dr. S.D. Schafheitle (Simon)

The self-accelerating growth of digital technologies has far-reaching implications for the effective functioning of 21st-century workplaces. With that in mind, understanding employees' vulnerability experience, sustaining their trust and thriving in the workplace will be the central challenge for successful people management. My passion is to understand how digital technologies transform workplaces and what leaders can do to successfully shape this transformation so that employees do not fall behind.

Expertise

• Social Sciences

  • Employees
  • Literature
  • Technology
  • Workplace

• Computer Science

  • Algorithms
  • Contexts
  • Relationships
  • Trust Relationship

Organisations

I believe that the complex interplay between technology, organizations, and people can only be meaningfully understood and shaped through close interdisciplinary collaboration, especially with fields such as engineering, information, and computer science.

My research focuses on technological (eco)systems in and around organizations, with particular attention to how AI-based HRM architectures influence trust, perceptions of vulnerability, and experiences of thriving and meaningfulness at work. This experience has sharpened my understanding of how technology is embedded in broader organizational and social dynamics and how important it is to study these dynamics in an integrated way.

Over the past years, I have published in leading international journals such as Journal of Management Studies, Journal of Business Ethics (FT50), and Academy of Management Discoveries (5-year IF: 6.3), and regularly present my work at leading conferences such as AOM, EGOS, FINT, VHB, and HICSS. I am actively involved in the academic community as reviewer, session chair, and symposium organizer, and I make particular use of the HICSS conference to reflect on OB/HRM from an Information Systems perspective. 

Publications

Research profiles

In teaching, I am active at the Bachelor's, Master's, and Executive levels and cover a wide range of HR/OB and management topics, ranging from its fundamentals to people analytics and ethical issues surrounding AI technology use in organizations. I aim to create inclusive, psychologically safe learning environments and use innovative formats, like flipped classroom, challenge-based learning, and research-driven student projects. Recently, for instance, we integrated humanoid robots into exam assessments through live interaction. I am particularly interested in developing non-standardized assessment formats, not only as a response to tools like ChatGPT, but also to foster creativity and meaningful learning. 

Affiliated study programs

Courses academic year 2025/2026

Courses in the current academic year are added at the moment they are finalised in the Osiris system. Therefore it is possible that the list is not yet complete for the whole academic year.

Courses academic year 2024/2025

I have successfully acquired several third-party funded research projects. Most recently, this includes a project funded by the Dutch Research Council in collaboration with computer science, focusing on AI technology-supported integration of vulnerable groups into the primary labor market, as well as another Dutch government-funded project bridging trust management and philosophy. 

Address

University of Twente

Ravelijn (building no. 10), room 2337
Hallenweg 17
7522 NH Enschede
Netherlands

Navigate to location

Organisations

Additional contact information

My office is @ RA-2337