Acting Director of the Internationalisation and Organisation department, WZB (Wissenschaftszentrum Berlin für Sozialforschung), and François Sellier Professor of International Business and Management, University of Groningen/Netherlands.

Career: Dipl.-Volksw. (Cologne) 1972, Dr. sc. pol. (Münster) 1975, habilitation in sociology (Frankfurt) 1985. Teaching and research positions in sociology and in management, at the universities of Maastricht, Humboldt University Berlin, Tilburg and Groningen. Longer visits at Laboratoire d’Economie et de Sociologie du Travail (Aix–en–Provence) and the Max Planck Institute for the Study of Societies, Cologne. Member of the Coordinating Committee, European Group for Organization Studies 1985–92, editor-in-chief of Organization Studies 1996–99, co-editor of the International Encyclopedia of Business and Management 1991–99.

Main themes: Organisation theory, multinational enterprises, international comparison of work organisation, organisation structure, training, human resource management, industrial relations and technology.