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Department of Social Sciences
First conference on Smart Work at RWTH Aachen

Final project conference of the eLLa joint project was well received

Podiumsdiskussion mit 7 Teilnehmenden und Publikum © FIR e.V., RWTH Aachen

The social research centre as consortium leader presented highlights from the project “Good work and leadership in the socio-digital transformation (eLLa4.0)” for discussion with its partners from science and practice.

About 100 participants came together for the two-day double conference. The response from a large number of practitioners from production companies, service companies and municipal institutions was pleasing. The eLLa team was fully represented by all the project partners and contributed to the conference with many expert presentations. Dr. Ralf Kopp introduced the project and presented the eLLa overview video, which was finished just in time for the event and can be found under this link.

A highlight were the keynotes by Dr. Christoph Beumer, Chairman and CEO of the international Beumer Group, Mr. Giese (Member of the Board of WBS Trainings AG) and Mr. Alexander Galloy (Managing Director of Belfor DeHaDe). In addition, there were many other exellent impulse contributions on various facets of the eLLa results.  

Ralf Kopp at the lectern during his presentation on the ella project. © FIR e.V., RWTH Aachen
Dr. Ralf Kopp during his presentation on eLLa4.0.

The contributions of the experts on a panel moderated by Dr. Ralf Kopp on the question “What will the world of work look like in 2030?” proved to be exciting. But also the workshops on “Leading between closeness and distance” or “interaction competence” were well attended and invited to exchange ideas. The complete programme (including the contributions of the LiDA project, which was concluded at the conference) can be read here

The FIR of RWTH Aachen University, as host, created a framework through careful planning and support in which everyone felt comfortable. It was also noticeable that participants were happy to be able to discuss and network directly “face to face”. The first evening ended in the atmospheric UpTown Sky Lounge in Aachen's old town. The conference concluded on the second day with a guided tour of the Demonstration Factory Aachen.

The team of the BMBF project “Good Leadership and Work in the Socio-Digital Transformation” (eLLa4.0) worked for three years in close exchange between science (TU Dortmund Social Research Centre, the FIR at RWTH Aachen University and Fraunhofer IAO) and practice on the question of how leadership changes through digitisation, or how it can design technology introductions in such a way that employees can optimally assert their participation claims and participation rights.

In concrete terms, this involved the introduction of VR glasses (Belfor DeHaDe), the development of a network organisation (Beumer Group), the introduction of bots in warehousing (DMG Mori) and the development of a management workshop in the context of virtual learning environments (WBS Training). The central result is the piloted one-week training programme “Leadership Expert4.0” for managers.

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