Steffen Giessner

Steffen Giessner is Professor of Organisational Behaviour and Change at Rotterdam School of Management (RSM), Erasmus University Rotterdam, affiliated with the Department of Organisation and Personnel Management. A Fellow of the Erasmus Research Institute of Management (ERIM) since 2004, he holds an MSc in Psychology from the University of Kent and a PhD in Psychology from Friedrich-Schiller-University Jena.

His research examines leadership dynamics, organizational mergers, power perception, and non-verbal communication in professional contexts. Key interests include:

• Employee behavior during mergers and acquisitions
• Follower perceptions of leadership effectiveness
• Non-verbal power communication and leader presence
• Identity management in organizational change
• Cross-cultural leadership innovation

Analysis of his 15 most recent publications reveals strong emphasis on leadership psychology during organizational transitions, cross-cultural team dynamics, and empirical studies on workplace power structures. His work frequently employs field experiments and multinational datasets.

Awards & Recognition:

• ERIM postdoc programme fellowship (2004)

He actively advises doctoral researchers, currently supervising 17 PhD candidates including projects on remote work adaptation, AI in HRM, and leadership in gig economies. His case studies like The Road to the Olympic Games Tokyo 2021 are used in management education globally.

As editorial board member for 7 academic journals including Journal of Applied Psychology and Leadership Quarterly, he shapes research in organizational behavior. His book Leading with Presence addresses non-verbal leadership impact.