TY - CHAP A1 - Steuer-Dankert, Linda A1 - Berg, Tobias A1 - Leicht-Scholten, Carmen T1 - Breaking the habit – new approaches in engineering education T2 - Proceedings of the 43rd Annual Conference of the European Society for Engineering Education N2 - Within the framework of the project a genderand diversity-oriented teaching evaluation and modern, media-supported blended learning approaches were used in order to achieve the intended goals. First research results of the literature and status quo analysis were already implemented and tested in newly designed teaching approaches, for example in a multidisciplinary introductory lecture of civil engineering at RWTH Aachen University. KW - teaching KW - engineering education KW - gender and diversity KW - best practice Y1 - 2015 SN - 978-2-87352-012-0 N1 - Annual Conference of the European Society for Engineering Education , Orléans , France , SEFI , 2015-06-29 - 2015-07-02 ER - TY - CHAP A1 - Leicht-Scholten, Carmen A1 - Steuer-Dankert, Linda A1 - Bouffier, Anna T1 - Facing Future Challenges: Building Engineers for Tomorrow T2 - Conference proceedings : new perspectives in science education : 5th Conference edition, Florence, Italy, 17-18 March 2016 N2 - Future engineers are increasingly confronted with the so-called Megatrends which are the big social challenges society has to cope with. These Megatrends, such as “Silver Society”, “Globalization”, “Mobility” and “Female Shift” require an application-oriented perspective on Diversity especially in the engineering field. Therefore, it is necessary to enable future engineers not only to look at the technical perspectives of a problem, but also to be able to see the related questions within societies they are developing their artefacts for. The aim of teaching engineering should be to prepare engineers for these requirements and to draw attention to the diverse needs in a globalized world. Bringing together technical knowledge and social competences which go beyond a mere training of the so-called “soft skills”, is a new approach followed at RWTH Aachen University, one of the leading technical universities in Germany. RWTH Aachen University has established the bridging professorship “Gender and Diversity in Engineering” (GDI) which educates engineers with an interdisciplinary approach to expand engineering limits. In the frame of a sustainable teaching concept the research group under the leadership of Prof. Carmen Leicht-Scholten has developed an approach which imparts a supplication-specific Gender and Diversity expertise to engineers. In workshops students gain theoretical knowledge about Gender and Diversity and learn how to transfer their knowledge in their special field of study and later work. To substantiate this, the course participants have to solve case studies from real life. The cases which are developed in collaboration with non-profit organizations and enterprises from economy rise the students to challenges which are inspired by professional life. Evaluation shows the success of this approach as well as an increasing demand for such teaching formats. KW - Diversity KW - Engineering Education KW - Gender KW - Higher Education Y1 - 2016 SN - 978-886292-705-5 SP - 32 EP - 37 ER - TY - CHAP A1 - Steuer-Dankert, Linda A1 - Leicht-Scholten, Carmen T1 - Social responsibility and innovation - Key competencies for engineers T2 - ICERI 2016: 9th International Conference of Education, Research and Innovation: Conference Proceedings : Seville (Spain), 14-16 November N2 - Engineers are of particular importance for the societies of tomorrow. The big social challenges society has to cope with in future, can only be mastered, if engineers link the development and innovation process closely with the requirements of people. As a result, in the frame of the innovation process engineers have to design and develop products for diverse users. Therefore, the consideration of diversity in this process is a core competence engineers should have. Implementing the consideration of diverse requirements into product design is also linked to the development of sustainable products and thus leads to social responsible research and development, the core concept formulated by the EU. For this reason, future engineers should be educated to look at the technical perspectives of a problem embedded in the related questions within societies they are developing their artefacts for. As a result, the aim of teaching engineering should be to prepare engineers for these requirements and to draw attention to the diverse needs in a globalized world. To match the competence profiles of future engineers to the global challenges and the resulting social responsibility, RWTH Aachen University, one of the leading technical universities in Germany, has established the bridging professorship “Gender and Diversity in Engineering” (GDI) which educates engineers with an interdisciplinary approach to expand engineering limits. The interdisciplinary teaching concept of the research group pursues an approach which imparts an application oriented Gender and Diversity expertise to future engineers. In the frame of an established teaching concept, which is a result of experiences and expertise of the research group, students gain theoretical knowledge about Gender and Diversity and learn how to transfer their knowledge into their later field of action. In the frame of the conference the institutional approach will be presented as well as the teaching concept which will be introduced by concrete course examples. KW - diversity KW - innovation KW - social responsible engineering KW - engineering education Y1 - 2016 SN - 978-84-617-5895-1 U6 - http://dx.doi.org/10.21125/iceri.2016.0353 SN - 2340-1095 SP - 5967 EP - 5976 ER - TY - CHAP A1 - Steuer-Dankert, Linda A1 - Bouffier, Anna A1 - Gaedicke, Sonja A1 - Leicht-Scholten, Carmen T1 - Diversifying engineering education: a transdisciplinary approach from RWTH Aachen University T2 - Strategies for increasing diversity in engineering majors and careers N2 - Engineers and therefore engineering education are challenged by the increasing complexity of questions to be answered globally. The education of future engineers therefore has to answer with curriculums that build up relevant skills. This chapter will give an example how to bring engineering and social responsibility successful together to build engineers of tomorrow. Through the integration of gender and diversity perspectives, engineering research and teaching is expanded with new perspectives and contents providing an important potential for innovation. Aiming on the enhancement of engineering education with distinctive competencies beyond technical expertise, the teaching approach introduced in the chapter represents key factors to ensure that coming generations of engineers will be able to meet the requirements and challenges a changing globalized world holds for them. The chapter will describe how this approach successfully has been implemented in the curriculum in engineering of a leading technical university in Germany. Y1 - 2017 SN - 9781522522126 U6 - http://dx.doi.org/10.4018/978-1-5225-2212-6.ch010 SP - 201 EP - 235 PB - IGI Global CY - Hershey, USA ER - TY - CHAP A1 - Steuer-Dankert, Linda A1 - Leicht-Scholten, Carmen T1 - Innovation and Diversity : Integrating new perspectives into research associations T2 - 12th European Conference on Innovation and Entrepreneurship (ECIE 2017) : Paris, France, 21-22 September 2017 N2 - The link between diversity and innovation is broadly discussed in the context of research and innovation processes. Many institutions and enterprises, specifically in commerce, have already tried to establish sustainable diversity management concepts, in order to increase the diversity of their workforce in addition to establishing a corporate culture of openness. Alongside the creation of a working place where different experiences and skills are valued equally, the entrepreneurial intention is to transfer diversity into economically relevant advantages. Taking into account the potential of diversity in research and innovation processes, the project “Diversity- and Innovation Management” was incorporated within a large interdisciplinary research Cluster. The project’s purpose was to study the context between diversity and innovation in research associations and to later develop a customised management concept into an interdisciplinary research Cluster on integrative production technology with full integration. The challenge of such research associations lays in an organisational structure which is often described as being decentralised. Researchers coming from different academic disciplines, while having diverse habits, conduct research on large scientific issues and challenges. In addition, these researchers are socialised in different institutions and university chairs. Theses differences in leadership styles, business cultures and organisational strategies, follow into their research team work. Taking a closer look into the management of human resources suggests that decentral organised recruitment processes, as well as allocation of human resources, lead to a lacking overview in regard to missing competencies, perspectives and backgrounds in research networks. These circumstances are comparable to big corporate groups. While developing a management concept for research associations, these characteristics must be considered. To ensure this, the project follows a human-centred approach, which considers top-down, as well as bottom-up perspectives. This paper presents the applied mixed-method approach in the scientific issue described above. In the frame of the Cluster of Excellence “Integrative Production Technology for High-Wage Countries” research results based on quantitative, as well as qualitative studies, were presented as an application example. This paper provides a new perspective on the innovation and diversity context. Against the background of complex research organisations, the development approach of a management concept is particularly interesting. KW - Innovation KW - Diversity KW - Innovation Management KW - Diversity Management KW - Leadership Y1 - 2017 SN - 978-1-911218-54-8 SP - 767 EP - 776 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Steuer-Dankert, Linda A1 - Sharma, Mamta Rameshwarlal A1 - Bleck, Wolfgang A1 - Leicht-Scholten, Carmen T1 - Diversity and innovation management in large research groups JF - International Journal of Innovation Management N2 - Contemporary research appreciates a diverse workforce as a potential source of innovation. Researchers explore the fine details of why diversity management is central for generating innovations in heterogeneous research groups and how it could be effectively implemented into organizations. Complex research associations that discuss topics with a high impact on society increasingly address the necessity of establishing a diverse workforce to confront the challenges of tomorrow. Characterized by complex management structures as well as hierarchies, research associations have not been a subject of investigation until now. For this reason, the presented research project aims to develop a diversity and innovation management strategy with the ultimate goal of inducing change in the corporate culture. The proposed approach consisted of six phases; the first two phases investigated the status quo of diversity in the existing organizational structures of member institutes and the variety of particular working cultures within the research association. The third and the fourth phases utilized qualitative and quantitative studies. The third phase focused on the connection of management level to diversity and innovation, and the need for diversity and innovation management, and tailor-made methods of implementing them. The first three phases have been accomplished successfully; preliminary results are already available. The fourth phase will mainly focus on exploring the mind-set of the employees. The fifth phase will consolidate the findings in the first four phases into an implementable strategy. The final phase will address the implementation of this strategy into the organization. Phases 4 to 6 have not yet been undertaken KW - diversity management KW - innovation management KW - research association KW - change management KW - engineering Y1 - 2017 SN - 1757-5877 VL - 5 IS - 2 SP - 49 EP - 72 ER - TY - CHAP A1 - Steuer-Dankert, Linda A1 - Sharma, Mamta Rameshwarlal A1 - Bleck, Wolfgang A1 - Leicht-Scholten, Carmen ED - Farn, C. K. T1 - Innovation through Diversity - Development of a Diversity and Innovation management concept T2 - International Conference on Innovation and Management : IAM23017S : Date: July 4-7, 2017, Osaka, Japan N2 - Acknowledging that a diverse workforce could be a potential source of innovation, the current research deals with the fine details of why diversity management is central to achieving innovation in heterogeneous research groups and how this could be effectively realized in an organization. The types of heterogeneities addressed mainly include gender, qualification, academic discipline and intercultural perspectives. The type of organization being dealt with in this work is a complex association of research institutes at a technical university in Germany (RWTH Aachen University), namely a 'Cluster of Excellence', whereby several institutes of the university work collaboratively in different sub-projects. The 'Cluster of Excellence' is a part of the 'Excellence Initiative' of the German federal and state governments German Research Foundation (DFG) and German Council of Science and Humanities, with the ultimate aim of promoting cutting-edge research. To support interdisciplinary collaboration and thus the performance of the cluster, the development of a diversity and innovation management concept is presently in the conceptual phase and will be described in the frame of this paper. The 3-S-Diversity Model, composed of the three elements: skills, structure and strategy, serves as a basis for the development of the concept. The proposed concept consists of six phases; the first two phases lay the ground work by developing an understanding of the status quo on the forms of diversity in the Cluster of Excellence, the type of organizational structure of the member institutes and the varieties of specialist work cultures of the same. The third and the fourth phases build up on this foundation by means of qualitative and quantitative studies. While the third phase deals with the sensitization of the management level to the close connection between diversity and innovation; the need to manage them thereafter and find tailor-made methods of doing so, the fourth phase shall mainly focus on the mindset of the employees in this regard. The fifth phase shall consolidate the learnings and the ideas developed in the course of the first four phases into an implementable strategy. The ultimate phase shall be the implementation of this concept in the Cluster. The first three phases have been accomplished successfully and the preliminary results are already available. Y1 - 2017 SN - 2218-6387 SP - Panel C PB - Kuang Hui Chiu CY - Osaka ER - TY - CHAP A1 - Müller-Abdelrazeq, Sarah Luisa A1 - Brauner, Philipp A1 - Calero Valdez, André A1 - Jansen, Ulrich A1 - Platte, Laura A1 - Schaar, Anne-Kathrin A1 - Steuer-Dankert, Linda A1 - Zachow, Sebastian A1 - Schönefeld, Kathrin A1 - Haberstroh, Max A1 - Leicht-Scholten, Carmen A1 - Ziefle, Martina ED - Pather, Shaun T1 - Interdisciplinary cooperation management in research clusters: a review of twelve years. T2 - Proceedings of the 15th International Conference on Intellectual Capital, Knowledge Management & Organisational Learning N2 - As an interdisciplinary research network, the Cluster of Excellence “Integrative Production Technology for High-Wage Countries” (CoE) comprises of around 150 researchers. Their scientific background ranges from mechanical engineering and computer science to social sciences such as sociology and psychology. In addition to content- and methodbased challenges, the CoE’s employees are faced with heterogenic organizational cultures, different hierarchical levels, an imbalanced gender distribution, and a high employee fluctuation. The sub-project Scientific Cooperation Engineering 1 (CSP1) addresses the challenge of interdisciplinary cooperation and organizational learning and aims at fostering interdisciplinarity and its synergies as a source of innovation. Therefore, the project examines means of reaching an organizational development, ranging from temporal structures to a sustainable network in production technology. To achieve this aim, a broad range of means has been developed during the last twelve years: In addition to physical measures such as regular network events and trainings, virtual measures such as the Terminology App were focused. The app is an algorithmic analysis method for uncovering latent topic structures of publications of the CoE to highlight thematic intersections and synergy potentials. The detection and promotion of has been a vital and long known element in knowledge management. Furthermore, CSP1 focusses on project management and thus developed evaluation tools to measure and control the success of interdisciplinary cooperation. In addition to the cooperation fostering measures, CSP1 conducted studies about interdisciplinarity and diversity and their relationship with innovation. The scientific background of these means and the research results of CSP1 are outlined in this paper to offer approaches for successful interdisciplinary cooperation management. Y1 - 2018 SN - 978-1-912764-09-9 N1 - hosted by University of the Western Cape, South Africa 29-30 November 2018 SP - 216 EP - 224 PB - ACPIL ER - TY - CHAP A1 - Steuer-Dankert, Linda A1 - Leicht-Scholten, Carmen ED - Tipurić, Darko ED - Hruška, Domagoj T1 - Diversity- and innovation management in complex engineering organizations T2 - 7th International OFEL Conference on Governance, Management and Entrepreneurship: Embracing Diversity in Organisations. April 5th - 6th, 2019, Dubrovnik, Croatia N2 - Diversity is increasingly being addressed as an innovation-promoting factor. For this reason, companies and institutions tackle the integration of a diversity management approach that enables a heterogenic perspective on innovation development. However, system-theoretical frameworks state that the implementation of diversity measures that are not tailored to the needs of the organization often leads to a rejection or reactivity with regard to the management approach. In this context, especially organizations, which are characterized by a specific hierarchical structure, a dominant habitus or specialist culture, must face the challenge of realizing a sustainable change of the corporate culture that sets the basis for implementing diversity management approaches. The presented research project focuses on analyzing the situation in a huge scientific collaborative project - so called Cluster of Excellence (CoE) - with the aim to implement a diversity - and innovation management strategy. Considering the influencing determinants, the CoE is characterized by its embeddedness in the scientific system, a complex organizational structure, and a high fluctuation rate. The paper presents a systemic approach of reflecting these factors in order to develop a diversity- and innovation management strategy. In this frame, the results of a quantitative survey of CoE employees and derived mindset-types are presented. The results show a need for taking different mindset-types into account, to be able to develop a tailored management strategy. The aim of the project is to give recommendations for developing a sustainable management concept that promotes both diversity and innovation by drawing on the persisting mindsets of organization members while reflecting top down as well as bottom up factors of implementation processes as well as the psychology of change. This paper addresses all who are concerned with the management of human resources in innovation processes and are striving for a cultural change within the framework of complex organizations. KW - Change Management KW - Corporate Culture KW - Diversity Management KW - Engineering KW - Innovation Management Y1 - 2019 SP - 136 EP - 157 PB - Governance Research and Development Centre (CIRU) CY - Zagreb ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Steuer-Dankert, Linda A1 - Gilmartin, Shannon K. A1 - Muller, Carol B. A1 - Dungs, Carolin A1 - Sheppard, Sheri A1 - Leicht-Scholten, Carmen T1 - Expanding engineering limits : a concept for socially responsible education of engineers JF - The international journal of engineering education Y1 - 2019 SN - 0949-149X VL - 35 IS - 2 SP - 658 EP - 673 ER -