Establishment of the Institute of Management and Psychology
2026-10-13 To understand how organizations can successfully address current challenges, we need both basic research on human thought, decision-making, and behavior, as well as applied research in specific organizational contexts. The Institute of Management and Psychology (IMP), newly established in the spring of 2026 within the School of Management and Technology, brings these two areas together.
How do employers attract skilled workers? How do you negotiate salaries? What can organizations do to design working conditions that keep their employees healthy, satisfied, and productive? What psychological factors are crucial to the success of startups? And how can companies address challenges such as demographic change, the climate crisis, and technological transformation? The IMP examines these questions from a psychological perspective and links them to fundamental research on human thought, decision-making, and behavior.
The focus is therefore on how psychological processes operate in economic, organizational, and societal contexts. The research spectrum ranges from perception, decision-making, motivation, and self-control, through social interaction, leadership, and collaboration, to innovation, entrepreneurship, and the transformation of the world of work. A particular focus is on current processes of change, such as those driven by new forms of work, artificial intelligence, demographic change, or the climate crisis.
The IMP brings together areas of psychological research that were previously part of the Institute of Management and Organization (IMO), including industrial and organizational psychology, differential psychology and aptitude assessment, cognitive, social, and economic psychology, the psychology of innovation and entrepreneurship, the psychology of social transformation and social emotions, the psychology of transformation in the world of work, and economic and social psychology and methodology. The IMO will continue to exist as an independent institute with its focus on business administration and organizations. The administrative burden is reduced by this division; personnel resources are redistributed, thereby lightening the workload, so that significantly stronger substantive priorities can now be established. In this respect, what is the focus of research is also put into practice: structuring the institutes in such a way that they can operate more effectively and sustainably.