Full Professor of Leadership and Strategic Change

In the Department of Management, we engage in research, teaching, executive education, and third mission activities. We strive towards excellent research at the highest level, and to contribute to exchanging knowledge internationally and nationally, within academia and with other actors in society. We ground our research and teaching mainly in management and organizational theory, and we appreciate a social science perspective. We value our common understanding of academia as a joint effort grounded in mutual respect and appreciate our constructive collaboration.

Qualifications

Leadership and Strategic Change is a diverse and multifaceted research area. Leadership focuses on behavioural and interpersonal dimensions, while strategic change addresses structural and organizational aspects. Ideally, candidates will explore both dimensions of leadership and strategic change within or of organizations. This can be achieved, for example, by analysing leadership and strategy as embedded practices or processes, by examining the interdependencies between structure, strategy, and leadership from a systemic or institutional perspective or from the perspective of other current organization and management theories. Candidates should have a track record of theory-based, empirical research in organizations.

The successful candidate is expected to have established an international reputation as a researcher as exemplified above and to have the following characteristics (candidates’ qualifications will be assessed under consideration of their academic age):

1. A solid academic qualification (e.g. PhD, habilitation, or equivalent qualification) in management (highly advantageous), alternatively a closely related area;
2. A track record of international experiences;
3. An outstanding international reputation for excellent research based on management and organization theories from a social science perspective in leadership and strategic change;
4. An excellent research record, especially by
   having demonstrated the ability to publish in top-tier journals of the field (especially advantageous also in journals from the WU star-list and the department’s A+ and A lists) and by
   regular participation in recognized international conferences and workshops in the field of Management (e.g., Academy of Management, EGOS, EURAM);
5. A record in successfully attracting research funding;
6. Excellent teaching qualifications at undergraduate and graduate levels as well as in executive education;
7. Teaching in German and English. Non-German-speaking candidates are expected to acquire proficiency in German within five years;
8. Active participation in the international scientific community and a track record of serving the scientific community;
9. Team leadership qualities;
10. Gender and diversity management skills;
11. Well documented activities in the areas of self-governance and third mission.

What we expect from the successful candidate

We expect the successful candidate to teach at all levels of higher education and executive education at WU, both in classroom and in distance-learning. Full professors are expected to teach 8 credit hours weekly at WU. We also want them to play an active role in the development and improvement of existing academic programs.

The successful candidate will be expected to take on a leadership role at institute level at the Department of Management, to establish stakeholder relations and to position the institute as international knowledge hub for leadership and strategic change issues. The new professor should also take an active role in the university’s self-governance and third mission activities.

The successful candidate is also expected to contribute to the future development of the Department of Management (see https://www.wu.ac.at/management/). Overall, the successful candidate complements the department’s profile in research, teaching, and third mission. Especially in research, the candidate introduces new approaches to the overall portfolio of the department as well as connects with existing research foci.

Application process

WU assesses performance in the context of each applicant’s biography and relative to the opportunities available to them. This approach recognizes that academic achievements cannot be assessed separately from each individual researchers’ biographical factors. To ensure equal opportunities, qualifications are evaluated relative to the applicant’s academic age. This means that WU takes biographical factors such as part-time employment or career interruptions due to caregiving or childcare obligations or other functions performed at or outside of a university into account. Depending on the candidate’s academic credentials, the employment contract can be concluded either as a permanent employment contract or as a fixed-term employment contract with the option of a permanent extension.

In your application, you can include personal data related to biographical factors. WU will keep all data that you send us as part of your application confidential. All persons involved in the selection procedure are bound by obligations of secrecy.

Applicants should address their applications and all relevant documents (including in any case a letter of motivation, academic CV, reference to the criteria specified in the call for applications) to the rector of WU (Vienna University of Economics and Business), Welthandelsplatz 1, 1020 Vienna and upload those on the button below.

Please submit your application via WU’s online recruiting tool by January 31, 2025.

For details of the position, please contact the department head, Professor Renate Meyer, Department of Management, by phone: ++43-1-31336-4437, or email: Renate.Meyer@wu.ac.at.

For details of the application process, please contact the Senior Faculty Recruitment team email: prof.application@wu.ac.at.

Please note: Only applications uploaded via our online recruiting tool will be considered.
(https://www.wu.ac.at/en/careers/job-portal/jobs/professorships) 
In their application documents, applicants must respond to all criteria specified in the call for applications, especially to items A) Qualifications and B) Expectations. A reference to these two items is considered a mandatory element of any application to WU Vienna, and any applications that lack this mandatory element cannot be considered.

[1] employed under salary group A 1 pursuant to the Collective Bargaining Agreement for University Staff [Kollektivvertrag für die Arbeitnehmer/innen der Universitäten], minimum gross yearly salary: €89,075.00; the actual annual gross salary is subject to negotiation

[2] The duration of fixed-term contracts is subject to negotiation.