Die Graduiertenschule „Navigating the Chaos of Innovation and Transformation“ (NACHOS) an der Otto-von-Guericke-Universität untersucht, wie Innovationen aus technischer, wirtschaftlicher und gesellschaftlicher Perspektive erfolgreich sein können. Ziel ist es, soziale, kulturelle und wirtschaftliche Faktoren bei der Einführung von Innovationen zu erforschen und miteinander zu verknüpfen. Ein besonderer Schwerpunkt liegt auf der aktiven Einbindung von Beschäftigten, Kund*innen und der Gesellschaft in den Innovationsprozess.
NACHOS ist ein gemeinsames Projekt der Fakultät für Wirtschaftswissenschaften und der Fakultät für Humanwissenschaften und verfolgt einen integrierten Ansatz. Es nutzt Perspektiven und Methoden aus den Geistes- und Wirtschaftswissenschaften, um die sozialen und kulturellen Faktoren von Innovationen sowie deren Zusammenspiel mit wirtschaftlichen oder technischen Aspekten gezielt zu untersuchen.
Die leitende Frage ist, wie eine Innovation technisch, wirtschaftlich und gesellschaftlich erfolgreich sein kann und wie diese drei Dimensionen miteinander in Beziehung stehen, um letztlich die Bedingungen für Erfolg, Anpassung und Verbreitung von Innovationen zu verbessern. Methodische Ansätze aus den Wirtschafts- und Humanwissenschaften werden hierfür kombiniert.

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As a continuation of the "BWB:konkret" project, "ALL:konkret" also strives for an inductive description of the reality of in-company continuing education. In ethnographic company visits lasting several weeks, data, documents and information not pre-structured by hypotheses are collected, for example through work shadowing, participatory observations, individual and group interviews or the analysis of documents. The data collected is analyzed in joint research workshops and fed into further phases of data collection and evaluation. The results of this circular research process are case-specific organizational analyses that reveal the individual specifics of an organization's in-company continuing education reality and make them open to discussion both for research and for the personnel and organizational development of the organizations under investigation. The organizational analyses are also reflected upon in joint workshops with the organizations studied. The objectives are as follows:

• Reconstruction of structures, strategies, organizational forms, technologies of corporate learning (system perspective)
• Reconstruction of meaningful motives, effective theories, contradictory requirements for action and cooperation in the practice of continuing education in the workplace (actor perspective)
• Reconstruction of historical lines of development, of conditional cycles, decision-making processes and the interlocking of in-company continuing education with external and societal processes (process perspective)
• Extraction of criteria for quality and professionalism of non-formal continuing education in company contexts
• Organizational and professional theoretical classification of in-company continuing education
• Development of a scheme for surveying company learning cultures and educational practice
• Development of conceptual approaches and action strategies for the further development of an innovative continuing education policy
• Didactic preparation of the case studies for teaching purposes in the scientific education and training of educational staff

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Skilled workers are crucial for the performance and innovative strength of companies. Currently and in the future, it is becoming increasingly difficult for SMEs in particular not only to find experienced specialists and trainees, but also to retain them in the medium and long term. The induction phase, also known as onboarding, plays an important role here: in the first few months of employment, new hires will contribute and develop their knowledge and skills, integrate themselves into the social fabric of the organization, discover the organizational culture and complete numerous administrative tasks. Digitalization and systematization of the onboarding process, which takes individual needs into account, offers the opportunity to structure and facilitate the onboarding process. The new specialists and trainees can experience the induction and familiarization period effectively and develop their potential during the initial phase.

The aim of the project is to design, test and evaluate a digitally supported onboarding approach. Three phases - preparation, orientation and integration - are taken into account. At the personal level, the focus is on professional and social aspects. As part of the project work, a series of structured kick-off, support and feedback meetings, a comprehensive diagnostic inventory and a digital platform for integrating and documenting the entire process are being developed. Their implementation and conditions for success are being researched in parallel.
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Cognitive assistance systems are used in production to support activities with many variants, for example in (dis)assembly tasks with a high number of variants. Existing assistance solutions provide the worker in the work situation with information for processing the current work step, but hardly enable any adaptive learning processes. LeARn4Assembly aims to utilize the potential of virtual and augmented reality and expand it with additional technologies in order to transform assistance solutions into workplace-integrated learning and assistance systems. The target group is a heterogeneous assembly workforce that differs in age, qualification level, experience and language.
To this end, a didactic-methodological concept is being developed and integrated into a VR/AR-based learning and assistance system that takes into account the principles of both action-oriented and learning-promoting design. AR technology is used to display context- and user-sensitive content, while VR is used to prepare content that shows technical contexts that are not visible in reality. The assistance function only becomes active in the event of an error, the worker can call up various learning content for their own decisions under their own control and receives feedback on the quality of the work performed and on further possible courses of action. The aim is to promote self-reflection, improve process understanding and increase personal responsibility.
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Digitalization requires public administrations to accelerate the implementation of technological innovations. The use of new technologies in turn leads to new management, communication and cooperation structures. At the same time, the need for agile and flexible action is growing due to far-reaching and pervasive requirements such as climate and environmental events, mobility and migration, regional structural problems and others. In order to successfully manage this transformation, technical and social innovations must be designed simultaneously and in a coordinated manner. The project outlined here proposes the establishment, methodical design, concrete testing and research-based support of experimental spaces in public administration.

In the experimental spaces, theoretically underpinned and empirically tested methods of change management from other contexts, such as design thinking, strategy and scenario methods or constructive contoverse, are adapted and tested for public, municipal administration. Agile organizational methods are given special consideration

Firstly, the project aims to take up and / or initiate innovation impulses among the participating municipal partners and / or to implement them in experimental spaces. Secondly, the aim is to transfer the knowledge acquired to practice-oriented solutions in the municipal world and to introduce it into the scientific discourse.
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The level of job satisfaction depends on the job, the profession, the function and hierarchy or on organizational forms. Previous studies have been carried out in an industrial environment, for rather simple service activities or in the healthcare sector, particularly in clinics. No studies have yet been carried out for (dental) medical assistants. Their specificity lies not only in the occupational specialty, but also in the organizational form (private practices). In addition, the job profile is changing. The tasks are becoming more complex and differentiated, the healthcare professions as a whole are being upgraded and it is becoming more difficult for dental practices to secure their need for specialists. It is therefore of interest both for dental practices and for research to determine work and occupational characteristics for the group of dental assistants and their impact on the AZ. For practitioners, this provides the opportunity to derive targeted measures to enhance the value and attractiveness of the profession, to improve working conditions in practices, to provide further and advanced training for dental assistants and to secure the next generation of skilled workers. The project described here therefore serves to develop, test and use a questionnaire to survey job satisfaction and its determinants among employees of dental practices. These include trainees and dental assistants, also known as "receptionists" or "assistants". The instrument can be used repeatedly to document developments over time or the effectiveness of certain measures. It can also be used for specific questions and comparative studies. Application to other healthcare professions would be possible without much effort.
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The increasing networking of work systems promotes efficiency in the steel industry, but at the same time increases the mental strain on employees. In complex work situations, maintenance employees have to evaluate a large amount of current process data from the systems. The experience and knowledge of specialists within the company and external service providers is indispensable for the quick and safe completion of tasks. To support employees, assistance systems are being developed that make expert knowledge directly available in the work process and thus contribute to the design of safe work and qualification.
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Ongoing changes in the world of work and labour relations, which are discussed under the headings of subjectivation, globalization and flexibilization, and the upcoming challenges of digitalization, automation and securing skilled workers are increasing the demands on employees' skills. This has consequences for the content, forms and methods of skills development, which are evolving in practice and research.
This dynamic is not adequately reflected in existing textbooks on in-company training or skills development. In practice, many new approaches are emerging, but these are not empirically or theoretically validated, while in research only individual topics are empirically pursued, such as competence modeling or learning transfer.

BWB:konkret therefore aims to determine the status quo, the role and the potential of continuing vocational training in companies as they have developed and continue to develop in practice. To this end, detailed company case studies in various sectors, company sizes and regions will be collected, documented and compared. The case studies cover the strategic rationale, the organizational embedding and structure, the processes and methods of practical implementation and evaluation and, finally, areas of tension, open questions and development directions. In the first year, four contrastive intensive case studies are to be collected; a possible continuation can then include company sizes, sectors and locations in systematic variation.

On the basis of the comparative case studies, a system is to be developed in which the company practice of competence development and learning in the work process can be generalized. In a next step, both an action-guiding model for practical quality assurance and theoretical links can be developed. These could then be used as the basis for a future teaching and handbook for continuing vocational training. With this perspective, the proposed project serves to professionalize in-company continuing education personnel. Further perspectives are the understanding of basic mechanisms and methods of learning in the work process and the interweaving of individual and organizational learning and finally the further and new development of job profiles. The project thus contributes to the understanding of the subject matter of in-company training, to the professional development of in-company training and personnel development and, through the formulation of requirements and competencies of further training activities, to their professionalization.
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The project aims to develop and evaluate procedures for skills assessment and certification, particularly for older employees in the public administration and care sector.

Specifically, IntraKomp aims to achieve the following scientific objectives:

• Development of a strategy workshop format suitable for SMEs as a development module for strategically oriented competence management in organizations, especially in the public sector
• Further development of the triad interview into an instrument of strategic personnel development and an instrument of competence assessment that can be used independently by organizations
• Adaptation of Heyse and Erpenbeck's competency model to organizations in the public sector and vocational training
• Development of a coding paradigm for triad interviews to link with the competency model of Heyse and Erpenbeck
• Development of a process model for the integration of competence assessment instruments
and competence models into existing SME systems for personnel development
• Exemplary integration of the process models into the vocational training of the participating
companies

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The joint project involves the development, design and testing of further education courses in the fields of STEM, health and the creative industries. Otto von Guericke University Magdeburg and Magdeburg-Stendal University of Applied Sciences are working together in the network. The sub-project Organizational Development discusses the cultural and institutional integration of OVGU and HS MD-SDL as an organizational development process that understands the individual university and university units (faculties, institutes, departments) as cultural, informal systems of meaning.
The tasks lie in bringing together the various groups ( players ), aligning them with the common vision of an open university, the associated strategy and definition of common goals, taking into account the autonomy and development of the self-organizational potential of the individual subject and competence areas, as well as the development of a structural proposal for the institutional safeguarding of continuing academic education. The key theoretical question is: How can a balance between centrality and locality be achieved, i.e. what should be initiated and organized centrally in order to enable cooperation and integration and what should be realized autonomously and self-organized in the local units in order to take into account the potentials and motives of the actors accordingly and bring them to fruition?
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The triad discussion was developed as a knowledge management method between 2003 and 2005 in collaboration with Airbus Germany and has been used there ever since. It is a spatially and temporally limited, methodically supported discussion in which three people voluntarily participate (expert, novice and layperson for the topic) in order to pass on knowledge on a professional topic. Typical areas of application are Induction of new employees, succession management, knowledge retention of senior experts, strategic knowledge building in departments, projects, divisions, interdisciplinary cooperation, personnel development, analysis of mistakes and failures. the method has been evaluated in several industries, companies and professions and is highly accepted by the participants.

Further research objectives are the formal analysis of the explication and communication processes in the triadic conversation, the development of multimedial procedures for documenting the content of the triadic conversation and the methodical variation of the three roles in the conversation.

Partner: Karl-Otto-Braun GmbH & Co KG, Wolfstein
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The triad discussion was developed as a knowledge management method between 2003 and 2005 in collaboration with Airbus Germany and has been used there ever since. It is a spatially and temporally limited, methodically supported discussion in which three people voluntarily participate (expert, novice and layperson for the topic) in order to pass on knowledge on a professional topic. Typical areas of application are Induction of new employees, succession management, knowledge retention of senior experts, strategic knowledge building in departments, projects, divisions, interdisciplinary cooperation, personnel development, analysis of mistakes and failures. the method has been evaluated in several industries, companies and professions and is highly accepted by the participants.

Further research objectives are the formal analysis of the explication and communication processes in the triadic conversation, the development of multimedial procedures for documenting the content of the triadic conversation and the methodical variation of the three roles in the conversation.
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For the partner company, the current technical and specialist knowledge of the junior staff is just as indispensable for the innovative and successful development of the company as the many years of experience of its experts. Due to the effects of demographic developments and the reorganization of structures and processes within the company, there is a need not only to retain the expertise of long-serving employees for the company, but also to have it immediately available in restructured departments and teams.

The aim is to develop, test and evaluate a needs-based method for securing and systematically exchanging skills that are critical to success. The aim is to create reliable processes and routines in the form of a toolbox. Employees are to be qualified as multipliers and users during the project so that methodological expertise remains available in the company in the long term and can be developed further
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The evaluation of academic continuing education measures is generally limited to participant satisfaction and knowledge gains. What is really achieved in professional practice and how this improves the performance of organizations, institutions and professions remains largely in the dark. The project aims to develop and apply methods of qualitative effectiveness research. Various postgraduate study programs in dentistry, law and psychology will be examined. The methods used include document analyses, guided interviews with the heads of the study programs and narrative interviews with graduates who have completed the program for at least 12 months.
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It is becoming increasingly important for professions to create an intra-professional infrastructure and culture in which conflicts that arise in the professional's daily activities are systematically dealt with by the profession. Cases of conflict reveal the limits of one's own competencies and highlight opportunities for development. They also reveal demands on the profession that it is not sufficiently prepared for. Examples of the systematic processing of disputes in individual professional fields are supervision (e.g. social work), coaching (e.g. managers), balint groups (medicine) and constructive controversy (e.g. education).

For the dental profession, the dental expert opinion system appears to be a suitable approach for dealing with cases of conflict within the profession. The expert's report is a kind of case study on a specific dental problem. The experts appointed by the court usually succeed in making the dispute legally applicable for the judge by using internal professional means in the court report. However, a number of problems for the profession remain unresolved. For example: What does the individual dentist learn from the dispute? What does the profession as a whole learn from it? How does the client/patient fare with the expert opinion? Can such disputes be avoided or resolved by other means, and if so, how?

The doctoral project deals with this problem from different perspectives (dentist, expert, patient) and aims to contribute to the further development of the dental expert opinion system with the aim of personal, professional and professional development.
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The dental profession offers free patient counseling for patients who are unsure about the course of treatment or a planned treatment. This is provided by dentists working on a voluntary basis. Depending on the federal state, the service is provided in different forms. The project aims to develop a common basis for patient counseling and its documentation. Group discussions and questionnaires are used for this purpose.
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Hintergrund. Innovationen sind soziale Prozesse. Sie unterliegen der Aushandlung durch die beteiligten Akteure. Sie werden zunehmend in interdisziplinären Konstellationen betrieben, um die Integration unterschiedlichen Wissens zu ermöglichen. In der damit verbundenen Divergenz liegt das Potenzial für kreative Neukombinationen und Innovation.   Problemstellung. Im Innovationsmanagement sind für die Bearbeitung von Wissensdivergenzen keine geeigneten Instrumente vorhanden. So werden Innovationspotenziale brach liegen gelassen und Lernimpulse versäumt. Notwendige Konflikte werden vermieden und verhelfen dem Flop zum Erfolg.
Ziel. Dieses Projekt hat zum Ziel eine Methode (CCI) für die Integration unterschiedlichen Wissens und Interessen einzusetzen. Entscheidungssituationen in Innovationsprojekten sollen unterstützt werden, indem die Wissensräume aufgespannt („kontroverse Diskussion unterschiedlicher Perspektiven“) und die Evaluation und Selektion von Alternativen in systematischer Weise erfolgt („systematische Evaluation“). Dadurch können widerstreitende Positionen in einer strukturierten Weise einer Synthese zugeführt und Konfliktpotenziale systematisch aufgefangen werden.  
Adressaten. Unternehmen, die ihr institutionalisiertes Innovationsmanagement und Innovationsprojekte um eine Methode erweitern wollen, welche die Dynamik von Wissens- und Interessendivergenzen in systematischer Weise strukturiert, so dass Entscheidungssituationen in Innovationsprojekten verbessert werden.

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