Dr. Kristina S. Weißmüller

Dr. Kristina S. Weißmüller is a tenured Assistant Professor of Public Administration, Department of Political Science and Public Administration, at Vrije Universiteit (VU) Amsterdam, the Netherlands. Her research profile can be found here, her CV here.

Her research focuses on three fundamental issues in modern societies worldwide: (1) public sector corruption, (2) bureaucratic rule-breaking, and (3) the psychological effects of ‘publicness’ on decision making. 

These topics are particularly relevant for citizens’ trust in public institutions and significantly affect social cohesion. With her topical focus on the behavioral micro-level foundations of administrative behavior, as well as her proven expertise in quantitative, experimental, and psychometric research methods, she is an expert in behavioral public administration research.

Having received her PhD in 2020 from the University of Hamburg, Dr. Weißmüller joined VU from the University of Bern, where she worked as a postdoc researcher and received the Innovative Teaching Prize 2021 for her lectures in public management. She is the co-initiator and the principal investigator (PI) of the CorPuS project, a multinational consortium of 21 researchers worldwide to research public sector corruption. Dr. Weißmüller is currently leading several funded research projects (NWO Veni, NWA, VU-UT Alliance, Sectorplan SSH), and she is a permanent research fellow of the Research Group for Public Integrity at Università della svizzera italiana, Lugano, Switzerland. Before dedicating herself to an academic career, Dr. Weißmüller studied Industrial Engineering and Management in Hamburg, Edinburgh, and Hangzhou (PR China) and worked for various international firms.

As a pioneering international scholar, Dr. Weißmüller has secured funding for several international research projects, such as research on (anti-)corruption (EPIC project funded by NWO Veni), and value-based AI governance (funded by NWA), and deliberative quality in international organizations (funded by SNIS). She is strongly committed to the valorization and transfer of her research into practice, as is shown by her various international research collaborations (e.g., with UNODC, WTO, ITC) and invited public talks (e.g. as an expert speaker for Transparency International and WTO).

Her work has been published in a wide range of international journals including the Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory (JPART), Journal of Business Research, Journal of Business Ethics, Frontiers in Psychology, Public Management Review (PMR), and the Review of Public Personnel Management (RoPPA).