The Corporate Governance of Religious Organizations in a Digital Society

How is the digital transition changing the structures of governance in religious and non-religious organizations? This is the central question of the project "The Corporate Governance of Religious Organizations in a Digital Society".

Over the centuries, organizations of a religious nature, such as monasteries, have time and again successfully adapted to disruptive change (such as the development of new technologies or forms of thinking and organization).

In view of this, we want to better understand what characteristics define robust organizations and how these organizations deal with change. Monasteries, for example, have sophisticated corporate governance, ethical management is central, and all members of the organization can be involved in key decisions. These are highly relevant topics in businesses and in society today.

We use approaches drawn from organizational research, economics and political science. Our work is both quantitative and qualitative; that is, we are interested in the measurable relationships within organizations on the one hand, and on the other hand, we employ qualitative methods to illuminate contexts of meaning and the significance of actions.

Our project makes a theoretical and practical contribution to research. The project is intended to enable us to better classify organizations of a religious nature. But it should also bring practical benefits in that we want to find out what modern organizations can learn from these organizations.