research@WEIDEN BUSINESS SCHOOL

Prof. Dr. Bernt Mayer , Dean of the WEIDEN BUSINESS SCHOOL and organizational and business psychologist and Prof. Dr. Gabriele M. Murry , Professor of Business Psychology, welcome you at the beginning of the event.

Marcus Velis (M.Sc.), graduate of the master's program in applied business psychology, will give a lecture on his thesis on the topic "Social perception in leadership situations – how the halo effect and first impressions shape one’s perception of leaders"

The lecture will be held in German.

This master thesis deals with the topic of how the first impression of people who meet for the first time is influenced by prejudice and heuristics such as the Halo effect. This thesis examines how the halo effect affects executive perceptions. In addition, leadership traits are examined to determine which leadership traits are relevant to today's workforce. To answer these two research questions, a literature analysis, three expert interviews and an online survey will be carried out. The online survey consists of two sections, each dedicated to a research question. The first section examines the halo effect, drawing on an earlier experiment from 1946 that demonstrated halo and excessive coherence effects in human judgment. The second part of the survey uses the Transformational Leadership Behavior Scale to determine the leadership dimensions relevant today. The results show that the subjects did not experience any significant halo effects. In addition, leadership attributes related to interpersonal skills proved to be the most relevant for the participants, although no gender differences could be identified. Following the analysis of the results, implications of the results and recommendations for action are discussed with a cost-benefit analysis.
Afterwards, Mr. Velis will be happy to answer any questions you may have. You are cordially invited to contribute to the discussion.

Information about the speaker:
During his studies, Mr. Velis completed coaching training from the 3+3=7 Institute for Behavioral Economics, Human Resources and Process Management.

He wrote his bachelor thesis in business administration with a focus on project management. He successfully completed his master’s thesis on “Social Perception in Management Situations – How the Halo Effect and First Impressions Affect People’s Perception of Managers”. He is currently working as a junior consultant for project management at Volkswagen Group Services GmbH, Ingolstadt.