Conducting Research with Organizations

Semester

Semester 1, 2026-2027

Type of course

Methodological and Practical Courses

Date

February 2, 2027

Location

Tilburg University

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Duration

1 day

Maximum number of participants

20

ECTS

0.5 EC will be appointed for participation in the complete course

Staff

Loes Abrahams (TiU), Djurre Holtrop (TiU)

General content

This workshop aims to prepare you to do research with organizations. Already, organizational research is (too) dependent on panel services and it can be argued that some organizational phenomena cannot be studied with crowdworking samples. At the same time, society demands universities to produce more impactful research. So, developing the skill to navigate practical collaborations will become even more important in the future. The workshop organizers have extensive experience with the challenges and benefits of collaborating with organizations. We aim to share these experiences and translate these lessons to your future projects. As a result, you will learn how you can understand organizations’ perspectives on working with researchers and, through that understanding, foster durable collaborations.

 

Learning goals

After participating in this course, you will be able to:

-          Understand the added value and limitations of organizational (field) research

-          Think about your own research from an organizational perspective

-          Design and conduct a good, publishable field study

-          Translate your own research into organizational terms

-          Understand and respond to the legitimate interests of organizations

 

Program

-          Welcome with coffee/tea (10:00h)

-          Introduction & wishes of participants (10:30h)

-          How to design a good field study: important insights (11:00h)

-          Lunch (12:00h)

-          Small group assignment – Optimize Your Research Design (13:00h)

Small groups of participants will briefly discuss their research topic with other students under the supervision of one of the experts. Participants will use information from the morning program to set-up / optimize their own research design.

-          Dos and Don'ts PART 1 - How to get organizations on board and collect your data? (14:00h)

-          Coffee break (14:30h)

-          Small group assignment – Pitch your research (14:45h)

Small groups of participants will (re-)frame their research design for organizations under the supervision of one of the experts. Each participant develops and practices a pitch to get organizations on board for conducting their research and collecting data.

-          Dos and Don'ts PART 2 - How to get organizations on board and collect your data? (15:30h)

-          Closing Q&A (15:45h)

-          Drinks close to or at campus (16:00)

 

Literature

Compulsory:

-          Hughes, H. P., Davis, M. C., Robinson, M. A., & McKay, A. (2021). The pursuit of organizational impact: Hits, misses, and bouncing back. European Journal of Work and Organizational Psychology, 30(3), 339-354.

-          Huzzard, T. (2021). Achieving impact: exploring the challenge of stakeholder engagement. European Journal of Work and Organizational Psychology, 30(3), 379-389.

-          von Thiele Schwarz, U., Nielsen, K., Edwards, K., Hasson, H., Ipsen, C., Savage, C., ... & Reed, J. E. (2021). How to design, implement and evaluate organizational interventions for maximum impact: the Sigtuna Principles. European Journal of Work and Organizational Psychology, 30(3), 415-427.

 

Optional:

- King, E. B., Hebl, M. R., Botsford Morgan, W., & Ahmad, A. S. (2013). Field experiments on sensitive organizational topics. Organizational Research Methods, 16(4), 501-521. 

 

If there are more PhDs interested in participating than available places, distribution will be based on juniority for this course. This means that we look at how long someone is a KLI member.