The ACE Symposium on September 10, 2021 offered insights into science and practice on current leadership topics under the guiding theme "Leadership in Technological Change" and created a valuable platform for the exchange of experiences.

Due to megatrends such as digitalization and globalization, companies have undergone major changes in recent years. The Covid 19 pandemic was an additional fire accelerator for the transformation, which poses great challenges for leaders.

During the ACE Symposium of the TU Vienna Academy for Continuing Education (ACE) on 10.9.2021, the following topics and questions were discussed, among others:

>> What are the consequences of increasing technologization on everyday leadership?

>> Does leadership have to be rethought for the digital age?

>> What skills will managers need in the future to master the transformation?

>> How can change processes be successfully designed?

>> What opportunities does further mechanization, for example through artificial intelligence, offer in the area of recruiting?

The Key-Learnings at a glance

Leadership & Digitalization: Shaping Change - Insights from Current Delphi Studies. (Wolfgang Güttel)

>> Leaders orchestrate the digital transformation and thereby give (digital) technology its strategic value!

>> In the digital transformation, active leadership gains even more importance.

>> Leaders play a key role in technological change with their abilities to create meaning, their role model effect & their approach to change.

>> Acceptance and the strategic use of new technologies are the key to their effective use.

Leaders in Change: With Change Management through the Crisis. (Georg Horacek)

>> Leaders must provide perspective through communication, forward-looking strategies, HR measures and effective leadership principles.

>> The FACC W.E.L.T. connects the employees of the company and provides a common direction under the guiding values of appreciation, success, performance and team spirit.

>> Newly developed leadership principles form a common basis for change management.

Digital transformation: mastering technological challenges. (Heimo Hammer)

>> From the current situation, we are learning that we need to break our economic system away from the one-dimensional growth mindset that has characterized it for decades.

>> "Next Growth" as a new way of thinking in a time when growth is being rethought and redefined - before quantitative now comes qualitative.

Artificial Intelligence: possibilities and limits in recruiting. (Sabine Köszegi)

>> Recruiting consists of a series of cumulative decisions for which AI systems are used in different roles.

>> AI systems reflect institutional, systemic and socio-cultural values and are therefore not necessarily more "objective" or "fair".

>> Developing transparent, reliable, fair, and effective AI recruiting systems requires high quality data and expert knowledge.

The experts

Prof. Wolfgang Güttel, University Professor for Leadership & Strategy at the Institute of Management Sciences as well as Dean of the TU Vienna Academy for Continuing Education at the TU Vienna and course director of the MBA Strategic Management & Technology.

Mag. Heimo Hammer, Founder & CEO of kraftwerk - agency for new communication, Co-Founder NEXT One and CEO Fast Forward Forum.

Dr. Georg Horacek, VP Human Resources at FACC AG and long-time Head of Human Resources at OMV AG as well as President of the OPWZ-Forum Personal.

Prof. Sabine Köszegi, University Professor for Work Science & Organization at the Institute of Management Sciences at the Vienna University of Technology as well as Course Director MBA Innovation, Digitalization & Entrepreneurship.

Through small group discussions in the form of roundtables in bright sunshine on the terrace of TUtheSky, participants were able to exchange experience values and best practices.

Deepen your knowledge

Our technology-driven world opens up unprecedented opportunities, but at the same time poses special challenges for managers and organizations due to its fast pace and complexity. Leaders therefore need special skills to operate successfully in this context. This is precisely where our MBA and compact programs in Management & Leadership come in. All details can be found here.

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