Martin Kornberger (aged 47) received his PhD in philosophy from the University of Vienna in 2002 with a thesis on the interface between philosophy and management and organizational theory. In the course of his academic career, he has spent time at universities in Australia (University of Technology Sydney), Denmark (Copenhagen Business School), France (EM Lyon), and Scotland (University of Edinburgh).

He has also taught as a visiting professor at the Stockholm School of Business (Sweden), the Aoyama Business School in Tokyo (Japan), and other schools. His numerous books and papers (most recently: Distributed and Collective Action: Connecting the Dots, Oxford University Press, January 2022) focus on strategies for collective action as well as new organizational architectures and their ethical implications.

Research focus: a philosophical approach to management

Martin Kornberger will also be establishing and leading the new Institute for Ethics in Management at WU. His research focus is on the ethical challenges faced by organizations. This is certainly a highly relevant question for today’s society, especially in these crisis-ridden times. Martin Kornberger comments: “The opportunity to establish a new institute as well as a research area on ethics in management is an exciting challenge.

One goal is to find answers to the questions we need to be asking: How far should organization go, what are the responsibilities of  decision-makers, what is the duty of all of us? And what purpose is collective action is aimed at, what meaning does it orient itself towards? I am very much looking forward to my work at WU and to sharing my previous teaching experience and research expertise with WU students and junior researchers.”

Ein Ziel ist es, Antworten auf notwendige Fragen zu finden: Was darf Organisation, was ist die Verantwortung von Entscheider*innen, was Pflicht aller? Und was ist der Zweck, auf den sich kollektives Handeln ausrichtet, was der Sinn, an dem es sich orientiert? Ich freue mich sehr auf meine Tätigkeit an der Wirtschaftsuniversität Wien und darauf, meine bisherigen Erfahrungen im Bereich der Lehre und meine Forschungsexpertise an WU-Studierende und Nachwuchsforscher*innen weitergeben zu können.“