Our institute supervises master's theses of all students who complete the MSc Leading Innovative Organizations or the Competence Area Digital Transformation: Leadership, Human Resource Management and Change MSc Management.

The master's thesis serves to demonstrate the student's ability to independently work on a task in a methodologically and substantively correct manner.

We expect students who apply for a master thesis at our institute to have already familiarized themselves with basic topics of organizational research during their bachelor studies. Due to limited supervisory capacities, it is necessary to apply for a supervision. For this purpose, please contact the secretary's office of the institute (institut.org(at)jku.at) with the following documents:

• grade certificate of all completed study and examination achievements
• 1-3 suggestions for topics (please orientate yourself on the topics listed below or on the main research areas of our institute)
• preferred supervisor and a short justification

Applications for a supervisor are possible on an ongoing basis. All students writing their Master Thesis at our institute are required to attend a Master Thesis Seminar, which is offered every semester. Students are required to have successfully applied for a supervisory relationship prior to attending the seminar. The following steps usually occur until a supervisory relationship is accepted:

• Email application to the secretary's office
• Initial meeting with the supervisor: definition of the topic and introductory literature references
• Preparation of a proposal (topic, research question, annotated outline with definition of theoretical framework and method)
• Second supervisor meeting with feedback on the proposal; if necessary, renewed revision of the proposal, acceptance or rejection.

Only after the acceptance of the supervision, the students can register the Master Thesis topic at the examination office of the JKU and attend the Master Thesis Seminar.

Choice of topic and supervision

Students are free to choose their topic, although we recommend/expect that it fits into one of the research fields pursued at the institute. In addition, here are some suggested topics by the supervisors at the Institute. The topic of the master thesis should be chosen in such a way that it can be completed in 6 months.

Technicalities

23 credit points can be acquired with the master thesis. The length of a Master's thesis is about 60 pages or 16,000 words (cover sheet, table of contents, appendix, if applicable, not included). The thesis must be written in English.

Two bound copies (including the affidavit) must be submitted by the deadline, and an electronic version of the thesis must be uploaded as a PDF to the website thesis.jku.at, opens an external URL in a new window, so that the text can be checked for plagiarism. Furthermore, it is desired that the paper be emailed to the supervisor.

Please refer to the Guide for Academic Writing, opens a file as well as the guide for gender-appropriate formulations.