Ongoing research projects
My research explores how social issues are perpetuated in organizations that, in turn, require organizational members to devote purposeful efforts in navigating and resisting these environments.
Ongoing research projects
My research explores how social issues are perpetuated in organizations that, in turn, require organizational members to devote purposeful efforts in navigating and resisting these environments.
Decent Work as a New Normal of the Future of Work
The “Great Resignation” is booming where workers are quitting precarious jobs, which have been disproportionately undertaken by marginalized groups. The harm of precarious work has been highlighted by the COVID-19 pandemic for these groups worldwide with women, ethnic minorities, migrants, among others, to experience in and out of work poverty and to be affected considerably more by precarious living.
However, conversations on the nature and future of work often treat diversity, equity, and inclusion challenges as an afterthought. My conceptual review envisions the future of work as decent work, which I define as “being employed in conditions of human dignity, equity, security, and freedom”. My research further details the antecedents and consequences of the four dimensions of decent work across individual and organizational levels. My research finally develops a conceptual framework and offers insights into the importance of decent work in fostering sustainable organizations and societies based on several theoretical lens.
"Stigma-symbolic Work" as a Process of Destigmatizing
Occupational hierarchies vary across cultures while stigmatized occupations are invariantly ranked into the lower end. Individuals are inevitably stigmatized once they are involved in stigmatized occupations and they thus become “dirty” workers. Dirty workers are intuitively seen as devaluated or even miserable workers who perform disgusting, meaningless work activities. However, dirty work may also be ‘fertile soil’ where people can exploit unique opportunities and nurture a better sense of self.
Given the heterogeneity of dirty workers, the fragmented theorizing about how they shield themselves from stigma needs to be reorganized. I adopt abductive and qualitative approach to differentiate the motivations of dirty workers engaging in their ongoing work (to fulfill basic vs. advanced needs) and categorize their heterogenous destigmatizing processes (within boundary management, identity shaping, emotion work, and meaning negotiation) through the lens of motivation. My findings redirect stigma research by highlighting a priority for organizations to boost the "advanced" motivation of dirty workers.
Allyship as a Tool to Disarm the Modern Forms of Bias
Discrimination remains a prevalent issue for many modern organizations where the nature of discrimination is constantly evolving. While overt and explicit animus is often taboo, biases continue to creep into daily interactions in subtler ways and seep into the fabric of organizations in an invisible manner. A community of scholars has just suggested allyship as an instrumental means to promote the awareness, attitudes, and actions of dominant groups (allies) to advance the interests of marginalized groups (the allied).
However, allyship is also sometimes shown ineffective, because it is often asymmetric between “what/how allies do” and “what/how the allied perceive”. To ascertain whether allyship is as effective as anticipated, my research prioritizes the voices and perspectives of the allied. My dissertation is conducting mix-method exploration of allyship effectiveness with samples of marginalized groups to understand three questions. First, what behaviors are perceived as allyship. Second, how and when allyship has positive effect on the allied. Third, when and why allyship might have a downside.