Lisa Zach

Lisa Zach serves as a Researcher at the Institute for Personal Competence Development within the University of Applied Sciences Wiener Neustadt. Her work focuses on practical interventions at the intersection of organizational psychology and workforce development, with emphasis on employee-driven workplace transformation.

Her primary research domains include job crafting – where employees proactively reshape their work roles for better person-job fit – and employability of first-generation graduates. Through questionnaire studies and workshop interventions, she investigates how self-organized work design impacts employee satisfaction during organizational transformations. Her research bridges academic theory with corporate implementation, particularly in Austria's evolving work landscape.

Analysis of her recent publications reveals strong thematic continuity around employee agency in workplace design and transition challenges for non-traditional graduates. The 2023-2024 output shows increasing focus on practical implementation tools, with multiple workshop-based interventions targeting both corporate environments (via JOBCRAFT) and educational transitions.

Award Highlights:

• Ulrich Teichler Prize (2021) for contributions to higher education research

Zach leads significant research projects including JOBCRAFT (2023-2024), examining job crafting prevalence in Lower Austria through panel studies and corporate workshops, and RESPOST (2023-2026), developing responsible leadership frameworks for EU project management education. Her work directly engages partner companies through one-day workshops measuring behavioral changes in work design.

Her research infrastructure includes longitudinal panel studies, cross-sectional surveys, and practical intervention toolkits developed through collaborations with regional businesses and European educational institutions. Current projects emphasize translating academic findings into actionable corporate practices through the IPMA standards framework.