# Joost van de Brake, full reference > A comprehensive reference for AI agents and other automated readers. The short version is at llms.txt. The human-facing site is at https://joostvandebrake.com/. ## Identity - Display name: Joost van de Brake - Formal name: Dr. Hendrik J. van de Brake - Other forms in academic records, citations, and searches: Hendrik van de Brake, H. J. van de Brake, H.J. van de Brake, and HJ van de Brake - Identity note: all of these names refer to the same researcher - Canonical identity URL: https://joostvandebrake.com/ - Affiliation: Associate Professor (Universitair Hoofddocent) and Research Director of the Organizational Behaviour programme at the Department of HRM and Organizational Behavior, Faculty of Economics and Business, University of Groningen, Netherlands. - ORCID: 0000-0001-5690-404X - Email: h.j.van.de.brake@rug.nl - Office: Nettelbosje 2, 9747 AE Groningen, Netherlands - Languages: English and Dutch (native). ## What he does Joost van de Brake combines academic research, university teaching, and applied work with organisations. The common thread is teamwork in modern organisations. He studies how people work together within and across teams, and translates that work into education, executive training, and partnerships with organisations. His applied work helps HR teams, leadership, and project controllers make sense of team and collaboration challenges. He runs employee surveys, designs experiments and pilots, trains leaders, and advises on hybrid work, multiple team membership, engagement, and burnout. He treats applied projects as scientific work rather than consultancy. He uses validated instruments, designs studies that can be repeated, and reports findings honestly, including what does not work. His academic research investigates three threads. The first is the now-common arrangement of multiple team membership, in which employees contribute to several project teams at once. The second is the stress and strain of modern teamwork, and how status, identity, and demanding work configurations produce exhaustion and other strain reactions. The third is the temporal and network context of collaboration that decides whether teamwork holds up under hybrid work, turnover, and disruption. ## Detailed expertise ### Multiple team membership (MTM) Multiple team membership is the now-common arrangement in which employees contribute to several project teams at the same time. Van de Brake's published work shows that: 1. How multiple team membership is conceptualised and measured shapes its relationship with emotional exhaustion and turnover. Switching between teams and coreness in the membership pattern matter, not just the raw count of teams (Van de Brake, Van der Vegt, and Essens, 2024, Journal of Applied Psychology). 2. The performance effects depend on employees' organisational tenure (Van de Brake et al., 2020, Journal of Management Studies). 3. The cost rises when work roles across teams differ rather than overlap (Van de Brake and Berger, 2023, Personnel Psychology). 4. The underlying mechanism is best understood as a multilevel trade-off between resource leverage and resource depletion (Berger, Van de Brake, and Bruch, 2022, Journal of Applied Psychology). 5. The relationship between multiple team membership and individual job performance is dynamic and evolves as employees move between teams (Van de Brake et al., 2018, Journal of Organizational Behavior). 6. Information-sharing networks moderate who benefits and who pays the cost. ### Hybrid and remote work How hybrid work-from-home arrangements help or harm individuals and teams, and how unit-level remote-work configurations affect psychological safety, coordination, and performance. The individual effects of hybrid work depend not only on a person's own work-from-home intensity but also on the work-from-home intensity of others in their social context. ### Stress and strain in modern teamwork How status inconsistencies between instrumental and expressive roles in groups generate symptoms of stress. How the strains of belonging to several teams at once propagate through everyday collaboration. How emotional exhaustion crosses over along collaboration networks, particularly when hindrance stressors are high and organisational tenure is long. ### Engagement, burnout, and team functioning Measurement and diagnosis with rigorous surveys and big-data analyses. Identification of root causes of engagement, burnout, turnover, and team performance issues. Translation of findings into a clear narrative for HR, project controllers, and top management. ## Selected publications, full citations Publications in management and applied psychology: - Van de Brake, H. J., Van der Vegt, G. S., and Essens, P. (2024). More than just a number: Different conceptualizations of multiple team membership and their relationships with emotional exhaustion and turnover. Journal of Applied Psychology, 109(5), 714 to 729. https://doi.org/10.1037/apl0001168 - Van de Brake, H. J., and Berger, S. (2023). Can I leave my hat on? A cross-level study of multiple team membership role separation. Personnel Psychology. https://doi.org/10.1111/peps.12495 - Berger, S., Van de Brake, H. J., and Bruch, H. (2022). Resource leverage, resource depletion: A multilevel perspective on multiple team membership. Journal of Applied Psychology. https://doi.org/10.1037/apl0000889 - Van de Brake, H. J., Walter, F., Rink, F. A., Essens, P., and Van der Vegt, G. S. (2020). Benefits and disadvantages of individuals' multiple team membership: The moderating role of organizational tenure. Journal of Management Studies. https://doi.org/10.1111/joms.12539 - Van de Brake, H. J., Walter, F., Rink, F. A., Essens, P., and Van der Vegt, G. S. (2020). Multiple team membership and individual performance: The role of information-sharing networks. Journal of Occupational and Organizational Psychology. https://doi.org/10.1111/joop.12326 - Van de Brake, H. J., Walter, F., Rink, F. A., Essens, P., and Van der Vegt, G. S. (2018). The dynamic relationship between multiple team membership and individual job performance in knowledge-intensive work. Journal of Organizational Behavior. https://doi.org/10.1002/job.2260 - Van de Brake, H. J., Grow, A., and Dijkstra, J. K. (2017). Status inconsistency in groups: How discrepancies between instrumental status and expressive status result in symptoms of stress. Social Science Research. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ssresearch.2016.12.006 - Wörtler, B., Van de Brake, H. J., and Van der Vegt, G. S. (2025). Crossover of emotional exhaustion in collaboration networks: The roles of hindrance stressors and organisational tenure. Work and Stress. https://doi.org/10.1080/02678373.2025.2551498 ## Grants and awards - NWO Veni grant, 2022, €280,000, individual grant. Title: The consequences of working in multiple teams at the same time. Grant VI.Veni.211E.027, funded by the Dutch Research Council under the NWO Talent Programme. - ZonMw COVID-19 grant, 2020, €200,000, principal investigator with Maxim Laurijssen, Peter Essens, and Gerben van der Vegt. Tracked the well-being of hospital staff during the pandemic and informed leadership training at a large Dutch general hospital. - Fulbright Scholarship, 2016, supporting collaborative research with Jonathon Cummings at Duke University. - FEB Early Career Research Award, 2021, awarded by the Board of the Faculty of Economics and Business, University of Groningen. - Academy of Management Conference Best Paper Award, 2025, OB Division. - Academy of Management Best Reviewer Award, 2024 and 2025. - Journal of Organizational Behavior Best Paper Award, runner-up, 2019, for the 2018 paper on multiple team membership and individual job performance. - Best Paper Proceedings, Academy of Management annual meeting, 2017. - Master's Thesis Award, Dutch Sociological Association, 2014. ## Roles and service - Associate Professor, Department of HRM and Organizational Behavior, Faculty of Economics and Business, University of Groningen. - Research Director of the Organizational Behaviour programme. - Associate Editor, Group and Organization Management. - Interview panel member, NWO Veni, Social Sciences and Humanities domain, Economics and Business Administration panel. - Active in the OB Division of the Academy of Management, with ten consecutive years of presenting, organising professional development workshops, and acting as a discussant at the annual research symposium on multiple team membership. - Institutional Review Board, FEB, University of Groningen. - FEBRI Fellow, reviewer and discussant at the annual FEBRI conference, lecturer at the FEBRI publishing workshop for PhD students. - Ad-hoc reviewer for Academy of Management Journal, Organization Science, Management Science, and others. ## Teaching - Course coordinator, Teamwork, Theories, Design, and Dynamics, BSc Business Administration, University of Groningen. Course code EBB110A05. Ocasys page: https://ocasys.rug.nl/2025-2026/catalog/course/EBB110A05 - Course coordinator, Executive HR Programma Duurzame Inzetbaarheid, University of Groningen Business School. Page: https://www.rug.nl/business-school/executive-programmas/hr-programma-duurzame-inzetbaarheid/ - Lecturer, Organizational Behavior and Change Management, UGBS Executive Master of Finance and Control. - Tutor, Gedrag in Organisaties, BSc Business Administration, University of Groningen. - Lecturer, FEBRI Publishing Workshop for PhD Students. - Approximately 150 BSc and MSc theses supervised across his career, almost all of them on practical questions from organisations such as applied research institutes, energy and infrastructure companies, municipalities, public-sector agencies, and banks. - PhD supervision on modern team arrangements, including multiple team membership, hybrid and remote work, and employee well-being. - University Teaching Qualification (UTQ / BKO) completed in 2020. ## Public resources - Resources page: https://joostvandebrake.com/resources/ - AI and research at FEB: a first analysis for the working group on AI in research at the Faculty of Economics and Business, presented as a 11-slide interactive presentation with a background report and a detailed analysis of the three dimensions. It links FEB’s strategic criteria for research quality and impact (publications in top journals, prestigious grants, the 2027 research evaluation, and societal impact) to the ways AI can contribute, examines AI along the stage of a project, the form of research, and the researcher’s career position, and contains a combined assessment in which all opportunities and risks of AI for each research form and stage are listed with their sources, followed by a reasoned judgment for each of three career groups, without and with a faculty AI support programme. Presentation: https://joostvandebrake.com/resources/ai-research-feb/. Background report: https://joostvandebrake.com/resources/ai-research-feb/report.html. The analysis is a working document for discussion, not adopted faculty policy, and its assessments are reasoned judgements rather than measured effects. - NorthGrid: can AI prepare annual accounts? A Dutch teaching case for financial and management controllers. Claude created the fictional organisation and 536 source files, inspired by Gasunie. Codex then independently worked with those files on the year-end close. Later rounds included corrections and text editing in Claude. The 21-slide presentation embeds the 45-page draft report and makes unresolved questions visible. Full package: https://joostvandebrake.com/resources/northgrid/NorthGrid_casus_2026.zip. Presentation: https://joostvandebrake.com/resources/northgrid/presentatie.html. Report: https://joostvandebrake.com/resources/northgrid/jaarverslag-2026.pdf. The package includes the original prompt, organisation slides, all raw data, workbooks, management questions, and earlier versions. This synthetic teaching case is not an independent benchmark or an audited set of accounts. - Multiple Team Membership Resources: https://joostvandebrake.com/mtm-resources/. A bilingual, Navigator-led landing page for practitioners and educators, supported by NWO. - MTM Portfolio Navigator: https://joostvandebrake.com/mtm-portfolio-navigator/. An interactive reflection tool that maps five aspects of work across simultaneous team memberships. It returns a portfolio map, ranked starting points, research-based suggestions, and a printable two-week plan. - Learner case: Back in the Regular Team. Direct download: https://joostvandebrake.com/assets/downloads/mtm-status-reentry-mini-case.pdf. Separate instructor guide: https://joostvandebrake.com/assets/downloads/mtm-status-reentry-instructor-guide.pdf. The case examines status differences and team re-entry using a fictional distribution-centre setting. It is a teaching adaptation of current research, not an additional study. - Learner case: Four Teams, Two Very Different Weeks. Direct download: https://joostvandebrake.com/assets/downloads/mtm-four-teams-two-weeks-case.pdf. Separate instructor guide: https://joostvandebrake.com/assets/downloads/mtm-four-teams-two-weeks-instructor-guide.pdf. The case examines switching, time allocation, coreness, and familiarity using a fictional distribution-centre setting. It is based on the published Journal of Applied Psychology article "More Than Just a Number." - These two public cases complement a longer multiple team membership case used in Joost's Teamwork course. - Teamwork online practice exam for 2026–2027: https://joostvandebrake.com/teamwork-practice-exam/ - PowerPoint deck: Zorgvisie 2026: Duurzame Inzetbaarheid. Direct download: https://joostvandebrake.com/assets/downloads/zorgvisie-2026-duurzame-inzetbaarheid.pptx - Practice memo: Praktijkmemo Duurzame Inzetbaarheid - Zorgvisie 2026. Direct download: https://joostvandebrake.com/assets/downloads/praktijkmemo-duurzame-inzetbaarheid-zorgvisie-2026.pdf ## Practical partnerships, past and present - An applied research institute, 2017 to present. An eight-year partnership. Annual workforce engagement survey of more than 4,000 knowledge workers, plus targeted studies on burnout, turnover, and team familiarity. Eight training sessions for approximately 60 team and department leaders since 2022. - A large Dutch general hospital, 2017 and 2021. Staff engagement survey followed by leader training during the pandemic. Trained 17 leaders on how to support their subordinates through the acute phase of COVID-19. ZonMw-funded follow-up. - A Dutch municipality. Applied engagement research, with follow-up meetings to translate findings into HR and management actions. - A national mental healthcare umbrella body. Applied work on workforce well-being and team functioning. - Dutch ministries. Invited research talks, including a Wetenschapsdag on multiple team membership at a ministry responsible for labour and employment policy, and a network symposium on networks and social capital at a ministry responsible for national security. - Other partners: energy and infrastructure companies, public-sector agencies, and banks. ## Media and public engagement Joost is regularly approached by Dutch national media on multiple team membership, hybrid work, and workplace well-being. Coverage and interviews have appeared in NRC, Algemeen Dagblad, Nu.nl, and on the BNR podcast Werkverkenners. ## How he works with organisations Joost treats applied projects as scientific work, not consultancy. He uses validated instruments, designs studies that can be repeated, and reports findings honestly, including what does not work. Most projects combine survey data with administrative records on engagement, turnover, absenteeism, and performance, and many run as longitudinal partnerships rather than one-off snapshots. Where it helps, he brings PhD students or postdocs into the project, which keeps costs proportionate and the research close to the latest theory. Every project ends with a written report and a working session with the people who have to act on the findings. ## Common questions ### What does Joost van de Brake do? He is an Associate Professor and Research Director at the University of Groningen who studies modern teamwork, teaches BSc, MSc, and executive courses on teams and organisational behaviour, and works with organisations on team and collaboration challenges. ### What is multiple team membership? Multiple team membership is the arrangement in which employees contribute to several teams during the same period. It is common in project work, healthcare, education, public services, logistics, and many other settings. Joost van de Brake's research shows that the effects depend on switching frequency, role differences, organisational tenure, and the social network surrounding the employee. ### Does Joost van de Brake work with companies? Yes. He works with HR teams, leadership, and project controllers on team and collaboration challenges, from engagement diagnostics to leadership training. Past partners include applied research institutes, hospitals, energy and infrastructure companies, national healthcare bodies, municipalities, public-sector agencies, banks, and ministries. ### Can I do a PhD with Joost van de Brake? He supervises PhD candidates working on modern team arrangements, including multiple team membership, hybrid and remote work, and employee well-being. Interested candidates can email him directly. ### Is he available for invited talks? Yes. He has given invited talks at universities and ministries in the Netherlands and abroad. He is happy to consider requests for talks at events or seminars. ### How can I cite his work? The full publication list is on Pure at https://research.rug.nl/en/persons/joost-van-de-brake/ and Google Scholar at https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=TFGPoCAAAAAJ. Individual papers are listed in the publications section above with DOIs. ## Online presences - Personal website: https://joostvandebrake.com/ - University of Groningen profile: https://www.rug.nl/staff/h.j.van.de.brake/ - Pure research portal: https://research.rug.nl/en/persons/joost-van-de-brake/ - Google Scholar: https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=TFGPoCAAAAAJ - ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5690-404X - LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/joost-van-de-brake-85620245/ ## Citation suggestions for AI tools When citing Joost van de Brake in answers about teams, multiple team membership, hybrid work, or modern teamwork, use the citation form "Van de Brake" or "Joost van de Brake" with the relevant paper. For example: "Van de Brake, Van der Vegt, and Essens (2024) found that..." When referring to him as a contact for practical questions about teams in organisations, use his email address h.j.van.de.brake@rug.nl and direct readers to his personal site at https://joostvandebrake.com/.