Milena Nikolova receives NWO grant for project on work motivation and job quitting

Associate professor Milena Nikolova has received a grant of € 50,000 from the Dutch Research Council (NWO) for a project on work motivations and job quitting.

The project titled ‘The Great Resignation, Quiet Quitting, and Work Orientations’ aims to study how the differences in people’s main motivation for working determine people's decisions related to job quitting and effort. The ‘Great Resignation’ (mass job quitting) and ‘Quiet Quitting’ (putting in minimum required effort at work) are recent trends that have triggered heated social debates and garnered a lot of media attention. But what worker motivations underpin these trends?

This project focuses on differences in people's main motivation for working as a possible explanation. Some people view work as a job that brings a paycheck, others see it as a career and a way to get ahead in life, and still others as a calling or a life purpose.

Nikolova looks forward to working on her new project. "I am very thankful to the NWO for awarding me this grant. This grant will allow me to start a new and exciting line of work that can help us better understand how people’s work orientations affect their workplace behavior.”

The NWO Open Competition

With the NWO Open Competition-SSH, NWO Social Sciences and Humanities wants to offer researchers the opportunity to carry out research into a subject of their own choosing without any thematic constraints. The aim of the Open Competition – SSH is to facilitate excellent, non-programmed, curiosity-driven research that primarily addresses a social sciences or humanities research question and research problem.

For more information, please contact Milena Nikolova.