“Collaborating with similar minds may be easy, but won’t produce radical innovations.”

Sonja Rispens is an Assistant Professor at Eindhoven University of Technology (TU/e). Her areas of expertise include organizational culture and behavior, leadership, social and organizational psychology, leadership and teamwork. Sonja’s research aims to bridge the dynamic gap between work-related conflict and optimal collaboration within as well as between organizations. Her experience in conflict management, conflict resolution, and teamwork research forms the foundation of investigating the antecedents and consequences of collaborative processes to build positive, sustainable organizations.

Under the header ‘Collaborative Capital’, Sonja is currently studying the changing nature of collaboration due to technological developments on the one hand and complex societal challenges on the other hand. She aims to develop and evaluate interventions that enable organizations, teams, and employees to effectively deal with the challenges of the future world of work.

Sonja Rispens studied Sociology at Groningen University and obtained her PhD in Social and Organizational Psychology from Leiden University with a thesis on interdependencies within workgroups. Before joining TU/e, Sonja worked at Leiden University and the University of Twente.

Sonja is a respected author within the academic community and she publishes both in organizational psychology and management journals. Her work has received several awards and she is a member of the editorial board of Group Dynamics: Theory, Research, & Practice, International Journal of Conflict Management, and Negotiation and Conflict Management Research. In the past, Sonja has acted as an associate editor for Negotiation and Conflict Management Research and she acted as the Program Chair of the International Conflict Management Association’s yearly conference. She has given numerous presentations at various conferences and events.