2016 10 Specific Call: Comparative Research on Reputation in Government (Rep Gov)

PhD scholarship at the Department of Management, Aarhus BSS Graduate School, AU

Applicants are invited for a PhD scholarship at Aarhus BSS Graduate School, Aarhus University, Denmark, within the Management PhD programme. The position is available from 1 February 2017.

The research project: Comparative Research on Reputation in Government (Rep Gov), funded by the Danish Research Council has an open position for a Ph.D. candidate for the period of 1 February, 2016 to 31 January, 2019. 

The Comparative Research on Reputation in Government (Rep Gov) project aims to increase our understanding about the behavior of, and relations between, bureaucrats/agencies and politicians. Despite decades of research, the interplay between politicians and agencies is in some respects still part of what has been referred to as 'the black box of executive government'. The Rep Gov is specifically designed to further open up this black box by advancing on an emerging theoretical perspective, Bureaucratic Reputation Theory (BRT). BRT argues that reputational concerns are a crucial motivator for the behavior of agencies and their political principals. The Rep Gov project consists of two parts, both based in a comparative framework investigating central governments in Denmark and Belgium. The first part is based on a quantitative analysis of agencies strategic communication responses to negative media coverage over time. The second part is a multiple-case study, using qualitative methods to identify whether agencies subject to substantial negative media coverage over time are sanctioned by their minister and the government. The Ph.D. project is mainly associated with the first part of the project. 

The project is situated within an international research group consisting of Heidi Houlberg Salomonsen (AU), Prof. Koen Verhoest and Post. Doc. Jan Boon (both University of Antwerp, Belgium). The Ph.D. candidate will be positioned at the Department of Management, Aarhus BSS, AU with the option to spend part of the trajectory in Antwerp. The Ph.D. candidate will further engage in established collaborations and networks with excellent scholars from Norwegian, German and Dutch universities working within the discipline of public management, public administration, political science and strategic communication. The Ph.D. will be supervised by Heidi Houlberg Salomonsen and Koen Verhoest. lf you have any interest in applying please contact Heidi Houlberg Salomonsen for further information. 

Profile and requirements

•    You hold a master degree in relevant fields within social sciences
•    You have achieved excellent study results
•    You are quality-oriented, conscientious, creative, and cooperative, and you are sufficiently entrepreneurial as well as disciplined in order to structure and complete a research project in time
•    You are strongly motivated to do research about the public sector and you have good capacities for analysis and synthesis in social science research.
•    You find it attractive to perform research of a comparative nature and have an ambition to take part in a truly international research network in which the project is positioned.
•    Specific knowledge of Bureaucratic Reputation Theory is not required. However, it is vital that the applicant is well qualified in quantitative research methods.
•    You have good language skills in Danish and English

Contact person: Heidi Houlberg Salomonsen, hhs@mgmt.au.dk , Department of Management, Aarhus BSS, AU,