University professorship (W3) „Responsible Leadership“

Area of research:Other

Starting date:14.09.2026

Job description:Hence, this endowed professorship, funded by the Karl Schlecht Foundation, is dedicated to responsible leadership. Concretely, it examines responsible leadership and its conditions, mechanisms of action, and effects. Potential research priorities include:

• ethical leadership and decision-making processes, as well as leadership behaviour at the intersection of societal and economic responsibility
• leadership development (e.g., self-leadership, emotional and social skills, resilience, conflict competence)
• leadership for sustainable development and transformation
• relationship-oriented leadership (e.g., dynamics between leadership and followership, fostering employees and teams) The professorship will fulfil university responsibilities with a teaching load of 9 semester hours per week. This will primarily be conducted at the central academic institution "House of Competence" (HoC) at KIT, particularly to expand the offerings of the Leadership Talent Labs (LTL). Overall, the professorship contributes to the interdisciplinary competency development of students across all disciplines at KIT, through training and coaching programmes.

Additionally, the professorship will offer courses in the study programmes of the KIT Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences (e.g., in the Liberal Arts and Sciences programme).

At the HoC, the professorship will take on the academic leadership of the LTL and the “Perspektivenlabor”, as well as prospective additional academic leadership roles. There are excellent collaboration opportunities with the “Leadership Talent Academy” (Career Service).

This research center is part of the Helmholtz Association of German Research Centers. With more than 42,000 employees and an annual budget of over € 5 billion, the Helmholtz Association is Germany's largest scientific organisation.