preferred start in March will allow the transcripts to be ready by the end of the month.

Further requirements: high English proficiency, interest in diving into new methods

Advisor: Fabio Krüger

Send your application with a short letter of motivation and CV to fabio.krueger"AT"uni-hamburg.de

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Zoom in online coaching processes (1 master thesis) - already assigned

In the coaching literature, knowledge on how and why certain interventions work is still limited. In your master theses, you will contribute to process research by observing coaches’ behavior during digitalized coaching aiming to improve work-life balance. Specifically, you will focus on intervention delivery and empathic communication behavior of the coach in a specific session and its impact on clients’ result-oriented self-reflection/resource activation/affect change as coaching success factors and work-life balance as distal outcomes.   

Advisor: Dr. Christine Busch

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The Power of Inquiry: Exploring Leadership Questions in Organizational Interactions (2 master theses)  - already assigned

Communication is one of the central leadership responsibilities. Questions are one powerful tool in this context. They may serve as a means to engage with followers, to obtain information from them, motivate them by attributing competence and expertise through the act of asking but also represent a milder form of assigning task. Yet, we have limited insights into the specific types of questions leaders may ask in their day-to-day interactions. In this research project we will analyze transcripts from a large-scale organizational simulation provided by the Center of Creative Leadership. Specifically, we aim at identifying specific types of questions and develop a deeper understanding of how they are used by leaders. In a second step, we will explore the type of answers that are elicited by these questions. Students will be provided that data and focus on the exploratory qualitative data analysis. This project requires high motivations to learn new research methods in a self-directed way.

Advisor: Dr. Clara Hemshorn de Sanchez

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Don’t Shut me Down: Exploring Communicative Barriers for Female Academics in Performance Interviews (2 master theses) - already assigned

For decades, research has documented a range of challenges female academics face on their way to attaining academic leadership positions. Yet, despite notable progress in female representation among the ranks of full professors in recent years, many women still get lost along the way to tenure or remain in the lower ranks of academia. In this research project, we want to throw light on the role of communication dynamics in performance interviews. These one-on-one meetings between junior researchers and their supervisors (i.e., typically professors), represent important events for career decision-making. In this project we will collect qualitative data of professors and junior academics about their experiences pertaining to their last performance interview. Students will be involved in data collection and analysis. This requires a high level of independent and self-organized working as well as an interest in acquiring qualitative methods and applying them.

Advisor: Dr. Clara Hemshorn de Sanchez

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Coaching for small business copreneurs: Exploring the diversity of actions to craft work-life balance (1 master thesis) - already assigned

In this master's thesis, you analyze work-life balance crafting strategies using both qualitative and quantitative approaches. Based on coaching videos in which specific behaviors are planned, you code work-life balance crafting intentions, quantify the diversity of strategies, and examine their relationship with quantitative coaching outcomes. 

Advisor: Dr. Romana Dreyer

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Behavioral Dynamics in Negotiations: Impact on Negotiation Outcomes (1 master thesis) -
already assigned

The behavior of negotiation partners plays a crucial role in shaping negotiation results. While certain behaviors have been extensively studied, others are less well understood. It remains ambiguous how certain individual behaviors influence various outcomes in negotiations—such as reaching agreements or impasses, as well as more subjective outcomes like negotiators' satisfaction or perceived fairness. The aim of this master’s thesis is to explore these open questions and contribute to a more comprehensive understanding of how different behaviors affect negotiation outcomes.

Advisor: Jan Engel

Final colloquium I/O Psychology

If you would like to write your final thesis in the I/O field, you should attend the accompanying final colloquium on I/O. In these colloquia the writing of the final thesis is accompanied.

In the final colloquium, you will receive the tools for writing a scientific thesis within the framework of various exercises. In the course of the colloquium, you will present the structure and results of your thesis in a plenary session. Therefore, please keep in mind when planning that your thesis should reach an appropriate level of work in the course of the semester.

In addition, we offer a research colloquium in which our doctoral students, as well as external scientists and our post-docs, present and discuss their research work.

Guidelines for writing a thesis in industrial and organizational psychology

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