Pascale Le Blanc

This PhD project explores how workers can shape the AI and robotic systems they use so that technology supports rather than replaces human work. The research sits within the NWA project AUGMENT , which focuses on worker-augmenting technology implementation across different organizations and job contexts. You will study how technologies are selected, introduced, and adapted in everyday work, and how decision opportunities for workers can be designed so they improve job quality, well-being, and performance. The project connects work and organizational psychology, work design, human-technology interaction, and participatory design to develop evidence-based guidance for organizations adopting AI and robotics. The work is embedded in the Human Performance Management group in the School of Industrial Engineering at Eindhoven University of Technology . The group studies the psychological and organizational processes that contribute to performance at individual, team, and organizational levels, with a strong focus on the role of people in operational and innovation processes. As a PhD candidate, you will carry out fieldwork with practical and knowledge workers in small, medium-sized, and large organizations; review AI and robotic applications; interview technology integrators; and assess technologies for their potential to support workers. You will also help develop a transportable laboratory setting at TU/e for simulated work activities and decisions about AI and robotics, and design a longitudinal field study on how workers use decision opportunities over time. The wider consortium brings together expertise on changing work, worker agency, technology design, and implementation. This creates a multidisciplinary research environment with opportunities to collaborate with partner organizations, researchers from different institutes, and stakeholders who are directly involved in the project’s practical and scientific aims. The position offers a research setting that combines field-based investigation, lab-based simulation, and applied collaboration to generate practical guidance for job redesign and worker-supportive technology implementation.