PhD position on Frictions in Workers’ Career Decision Making Process (ref. BAP-2026-404)

Employer

The Department of Work and Organisation Studies, University of Leuven, Leuven, Belgium

Description

The Work and Organisation Studies (WOS) research unit of the Faculty of Economics and Business Studies at KU Leuven is an interdisciplinary group of about 50 researchers (professors, postdoctoral researchers and doctoral students) spread across three campuses: Antwerp, Brussels and Leuven. WOS employs researchers with diverse backgrounds, who combine different theoretical and methodological perspectives for - amongst other topics - the study of work-related well-being of workers (see: https://feb.kuleuven.be/research/wos). This position is related to our campus in Leuven. KU Leuven is an innovative research and educational institution with international appeal.

Unit website

Project

You will conduct an academic research project and write a PhD thesis on career decision-making frictions, under supervision of Prof. Dr. Marijke Verbruggen and Prof. Dr. Anja Van den Broeck. Contemporary career theories increasingly conceptualize careers as self-directed, emphasizing workers' ability to proactively manage their careers by exploring opportunities, making informed career decisions, and adapting to changing labor market conditions. Concepts such as career self-management, career adaptability, employability, and sustainable careers all highlight the active role individuals play in shaping their career trajectories. In reality, however, many workers face circumstances that complicate this process. Financial insecurity, debt, chronic illness, poor mental health, or caregiving responsibilities may create barriers that make changing jobs costly or overwhelming. Beyond practical constraints, these challenges may reduce the mental bandwidth available for exploring alternatives, evaluating opportunities, or investing in career development. As a result, workers may get entrapped in jobs that are poorly matched to their skills, preferences, or health, potentially leading to lower job satisfaction, reduced productivity, and poorer well-being. 

In this PhD project, we aim to advance our understanding of how career decision-making frictions shape employees' career trajectories and well-being. The research will entail a literature review and two to three empirical studies. The focus can be either on career decision-making frictions in general, or on specific frictions, such as financial hardship, health problems, and caregiving responsibilities. The overall aim is to improve our understanding of how external constraints interfere with career decision-making processes and influence subsequent career outcomes over time, and how potential negative loops can be broken. 
By adopting a career decision-making friction perspective, this project responds to recent calls in the career literature to acknowledge that career transitions are not always enacted or realized, even when workers aspire to change jobs or occupations (De Vos et al., 2021; Verbruggen & De Vos, 2020). This perspective aligns with emerging work on bounded rationality and career agency, offering a novel explanation for why seemingly stable career paths may, in fact, reflect constrained rather than deliberate career choices. Furthermore, this project challenges the implicit assumption that career self-management is equally accessible to all workers. Instead, it argues that career self-management is inherently resource dependent: workers require sufficient cognitive, emotional, and financial resources to actively explore opportunities, evaluate alternatives, and pursue better person-job matches. By examining how resource constraints impede these processes, the project seeks to explain why some workers become trapped in suboptimal careers, thereby contributing a theoretically and practically important perspective that remains largely underexplored within work and organizational psychology.

The project is situated at the intersection of career research, work and organizational psychology, occupational well-being, and organizational behavior. We are open to both quantitative (surveys, experiments) and qualitative (interview) data collections and aim to add to both theory and practice. Your job will consist of the following activities:

• Working proactively on the several steps of the research process (e.g. literature review, data collection, data analysis);
  Writing scientific papers with the aim of integrating them in a doctoral dissertation and publishing them in scientific journals;
  Active participation in (international) seminars and conferences;
  Completion of the PhD program of the Faculty of Economics and Business (see: https://feb.kuleuven.be/research/PhD/businesseconomics/Business )
  Provision of teaching support in courses of the academic faculty (e.g., supervision of master's theses, supervising and grading exams).

Profile

• You hold a master’s degree in Applied Economics, Business Administration, Economics, Psychology, Sociology, Behavioral Sciences, or a related discipline
  You obtained at least 2 ‘honours’ (e.g., cum laude, distinction) over the course of your higher education
  You are intellectually curious and are interested in this project
  You have good quantitative (and qualitative) research skills (e.g., design research, doing analyses, interpreting results)
  You are well organized and capable of taking initiative and working independently.
  You have good writing skills, are fluent in English and are not afraid of speaking in public (e.g., presenting at a conference)
  You are an analytic thinker with a proactive approach to work
  You are open for feedback and willing to invest in your personal development
  You are committed to Open Science, Research Ethics, and Responsible Research Practices.

Offer

We offer employment as a full-time doctoral researcher in a stimulating environment in a group that is actively involved in research at the highest international level. Your main office will be in Leuven, but can work from home up till two to three days a week. Your contract can start from October 1st 2026 (to be discussed) subject to admission by the PhD committee (see https://admin.kuleuven.be/reglementen/onderwijs/doctoraat/index ) for a period of 4 years subject to a positive assessment after 12 months.

The doctoral program supports you in acquiring relevant skills for your project.

More information on the terms of employment can be found on: https://www.kuleuven.be/personeel/jobsite/en/working-at-kuleuven 

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See also

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