Doing a doctorate: Prof. Dr. Anne Burmeister - Motivating Moments

Prof. Dr Anne Burmeister recently moved with her family from the Netherlands to Cologne. She was Associate Professor for Human Resource Management at the Rotterdam School of Management. "Then the call came to Cologne," Anne Burmeister recounts. Since this year, the business psychologist has been Professor and Chair of Organisational Behaviour at the Faculty of Economics and Social Sciences at the University of Cologne.

Her academic journey originally began in Lower Saxony. After her very good Abitur, Anne Burmeister had many paths open to her. But she knew exactly which direction she wanted to go: "At the time, I applied exclusively to Leuphana because I could combine psychology and business there," the professor recalls. She studied business psychology and already assisted with research projects as a student. During her bachelor's degree, she was also involved in the student consultancy "Contact & Coorperation".

During this time, she also spent a semester abroad at the University of Warwick in the UK, where she later completed her master's degree. She returned to Leuphana for her doctorate. "There was an early emphasis on publishing in respected journals. That is essential for a career in research," says Anne Burmeister. She also benefited from the research-oriented seminars of the doctoral programme at Leuphana.

Doctoral students at Leuphana not only write a dissertation, but also interact with supervisors and other doctoral students, deepen their knowledge of methods, reflect on theories of science, discuss practical and ethical research issues, and contribute their own research to the scientific community both nationally and internationally.

Prior to her doctorate, Anne Burmeister was a strategy consultant at the Boston Consulting Group (BCG), where she developed her expertise in the areas of strategy and human resources and organisation in various industries.

With her doctoral thesis on knowledge transfer processes in the context of international secondment, she later won the annual doctoral prize at Leuphana. "We award winners were honoured at a ceremony in the central building and were also allowed to bring our families. That was a beautiful and motivating moment," recalls Anne Burmeister.

Her doctoral supervisor Prof. Dr. Jürgen Deller, Professor of Business Psychology, supported her on her way to an international career. After her doctorate, she did postdoctoral research at the Chair of Work and Organisational Psychology of Prof. Andreas Hirschi at the University of Bern. "This was a very important step for me to be able to compete in the international job market. On the one hand, I was able to build an international network, and on the other hand, I prepared and completed many publications there. Number and quality play an enormous role in job applications," explains Anne Burmeister. She publishes in top journals such as the Journal of Applied Psychology, Personnel Psychology, Academy of Management Learning & Education, and the Journal of Organisational Behaviour, among others. Her research on knowledge transfer processes and social interaction in the workplace, with a focus on ageing and mixed-age workforces, contributes to more effective management of knowledge and diversity in organisations.

At the University of Cologne, Anne Burmeister is part of the Excellence Initiative of the German federal and state governments to promote science and research at German universities, where she works with researchers from fields such as sociology, political science and psychology.