Stefanie Acksteiner M.Sc.

Stefanie Acksteiner completed her studies in Business Administration and Organizational Sciences at the University of the Bundeswehr Munich as part of her officer training. During her master’s degree, she specialized in the fields of Strategy, Management and Markets as well as Future-Oriented Organizations, HR and Leadership. In this context, she explored, among other topics, shifts in power within formal and informal hierarchies and the competency requirements for leaders in new forms of organization and project management. In addition, she gained practical experience in the context of military leadership as an officer in the German Army.
From June 2023 to March 2026, she worked as a military research associate at the Chair of Leadership and Organizational Behavior. In university teaching, she contributed to various bachelor’s and master’s courses, with a particular focus on leadership and the design of new organizational and team structures.
As part of her doctoral studies and research, she focuses in particular on paradoxes in organizational contexts and on how leaders can efficiently deal with the resulting tensions and role incongruities. She presents and publishes the findings of her research projects at international conferences. She is currently employed full-time as a teaching and training officer at the Faculty of Business Administration at the University of the Bundeswehr Munich and continues to be affiliated with the chair as an external doctoral candidate.

Teaching Activities

  • High-Performance Teams & Team Development
  • Leadership: Managing People in Organizations
  • Introduction to Academic Research
  • Supervision of Bachelor’s and Master’s Theses

Research Interests

  • Balancing tensions & paradox mindset
  • Dealing with role incongruities – how (women) leaders can develop a paradox mindset
  • Leadership efficiency in the military
  • New forms of leadership & self-managing, agile, hybrid designs
  • Organizational and leadership development & transformation

Selected Publications

2026

  1. Acksteiner, S., Hüttermann, H., & Jussli, A. (2026). Balancing role paradoxes: Developing a paradox mindset among women leaders in the military. In S. Taneja (Ed.), Proceedings of the Eighty-Sixth Annual Meeting of the Academy of Management. Academy of Management. Online ISSN: 2151-6561
  2. Acksteiner, S., & Hüttermann, H. (2026, July). Developing a paradox mindset in leadership: Balancing paradoxical tensions. Paper presented at the European Group for Organizational Studies (EGOS), Bergamo, Italy.
  3. Acksteiner, S., Hüttermann, H., & Jussli, A. (2026, June). From role tensions to a paradox mindset: Evidence from women leaders in the military. Paper presented at the European Academy of Management (EURAM), Kristiansand, Norway.

2025

  1. Acksteiner, S., & Hüttermann, H. (2025, May 24–28). Successfully managing challenges in a world of tensions: How women leaders develop a paradox mindset. Paper presented at the European Association of Work and Organizational Psychology (EAWOP), Prague, Czech Republic.
  2. Acksteiner, S., & Hüttermann, H. (2025, September 11–13). Balancing the paradox: Lessons from women leaders in the military on developing a paradox mindset. Paper presented at the Fachgruppentagung Arbeits-, Organisations- und Wirtschaftspsychologie sowie Ingenieurpsychologie (AOWI), Lüneburg, Germany.