UNC Kenan-Flagler management professor David Hofmann received a prestigious Fulbright grant to study errors and safety issues in organizations. He will conduct his research with a colleague in Germany.

Hofmann was named a Fulbright Senior Scholar and will stay in Germany three-months during the spring and summer of 2006 where he will work on collaborative research with Professor Michael Frese of the University of Giessen.

With Frese, Hofmann will pursue the following opportunities, among others:

• A deeper exploration of the underlying nature of errors occurring within organizations
• Editing a scholarly book in the Frontiers Book Series of the Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology on errors in organizations
• Development of a detailed model and design of a series of research studies investigating the processes through which teams manage errors occurring within their boundaries
• A series of research talks and mini-workshops delivered to the University of Giessen academic community.

Hofmann’s broader research interests include leadership, organizational climate, culture and change, health and safety, and the process through which individual errors are managed (or not) within teams and organizations. He teaches courses in organizational behavior and leadership at UNC Kenan-Flagler. He has an ongoing research collaboration with colleagues in the UNC School of Nursing on medical errors.

"I’m looking forward to the opportunity to collaborate with Professor Frese on both a book and other research projects that hopefully will lead to a better understanding of how to manage errors in organizations," Hofmann said.

For over 50 years, the Council for International Exchange of Scholars has helped to administer the Fulbright Scholar Program, the U.S. government’s flagship academic exchange effort, on behalf of the United States Department of State, Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs. For more information on the Fulbright program, visit http://www.cies.org/.