Gerda van Dijk

Background

About Gerda van Dijk

Gerda.vanDijk@xs4all.nl g.vandijk@uvh.nl Gerda van Dijk, is Professor Leadership and Society at the University for Humanistic Studies. She is also a self employed management consultant. In the period 2013-2018 she was appointed as Professor Organizational Ecology at the Tilburg University, Humanities; in the period 2013-2024 at the VU, Amsterdam as Director of the Zijlstra Center and Professor in Public Leadership. Gerda is specialized in Organizational Strategy, Organizational Development and Leadership Development. She is dedicated in supporting public and profit organisations in their leadership development to create public value: ‘for the better good’; to create more humane organizations. Gerda studied Biology at the Agricultural University of Wageningen, The Netherlands where she also got her Ph-degree as Ecologist. She specialized in (eco)system dynamics and complexity. After working as ecologist for about 10 years, as researcher and manager at the National Institute of Public Health and Environment (RIVM), she switched her career and specialized in organizational development and leadership. In her work, she incorporates her training and education as ecologist. She approaches organisations as complex living systems characterized by diversity, life-cycle dynamics and being part of larger system. She is focusing now on leadership: how to lead to create humane organizations in a more human society? Specialties: Organizational Ecology, Public Leadership, Organizational Strategy, Organizational Development and Leadership Development.