Authority of inspectorates is key for the acceptance of their decisions by the public and regulatees. This authority is increasingly under pressure because of mediatization and societal polarization around value conflicts, such as between safety or sustainability and economic development. Enforcement increasingly politicizes, but inspectorates still mainly derive their authority from technical-rational reputations. In these turbulent times, inspectorates need to increase their public authority. 
The project ‘Authoritative reputations of inspectorates in turbulent times’ has been funded by NWO. Next to carrying out a research project, prospective PhD students will contribute to the impact of research in collaboration with a consortium of five Dutch inspectorates. You will actively participate in meetings with consortium partners, consisting of inspectorates and universities (UU and EUR).

The project consists of three sub-projects (work packages) that will be carried out by three PhD students. Please note that because this is a joint project with Utrecht University and Erasmus University Rotterdam, positions 1 and 3 will have the main office at the EUR and position 2 will have the main office at UU. Important note: to respond to positions 1 and 3 at Erasmus University Rotterdam, please click here to go to the vacancies of Erasmus University Rotterdam. 
PhD position 1: Regulatory Reputation in a Mediatized Environment (main office: EUR. Supervisors: Klijn (EUR) & Grimmelikhuijsen (UU))
The PhD student will investigate reputation as an institutional characteristic of inspectorates: how do stakeholders perceive the reputations of regulatory agencies and what is the (protective or undermining) role of reputations in dynamics of attention, such as media storms? Building on institutional and governance theories, branding, public relations and mediatization literature, we investigate the determinants of the reputation of participating inspectorates with businesses and institutional stakeholders (e.g. experts; politicians; media). You will also explore what conditions reputation influences (media) attention and dynamics. Research activities include:

• Q-sort methodology to assess and compare current reputations of Dutch inspectorates and regulatory agencies among inspectees (e.g. businesses) and their most important determinants;
• media analysis of representations of inspectorates’ reputations; and how media evaluations of reputation evolve over time; through case-studies and large scale data processing of media messages;
• QCA (qualitative comparative analysis) of cases of regulatory intervention to assess which conditions connected to reputation matter in determining the level; tone; and dynamics of media attention.

PhD position 2: Regulatory strategies for reputable agencies (Main office: UU. Supervisors: Van Erp (UU) & Van der Steen (EUR))
The PhD student will investigate the relation between (a) strategies of inspectorates and regulatory reputation, and (b) dimensions of reputation. Regulatory strategies (e.g. enforcement policies) can range from punitive and coercive (sanctions; naming and shaming) to persuasive and collaborative (behavioural nudges; sandboxes). These strategies have reputational consequences, and these may differ between audiences. For example, a collaborative strategy may be perceived as procedurally fair by regulatees, whereas a punitive strategy may positively impact performative reputation with political principals. Hence, the question is whether different dimensions of reputation conflict or can be pursued simultaneously. Research activities include:

• case studies to assess how punitive versus collaborative regulatory strategies impact reputations among various audiences (citizens, media, political principals, regulatees);
• QCA (qualitative comparative analysis) generating insight into the composition of moral reputation and strategies underlying it;
• vignette studies exploring how different dimensions of reputations impact each other.

PhD position 3: Influence of information on citizen’s assessments of reputation (Main office: EUR. Supervisors: Grimmelikhuijsen (UU) & Klijn (EUR))
The PhD student will investigate micro-level dynamics driving the reputation of inspectorates. You specifically focus on reputation amongst citizens, since little is known about what drives the reputation of inspectorates amongst individual citizens. Generally, citizens develop more trust once they learn more about the inspectorate’s activities. However, The psychological mechanism behind this effect is unclear. This project looks at micro-level mechanisms that condition the effect of information on reputation. We use insights from social-psychological theories on message evaluation and psychological distance to better understand these mechanisms. Research activities include:

• measurement of bureaucratic reputations of various inspectorates among Dutch citizens through a representative survey;
• focus groups and case-based interviews with citizens to gain rich, in-depth knowledge about what drives citizen’s reputational assessments;
• survey experiments to gain causal insight into how information impacts the formation of reputational assessments, using psychology. We will consider citizens’ motivation and capacity to process information; and characteristics that make regulatory information salient to citizens.

Host institute and team
The project will be carried out in a collaboration between Utrecht University School of Governance (prof. dr. Judith van Erp and others), Erasmus University Rotterdam (prof. dr. Erik-Hans Klijn and others) and consortium of five Dutch inspection agencies. PhD students will be part of the consortium and will actively participate in meetings and impact activities. PhD students on projects 1 and 3 will be employed at the Department of Public Administration at Erasmus University Rotterdam (EUR). The PhD student on project 2 will be employed at Utrecht School of Governance and participate in the Graduate School of the faculty of Law, Economics and Governance (USG). There is a frequent exchange within the research team. Coaching; a good support structure; as well as extensive training and education opportunities are part of the strengths of USG’s and EUR’s PhD programme. The PhD candidates will be involved in the research communities of USG and EUR, and will benefit from the interdisciplinary environment in the two institutes. The project is funded through the NWO program “Vernieuwing van Toezicht” (Grant NWA.1334.19.007).

We encourage applications from candidates who: 

• have completed a degree in public administration, political science, (empirical) legal studies, sociology, criminology or adjacent field in the social sciences;
• have a proven interest in doing research with a strong societal impact;
• have solid research skills for at least one of the methodologies mentioned in the preferred sub project;
• have excellent writing skills, also in English;
• have an excellent passive command of the Dutch language (understanding and reading), speaking Dutch is a plus;
• are team players with a substantial degree of independence.

This is an appointment (1.0 FTE) for the duration of 1,5 years. After positive evaluation contract will be extended for 2,5 years (total 4 years). The gross salary starts with €2,443 per month in the first year and increases to €3,122 per month in the fourth year of employment (scale P according to the Collective Employment Agreement of the Dutch Universities) for a full-time employment.
Besides that, you will receive a holiday allowance of 8% and a year-end bonus of 8.3%. Utrecht University also has an appealing package of terms of employment, including the choice for a good balance between work and private (a good arrangement for leave, among other things), possibilities for development and an excellent pension scheme. More information on working at Utrecht University can be found here.

A better future for everyone. This ambition motivates our scientists in executing their leading research and inspiring teaching. At Utrecht University, the various disciplines collaborate intensively towards major societal themes. Our focus is on Dynamics of Youth, Institutions for Open Societies, Life Sciences and Sustainability. 
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The Utrecht University School of Governance (USG) is one of the three departments of the Faculty of Law, Economics and Governance of Utrecht University. USG studies public issues and public organisations in their interaction with the developments in politics and society. The key question in this is how public organisations and private organisations with a public task deal with current social issues, how they shape their public responsibilities and deliver public value. Our academic research is renowned both in the Netherlands and abroad. It focuses on the key themes of accountability, professionalism, public service performance, organisational change, innovation and public leadership. We pay particular attention to public organisations such as the European Union, central and local governments, the police, the armed forces and the judiciary, and private organisations with a public task, such as hospitals, schools, housing corporations, sports organisations and cultural institutions.