Dr Levke Henningsen

About me:

Levke Henningsen is a Lecturer in Leadership/Organisational Behaviour at the Department of Management of the University of Exeter Business School. She joined the University of Exeter in September 2022. Previously, Levke held a position as a postdoctoral researcher in Social and Business Psychology at the University of Zurich (Switzerland).

She received her PhD in November 2018 from the University of Zurich (Switzerland). In her dissertation (which was embedded within the Swiss Federal Equal Opportunities at Universities Program), she investigated the impact of discriminatory and self-selection processes on women’s underrepresentation in professorships and administrative leadership positions of universities.

In 2019, Levke won an Early Postdoc.Mobility Fellowship of the Swiss National Science Foundation for her project on the effects of experienced workplace incivility on career-related choices. In the framework of this project, she joined the Center of Social and Cultural Psychology at the University of Leuven (Belgium) from August 2020 until September 2021 and the King’s Business School at the King’s College London (UK) from October 2021 until January 2022.

After receiving her diploma in Psychology (equivalent to MSc) from the University of Magdeburg (Germany) in 2011 and before starting her doctorate in 2013, she joined a non-profit organization in Berlin (Germany) that offers advice on equal opportunities, diversity, and participation for politics, the economy, and science.

• Leadership, careers, and gender
• Leadership and career ambition
• Workplace incivility
• Work-life balance
• Affirmative action

Levke’s research interests include gender diversity and leadership in organizations, discriminatory and self-selection processes in career advancements, affirmative action policies, work-life balance, and the effects of experienced incivility at work. Her previous research focused on effects of gender-based affirmative action policies in hiring processes, on effects of gender discriminatory and self-selection processes for professors’ administrative leadership ambitions, and the role of the social context and gender norms in the dynamics of reconciling life domains. This research provided action implications for the practice and strengthened collaborations between practitioners and scientists from various disciplines.

Intermediate diploma in Psychology (equivalent to BSc; University of Magdeburg, Germany), diploma in Psychology (equivalent to MSc; University of Magdeburg, Germany); PhD (University of Zurich, Switzerland).