Communications Management

The Chair for Communications Management is concerned with the effects of digitalization on management, in particular on the way that managers work, communicate and innovate with one another.

Four focal points define the research, teaching and project work of the Chair:

• First, knowledge management, which has long been an established area at =mcm. Core themes of the Chair in this area are, for instance, project knowledge management and project learning, knowledge-based business management, knowledge work and knowledge process modelling.
• Second, the closely associated range of topics to do with knowledge communication, mainly between specialists or experts and managers. In this subject area, we work on case studies for knowledge communication in different sectors (such as consulting services, high-tech, media) and management functions (HR, marketing, controlling). In addition we develop methods for the targeted improvement of knowledge communication.
• Third, the area of collaborative knowledge visualization and visual communication in management. Typical areas of application for our approach to collaborative knowledge visualization are, for instance, business model visualization, risk visualization, e-facilitation, and even virtual project worlds. The visualization spectrum that we examine ranges from simple ad-hoc outlines to immersive 3D worlds with avatars. 
•  A fourth focal point of the Chair is in the area of strategy implementation and communication. In this field of work we investigate, for instance, the suitability of different forms of representation in order to convey business strategies to the workforce and also the influence of different cultural contexts on the impact of these forms of representation. A further research project deals with the barriers to strategy implementation.

As regards methodology, researchers at the chair work mainly with quasi-realistic experiments and to a lesser extent with case studies and surveys. In addition, a special feature and skill of the Chair is in the area of taxonomy and typology creation.

The central research paradigm of the Chair is the design science approach, which requires that researchers should not just investigate practically relevant problems, but should also develop their own suggestions for solutions and then test and evaluate them rigorously (e.g. by means of appropriate experiments).