The Leadership & Management section of the Amsterdam Business School (ABS) is looking for a PhD candidate in Leadership Research.

This PhD project will focus on inconsistent behaviour of leaders in organizations. Behavioural consistency is often seen as one of the most important characteristics for a leader to display, as it enhances leader credibility and reduces follower uncertainty. Indeed, research has shown that employees tend to assess their leader as more effective when the leader displays consistent behaviours. However, at times the display of leader behaviours that are seemingly inconsistent may be crucial for successful leadership. For example, according to Behavioural Complexity theory effective leaders need to display a range of often paradoxical and contradictory leadership behaviours depending on the situation. Also, a management style that allows for different behaviours enables leaders to flexibly adapt to and deal with todays’ rapidly changing conditions. So, how can leaders remain credible and effective in the eyes of followers while simultaneously being flexible and showing potentially competing behaviours? When is leader behaviour perceived as inconsistent, erratic, and insincere? What kind of behavioural dimensions send the most inconsistent informational cues? Which leader and follower traits affect the display and perception of inconsistent leader behaviour?

Our goal in this PhD project is to develop knowledge about when and why leaders are perceived as displaying inconsistent behaviours, as well as to understand how and when leader inconsistency hampers outcomes relevant to organizations. These types of questions are asked in this project and should be tested in a series of experimental and survey-based field studies. This quantitatively oriented research will require the ability to access and acquire data as well as the development of strong academic writing and methodological skills.

• A Master’s degree (MSc, MA, or drs) in the area of business (business studies, business administration, management) or applied psychology (work and organizational and/ or social psychology, ) with excellent grades and a demonstrable interest in the area of organizational behaviour and/or management;
• interest (and preferably experience) in field research, including studies focusing on organisations;
• well-developed analytical skills, creativity, precision, and perseverance;
• the drive to publish in top-level academic journals in the field of management and organizational behaviour;
• excellent Mastery of both written and spoken English.

We offer a challenging job with ample opportunity for personal development in an attractive international work environment. ABS is a growing, research driven business school at an internationally recognized university that has the ambition to become a leading international player in the field of management research and education. ABS is located in the heart of Amsterdam, the cultural and financial capital of the Netherlands. Amsterdam offers a cosmopolitan living environment with excellent connections to the rest of the world.

You will be appointed for an initial period of 18 months with a possibility to extend it for another 2,5 years, pending positive evaluation. As part of your contract, you will spend 20% of your time on teaching. You will be classified as PhD candidate (promovendus) in the Dutch University job-ranking system (UFO), providing a gross monthly starting salary of €2.266 in the first year (which increases to €2.897 in the final year) with an additional end-of-year bonus (8.3%) and holiday allowance (8%), in accordance with the Collective Labour Agreement for Dutch Universities).

University of Amsterdam

With over 5,000 employees, 30,000 students and a budget of more than 600 million euros, the University of Amsterdam (UvA) is an intellectual hub within the Netherlands. Teaching and research at the UvA are conducted within seven faculties: Humanities, Social and Behavioural Sciences, Economics and Business, Law, Science, Medicine and Dentistry. Housed on four city campuses in or near the heart of Amsterdam, where disciplines come together and interact, the faculties have close links with thousands of researchers and hundreds of institutions at home and abroad.  

The UvA’s students and employees are independent thinkers, competent rebels who dare to question dogmas and aren’t satisfied with easy answers and standard solutions. To work at the UvA is to work in an independent, creative, innovative and international climate characterised by an open atmosphere and a genuine engagement with the city of Amsterdam and society.

http://www.uva.nl/en/home

Amsterdam Business School

The Amsterdam Business School (ABS) is one of the two schools of the University of Amsterdam’s Faculty of Economics and Business. The ABS has almost 3,000 students and the equivalent of 120 full-time academic staff. The school’s core subjects are Corporate Governance, Entrepreneurship, and Big Data / Business Analytics. Six sections (Accounting, Entrepreneurship & Innovation, Finance, Leadership & Management, International Strategy & Marketing, and Operations Management) conduct top-level research published in prestigious international journals. They also provide various degree programmes including a BSc programme and six MSc programmes, a wide range of post-doctoral programmes featuring three MBAs, four accountancy programmes and Lean Six Sigma programmes, as well as an extensive portfolio of open courses and in-company projects.

The offered position is within the section Leadership & Management, which is currently home to around 15 faculty members, in addition to a number of PhD candidates and affiliated faculty. Particularly, ABS plans to continue the substantial growth of the Leadership & Management group over the next years. ABS has excellent corporate contacts within and outside of Amsterdam and utilizes these contacts in research and curricular activities. In addition, ABS opened its brand-new behavioural research laboratory in 2016.

http://abs.uva.nl/