(ref. BAP-2025-328)
Last modified: 04/06/25
You will work in the stimulating Department of Work and
Organisation Studies (WOS). WOS is an interdisciplinary group of about
50 scholars who combine different perspectives to the study of work. WOS
aims to extend knowledge on employee wellbeing and quality of labour,
Human Resource Management, leadership & organizational behaviour,
careers & employability and organizations within society.
The Faculty of Economics and Business has four campuses, in Antwerp,
Brussels, Kortrijk and Leuven. All are vibrant cities in the heart of
Europe. This position is related to our campus in Leuven.
KU Leuven is a research-oriented institution and is the most innovative university of Europe (ranked first in Reuters ranking).
This vacancy is made possible by the Acerta research chair “AI at work”.
You will contribute to a scientific research
project and write a PhD dissertation on the topic of AI-enabled job
redesign. The central aim of the project is to investigate whether the
introduction of AI tools can positively reshape the task content and
design of jobs for workers, thereby supporting their self-efficacy,
competence development, and opportunities for career progression.
Three
potential foci will provide the backbone of this PhD: (1) bottom-up job
crafting with the help of “off-the-shelf” generative AI tools; (2)
top-down job redesign enabled by tailored AI-systems or workflow
automation tools; and (3) top-down reallocation of tasks between jobs,
supported by AI-systems for sharing knowledge between experts and
non-expert workers. You will investigate this through questionnaire
design and interventions, which will take place in real-world settings
under experimental or quasi-experimental set-ups. The project will thus
investigate how AI-adoption reshapes the internal division of labour
within organizations, leading to changes in individual job design and
the quality of work.
Bridging organizational
science, I/O psychology, and labour economics, it explores how decisions
about AI use at the individual or organizational level affect job
design, task content, and ultimately job quality and economic
opportunity for workers. The purpose of the project is to introduce
theoretical insights and evidence based informed intervention designs
grounded in Job Demands–Resources (JD-R) theory. We aim to understand
how (bottom-up or top-down) AI adoption impacts job characteristics and
employee outcomes (e.g., well-being, motivation, productivity). This
research should generate actionable insights for organizations,
policymakers, and scholars about the conditions under which AI can
create “better” jobs.
Your job will consist of the following activities:• You develop the research project in collaboration with the research team o Collaborating with the research team to finalize research questions and study designs;o Conducting
field research, which may include survey data collection and
intervention research, along with potentially interviews, observational
data, and process documentation;o Designing and implementing randomized field experiments and quasi-experiments in collaboration with partner organizations;o Writing scientific articles with the aim of publishing and including them in your dissertation;• Active participation in (international) seminars and conferences;• Successful completion of the PhD program of the Faculty of Economics and Business;• Provision of educational support (e.g., supervision of master's theses, supervising and grading exams).
Duration of the project will be four years, counting from the first day of employment.
• You hold a master's degree in a
Humanities and Social Sciences domain (e.g., Management, Psychology,
Applied Economics, Business Engineering, Sociology, or other related
fields);• You have received at least two
'honours' (i.e., cum laude, distinction) mentions over the course of
your higher education; The appointment of students finishing their
master degree will be conditional upon receiving their final grades. • You
have demonstrable experience with or a strong interest in analysing
quantitative or qualitative data and curious about field-experimental
designs.• You are a good writer, and you are not afraid of public speaking (e.g., delivering a conference presentation, teaching a class);• Your
written and spoken English is excellent. Excellent Dutch language
skills are an advantage (since the data collection will be in Dutch); • You
are an intellectually curious, analytical 'idea person', with a knack
for academic research and a proactive, self-directed approach to work.
We offer employment as a full-time doctoral researcher
in a stimulating environment, where you will mainly work with the
research team, consisting of Dr. Laura Nurski and Prof. Dr. Anja Van den
Broeck. We want to take you through a process in which you grow as a
scientist in performing and publishing rigorous and transparent
scientific research that is relevant to practice (i.e. to organisations
and employees). We also want to support you in your personal development
and offer you the opportunity to gain teaching experience. The
educational support includes supervision of a fixed number of bachelor’s
and/or master’s theses, support during exams and (preparation of)
lectures.
Starting date: as soon as possible,
subject to approval by the doctoral committee (see
https://admin.kuleuven.be/rd/doctoraatsreglement/doctoraatsreglement-feb#section-2),
for a period of 4 years (pending positive evaluation after 12 months).
Your main office will be in Leuven.
For more information on working at KU Leuven, see http://www.kuleuven.be/personeel/jobsite/en/index.html.
For more information please contact Dr. Laura Nurski,
mail: [email protected] or Prof. Dr. Marijke Verbuggen, mail:
[email protected].
We are happy to
receive your application by June 20th We hope to find a candidate who
can start around September-October. Don’t hesitate to apply if you are
in the final months of your master's degree. You can only
apply via the online application tool. Please attach a motivation
letter, CV, one reference that we may contact (e.g. master’s thesis
supervisor) and a summary of your master’s thesis. Your motivation
letter should contain the reason why you are interested in this
particular position as well as facts or examples that demonstrate that
you satisfy the listed requirements. The interviews will be held
face-to-face or online end of June – beginning of July. They will
include a research assignment. The selection decision will be taken soon
afterwards.
You can apply for this job no later than June 20, 2025 via the online application tool
KU Leuven strives for an inclusive, respectful and socially safe environment. We embrace diversity among individuals and groups as an asset. Open dialogue and differences in perspective are essential for an ambitious research and educational environment. In our commitment to equal opportunity, we recognize the consequences of historical inequalities. We do not accept any form of discrimination based on, but not limited to, gender identity and expression, sexual orientation, age, ethnic or national background, skin colour, religious and philosophical diversity, neurodivergence, employment disability, health, or socioeconomic status. For questions about accessibility or support offered, we are happy to assist you at this email address.
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