Background

I discovered my interest in organizations in my research on the Jesuit order and the Catholic Church. How are decisions made in the Catholic Church? Or how did the Jesuits manage to survive as an organization for almost 500 years? Many of these findings are also fruitful for organizations in other sectors of society. Other things can also be learned from the Jesuits: For example, the role of informal power relations and micropolitics in organizations. My knowledge of leadership, management and design of change processes is very much influenced by my Jesuit research.

Research on the Jesuit order thus brought me to organizational theory and, more specifically, to Luhmann's systems theory. In my consulting work, it serves me to focus on concrete communication processes in organizations, to pay less attention to people than to patterns of action, and to be able to understand the fundamental decision-making problems of organizations with a view to paradoxes. Systems theory analysis is my tool for understanding an organization.

A third point of reference in my thinking is questions of organizational ethics (which, as is well known, left Luhmann completely cold). I am convinced that efficient and effective long-term work can only be done in organizations that strive for constructive, non-discriminatory, sustainable and error-friendly cooperation. This includes diversity and sustainability management as well as the promotion of a culture of good cooperation and a constructive approach to conflicts. I always see my work as a bridge between cultures, between organizational units, between genders, between generations, etc.

Privately, you can often meet me with my dog in the Siebengebirge. I always like to get out my old saxophone. From a previous life in Hungary, I am also known as a distiller of fine fruit brandies.