Prof. Dr. Anja Abendroth

Infra4NextGen - Make it Digital (2024-2028)
Project team: Anja Abendroth and Lasse Marz

The project, funded by the European Commission, aims to prepare young Europeans for the future with the help of social science data and research methods.

To this end, workshops for young people are being developed, data from international surveys from previous years is being analysed and new data on relevant topics is being collected. Under the label "Make it Digital", an inventory of questions on digitalisation was created that covers the central aspects of this topic area. These include digital skills and artificial intelligence. The items were used as part of the Cronos3 panel for data collection in eleven European countries. Based on existing data, a data summary was created that traces the development of the digital divide in Europe and identifies areas with data gaps.

Based on this data, we are pursuing various research interests. These include the distribution of digital skills in Europe, the use of artificial intelligence in the workplace for various purposes and digital communication in the workplace.

The choice between time and money: New flexibility for a better work-life balance? (2021-2027)
Project team: Anja Abendroth and Alexandra Mellies

In recent years, some trade unions have implemented collective agreements that allow employees to choose each year between more time (additional holiday days or a shorter working week) or more money (special payment or monthly pay rise). In the cooperation project between Bielefeld University and the Institute for Labour Market and Occupational Research - funded by the Hans Böckler Foundation - various aspects of these regulations are being investigated. Due to their novelty, it is not yet clear which employees choose time or money and for what reasons. It is also not known to what extent the company, appointment and family context is related to the choice. The data basis is a linkable company and employee data set(Peters et al., 2024; Ruf et al., 2024), which was collected as part of the project ending date and enriched with administrative data. Further information and publications on the project can be found here.

Changing work requirements and quality of life in digitalised working environments: What role do organisational or operational framework conditions play? (2021-2023)
Project team: Anja Abendroth, Mareike Reimann, Charlotte Schröder (née Marx)

The project investigated how digitalised work is structured in different work organisations and what effects this has on quality of work and life. One sub-project showed that the proportion of digital communication between employees varies greatly, but that personal communication predominates. Digital communication enables greater flexibility, but also leads to demands such as constant availability and excessive demands(Reimann et al., 2024a; 2024b). Managers use digital means of communication even more intensively than employees without management responsibility(Marx et al., 2021). Another sub-project shows that digital monitoring for the automatic recording of work steps for controlling and personnel management purposes is already widespread and can have negative effects on well-being and autonomy at work. However, the experiences strongly depend on the operational embedding and the recognition structures (Abendroth et al., n.d.; Marx et al. 2022; Meyer et al., n.d.).

Flexibility in digitalised working environments: The use and effects of telecommuting and digital work communication in a European country comparison (2020-2023)
Project team: Anja Abendroth, Laura Lükemann, Antje Schwarz

The project investigated local flexibility as a central consequence of the digitalisation of work. The expansion of digital infrastructures enables location-independent communication and access to work-related data, creating new opportunities for the organisation of work. The research analysed the interplay of digital infrastructures and social institutions to realise the flexibility interests of employers and employees. Survey data from employees in 31 countries from the European Social Survey 2021 was used for this purpose.

The results illustrate the complex interactions between digital work communication, flexibility and the compatibility of work and family life. A key finding is that digital technologies can present both opportunities and challenges for the labour market participation of mothers(Lükemann 2024). Particularly in countries that promote a policy of de-familialisation, digital communication enables mothers to better balance their professional and private obligations. Furthermore, communication with superiors via digital technologies can contribute to better reconciliation support(Abendroth & Schwarz 2023).

How can working from home succeed? Fair solutions from the perspective of employers and employees (2020-2021)
Project team: Mareike Reimann and Martin Diewald

A sustainably successful home office programme requires that all those involved - not only those working from home, but also other team members and managers - perceive the solutions as fair and practicable. The project used company and employee surveys to analyse the views and expectations of all groups and compared different companies to find out how different conditions influence success. The results show that the experience of working from home during the COVID-19 pandemic has been very positive overall - for both employers and employees. The decisive factors for success are not so much technical equipment or formal requirements, but above all the quality of relationships with colleagues and superiors(Reimann & Diewald, 2023). Support within the team promotes flexibility and makes it easier to balance appointments and private life(Reimann, 2023). Working from home is particularly effective when there is autonomy in terms of time and clear and transparent rules on availability.

Conflicting values in the design of socio-technical systems using the example of the distribution of work tasks (2019-2022)
Project team: Anja Abendroth and Elisa Gensler

Digital assistance systems are increasingly being used to support employees and increase efficiency. However, current assistance systems are often too rigid to provide personalised support, which can limit employees' autonomy at work. In an interdisciplinary collaboration, the question of how the work autonomy of people can be improved in cooperation with digital assistance systems and the importance of the adaptability of the assistance systems was investigated(Gensler et al. 2023). Furthermore, it was found that the preservation of work autonomy in algorithmic work control, in which employees receive automatically generated work instructions, depends largely on control configurations in the company(Gensler et al. 2025; Gensler & Abendroth 2021). The results indicate that control configurations that combine algorithmic instructions and informal control through personal interaction with superiors or colleagues promote methodological work autonomy, provided that companies refrain from algorithmic monitoring and the devaluation of previous skills.

Digital Future Research Programme (2017-2020)
Project team: Martin Diewald, Anja Abendroth, Mareike Reimann

This sub-project "Crowdworking in the context of the transformation of the employment system as a consequence of digitalisation" used quantitative survey data to investigate the relevance of crowdwork (a new form of work organisation in which people take on paid tasks that are mediated via platforms on the Internet) for employment relationships, social inequalities, work-life balance and individual health. With the support of an interdisciplinary crowdworker survey on various German-speaking platforms, it was shown, for example, that crowdworkers can utilise the time flexibility and autonomy for a better work-life balance and improved well-being. However, it has also been shown that the demands associated with crowdwork, such as time pressure, income insecurity or the difficulty of finding suitable tasks on crowdwork platforms, have a negative impact on the work-life balance and well-being of crowdworkers(Reimann & Abendroth, 2023).

Interactions between realisation opportunities in appointment and private life. A study of employees in different work organisations (2017-2020)
Project team: Anja Abendroth, Silvia Melzer, Martin Diewald, Laura Lükemann, Charlotte Marx, Eileen Peters, Mareike Reimann

The aim of the project ending date was to investigate the professional and private challenges faced by employees and the associated opportunities to explain social inequality. The aim was to contribute to a mechanism-based explanation of social inequality. The Relational Inequality Theory formed the frame of reference here: a sociological theory that has become increasingly important in theoretical and empirical organisational research. This theoretical perspective explains in particular how organisations and their characteristics can reduce or reinforce social inequalities. The results show a high degree of variation in social inequalities between organisations, which are influenced by hierarchies and relational mechanisms. In addition, it becomes clear that company policies and cultures are decisive for the organisation of compatibility conflicts. Diversity measures do not always lead to equal opportunities, and gender norms within the workforce influence negotiations for career advancement. Overall, the project shows how external and internal characteristics create and maintain relational inequalities in the workplace.

1. membership in the following focus areas of Bielefeld University:

• "Foundations and Implications of Human-AI Teamwork" (FAITH), part of the leadership team together with AG Meyer (Faculty of Psychology), AG Cimiano and AG Kopp (Faculty of Technology), AG Zarrieß (Faculty of Linguistics)
• "Conflicts of Inequalities" (COIN)
• "Contestations of Gender and Democracy" (ConGed)

2. collaborative projects

• EU-funded joint project INFRA4NEXTGEN, participation as "Academic Expert", work packages "Make it Digital", EU project Infra4nextgen

Foundations and Implications of Human-AI Teamwork (FAITH)

FAITH investigates the possibilities and consequences of "Human-AI Teamwork" - a collaboration between humans and AI systems in which they use their different skills in a goal-oriented, situation-specific and coordinated manner to jointly solve a task. We look at the technological, linguistic, sociological and psychological foundations of human-AI teamwork and investigate the effects on people as well as the organisation and quality of work.

Conflicts of Inequality (COIN)

CoIn analyses the complex mechanisms and moderators that link social inequalities and conflicts. To this end, an empirical, data-innovative approach is applied with the integration of social, health and data science perspectives. The research aims at socially relevant and transferable findings.

Contestations of Gender and Democracy (ConGed)

ConGeD focusses on the current socio-political situation in which semantics of gender equality, democracy and plurality are no longer shared as a matter of course, but are contested.