Organisational culture: Sylvia W. Schweigler-Zitko – Valuable leadership
2025-09-29 How do values change leadership in corporations? Cultural scientist Sylvia W. Schweigler-Zitko was awarded the Ehrensenator-Westermann Prize last year for her practical research on leadership culture at Volkswagen. She will present her findings on 20 November 2025 at the IHK Transfer Day for SME executives.
At first glance, cultural studies and business seem to have little in common. But it is precisely this combination that has enabled Sylvia W. Schweigler-Zitko to develop her exciting perspective on leadership. In her master's thesis at Leuphana University Lüneburg, she evaluated a management programme at Volkswagen AG that aims to promote value-oriented behaviour in management. The focus was on how a programme aimed primarily at managers can initiate and sustainably anchor cultural change in large organisations.
Sylvia W. Schweigler-Zitko studied cultural studies as her major and business administration as her minor at Leuphana College and completed her master's degree in Culture, Arts and Media at the Leuphana Graduate School. ‘The interdisciplinary thinking at Leuphana gave me the opportunity to look at leadership through a cultural studies lens – the focus on the individual was particularly important,’ she explains in retrospect.
A central component of her research was a qualitative content analysis of over 1,100 texts from VW's internal management programme. Using a cultural studies approach, Schweigler-Zitko examined how the programme for value-oriented leadership is understood, communicated and lived in everyday corporate life. The aim was to create trust at and between all hierarchical levels.
‘Leadership is not theoretical; it is visible in everyday life,’ she emphasises. This is precisely where her impetus comes in: companies should not only present formulated values, but also consistently anchor them in their leadership behaviour: ‘It is essential to actually live the values that a company espouses,’ says the researcher.
The results of this work led to a doctorate in vocational education and adult education at Leibniz University Hannover – in cooperation with the Volkswagen Group Academy, where she has been working in the area of learning experience design and delivery since 2021.
Last year, she was honoured with the Ehrensenator-Westermann-Preis. The prize, worth 2,500 euros, has been awarded by the Leuphana University Society since 1996 for particularly innovative and application-oriented research work.