Prof. Dr. Simone Kubowitsch
W 2.26
+49 821 5586-2935
Areas of Expertise
- Personnel Psychology
- Health and Well-Being at Work
- Team Functioning in Digital and Virtual Reality Environments
- Human–AI Interaction
- Applied Psychophysiology
Short Profile
Prof. Dr. Simone Kubowitsch has been teaching and conducting research as Professor of Personnel Psychology at the Technical University of Applied Sciences Augsburg since 2021. Her areas of expertise include psychological assessment, personnel development, and workplace health. Her research focuses on human experience and behavior across a range of contexts. At the core of her work is the question of how health and well-being, as well as individual and collective functioning and performance, can be maintained and enhanced. She also investigates the effects of digital and AI-supported work environments on psychological well-being.
To address these questions, she uses multimodal data, including psychophysiological, biomechanical, linguistic, and subjective data. Her work combines basic psychological research with applied methodological development, particularly in the field of psychophysiological measurement, and contributes to the design of health-promoting work environments.
Teaching
General Psychology: Learning, Motivation, and Emotion
Fundamentals of human learning, motivational processes, and emotional experience; classical and contemporary learning theories; self-regulation; goal setting; intrinsic and extrinsic motivation; the development and functions of emotions—with applications to work, leadership, and personnel development.
Differential Psychology and Psychological Assessment
Individual differences in personality, intelligence, motivation, and behavior; psychological test theory; assessment methods; psychometric quality criteria; judgment and decision-making processes; and the responsible use of psychological assessment in personnel selection and development.
Test Design & Surveys
Design and development of psychological tests and standardized surveys; operationalization of constructs; item and scale development; questionnaire design; reliability and validity; sampling design; digital data collection methods; and the analysis and assurance of data quality.
Workplace Mental Health
Models and determinants of mental health in the workplace; job demands and resources; stress, recovery, burnout, well-being, and resilience; psychosocial risk assessment; and evidence-based approaches to prevention and health-promoting work design.
Sustainable Human Resource Management
Sustainable design of human resource processes across the employee life cycle; long-term employability; health, competence development, participation, and social responsibility; sustainable personnel selection, leadership, and employee retention; and the contribution of human resource management to digital, ecological, and societal transformation.
Research
Team Functioning
This research area focuses on how teams collaborate in healthy and effective ways under digital, virtual, and technology-supported working conditions. Particular attention is given to communication, coordination, trust, psychological safety, team flow, and team resilience, as well as their relevance to adaptability and performance. In the DaTeam-VR research project, these processes are examined in virtual work environments using multimodal and time-dynamic analyses and translated into practical approaches for promoting healthy teamwork.
Well-Being in Digital and AI-Supported Work Contexts
This research area examines how digital technologies and AI systems influence employees’ experiences and behavior. The focus is on psychological well-being, technostress, autonomy, and the satisfaction of basic psychological needs, as well as the conditions under which technological support functions as either a resource or a demand. The findings contribute to the human-centered and health-promoting design of digital work environments.
Character Strengths in Higher Education and the Workplace
This research focus investigates the relevance of individual character strengths to academic and occupational experiences. In the workplace, the research examines how strengths-based and AI-supported reflection formats can promote strengths use, well-being, and work engagement. In higher education, the focus lies on the fit between students’ character strengths and the requirements of their intended professions, as well as its relationship with career adaptability, self-concept, well-being, and study satisfaction.
Assessment of Individual- and Team-Level Strain
Research on strain assessment focuses on the differentiated measurement of psychological and physical responses in work and performance situations. Subjective assessments are combined with psychophysiological, linguistic, interaction-related, and biomechanical data. Particular emphasis is placed on developing multimodal measurement approaches that capture stress and strain processes as comprehensively and close to real-life conditions as possible.
An Integrated Perspective on Psychology and Biomechanics
This research area combines psychological analyses of perception, strain, and behavior with biomechanical investigations of physical strain and movement. Mental and physical processes are therefore examined not in isolation, but in terms of their reciprocal interaction. This integrated perspective enables a deeper understanding of performance, fatigue, and health risks and provides a basis for evidence-based prevention and intervention approaches.
Promoting Sustainability Competencies
The TexTiles project investigates how sustainable thinking and action can be promoted using the textile industry as an applied context. The focus is on systems thinking, perspective-taking, reflective capacity, and dealing constructively with conflicting goals. Innovative teaching and learning formats support the transfer of these competencies to higher education and professional practice.
Selected Publications
Academic Publications
Watermann, L., Lermer, E., & Kubowitsch, S. (2026). From AI use to positive functioning: The roles of trust and need satisfaction. Gruppe. Interaktion. Organisation. Zeitschrift für Angewandte Organisationspsychologie (GIO), 1-13.
Hogh, N., Braun, J., Watermann, L. & Kubowitsch, S. (2025). I Don’t Buy It! A Critical Review of the Research on Factors Influencing Sustainable Fashion Buying Behavior. Sustainability, 17(9),https://doi.org/10.3390/su17094015
Watermann, L., Kubowitsch, S. & Lermer, E. (2025). AI and work design: A positive psychology approach to employee well-being. Gruppe Interaktion Organisation Zeitschrift für Angewandte Organisationspsychologie (GIO). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11612-025-00806-3
Braun, J., Hogh, N., & Kubowitsch, S. (2024). Evaluating team workload through physiological synchrony: An exploratory study using MdRQA Data to assess teams in action. In Proceedings of the 7th European conference on industrial engineering and operations management (IEOM). IEOM Society International.
Auer, S., Kubowitsch, S., & Dendorfer, S. (2023). Combined influence of psychological and biomechanical factors in muscular loads in soccer: A new approach for the prevention of muscle injuries. Orthopadie (Heidelberg, Germany), 52(11), 876.
Auer, S., Kubowitsch, S., Süß, F., Renkawitz, T., Krutsch, W., & Dendorfer, S. (2021). Mental stress reduces performance and changes musculoskeletal loading in football-related movements. Science and Medicine in Football, 5(4), 323-329.
Scheer, C., Kubowitsch, S., Dendorfer, S., & Jansen, P. (2021). Happy enough to relax? How positive and negative emotions activate different muscular regions in the back-an explorative study. Frontiers in Psychology, 12, 511746.
Book chapter
Kubowitsch, S. & Watermann, L. (2025). People Analytics. In L. von Rosenstiel, E. Regnet & M. E. Domsch (Eds.), Führung von Mitarbeiterin und Mitarbeiterinnen (9th ed., pp. 589-599). Haufe.
Presentations and conference papers
Watermann, L., Braun, J., Hogh, N. & Kubowitsch, S. (2026). Kompetenzen für die Teamarbeit von morgen: Ein hybrider, datengetriebener Ansatz zur Teamdiagnostik. Poster presentation at the 29th Annual Conference of the Society for Applied Business Psychology (GWPs), 26-28 January, Gelsenkirchen, Germany.
Hatfield, S., Watermann, L., Kubowitsch, S., Hommes, J. & Binder-Knott, H. (2026). Spielerische Vermittlung nachhaltiger Textilproduktion: Entwicklung und Evaluation eines interaktiven Musemsexponats. Talk at the 29th Annual Conference of the Society for Applied Business Psychology (GWPs), 26-28 January, Gelsenkirchen, Germany.
Watermann, L., Weber, J., Lermer, E. & Kubowitsch, S. (2026). The Role of AI in the Workplace: Consequences for Mental Well-Being and Basic Need Fulfillment. Talk at the ISQOLS 2026 Winter Virtual Conference, 29-20 January.
Watermann, L., Hogh, N., Braun, J. & Kubowitsch, S. (2025). Development of Future-Oriented Team Diagnostics: An Interdisciplinary Approach to Identifying Success-Relevant Team Processes in Virtual Reality Environments. Poster presentation at the 85th Annual Meeting of the Academy of Management, 25-29 July, Copenhagen, Denmark.
Watermann, L. & Kubowitsch, S. (2025). Mitigating Technostress in AI-Driven Workplaces: The Role of Digital Skills and Self-Efficacy. Talk at the 22nd EAWOP Congress, 21-24 May, Prague, Czech Republic. Shortlisted for the Best Oral Presentation Award.
Watermann, L., Hogh, N., Braun, J. & Kubowitsch, S. (2025). The Role of Perceived Consumer Effectiveness and Information in Sustainable Clothing Consumption. Talk at the 22nd EAWOP Congress, 21-24 May, Prague, Czech Republic.
Kubowitsch, S. & Cocron, P. (2024). The Potential of Integrated Workload Measures in Production. Talk at the 7th European Conference on Industrial Engineering and Operations Management, Augsburg, Germany.
Kubowitsch, S., Suess, F., Jansen, P. & Dendorfer, S. (2019). Effect of dual tasking on muscular imbalances. Paper presented at the 25th Congress of the European Society of Biomechanics, Vienna, Austria.
Kubowitsch, S., Suess, F., Jansen, P. & Dendorfer, S. (2018). Comparison of dynamic muscular imbalances in back pain patients and healthy controls. Poster presented at the 8th World Congress of Biomechanics, Dublin, Ireland.
Projects
Awards
- Shortlist Teaching Award 2023 of the Technical University of Applied Sciences Augsburg in the large event category