Ruhr-University of Bochum

The Information and Technology Management is an interdisciplinary group at the Institute for Applied Work Science (IAW) at the Ruhr University – one of Germany’s strongest research universities located in Bochum, Germany. The IAW is an interdisciplinary institute for continuous education and research combining education and applied research from interdisciplinary perspectives such as computer science, business administration, sociology, educational and communication science. IMTM is one of the leading groups in the area of designing, modelling and evaluating socio-technical systems for the design of services and IT-supported work. It combines theoretical, methodological and practical research to improve the interplay between human actors, technical systems and organisational factors as well as the integration of work and service procedures with IT support and collaborative software such as knowledge management and community systems.

As part of one research focus, IMTM is currently involved in larger European and German research projects, which, for example, deal with the evaluation of creativity climates at workplaces (project “Kreativbarometer”, with trust in innovation processes (project “VEIN”), with the education and practical implementation of professionals (project “ProWAAL”) and with the support of reflection in healthcare workplaces (project “MIRROR”). IMTM uses a theory of social-technical systems as its leading paradigm to combine individual, organisational and technical issues form different perspectives in a holistic approach. and publications is available from IMTM’s website.

Key persons

Organization:  Ruhr-University of Bochum Profile

Dr. Michael Prilla is a post doc researcher at the University of Bochum. In the winter term 2012/13 he was an interim professor at the University of Siegen. His primary interests are computer supported cooperative work and learning, service engineering and the improvement of cooperative work processes. His current focus is set on the development cooperative learning and reflection in workplaces with a special focus on the integration of tools into everyday work. He works on this focus in his role as the lead for the work package “Collaborative knowledge construction” in the European Project “MIRROR” (FP 7). Earlier, he was responsible for research in projects on international service engineering, innovation processes at work and several consulting activities on work and service processes in companies. He is a member of the German CSCW steering committee and has published more than 60 scientific papers in conferences such as ACM Group, ECSCW and CSCL as well as journals such as the Journal for Computer Supported Cooperative Work and the Communications of the ACM.  He serves on boards for several conferences such as ACM Group and ECSCW. In the proposed project, he will be the lead for WP 4 on reflection and e-coaching tools.

Organization:  Ruhr-University of Bochum

Prof. Dr. Thomas Herrmann gained his international reputation in the fields of Computer Supported Cooperative Work / Learning, Knowledge Management, Human Computer Interaction, Participatory Design, Service Engineering and Organisational Computing, where he has published more than 120 scientific papers and served on numerous national and international program committees. He has specialized in methods for the design of socio-technical systems and looks back on more than 15 years of research and experience in this field. His current focus is on the design of creativity support as socio-technical solutions in fields such as service design and IT support for knowledge management and collaborative learning, which he has documented in a well-received book on creativity support for process design. He has been the coordinator of many research projects and currently also serves as the commissioner for privacy and data protection at the University of Bochum (since 2004).  In the proposed project, he will be responsible for the intertwining of solutions with creativity support and their integration into work practice.

Organization:  Ruhr-University of Bochum Profile

Oliver Blunk is a phd student working at the Ruhr-University of Bochum. His main research interests are supporting people reflecting at work. Before working in EmployID he studied business information science at the Karlsruhe University of Applied Sciences earning a bachelors degree. Following that he got a double masters degree in business information science at the Reutlingen University and Information Science at Swinburne University (Melbourne).