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EIKE JOHANN HEINZE
Degrees:
Doctorado en Economía y Ciencias Sociales, Universidad de Bremen.
Maestría en Sociología, Universidad de Bremen.
Areas of interest:
Leadership, cultural differences, Elites, social cohesion
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Dr. Eike Johann Heinze studied his Magister Degree in Sociology at the Universities of Bremen (Germany) and Warwick (UK). He went on to study a PhD in International Business Management at the Universities of Bremen and Strasbourg (France) and presented his first findings at the ISA World Congress of Sociology in Yokohama (Japan).
He was granted a scholarship by the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) to do the fieldwork for his doctoral thesis in Mexico on Multinational Enterprises. He applied qualitative research methods (semi-structured in-depth interviews and scientific participatory observation techniques) in order to investigate the inter-cultural communication which takes place between foreign managers and engineers on the one hand and local managers and workers on the other hand.
He interviewed and observed foreign and local top-managers of multinational enterprises as well as workers and engineers. The main focus was set on understanding which communication problems occur within these social-interactions, how the quality of the communication process can be improved and how misunderstandings and conflicts can be reduced, solved or avoided all together from the beginning.
In order to reach these aims, he studied the deep-structures of the cultural backgrounds and identities of the individuals who participated within these social interactions, foreigners and locales alike, to understand how they see themselves and how they see and interpret the actions and identities of the other actors who are involved in the social interaction.
The next aim was to understand how the cultural backgrounds and socializational experiences of the individuals influence their way of thinking, value-orientation, deeper motivations and interpretation of the world around them and, as a the next step, how this can contribute to a better understanding of their attitudes, forms of communication and actions.
The final and most important research question was: how can leaders be formed and trained to work successfully in an inter-cultural context and in a rapidly changing world with a high degree of uncertainty. What does it take to be a good leader
He currently works on the following research questions:
How can international leaders be formed whose actions are not only effective and efficient but also driven by and based on ethical principles and values.
How can the communication, trust and team-work within multinational organizations be better understood and improved
How do economic and political power-systems really work from the inside when a microperspective is applied which focuses on the social interactions between individuals How are decisions really made at the apex of an organization
How large is the scope of action and room for maneuver of business and political elite and to which degree do they influence and impact the organizations they lead and the social environment in which the organizations act In other words: What is the impact of elites on the organizations they lead and what is the impact the organizations have on society
Furthermore, he enjoys working as a lecturer and having inspiring intellectual discussions with the students who motivate him to write textbooks on international leadership, qualitative research methods and the cultural differences between Mexico and Germany. |
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