PhD Candidate: Organisation Design and Crises in Healthcare

The COVID-19 pandemic has shown us the importance of having an organised response to healthcare crises. As a PhD candidate, you will contribute to the project ‘organisation design and crises in healthcare’ and help design supportive structures for crises healthcare collaboration in the future.

As a PhD candidate you will work on a research project entitled 'Organisation design and crises in healthcare'. Increasingly, crisis situations in healthcare (such as the current COVID crisis) involve a dynamic network of different actors and organisations. Supporting the collaboration between actors in these networks to deal with crisis situations in healthcare requires specific (dynamic) structures (the way tasks are defined, allocated and related).

This project revolves around designing supportive structures for crises healthcare collaboration, and requires a specific approach to designing organisational structures. Instead of focusing on organisation design within the boundaries of specific healthcare organisations, this project aims to focus on designing organisational structures at the interorganisational level. Research on ways in which different actors deal with crises in interorganisational contexts shows that innovative organisational forms emerge that facilitate interorganisational crisis response. At the same time, such self-designing efforts are often hindered by bureaucratic structures and high degrees of centralisation.

In this project the aim is firstly to build on existing insights in interorganisational design and crisis management and gain in-depth insight into the interorganisational design dynamics during crisis situations in healthcare. Secondly, the project will aim to develop structural design concepts and participative interventions to facilitate actors to tackle interorganisational crises in healthcare contexts. Methodologically we aim to use qualitative methods (such as grounded theory methods, organisational ethnography) in the first phase and participative action research methods in the intervention phase. The project will contribute to theory development on (sociotechnical) structure design in interorganisational networked contexts.

• You have a Master's degree in business administration. Experience and knowledge of sociotechnical design theory is valued.
• You have a genuine interest and experience in academic research, especially in the area of organisation studies.
• You have strong methodological skills, especially experience of qualitative methods is required. Experience of conducting grounded theory methods, organisational ethnography and/ or action research will be valued.
• You have strong conceptual thinking skills.
• You have excellent writing skills (in English) as evidenced by writing samples (e.g. a chapter from your Master's thesis or a conference paper).
• You have the ability to work in a research team and a willingness to take initiative.
• A candidate who is fluent in Dutch is preferred.

• Employment for 1.0 FTE.
• The gross starting salary amounts to €2,434 per month based on a 38-hour working week, and will increase to €3,111 in the fourth year (salary scale P).
• You will receive 8% holiday allowance and 8.3% end-of-year bonus.
• You will be appointed for an initial period of 18 months, after which your performance will be evaluated. If the evaluation is positive, the contract will be extended by 2.5 years (4 year contract).
• Your teaching load may be up to 10% of your appointment.
• You will be able to use our Dual Career and Family Care Services. Our Dual Career and Family Care Officer can assist you with family-related support, help your partner or spouse prepare for the local labour market, provide customized support in their search for employment  and help your family settle in Nijmegen.
• Working for us means getting extra days off. In case of full-time employment, you can choose between 29 or 41 days of annual leave instead of the legally allotted 20.

The Nijmegen School of Management (NSM) is an academic centre of research and higher education, focusing on institutional and managerial issues within complex organisations. There are seven disciplines within NSM: Business Administration, Public Administration, Political Science, Economics and Business Economics, Social and Political Sciences of the Environment, Human Geography, and Spatial Planning. The faculty has four departments: Business Administration, Economics, Public Administration and Political Science, and Geography, Planning and Environment.

NSM strives for a multidisciplinary approach. Its educational programme is characterised by small-scale teaching and provides a stimulating learning environment with an emphasis on the development of academic skills. NSM employs 300 FTEs, 75% of whom are academics. Currently, NSM has approximately 5,000 students.

The Department of Business Administration consists of five chairs: Strategic Management, Organisational Design and Development, Marketing, Methods, and Strategic Human Resource Management. The Department of Business Administration is responsible for the BSc programme in Business Administration (including a full track in English, and a track in International Business Administration) as well as eight specialisations within the MSc programme in Business Administration (all in English).

Our interdisciplinary Responsible Organisation research programme addresses the multiple values underlying organisational responsibility, the conditions required to realise those values and the interventions geared to the transition of organisations towards responsible organisations. We co-create knowledge with multiple stakeholders in the wider community to ensure the impact of our scholarly work. Our research activities fall under the responsibility of the interdisciplinary Institute for Management Research (IMR).

The vacancy is within the Chair Group of Organisation Design and Development (ODD), which is part of the Department of Business Administration. Research and teaching focus on the design of organisational structures and networks, self-managing forms of organisation, interorganisational collaboration, organisational change and transformation processes, as well as how to make conscious decisions about the intended structure and implement changes in a responsible manner. The design perspective in the ODD group builds on the tradition of socio-technical system design that aims to jointly optimise both the social and the technical aspects of an organisation. The ODD group's research contributes to the Responsible Organisation research programme of the Department of Business Administration. Members of the ODD chair group have published in high-impact journals such as the Academy of Management Journal, Administrative Science Quarterly, Journal of Management Studies, Human Relations, Long Range Planning, Organisation Science, Organisation Studies, Strategic Organisation and Research Policy.

Radboud University
We want to get the best out of science, others and ourselves. Why? Because this is what the world around us desperately needs. Leading research and education make an indispensable contribution to a healthy, free world with equal opportunities for all. This is what unites the more than 24,000 students and 5,600 employees at Radboud University. And this requires even more talent, collaboration and lifelong learning. You have a part to play!

• Letter of motivation explaining your motivation, interest in the PhD position and your competence in the research field.
• CV including academic qualifications, relevant knowledge, relevant research experience, course grade list, list of publications (if applicable) and two suitable academic references (e.g. from your Master's thesis supervisor or a professor).
• A writing sample, for example, a chapter from your Master's thesis or a forthcoming paper, preferably in English.