How can people of different genders, origins, and backgrounds work and participate on an equal footing within organizations? This question drives Dr. Lena Knappert of Vrije Universiteit (VU) Amsterdam and PhD candidate Lillan Lommel of Leuphana University of Lüneburg. As part of Leuphana's Visiting Scholar Program, the researchers are developing a project with Prof. Dr. Boukje Cnossen that addresses this very issue.
Prof. Dr. Lena Knappert holds a small device in her hand that has accompanied her around the globe. She brought the digital recorder to China and the United States to conduct interviews. Although the technology is now outdated, she also brought the device to Lüneburg—even though it no longer serves her research purposes. Recently, however, the recorder has taken on a new significance in her personal life. But more on that later.
Professionally, the recorder symbolizes the door that opened to her academic journey. For her doctoral dissertation, she focused on ‘Performance Management of Employees.’ "I traveled to different locations, different countries, spoke with different people, and recorded what they had to say about performance management in their organizations." The more interviews she conducted, the more fascinated she became by the varied experiences employees had with the same performance management system. "Some interviewees told me they felt their culture was not acknowledged in the system. And some women expressed that their needs were not being recognized," recalls Lena Knappert, who serves as Assistant Professor in the Department of Management and Organization at Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam. Through those dissertation interviews she found her current field of research: Diversity, Equity & Inclusion—or simply “DEI.” That is, the study of diversity, justice, and inclusion in the context of work.
What motivates Lena Knappert in her research? A persistent desire to illuminate and reduce inequalities that continue to exist in societies and organizations today. "I've always been driven by the question of how such inequality can still exist, why we still continue to confront it despite all that we know," says Knappert. In light of recent political developments, she adds, “What’s currently happening in the U.S.—this regression in DEI—only motivates me further to pursue this vital work.”
She contributes this motivation to the project she is conducting with her colleagues at Leuphana: Prof. Dr. Boukje Cnossen, Professor of Business Administration with a focus on Entrepreneurship, Organization, and Culture, and Lillan Lommel, a doctoral researcher at the Institute for Management & Organization (IMO).
Knappert explains that new organizational forms and modes of working are currently emerging, often with egalitarian ideals. Yet the same problems of inequality persist within companies and societies. “We investigate the core practices that shape organizations—especially with respect to DEI.”
Knappert illustrates her research with an example from the fast-growing phenomenon of coworking:
“While the coworking movement emphasizes equality and empowerment, little is known about the extent to which coworking spaces—as new organizational forms—actually live up to this ideal.” To explore this, she conducted a study on coworking spaces in the Netherlands. The results reveal that certain components of inequality persist even in these spaces, including stereotypical assumptions about the “ideal member.”
“Such assumptions lay the groundwork for inequality. We also identified practices that not only generate inequality but also sustain it—for example, by denying its existence,” she explains.
“Lena Knappert enriches our work here at Leuphana not only through her expertise in diversity and inclusion but also through the way she engages with others,” says Lillan Lommel, who has closely supported Knappert during her time in Lüneburg. Originally, Prof. Dr. Boukje Cnossen was to serve as her host, but she is currently on parental leave.
Lommel also values the forms of communication Knappert employs. For instance, during the exhibition “Queer, Life, Freedom – Archives of Resilience” by artist Ashkan Shabani at Leuphana’s Kunstraum, Knappert gave a talk about her research on the labor market integration of displaced people. “It was fascinating to witness how Lena shaped her academic presentation within an art-centered environment. The room was very dark during the talk, which created a unique atmosphere and allowed for a deeper exchange on the research,” says Lommel.
During Knappert’s visiting term at Leuphana in the summer semester of 2025, she and Lommel, together with Boukje Cnossen, are developing a project: “We’re studying diversity and (in)exclusion within a Social Impact Hub—a space that represents a new form of organizing,” explains Lommel. Such a setting, she adds, is not a formal organization but rather a more informal, loosely structured context.
Lena Knappert studied psychology in Potsdam and earned her PhD in International Human Resource Management at the Berlin campus of the École supérieure de commerce de Paris (ESCP). Her career has taken her across the globe, including an assistant professorship at Özyeğin University in Istanbul, Turkey. In 2016, she moved to the Netherlands to join Tilburg University. After six more years at VU Amsterdam, she is now moving on: starting this fall, she will become Professor of Diversity and Gender in Organizations at the Vienna University of Economics and Business (WU Wien).
Although she no longer uses the digital recorder for her research, the device has found new life in her home.
“My son has taken to it. He records everything he finds interesting—songs, ideas, thoughts he doesn’t want to forget—and then encourages us to listen. So, even now, the recorder still offers us deep insights,” Knappert says with a smile.