Biography
Steffen R. Giessner is Professor of Organisational Behaviour and Change at the Rotterdam School of Management, Erasmus University (RSM).
He holds an MSc in Psychology from the University of Kent at Canterbury, UK, and a PhD in Psychology from the Friedrich-Schiller-University Jena, Germany. His research is located at the intersection of organizational psychology and management. His primary research topics are employee support during organizational merger, follower’s perceptions of leadership, antecedents of leader behavior, and non-verbal communication of power. He has authored and co-authored papers in the areas of organizational behavior, management, and psychology. His research received media coverage in outlets like the New York Times, Financial Times, The Guardian, Harvard Business Review, Harvard Business Manager and Wall Street Journal. His most recent book on Leading with Presence addresses how one can develop the non-verbal aspect of leadership impact.
Rotterdam School of Management, Erasmus University
- sgiessner@rsm.nl
More information
Work
- Jing Wu, Daan van Knippenberg, Steffen R. Giessner & Sut I. Wong (2025) - When Will Employees Voice Up? Leader-Member Exchange Similarity and Leader Group Prototypicality - Journal of Leadership and Organizational Studies, 33 (1), 114-133 - doi: 10.1177/15480518251386490 - [link]
- Dijana Aleksic, Rebecca Hewett & Steffen Giessner (2025) - On GenAI and channeling employee creativity - [link]
- Kira Bibic, Svenja B. Frenzel, Rudolf Kerschreiter, Jeremy Wilson-Lemoine, Niklas Steffens, S. Alexander Haslam, Lucas Monzani, Serap Arslan Akfirat, Christine Joy A. Ballada, Tahir Bazarov, John Jamir Benzon R. Aruta, Lorenzo Avanzi, Aldijana Bunjak, Matej Černe, Charlotte M. Edelmann, Olga Epitropaki, Katrien Fransen, Cristina García-Ael, Steffen Giessner, Ilka H. Gleibs, Dorota Godlewska-Werner, Ronit Kark, Ana Laguia Gonzalez, Hodar Lam, Anna Lupina-Wegener, Yannis Markovits, Mazlan Maskor, Fernando Jorge Molero Alonso, Juan A. Moriano Leon, Pedro Neves, Daniela Pauknerová, Sylwiusz Retowski, Christine Roland-Lévy, Adil Samekin, Sebastian Schuh, Tomoki Sekiguchi, Lynda Jiwen Song, Joana Story, Jeroen Stouten, Liliya Sultanova, Srinivasan Tatachari, Lisanne van Bunderen, Dina Van Dijk, Sut I. Wong, Xin‘an Zhang & Rolf van Dick (2025) - The value of leaders we trust and leaders who make us stronger: Exploring the distinct contributions of different components of identity leadership to group member outcomes - Group Processes and Intergroup Relations - doi: 10.1177/13684302251341818 - [link]
- Benjamin A. Korman, Christian Tröster & Steffen R. Giessner (2024) - LMXSC Elicits Hubristic Pride and Social Undermining in Individuals with High Trait Dominance - Journal of Management Studies, 61 (6), 2662-2693 - doi: 10.1111/joms.12983 - [link]
- Hodar Lam, Steffen R. Giessner, Meir Shemla & Mirjam D. Werner (2024) - Leader and leadership loneliness: A review-based critique and path to future research - Leadership Quarterly, 35 (3) - doi: 10.1016/j.leaqua.2024.101780 - [link]
- Lucas Monzani, Kira Bibic, S. Alexander Haslam, Rudolf Kerschreiter, Jérémy E. Wilson Lemoine, Niklas K. Steffens, Serap Arslan Akfirat, Christine Joy A. Ballada, Tahir Bazarov, John Jamir Benzon R. Aruta, Lorenzo Avanzi, Aldijana Bunjak, Matej Černe, Charlotte M. Edelmann, Olga Epitropaki, Katrien Fransen, Cristina García-Ael, Steffen Giessner, Ilka Gleibs, Dorota Godlewska-Werner, Ronit Kark, Ana Laguia Gonzalez, Hodar Lam, Anna Lupina-Wegener, Yannis Markovits, Mazlan Maskor, Fernando Jorge Molero Alonso, Juan Antonio Moriano Leon, Pedro Neves, Daniela Pauknerová, Sylwiusz Retowski, Christine Roland-Lévy, Adil Samekin, Tomoki Sekiguchi, Joana Story, Jeroen Stouten, Lilia Sultanova, Srinivasan Tatachari, Lisanne van Bunderen, Dina Van Dijk, Sut I. Wong & Rolf van Dick (2024) - Political leaders' identity leadership and civic citizenship behavior: The mediating role of trust in fellow citizens and the moderating role of economic inequality - Political Psychology, 45 (6), 979-1011 - doi: 10.1111/pops.12952 - [link]
- Steffen Giessner, Jeremy F. Dawson, Kate E. Horton & Michael West (2023) - The Impact of Supportive Leadership on Employee Outcomes During Organizational Mergers: An Organizational-Level Field Study - Journal of Applied Psychology, 108 (4), 686-697 - doi: 10.1037/apl0001042 - [link]
- Steffen Giessner & Kate Horton (2023) - Change Leadership: A Social Identity Perspective - doi: 10.1017/9781009086721.017
- Folkert Mulder & Steffen Giessner (2022) - The Road to the Olympic Games Tokyo 2021 (A-D) - [link]
- Ben Sahlmuller, Daan van Knippenberg, Niels van Quaquebeke & Steffen Giessner (2022) - Two in the lead: The importance of relationships when there are two bosses - [link]
- Susan Reh, Niels Van Quaquebeke, Christian Tröster & Steffen R. Giessner (2022) - When and why does status threat at work bring out the best and the worst in us?: A temporal social comparison theory - Organizational Psychology Review, 12 (3), 241-267 - doi: 10.1177/20413866221100200 - [link]
- Ben Sahlmueller, Niels Van Quaquebeke, Steffen R. Giessner & Daan van Knippenberg (2022) - Dual Leadership in the Matrix: Effects of Leader-Member Exchange (LMX) and Dual-Leader Exchange (DLX) on Role Conflict and Dual Leadership Effectiveness - Journal of Leadership and Organizational Studies, 29 (3), 270-288 - doi: 10.1177/15480518221096547 - [link]
- Lea Rutishauser & Steffen Giessner (2022) - Dynamic perspective of leader-member exchange and empowerment-enhancing practices in organizational change - Die Unternehmung - Swiss Journal of Business Research and Practice, 76 (4), 492-510 - doi: 10.5771/0042-059x-2022-4-492
- Eva M. Bracht, Lucas Monzani, Diana Boer, S. Alexander Haslam, Rudolf Kerschreiter, Jérémy E. Lemoine, Niklas K. Steffens, Serap Arslan Akfirat, Lorenzo Avanzi, Bita Barghi, Kitty Dumont, Charlotte M. Edelmann, Olga Epitropaki, Katrien Fransen, Steffen Giessner, Ilka H. Gleibs, Roberto González, Ana Laguía González, Jukka Lipponen, Yannis Markovits, Fernando Molero, Juan A. Moriano, Pedro Neves, Gábor Orosz, Christine Roland-Lévy, Sebastian C. Schuh, Tomoki Sekiguchi, Lynda Jiwen Song, Joana S.P. Story, Jeroen Stouten, Srinivasan Tatachari, Daniel Valdenegro, Lisanne van Bunderen, Viktor Vörös, Sut I. Wong, Farida Youssef, Xin an Zhang & Rolf van Dick (2022) - Innovation across cultures: Connecting leadership, identification, and creative behavior in organizations - Applied Psychology, 72 (1), 348-388 - doi: 10.1111/apps.12381 - [link]
- Sut I. Wong, Marthe Berntzen, Gillian Warner-Søderholm & Steffen Robert Giessner (2022) - The negative impact of individual perceived isolation in distributed teams and its possible remedies - Human Resource Management Journal, 32 (4), 906-927 - doi: 10.1111/1748-8583.12447 - [link]
- Hannes L. Leroy, Moran Anisman-Razin, Bruce J. Avolio, Henrik Bresman, J. Stuart Bunderson, Ethan R. Burris, Johannes Claeys, James R. Detert, Lisa Dragoni, Steffen R. Giessner, Kevin M. Kniffin, Thomas Kolditz, Gianpiero Petriglieri, Nathan C. Pettit, Sim B. Sitkin, Niels Van Quaquebeke & Pisitta Vongswasdi (2022) - Walking Our Evidence-Based Talk: The Case of Leadership Development in Business Schools - Journal of Leadership and Organizational Studies, 29 (1), 5-32 - doi: 10.1177/15480518211062563 - [link]
- Rolf van Dick, Berrit L. Cordes, Jérémy E. Lemoine, Niklas K. Steffens, S. Alexander Haslam, Serap Arslan Akfirat, Christine Joy A. Ballada, Tahir Bazarov, John Jamir Benzon R. Aruta, Lorenzo Avanzi, Ali Ahmad Bodla, Aldijana Bunjak, Matej Černe, Kitty B. Dumont, Charlotte M. Edelmann, Olga Epitropaki, Katrien Fransen, Cristina García-Ael, Steffen Giessner, Ilka H. Gleibs, Dorota Godlewska-Werner, Roberto González, Ronit Kark, Ana Laguia Gonzalez, Hodar Lam, Jukka Lipponen, Anna Lupina-Wegener, Yannis Markovits, Mazlan Maskor, Fernando Molero, Lucas Monzani, Juan A.Moriano Leon, Pedro Neves, Gábor Orosz, Diwakar Pandey, Sylwiusz Retowski, Christine Roland-Lévy, Adil Samekin, Sebastian Schuh, Tomoki Sekiguchi, Lynda Jiwen Song, Joana Story, Jeroen Stouten, Lilia Sultanova, Srinivasan Tatachari, Daniel Valdenegro, Lisanne van Bunderen, Dina Van Dijk, Sut I. Wong, Farida Youssef, Xin An Zhang & Rudolf Kerschreiter (2021) - Identity leadership, employee burnout and the mediating role of team identification: Evidence from the global identity leadership development project - International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 18 (22) - doi: 10.3390/ijerph182212081 - [link]
- Benjamin A. Korman, Christian Tröster & Steffen R. Giessner (2021) - The Consequences of Incongruent Abusive Supervision: Anticipation of Social Exclusion, Shame, and Turnover Intentions - Journal of Leadership and Organizational Studies, 28 (3), 306-321 - doi: 10.1177/15480518211005463 - [link]
- M Knoll, M Götz, A Adriasola, AA Al-Atwi, A Arenas, KA Atitsogbe, S Barrett, A Bhattacharjee, ND Blanco C., S Bogilovi?, G Bollmann, J Bosak, C Bulut, M Carter, M Cerne, S Chui, D Di Marco, G Duden, V Elsey, M Fujimura, P Gatti, C Ghislieri, Steffen Giessner, K Hino, J Hofmans, TS Jønsson, P Kazimna, KB Lowe, J Malagon Peren, H Mohebbi, A Montgomery, L Monzani, Anne Nederveen Pieterse, M Ngoma, D O'Shea, C Lundsgaard Ottsen, E Ozeren, JL Pickett, AA Rangkuti, S Retowski, FS Ardabili, R Shaukat, SA Silva, A Šimuni?, NK Steffens, F Sultanova, D Szücs, SM Tavares, A Tipandjan, D Vasiljevic, R van Dick, S Wong & H Zacher (2021) - International Differences in Employee Silence Motives: Scale Validation, Prevalence, and Relationships with Culture Characteristics across 33 Countries - Journal of Organizational Behavior, 42 - doi: 10.1002/job.2512 - [link]
- Steffen Giessner & Hodar Lam (16 July 2020) - Understanding loneliness at work during COVID-19 and in the future
- Steffen Giessner & Meir Shemla (22 May 2020) - Mental Health Awareness Week: How to combat the loneliness during lockdown
- Steffen Giessner & Meir Shemla (12 May 2020) - Preventing Loneliness
- Steffen Giessner & Meir Shemla (12 May 2020) - How to combat the loneliness caused by the COVID-19 crisis
- Steffen Giessner (2016) - The Leadership Quarterly (Journal) (Member of editorial board)
Activity: Editorial work › Academic - Steffen Giessner (2016) - Journal of Applied Psychology (Journal) (Member of editorial board)
Activity: Editorial work › Academic - Steffen Giessner (2015) - Frontiers in Psychology (Journal) (Member of editorial board)
Activity: Editorial work › Academic - Steffen Giessner (2013) - Journal of Occupational and Organizational Psychology (Journal) (Member of editorial board)
Activity: Editorial work › Academic - Steffen Giessner (2010) - Organizational Psychology Review (Journal) (Member of editorial board)
Activity: Editorial work › Academic - Steffen Giessner (2009) - Journal of Personnel Psychology (Journal) (Member of editorial board)
Activity: Editorial work › Academic - Steffen Giessner (2008) - British Journal of Management (Journal) (Member of editorial board)
Activity: Editorial work › Academic
Leading Organisational Change
- Year Level
- master, IM/CEMS, Exchange, ERIM
- Year
- 2025
- Course Code
- BM04POC
POC Master Thesis
- Level
- master
- Year Level
- master
- Year
- 2025
- Course Code
- BMMTPOC
Leading with Presence
- Year
- 2025
- Course Code
- MBA26-M5-LWP
Organisational Behaviour
- Year
- 2025
- Course Code
- MBA27-M1-OB
Organisational Behaviour
- Year
- 2025
- Course Code
- MBA26-M1-OB
