The Department of Human Resource Studies at Tilburg University is looking for a PhD student in the field of virtual teams and knowledge hiding. While knowledge hiding refers to intentional attempts to conceal requested knowledge, virtual teams are groups of people that collaborate through digital technology to achieve common goals, without being present face to face. 

The PhD student will be working under the supervision of Dr. Robin Bauwens (1st daily supervisor), Dr. Sasa Batistič (2nd daily supervisor), and Prof. Dr. Rob Poell (promotor).

The employment is primarily dedicated towards carrying out the proposed research described below, with the aim to write a dissertation consisting of academic articles that are publishable in peer-reviewed journals. The position also involves (minor) contributions to teaching giving the candidate the opportunity to gain teaching experience during the PhD project.

Project description
Title: Knowledge hiding in Virtual Teams

Knowledge is a critical asset for organizations and teams constitute a fundamental unit in which knowledge-related processes take place. While organizations desire employees in teams to share their knowledge, team members might also intentionally withhold information and engage in knowledge hiding. This is problematic, for example by undermining innovation and creativity, which is necessary for organizational competitiveness. While an increasing number of teams meet on a virtual basis, we know little about knowledge hiding in virtual teams. This is especially important given that technology has an ambiguous relationship with knowledge hiding. For example, technology facilitates access to information and increases control but can also reduce empathy and trust.

There is ample room for the candidate to come up with their own research questions that are related to the general topic of the position. Potential questions that can be addressed within this project are:

1. What are the determinants and consequences of knowledge hiding in virtual teams?
2. Are there significant differences between knowledge hiding in face-to-face and virtual teams?
3. To what extent is knowledge hiding within virtual teams subjected to leadership and temporal dynamics (within- and between-person effects)

The ideal candidate should have sound knowledge of statistics, have programming skills in R (or a comparable statistical program, e.g., MPlus), and affinity with human resource studies, organizational psychology, and or management sciences. Furthermore, the candidate should have a nearly or recently completed (Research) Master’s degree with excellent academic results. Academic curiosity, an interest to work in an international environment, and good communication skills are important characteristics for this position. Tilburg University is an international university, firmly rooted in the region and therefore bilingual. We expect our employees to meet the language level appropriate for the position. For academics, an excellent command of English is required: CEFR level C2.

We have the following requirements:

• A Master’s degree in human resource studies, organization studies, organizational psychology, business administration, international business or another related field with relevance for the project 
• Academic excellence, as demonstrated by grade transcripts and CV
• Excellent qualitative and/or quantitative research skills and data analytical abilities
• Enthusiastic, independent, proactive, with a positive learning attitude, strong motivation and ambition for research excellence
• Good communication and presentation skills and team spirit
• Interest in engaging in education (up to 20% of total time)
• Excellent command of English and academic writing skills 

This is a position for 1.0 FTE (40 hours per week) of the full-time working week. 

The start salary amounts to €2.541 and a maximum in the fourth year of €3.247 gross per month for full time employment contract, based on UFO profile PhD student and salary scale number PhD’s of the Collective Labour Agreement for Dutch Universities. Tilburg University uses a neutral salary system for scaling that is based on relevant education and work experience. 

You are entitled to a vacation allowance of 8% and a year-end bonus of 8.3% of your gross annual income. If you work 40 hours per week, you will receive 41 paid days of leave per year.

Tilburg University offers excellent employment conditions. We think flexibility, professional and personal development, and good employee benefits are important. We make clear agreements about career paths and offer all kinds of facilities and schemes to maintain an optimal balance between work and private life. You can also follow numerous training courses, for example, in the areas of leadership skills, personal effectiveness, and career development.  

Tilburg University values an open and inclusive culture. We embrace diversity and encourage the mutual integration of groups of employees and students. We focus on creating equal opportunities for all our employees and students, so that everyone feels at home in our university community.

Tilburg University has a lively campus in beautiful green surroundings that is easily accessible by public transport. We are committed to a sustainable society and challenge you to make an active contribution.

Please visit working at Tilburg University for more information on our terms of employment. 

About Tilburg School of Social and Behavioral Sciences

Tilburg School of Social and Behavioral Sciences (TSB) is one of the five faculties of Tilburg University. The teaching and research of the Tilburg School of Social and Behavioral Sciences are organized around the themes of “Adaptive societies, organizations, and workers”, “Healthy life span”, and “Personalized prevention and care”. The School’s inspiring working environment challenges its workers to realize their ambitions, involvement and cooperation are essential to achieve this.   
Tilburg School of Social and Behavioral Sciences | Tilburg University

About Tilburg University 
Serving society and making it better for its citizens. That is what drives us. Tilburg University's founder, Martinus Cobbenhagen, believed that anyone who wants to understand society must be actively and consciously involved in it. These ideas still form the basis of our university.

Under the motto Understanding society, our more than 2,800 employees develop and transfer knowledge and bring people from different disciplines and organizations together. In this way, we want to contribute to solving complex social issues. In doing so, we work from the fields of economics, business and entrepreneurship, social and behavioral sciences, law and administration, humanities and digital sciences, and theology

We educate our 20,000 students of 132 nationalities to become Tilburg University Shaped Professionals: responsible and entrepreneurial thinkers, driven by solidarity, a sense of responsibility and empathy, who are able to influence and give direction to a rapidly changing society in an innovative way.