Anne Burmeister

Anne Burmeister is a Full Professor of Organizational Behavior at the Faculty of Management, Economics and Social Sciences at the University of Cologne, Germany, where she has been serving since January 2023. Previously, she was an Assistant Professor and then Associate Professor with early tenure at Rotterdam School of Management, Erasmus University in the Netherlands. Her research focuses on social interactions and knowledge exchange in organizational settings, with particular emphasis on aging and age-diverse workforces.

• PhD in Psychology (summa cum laude), Leuphana University of Lueneburg (2016)
• Masters in Management and Organizational Analysis (with distinction), Warwick Business School (2011)
• Bachelors in Business Psychology (with distinction), Leuphana University of Lueneburg (2010)
• Strategy Consultant, The Boston Consulting Group (2012-2016)

Professor Burmeister's research centers on work and aging, age diversity, inclusion, knowledge transfer, interpersonal interactions, workplace friendship, and remote work. Her work examines how social interactions in workplaces can be leveraged to enhance organizational effectiveness, particularly through understanding the dynamics of age-diverse teams and knowledge exchange processes. She approaches these topics through psychological theories and methods, focusing on the positive aspects and opportunities of human connections in work settings.

Her recent publications (2020-2024) reveal a strong focus on knowledge sharing from identity-based perspectives, employee responses to diversity initiatives, workplace friendships, and aging in the workplace. These works predominantly appear in top-tier journals like Journal of Management and Journal of Applied Psychology, indicating her research's significant impact in organizational behavior and human resources fields. Her publications demonstrate a consistent trajectory examining how demographic diversity, particularly age diversity, affects workplace dynamics and organizational outcomes.

Professor Burmeister has engaged with practitioner audiences through publications in Harvard Business Review, Forbes, and Personalwirtschaft, translating her academic research into actionable insights for managers and organizations. She has also been featured in media outlets including BBC, FAZ, and WDR, discussing topics related to ageism, workplace relationships, and generational dynamics.

As a researcher and educator, Burmeister emphasizes the intellectual freedom and autonomy of academic work, which she contrasts with her previous experience in strategy consulting. Her approach to research is characterized by a positivist, psychological, and quantitative perspective, focusing on hypothesis testing and rigorous empirical investigation.