Prof. Christian Tröster, PhD

Professor of Leadership and Organizational Behavior

Prof. Christian Tröster, PhD

Professor of Leadership and Organizational Behavior

Prof. Dr. Christian Tröster is Professor of Leadership and Organizational Behavior at the KLU. Chris received his bachelor's and master's degree in sociology from the University of Groningen (NL) and his PhD from the Rotterdam School of Management, Erasmus University Rotterdam (NL). He has been a visiting scholar at several universities, such as Singapore Management University (SMU), the University of British Columbia (UBC), and Victoria University of Wellington (NZ). He served on the editorial board of The Leadership Quarterly and is currently associate editor of the Academy of Management Journal.

Chris uses experiments and surveys to study topics in organizational behavior such as leadership, social networks, and teams. His work has been published in the Academy of Management Journal, Journal of Applied Psychology, Journal of International Business Studies, Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, etc.

He teaches how to be more effective when dealing with people from other cultures (intercultural communication) and how to better understand what motivates people in organizations (leadership and organizational behavior). He teaches both students and executives in top-ranked programs and delivers training for companies around the globe.

Up Close & Personal

“Back then, we were sitting together probably everyday to discuss every little detail about this university, because we had to come up with everything. Now, ten years later I am really proud to see what KLU has become.”
– Prof. Christian Troester, Ph.D.

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Selected Publications

DOI: https://doi.org/10.5465/amj.2019.0559 

Abstract: Studies on abusive supervision typically posit that targets of abuse will either directly blame the perpetrating supervisor or indirectly blame the organization for allowing the abuse, and as a result reduce their cooperativeness at work. We pivot from this predominant logic and argue that, under certain circumstances, targets of abusive supervision may blame themselves, feel guilty, and then try to make it up to their abusive supervisors by helping them more. Drawing on the emotional process theory of abusive supervision and the more general socio-functional perspective of emotions, we specify that such a dynamic is more likely to ensue when subordinates otherwise experience the relationship with their supervisors as good (high LMX). Two studies—an experiment and a two-weeks bi-daily experience sampling study—provide support for our reasoning. As such, our study extends theorizing on the consequences of abusive supervision, which has typically found that it reduces cooperative behaviors. Moreover, it contributes to previous speculations that leaders may engage in abusive supervision because it has beneficial consequences for them.

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DOI: https://doi.org/10.5465/amj.2016.0914 

Abstract: Research has shown that employees who occupy more central positions in their organization's network have lower turnover. As a result, scholars commonly interpret turnover as the consequence of social networks. Based on Conservation of Resources theory, we propose an alternative coevolution perspective that recognizes the influence of changes in individuals' social network position on their thoughts of quitting (the consideration of turnover), but also posits that thoughts of quitting shape individuals' agency in maintaining and changing their social network. Extending previous research, we predict that creation (dissolution) of both friendship ties and advice ties are negatively (positively) related to subsequent thoughts of quitting. We then develop and test the novel hypotheses that for friendship ties, thoughts of quitting are positively related to tie retention and negatively related to tie creation (leading to network stasis), whereas for advice ties thoughts of quitting are negatively related to tie retention and positively related to tie creation (leading to network churn). In a longitudinal network analysis that assessed 121 employees across three time points, we find support for our hypotheses that thoughts of quitting affect network changes, but do not find that network changes affect thoughts of quitting.

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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1037/apl0000281 

Abstract: The extant social undermining literature suggests that employees envy and, consequently, undermine coworkers when they feel that these coworkers are better off and thus pose a threat to their own current status. With the present research, we draw on the sociofunctional approach to emotions to propose that an anticipated future status threat can similarly incline employees to feel envy toward, and subsequently undermine, their coworkers. We argue that employees pay special attention to coworkers' past development in relation to their own, because faster-rising coworkers may pose a future status threat even if they are still performing worse in absolute terms in the present. With a set of two behavioral experiments (N = 90 and N = 168), we establish that participants react to faster-rising coworkers with social undermining behavior when the climate is competitive (vs. less competitive). We extended these results with a scenario experiment (N = 376) showing that, in these situations, participants extrapolate lower future status than said coworker and thus respond with envy and undermining behavior. A two-wave field study (N = 252) replicated the complete moderated serial mediation model. Our findings help to explain why employees sometimes undermine others who present no immediate threat to their status. As such, we extend theorizing on social undermining and social comparison.

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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.obhdp.2014.04.003 

Abstract: This longitudinal study used data from 91 self-managed teams (456 individuals, 60 nationalities) to examine the interactive effects of a team’s task (“workflow”) network structure and its cultural diversity (as indexed by nationality) on the team’s “potency” (i.e., the team’s confidence in its ability to perform) and its performance (as rated by expert judges). We found that whereas the emergence of dense task networks enhanced team potency it was the emergence of (moderately) centralized task networks that facilitated team performance. These varied structural effects, moreover, were themselves contingent on team composition: the more culturally diverse a team, the more pronounced were the positive effects of network density on team potency and the higher the level of network centralization required for optimal team performance. The success of a team appears to hinge on the interplay between network structure and team composition.

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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-012-1287-5 

Abstract: We investigate how social comparison processes in leader treatment quality impact group members’ self-worth, affect, and behavior. Evidences from the field and the laboratory suggest that employees who are treated kinder and more considerate than their fellow group members experience more self-worth and positive affect. Moreover, the greater positive self-implications of preferentially treated group members motivate them more strongly to comply with norms and to engage in tasks that benefit the group. These findings suggest that leaders face an ethical trade-off between satisfying the moral standard of treating everybody equally well and satisfying individual group members’ desire to be treated better than others.

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Academic positions

since 2022     Professor of Leadership and Organizational Behavior, Kühne Logistics University, Hamburg, Germany
2016 - 2021 Associate Professor of Leadership and Organizational Behavior, Kühne Logistics University, Hamburg, Germany
2013

Visiting Assistant Professor at Saunder Business School, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada

2011 - 2016

Assistant Professor of Leadership and Organizational Behavior, Kühne Logistics University, Hamburg, Germany

2010

Visiting Assistant Professor at Singapore Management University, Lee Kong Chian School of Business, Singapore

2010

Visiting Researcher at Singapore Management University, Lee Kong Chian School of Business, Singapore

2009

Visiting Researcher at Links Centre, Gatton College of Business and Economics, University of Kentucky, Louisville, USA

2006

Internship at the Interuniversity Center for Social Science Theory and Methodology (ICS) at the University of Groningen, The Netherlands

Education

2010

Ph.D. in Management at the Rotterdam School of Management, Erasmus University Rotterdam, The Netherlands

2006

MSc. in Sociology at the University of Groningen, The Netherlands

2005

BSc. in Sociology at the University of Groningen, The Netherlands