Online survey for Siemens AG on the further development of international assignment management (OWAM) - Cooperative research project between Heilbronn University and Siemens AG

This cooperative research project between Heilbronn University and the Global Mobility Management of Siemens AG is an internet-based web survey of all active and former long-term delegates of Siemens AG. In addition, the partners of the delegates are also surveyed, as numerous scientific studies have highlighted the co-travelling partner (m/f/d) as an important influencing factor for a successful delegation.

On the Heilbronn University side, the project is led by Prof. Dr. Wilpers, Head of the Human Resource Management specialisation in the Business Administration degree programme at the Faculty of Economics and Transport.

The scientific support is provided by Simone von Boddien, Dipl.-Kffr., M.A. research assistant at the Faculty of Economics and Transport.

Time frame:

The survey will be live from 07 October to 03 November 2019. After that, the link to the survey will be switched off.

The time required to answer all questions is individual and depends on the respective questionnaire of the target group. Experience shows that the average time required is about 15 minutes.

Aim of the project:

By interviewing all active delegates and former delegates or their partners in German or English, a comprehensive analysis will be made,

• what goals the target groups interviewed associate with a foreign assignment.

• what challenges the surveyed target groups experience before, during and after the assignment abroad.

• how the target groups can best be supported in the future before, during and after their stay abroad.

• how expatriates can adapt to changing conditions in the future.

• what are the adaptation factors that make an international assignment successful from the perspective of the individual target groups.

Data protection and technical framework:

The survey was coordinated with the works council of Siemens AG in advance. The survey is completely anonymous and complies with all applicable data protection and IT security regulations. Participation in the survey is completely voluntary.

It is not possible to assign partners to delegates. The data will be collected and processed with automatic data processing systems in compliance with the applicable German law, the Federal Data Protection Act (BDSG) as well as the Telemedia Act (TMG) and the General Data Protection Regulation. The data is stored on a server at Heilbronn University. During data collection and evaluation as well as the presentation of the results by Heilbronn University, all provisions of the currently valid Federal Data Protection Act (BDSG) and State Data Protection Act (LDSG) as well as the Basic Data Protection Regulation (DS-GVO) are observed.

As this is a web-based anonymous survey, a stable internet connection is a prerequisite for completing the survey. If the internet connection is interrupted, the previous data entry cannot be continued due to the anonymity of the procedure. The web-based survey must then be restarted.

Results:

The results will be used to further develop and improve the delegation conditions of Global Mobility Management Services of Siemens AG. They will also be made available in summarised form after completion of the web survey. They can also be used for scientific publications in the field of delegation research.