Mike Geppert

Mike joined the Friedrich Schiller University of Jena in January 2014. He studied Sociology, did his PhD in Organization Theory and worked as Lecturer in Organizational Sociology at Humboldt University in Berlin. Before joining the Friedrich Schiller University, Mike was a Professor of Comparative International Management and Organization Studies at Surrey Business School at the University of Surrey (2006-2014), Reader in International Management Studies at Queen Mary University of London and Lecturer in Organizational Behavior at Swansea University.

Mike also held a number of visiting positions, for example at Copenhagen Business School, Social Science Research Centre Berlin, Rotterdam School of Management, Judge Institute of Management Studies at Cambridge, Faculty of Business, Economics and Management Information Systems of the University of Regensburg, IBMEC in Belo Horizonte, University College Dublin, and at the Sociology Departments of Lomonosov Moscow State University, Wake Forest University, Stanford University and the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

His work has been published in leading academic journals in the areas of international business and management, business management, organization studies, industrial relations, and sociology, reflecting his multidisciplinary research interests and commitment to interdisciplinary work. Mike is also the author and co-author of a number of books.

Mike has been actively involved in various scholarly activities at various international academic associations and conferences, including the Academy of Management (AOM), the European Academy of Management (EURAM), the European Group for Organizational Studies (EGOS), the Latin American and European Organization Studies (LAEMOS) and Asia-Pacific Researchers in Organization Studies (APROS), where he acted as organizer of conferences, tracks and expert panels. Most recently, he was one of the coordinators of the EGOS Standing Working Group on 'Multinational Corporations: Social Agency and Institutional Change' from 2012-2017. Furthermore, Mike was a leading member of the Academic Organizing Committee for the EGOS Colloquium in Tallinn in 2018.

Mike's teaching covers conceptual ideas and research conducted in the areas of Organization and Management theory (OMT), International Business Management (IBM), International Human Resource Management (IHRM) and Industrial Relations (IR). He takes a student-centered, interactive and often a comparative approach to the analysis of problems of managing and organizing people in firms and organizations that operate internationally. He uses case studies and reports in the national and international media to encourage critical and reflexive thinking. Mike is also involved in teaching and mentoring doctoral students at national and international workshops. Internationally, he has contributed regularly to the doctoral workshops at the annual EGOS Colloquiums and at Paper Development Workshops for PhD and early career scholars in Central Eastern and Southern Eastern Europe, organized and sponsored by EGOS and Organization Studies, in collaboration with the OMT Division of the AOM.

Research interests

• Reduce entry
• Socio-political issues and micro-politics in and around organizations, especially in the context of multinational corporations and global value chains
• Political and emotional aspects of organizational sensemaking
• Actor-centred institutionalism
• Comparative organizational studies of management, work and employment in the global context

Current and recently held positions

• Professor of Strategic and International Management at Jena, since January 2014
• Visiting Professor at University College Dublin, Michael Smurfit Graduate Business School, in 2017
• Visiting Professor at the Turku School of Economics, from January 2015 to December 2016
• Distinguished Visiting Professor at University of Technology Sydney, from January to December 2014