Stefan Kühl

Stefan Kühl (* 1966 in Hamburg ) is a German sociologist. He is a professor at Bielefeld University and works as an organizational consultant for Metaplan .

Life

After doing community service at the Open Disabled Work of the Evangelical Youth Munich, he studied sociology , history and economics at the University of Bielefeld , the Johns Hopkins University Baltimore , the Université Paris X-Nanterre and the University of Oxford .

As a research assistant he worked at the Université de Bangui ( Central African Republic ), the University of Magdeburg and the University of Munich . He received his doctorate in sociology at the University of Bielefeld with a thesis on the international interdependence in eugenics and racial hygiene and in economics at the Technical University of Chemnitz with a thesis on risk capital in the new economy .

He completed his habilitation in sociology at the University of Munich with a thesis on new forms of organization. He was visiting professor at Venice International University and the University of Hamburg . From 2004 to 2007 he was Professor of Sociology at the Helmut Schmidt University - University of the Federal Armed Forces in Hamburg . Since 2007 he has been Professor of Sociology at Bielefeld University .

Research areas: social theory , sociology of organizations , interaction sociology , sociology of work , sociology of professions , the history of science .

Researches

Decentralized forms of organization

The sociological focus is on the unwanted side effects of new forms of organization in companies, administrations, universities, ministries and hospitals. In particular, the “ politicization dilemma ”, “ complexity dilemma ” and “ identity dilemma ” were worked out, which can arise in organizations with extensive decentralization and flattening of the hierarchy . According to Kühl, social crises show which organizations are central to making society work.

Eugenics and Racial Hygiene

The main focus of research in the sociology of science is the international scientific integration in eugenics and racial hygiene . After the "Nazi Connection" between US eugenicists and Nazi racial politicians in the period before and after 1933 could be proven, research focused particularly on the importance of international cooperation in establishing eugenics and racial hygiene as scientific disciplines in the early 20th Century.

Venture capital financing

The main focus of research in economic sociology is the effect of venture capital financing on the structure of companies. Financing through risk capital creates exit capitalism in which all those involved at the beginning of a company think of their early exit. Exit capitalism describes a view of capital owners who want to sell company shares once they have been acquired after a short period of time with a high exit profit.

Coaching and supervision

Research on coaching and supervision is primarily concerned with classifying these person-oriented consulting approaches in general organizational theory. The research became particularly well known for the thesis that there is a problem of charlatanism in the coaching scene because there are only rudimentary approaches to the formation of a profession . The thesis, derived from sociological systems theory, that the personnel development instruments coaching and supervision are a blunt sword for changing the structure of organizations, but have important latent functions, because conflicts in organizations are isolated in person-oriented counseling settings, and thus structural conflicts are personalized, has been controversially discussed.

Colleges

As part of the development of a system-theoretical organizational sociology, a criticism of the Bologna reform that was also perceived in the university policy discussion arose. The reason for the growing bureaucratisation of universities and the increasing schooling of Bachelor and Master courses is not identified as a neoliberal conspiracy to rebuild universities, control fantasies of university management or technical clumsiness in the design of courses. Rather, the problems of the Bologna reform are understood as an unwanted side effect of the introduction of credit points ( ECTS points). The compulsion to plan every working hour in advance would create a “Sudoku effect” - the need to combine the courses, exams and modules expressed in credit points in such a way that the course “works” in terms of points.

Publications (selection)

Organizational research

• The sudoku effect. Universities in the vicious circle of bureaucracy. A polemic . Transcript Verlag, Bielefeld 2012, ISBN 9783837619584 .
• Organizations. A very brief introduction. VS Verlag, Wiesbaden 2011, ISBN 9783531179780 .
• Coaching and supervision. For person-centered advice in organizations . VS Verlag, Wiesbaden 2008, ISBN 9783531160924 .
• Sisyphus in management. The desperate search for the optimal organizational structure . Wiley Verlag, Weinheim 2002, ISBN 3-527-50042-1 . Campus Verlag, Frankfurt a. M .; New York 2015, 2nd edition, ISBN 9783593502267 .
• The rainmaker phenomenon. Contradictions and superstitions in the concept of the learning organization . Campus Verlag, Frankfurt a. M .; New York 2000, ISBN 9783593361888 , 2nd edition 2015, ISBN 9783593502946 .
• When the monkeys rule the zoo. The pitfalls of flat hierarchies . Campus Verlag, Frankfurt a. M .; New York 1995, ISBN 9783593351599 , 6th edition 2015, ISBN 9783593502939 .

Economic, labor and industrial research

• Exit. How venture capital is changing the rules of the economy . Campus Verlag, Frankfurt a. M .; New York 2003, ISBN 9783593372266 .
• Work and industrial sociology. An introduction . Transcript Verlag, Bielefeld 2004, ISBN 978-3899421897 .
• Work - Marxist and systems theory approaches . Springer Fachmedien, Berlin / Wiesbaden 2017, ISBN 9783658181161 .

Science and technology research

• The Nazi Connection. Eugenics, American Racism and German National Socialism . Oxford University Press, New York; Oxford 1994, ISBN 978-0195149784 .
• The Racist International: Rise and Fall of the International Eugenic Movement in the 20th Century . Campus Verlag, 2nd updated edition. Frankfurt a. M .; New York 2014. ISBN 9783593399867 .

Genocide research

• Ordinary organizations. On the sociology of the Holocaust. Suhrkamp Verlag, Berlin 2015, ISBN 9783518297308 .

Editorships

Methods of empirical social research

• Methods of organizational research: a handbook (edited with Petra Strodtholz and Andreas Taffertshofer ). VS Verlag, Wiesbaden 2005, ISBN 9783531143590 .
• Handbook of quantitative methods of empirical social research (edited with Petra Strodtholz and Andreas Taffertshofer). VS-Verlag, Opladen 2005.
• Handbook methods of organizational research. Quantitative and qualitative methods (edited with Petra Strodtholz). VS-Verlag, Wiesbaden 2009, ISBN 9783531158273 .

Counseling Research

• Black box advice? Empirical studies on coaching and supervision (edited with Karolina Galdynski). Springer Verlag, Berlin / Wiesbaden 2009, ISBN 978-3-531-91560-9 .
• Organization and intervention. Approaches for a socio-scientific foundation of organizational consulting (with Manfred Moldaschl). Rainer Hampp Verlag, Munich and Mering 2010, ISBN 9783866184312 .

Web links

• Literature by and about Stefan Kühl in the catalog of the German National Library
• Stefan Kühl , website at Bielefeld University
• Stefan Kühl , at Metaplan

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Stefan Kühl (1998): When the monkeys rule the zoo. The pitfalls of flat hierarchies. Frankfurt a. M./New York: Campus, p. 82ff.
2. ↑ Stefan Kühl: The price of rationalization . sueddeutsche.de. March 23, 2020. Accessed March 30, 2020.
3. ^ Stefan Kühl (2002): Exit. How venture capital is changing the rules of the economy. Frankfurt a. M .; New York: Campus, p. 14ff.
4. ↑ Stefan Kühl (2008): Coaching and Supervision. For person-oriented advice in organizations. Wiesbaden: VS publishing house for social sciences.
5. ↑ Archived copy ( Memento from May 23, 2014 in the Internet Archive )
6. ↑ Stefan Kühl (2008): Coaching and Supervision. For person-oriented advice in organizations. Wiesbaden: VS-Verlag für Sozialwissenschaften, p. 153.
7. ↑ For the discussion among the science ministers, see the statement by Mathias Brodkorb Archived copy ( Memento from January 19, 2015 in the Internet Archive )
8. ↑ Stefan Kühl (2012): The Sudoku Effect. Universities in the vicious circle of bureaucracy. A polemic. Bielefeld: transcript.
9. ↑ Micha Brumlik : Completely normal organizations . Review, in: taz , November 8, 2014, p. 16