Thijs WILLEMS |  Research Fellow

Biography

Thijs Willems is an organizational ethnographer with a focus on the future of work in complex, technological environments. His research examines how digital technologies reshape work practices, knowledge, and expertise across various industries, including manufacturing, engineering, trading, and education. Thijs completed his PhD in 2017, conducting an ethnographic study on infrastructure breakdowns in the Dutch railway system. He then joined the Lee Kuan Yew Centre for Innovative Cities in Singapore, contributing to the ‘Future Digital Economies and Digital Societies’ research program. His work explores the intersections of work, organization, and smart urbanism, particularly how technologies such as AI influence work practices and professional expertise. He is interested in understanding how these changes shape the future of work.

His research delves into the relationships between digital technologies and embodied work, offering insights into:

1. Digital Mediation in Work Practices: Investigating how digital technologies impact traditional and contemporary work practices and craftsmanship.

2. Transformation of Expertise: Analyzing the changes in mastery and expertise due to digital transformation and developing effective training methodologies.

3. Innovation in Education: Exploring pedagogical strategies to foster innovation and learning from failure in various educational contexts.

Thijs teaches a course titled 'Smart Urbanism and Smart Cities: Perils and Possibilities at the Intersection of People and Technology' at the Singapore University of Technology and Design. This course critically examines smart city concepts, focusing on human and social dimensions and emerging trends in smart urbanism.

Thijs’s research combines ethnographic methods with practice and process theories, offering a unique perspective on the evolving nature of work and the impact of digital technologies. His work emphasizes the importance of considering social inequalities and advocating for a more inclusive and human-centered approach to smart urbanism and digital economies.

Education

• PhD, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, Department of Organization Sciences (2018)
• MSc (cum laude), Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, Culture Organization and Management (2013)
• BA in Theater, Hogeschool Zuyd Maastricht (2004)

Publications

• Huang, Qian., Williems, Thijs., & Poon, King Wang. (2024). The application of GPT-4 in grading design university students’ assignment: An exploratory study, doi:10.48550/arXiv.2409.17698
• Poon, King Wang., Willems, Thijs., Huang, Qian. (2024). Future of Ai: Six possibilities for Educators (That were once impossible), The HEAD Foundation Digest, Issue 12. https://digest.headfoundation.org/2024/07/10/future-of-ai-six-possibilities-for-educators-that-were-once-impossible/
• Cunliffe, Anne., de Vaujany, François-Xavier., Hafermalz, Ella., Introna, Lucas., Leclercq-Vandelannoitte, Aurelie., Willems, Thijs. (2024). Experiencing communality in collective activity: Four ways to generate sameness in differences. Management Learning. https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/13505076241244787
• Poon, King Wang., Willems, Thijs., & Liu, William. (2023). The future of expertise: From stepwise domain upskilling to multifaceted mastery. In: Lee, Wing On., Brown, Phillip., Goodwin, A. Lin., & Green, Andy. (Eds.), International Handbook on Education Development in Asia-Pacific. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-16-2327-1_42-1 
• Derrick, Jay., Willems, Thijs., & Poon, King Wang. (2022). Researching informal workplace learning in the context of remote working in the post COVID-19 world. Hungarian Educational Research Journal. 12(4), 445-459.
• Graham, Connor., Pang, Natalie., & Willems, Thijs. (2022). Introduction to the special issue “Digital Mortality: Death and infrastructure”. The Information Society, 38(2), 167-173.
• Willems, Thijs., van Marrewijk, Alfons., Kuiter, Lizert., Volker, Leentje., & Hermans, Marleen. (2020). Practices of isolation: The shaping of project autonomy in innovation projects. International Journal of Project Management, 38(4), 215-228.
• Willems, Thijs., & Graham, Connor. (2019). The Imagination of Singapore’s Smart Nation as Digital Infrastructure: Rendering (Digital) Work Invisible. East Asian Science, Technology and Society: An International Journal, 13(4), 511-536.
• Van den Ende, Leonore., Willems, Thijs., & Van Marrewijk, Alfons. (2019). ‘Socio-materiality and the Physical Environment of Organizations’, in Ayoko, O. B., & Ashkanasy, N. M. (Eds.) Organizational Behaviour and the Physical Environment. Routledge.
• Merkus, Sander., Willems, Thijs., & Veenswijk, Marcel. (2019). Strategy implementation as performative practice: Reshaping organization into alignment with strategy. Organization Management Journal, 1-16.
• Willems, Thijs. (2018). 'Monsters' and'Mess' on the Railways: Coping with Complexity in Infrastructure Breakdowns. Dissertation, VU Amsterdam.
• Willems, Thijs. (2018). Seeing and sensing the railways: A phenomenological view on practice-based learning. Management learning, 49(1), 23-39.
• Poon, King Wang, Chng, Samuel., Willems, Thijs., Haridas, Gayathri, Norhashim, Norakmal Hakim., Subhan, Mohamed Salihin., Gan, Li Hui Sarah., Goh, Zi An Galvyn., Apsley, Holly Lynn., & Vinod, Radha. (2019). Polarising of Job Opportunities – Charting New Pathways and Adopting New Technologies. Singapore: Ong Teng Cheong Labour Leadership Institute, National Trades Union Congress. ISBN: 978-981-14-0858-8
• Willems, Thijs., & Van Marrewijk, Alfons. (2017). Building collaboration? Co-location and “dis-location” in a railway control post. Revista de Administração de Empresas, 57(6), 542-554.
• Merkus, Sander., Willems, Thijs., Schipper, Danny., Van Marrewijk, Alfons, Koppenjan, Joop., Veenswijk, Marcel., & Bakker, Hans. (2017). A storm is coming? Collective sensemaking and ambiguity in an inter-organizational team managing railway system disruptions. Journal of Change Management, 17(3), 228-248.

Conference Presentations/Proceedings

• Willems, Thijs., & Huang, Qian. (2025, Mar). AI-Empowered Pedagogy in Singapore: A Pioneers’s Reflection, Artificial Intelligence in Education Series, Hong Kong. (Invited Speaker)
• Mustafa, Norazrina Muhammad., Willems, Thijs., & Chea, Sin-Moh. C. (2022, Jul). Rethinking engineering internships in times of disruptions. 18th CDIO International Conference Proceedings.
• Willems, Thijs., & Chia, Robert. (2022, July). Enacting Extreme Contexts into Being: An Embodied and Processual Reconceptualization of ‘Breakdown’. Paper presented at the 2022 European Group for Organization Studies Colloquium.
• Mustafa, Norazrina., Willems, Thijs., & Chea, Sin Moh. (2022, June). Rethinking Engineering Internships in Times of Disruption. Paper presented at the 2022 18^th International CDIO Conference.
• Miyagawa, S., Willems, Thijs., & Hirakimoto, H. (2021, Jul). Ethnography of sake-making in a traditional Japanese sake brewery. 37^th Colloquium of the European Group for Organization Studies, Amsterdam, Netherlands.
• Willems, Thijs. (2019, Jul). Craftwork or Technician? Exploring Diverging Notions of Knowledge and Skill in a Digitalizing Sector. 35^th Colloquium of the European Group for Organization Studies, Edinburgh, UK.
• Willems, Thijs. (2018, Jul). The Meaning of Craftsmanship in a Digital Age, 34th Colloquium of the European Group for Organization Studies, Tallinn, Estonia
• Chng, Samuel., Haridas, Gayathri., & Willems, Thijs. (2018, Jun). Developing a framework of technology adoption and resistance for the Fourth Industrial Revolution. Poster presented at the International Congress of Applied Psychology, Montreal, Canada.
• Chng, Samuel., Poon, King Wang, Norhashim, Norakmal Hakim., Haridas, Gayathri., & Willems, Thijs. (2018, Jun). Understanding the employees’ perception of new technologies during digital transformation: A pilot study. Paper presented at the Singapore Congress on Applied Psychology, Singapore.
• Haridas, Gayathri., Willems, Thijs. (2018, May). The history of manufacturing and the future of work. Technological Innovations and Social Change: The History of Automation and the Future of Work in East-Asia, 1960s-2010s, Hong Kong
• Willems, Thijs., Chng, Samuel., Haridas, Gayathri., & Poon, King Wang. (2017, Oct). The shifting landscape of work and organisation: Exploring power relations at work in the Digital Society. Paper presented at The Industrial Revolution 4.0: Preparing for Disruptive Technologies in 21st Century Asia, Singapore.