Start of the Max Planck-wide survey on working culture and working atmosphere
"I see this survey as a great opportunity to obtain an organization-wide impression of the mood within the Max Planck Society, and on this basis, to develop suitable measures to strengthen a working culture that is not only performance-oriented but also appreciative and respectful," says Max Planck President Martin Stratmann. He set up an internal task force led by Wieland Huttner, emeritus director at the Max Planck Institute of Molecular Cell Biology and Genetics, which developed and supports the survey project.
The questionnaire is aimed at all scientific and non-scientific staff of the Max Planck Society and its associated institutions. Participation is voluntary and anonymous. In order to guarantee the neutrality, data protection, and scientific quality of the project, a research team at the Center for Responsible Research and Innovation of the Fraunhofer Institute for Industrial Engineering and Organization IAO (CeRRI) headed by Prof. Dr. Martina Schraudner was commissioned to carry out the project.
The questionnaire will be available for completion for a four-week period, from February 13 to March 13, 2019. The evaluation is carried out by the Fraunhofer team and will be made available to the Max Planck Society in aggregated form, i.e. evaluation is not carried out at the level of individual institutes. The Max Planck Society intends to publish the results of the survey and the resulting measures in summer 2019.
The topics addressed in the online questionnaire correspond to international standards and include, for example, the atmosphere in the working group, the leadership culture, satisfaction with the respective Max Planck facility, but also possibly experienced uncooperative behaviour, in particular bullying, as well as sexual harassment and/or discrimination. The survey also addresses the question whether existing complaint channels are known, whether relevant procedures are seen as transparent, and whether existing points of contact in the event of conflict are accepted, as well as the question of the relationship between work and private life, i.e. the work-life balance.